Hell yea. Absolutely. I feel like every time I stick my head in the Octatrack and really dig deep I end up gaining way more than I anticipated. This issue was so dumb and under my nose the whole time but once I resolved it I spend the rest of the day experimenting and it’s wild how well the Virus pairs with the OT, having 8 different instances of a synth as powerful as the virus and being able to run automation on all of the tracks is incredible. By far the closest experience I’ve had to getting to the level of control a software based DAW in hardware and I’ve spent a lot of time other hardware sequencers but I Haven’t found anything that matches the level of control and creativity that I’ve found in the OT. Definitely is an instrument that grows with you and once you get past that learning curve it all becomes almost second nature and opens up a world of endless possibilities.
Also thanks everyone for the info, this pair is very fun and powerful. I think I’m going to end up rerouting my studio so that this pair is the “hub” and the beginning of my midi chain. Im also going to send an AUX from my mixer so all the rest of the hardware runs into the other to channels of the OT that way I’ll be able to sequence and sample everything right on the OT instead of having it hooked up as an additional instrument I’m going to essentially make it the heart of everything and where I start ideas and sketch out songs. Im really hoping that this will improve my overall workflow and help me quickly sketch out ideas
Hi I would like to work this way, my virus arrives tomorrow and i’ll be sequencing it via my akai force for a live set. I read many threads saying that in multimode when you change multis there is a lag and drop out in sound whilst the virus make this change.
is this problem elimanted in sequencer mode?
my plan is to set it up like this:
8 midi tracks to seperate channels on the virus in seq mode for 1 song and then do the same for ch 9-16 for song 2.
Then use program changes in the force to change to the patches I want when i finish those two songs i.e. when i trigger the midi clips/notes for song 3 it will change all the patches on ch 1-8 again.
Would working your eliminate the drop outs i hear about when using multimode?
also how do you work in terms remembering which program change is assigned to which bank patch? do you create a bank full of your go to sounds that you will use across on your songs and then assign?
Last question - when using program changes to pull up the patches does it pull up patches that i’ve saved and tweaked in single mode for example? i read you cannot save changes to individual patches in the sequencer mode
I don’t know. 16 Patches per Song is more than enough for me, so Effects can continue with its tail regardless of what the FX settings are on the next sound.
As for remembering: I create a sound, save it to the next free spot on the Virus and configure the OT track for that Program.
The Patches are the same you use in singlemode. Like on every Synth: if you change and save the old version is gone. So if you want to change it but keep the old, save it to a new slot first
I wrote the part with the 16 sounds kind of wrong. I indeed do send program changes in a song, but I try to switch between parts in a way, that I have breaks in between. so use sound 1 to 8 on pattern 1, part 9 to 16 on pattern two, than with program changes 1 to 8 again with different presets on pattern three (basically explained, as I dont change every sound, don’t switch every part etc.)
Got you! So you never get any delay in sound/lag or hanging notes when using program changes to switch the presets? Going to try it your way rather than using the actual multi mode 
good point on remembering presets.
I’m looking to play around 32 songs in a set so would need more than 16 patches for the entire set. Just not all at once
This is a myth. I am pairing my Virus TI2 with an Octa for live-shows.
To be honest, this is still a work in progress and not yet fullfilled but after 3-4 days with this combo I feel it will also change my way of composing.
One wonderful thing that the Virus can do is it does the exact opposite of what you are fearing.
It plays the notes that have been activated before any PC (soft fade out and no cut in any way) and even plays the new sound as well.
How good this works depends on the complexity of your patches (voice stealing), though.
Don´t know any synth that does it like a Virus TI.
One thing you may want to keep in mind. Midi is slow and it is a serial protocol from the early eighties.
If something is lagging - Midi transfer speed might be the cause.
So sending notes (16 parts??!!!) , PC and clock of course is a lot of data to be handled by the Midi bus.
My way of doing it will be rendering stems and play (+manipulate) them on the Octa.
This frees up ressources on the Virus as well.
That’s great to hear! I feel like when a few people have an issue it gets inflated so it made me fear this exact issue. I’m planning to use max 8 parts at a time and my voices are never complex it’s techno not orchestra or movie score.
Older synths like the jv1080 etc handle midi just fine and pcm etc so I’m sure the ti2 will be just fine! Will test it when my unit is here tomorrow!
Just to be clear, New to Octatrack not to Virus.
I’ve been trying to get our studio recordings to Ableton live. I hated it when ever I did it.
I knew I had to change somethinh
I know the Virus rallye good. It has a bad reputation for not being really analog.
You can skip this, its a weapon.
Maybe you are interested 
Maybe I want to make a song about viral 
inflation.
That midi thing is not based on the synth. The rate, in that midi data is transferred if not using usb, is very slow, as it has a slow “clock rate” and sends ever bit after another. It’s more as if you spell a sentence instead of talking normally. That works fine in most applications but can cause issues if you send more data, than it can handle. To be concrete: midi uses a 31250 bits/s transfer rate. A midipackage is around 4 bytes long, that’s 32bits. That’s around 1 millisecond per message. So if you send 16 notes at the same time, the last one will be played 16 milliseconds after the first one(just from transferring data, add a little execution time on the synth to it). Human brains start to notice audio latency somewhere between 5 and 20ms, so if all 16 notes have a very noticeable transient at the start, some people might notice that latency. If you now add CC data, Program Chamges (that take up 3 midi messages, 2 for banks, 1 for program no), mathematically this will cause noticeable latency issues.
In practice this highly depends on what exactly you are doing. It is just something to keep in mind. That is one of the reason, why most sequencers have more than one midi port!
Certainly a myth just got my virus and not had any drop out do you know if this soft fade can be turned off or is it set in stone? If it can be turned off do you know the parameter just want to see the difference. Cheers!
I never thought about it that way. I guess its nothing you can turn off. Why should you?
Harsh clicks would be the result.
Think of a soft pad sound cut off while playing.
Short sounds are not affected as they decay too soon.
Nothing to worry about. Just use your Virus and let it do its thing. Its worth it.
It doesn’t always sound great for how I work. Let’s say I stop a baseline and want to bring in the next the issue I have is when I launch the next clip (on my akai force which has more and program data) the next clip plays the last base sound then changes shortly after. This happens even if I stop the sequence on the previous clip. I admit for certain things it sounds nice and maybe I just need to adapt my workflow. One way is to have song 1 as parts 1-8 song 2 as parts 8-16 visw versa then that way the new song Doesn’t have the old part.
Dragging this up as I’m implementing if your workflow using sequencer mode. But do you know the best way to send the sounds on the different outputs? When I edit the surround setting for one patch it changes for all my patches in sequencer or single mode which is weird.