The Virus TI2 desktop made me sell all my synths

How would you compare the poly AT keybed to the Virus ones? 37 key versions as TP8 is the best anyway…

One point in this „add Hydrasynth to your Virus setup“ discussion and the FX:

Virus is an awesome Multi fx machine. The virus has Inputs and you can setup parts to just ad FX to the incoming audio. That way you could (for example) route the Cue out of an Octatrack to the Input of the Virus, setup one part as Using incoming audio and use the Virus as FX Send

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I love routing drum machine through the Analog boost and distortion types available in the Virus TI2. :smiley: Great for processing one-shots and glues loops together nicely. Great for running other synths through as well, the ‘pad opener’ is a lovely subtle effect.

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Yeah the virus fx are great! I often bus a bunch of synths through it and automate the fx with OT lfos, can get some really interesting modulation in combination with the TI lfos

I still haven’t really clicked with the vocoder fully though, I’m going to dig into it again properly… Anyone feel like they’ve mastered it? I used the ableton vocoder lots with drums but struggle to get anything remotely similar on virus, even using the same modulator/carrier

I’ve used it , and it didn’t hold a candle to Ableton’s stock vocoder even. It kinda feels like an afterthought …which might explain the lack of tutorials/videos for this feature.

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I found another wonderful usecase for my virus audio in.
I bought a HX Stomp recently and this thing produces a really great (monophonic) guitar synth sound.
It falls a bit short when it comes to refining the sound.
Put out the synth from the Hx via the send controlled by the virus envelope follower and used the guitar(synth) like an oscillator with all the benefits of the whole synth engine and the fx.

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And I forgort to mention that the Virus saved our ass when using it as FX/EQ section for a Moog Sub37.
The Moog is a fantastic synth, but it is so useful to cut a bit away from lead sounds in the bass with a simple hi cut on the filter.
It sits so much better in the mix.
This is especially useful as we utilize the Virus as a 2 channel mixer in our live setup.
The FOH get´s a simple stereo with all synths premixed and it works so well.
You learn to appreciate this later on when you already have fallen in love with the sound of the Virus.

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Quick question for anyone who might be using the Aura plugin (mentioned earlier). Anyone found a way to get the plugin to remember which MIDI interface to use, especially in Ableton? Seems it remembers everything but that crucial pair of settings. :confused:

Hm, don’t use Ableton (anymore) but Reaper. I think that is normal behavior. Like the number of sub outs of Kontakt instance.
I made a track template in Reaper and I am pretty sur there is something in Abeton as well. FX chain, maybe? You can set up and recall.

Does anyone have a command line (Mac/Linux) or raw MIDI/SYSEX way to upload/download patches from the Virus TI?

ive not tried… but…

on Linux you should be able to use amidi , part of alsa (perhaps alsa tools?)

on Mac… I would expect something in home-brew
however, Ive tended to use Geert Bevin’s Send/ReceiveMidi
see

your other option (on Mac/Linux or even windows ) would be to write a quick python script.
it just be a few lines of python.
frankly, if you want do this frequently, thats probably what I would do.
that way you can customise it… so that once written you can forget about the sysex and just run your script :wink:

just some ideas… as I say, I don’t really connect my TI to the computer much, I tend to use it standalone.


oh, if you just want to save/load presets from disk - Id also recommend having a look at Mystery Islands product

its about $50 (?) but I think thats very reasonable given dev effort, and gives us a nice alternative to Access (as they seem uninterested in supporting modern OSs).

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That’s the problem - I bought the Mystery Island editor last week and it fails on my system. I’ve filed a ticket with the developer, and am discussing.

SendMIDI / ReceiveMIDI both look like useful tools, but I need to know what to send the Virus so that it will dump/store a requested bank.

That’s the idea. I just need to find out how to communicate with the Virus.

mystery islands… ah, setup was a bit counter-intuitive when I first did it. I’m sure you’ll get it working.
(btw: I’m pretty sure the docs were correct, it was just a little unclear, that fiddling sorted out!) \

send/receive midi… you should just be able to use the TI menu to dump (transmit) the sysex, save as a file, then just replay it back in using the send midi.

there was a document that handled format of sysex… but I cannot find it now.
(the original links I have are now dead, and I cannot find it on any of my computers)
iirc, it was derived from the Virus C manual, with some slight changes

EDIT: yeah, as I mentioned …

if you download virus C user manual, the sysex details are discussed in the appendix
these are compatible with the Virus TI.

however, as above, if you just use the TI menus, you don’t really need to know the sysex.
you just need some thing that can send and receive midi from a file.
there are some pretty old ‘sysex’ management tools around, that date back to when this was how you did this with all synths :slight_smile:

I have some NodeJS scripts working for me, I could make this into a package, if people want it. It could be used as a library to Virus TI bridge. Let me know, and I’ll make something.

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I have a new Virus TI2 on the way and how did you get the software on new Mac OS X to work with it? I have an older Mac that I plan to use for it.

One thing I discovered yesterday is the Virus has the default “Expression Pedal is a Volume Pedal” mappings some synthesizers have.

So that means using a wind/breath controller set to CC11 you get the volume aspect of blowing soft/harder taken care of for all the patches.

After that you just need to sprinkle in some extra Expression mod routes for timbral change with breath and you’ve got something going with a wind controller.

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I think the issue is when Mac dropped 32 bit support the virus software was no longer compatible. If you have Mojave or earlier I think it works. I have an older MacBook that needs a USB Hub between it and the Virus in order for them to communicate, so be aware that some Apple USB ports can have issues seeing the Virus.

Like many others, I just use the Mystery Island VST plug-in in Ableton with regular 1/4” audio into my interface now days. It’s on sale currently, so you may want to just grab it.

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Yeah that makes sense. I will grab the software for Virus to use. I don’t think that the Virus TI2 has a sequencer aside from an arpeggiator or does it? In any case, I can sequence it from my Octatrack as my plan to use it with the Rytm and OT for live and studio work. I am really liking the Rytm a lot and with the Virus and DT such a killer combo for live and studio work. I also have a Windows 10 PC so can use the Virus software on that as I believe Windows 10 is still compatible with the TI Access software.

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The Virus/OT combo is pretty insane… man, you’re gonna have a blast!

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Definitely and just with Rytm MK2 and DT, I’m having tons of fun. Virus will let me create synthwave, EDM, trance and dark wave stuff! What’s the best way to sequence the Virus?