access virus polar versus C; some questions

[sklawlor]

Hello. I found an access virus polar for $2000 which sounds like it's a good deal but I had a couple of questions about it. First, I am used to having 61 keys and I've heard that the polar only has 37. This is apparently a pretty popular model in the virus family so how have people's experiences been with adjusting from 61 to 37 keys? It's been years since I've really played anyway. The other question is does the polar have the same layout as the TI II in terms of knobs and buttons, etc? I'm blind and I've posted a couple of threads about my concerns regarding the usability of the virus and I've gotten some helpful info which makes me feel confident that this synth will be the one for me. Will all that info apply to the polar or the virus c?

Also, I've seen debates or discussions about which is sonically better, the virus c or the TI II. There was a desktop model of the c available for $800 but I'd have to buy a keyboard for that one so in terms of sound and usability, which one of these (the c or the polar) would you guys suggest? A lot of people apparently use the desktop models as well but in my mind, there's a spacial issue regarding having an external keyboard, like it will be more difficult to tweek knobs and buttons in real time if I'm using an external keyboard as opposed to one that's already built into the synth. Is this really a problem for some or am I just putting too many limitations on myself having the notion of spacial concerns that really don't need to be an issue, if you follow that?

Thanks for the help and the info regarding these questions.

[Yoozer]

Originally Posted by sklawlor

The other question is does the polar have the same layout as the TI II in terms of knobs and buttons, etc?

Yes. It's just that the Polar's keyboard doesn't feel as nice (IMHO) as the "big" Virus' keyboard. The knobs/buttons are the same, also for the desktop.

Thing is, in both synths quite a number of options are hidden in the menus. The TI has the advantage of the editor - but I don't know if your screen reader's going to be happy with that as all the text consists of graphics.

[sklawlor]

Hi.

Someone told me the following in another virus thread and I'd like your thoughts on this.

Forum excerpts below.
The bad news is that the virtual interface for the Virus doesn't use any
Windows controls, so the screen reader will not be able to read it for you.

The good news is that the synth is still immensely editable from the front
panel. Almost everything has dedicated knobs and buttons. The ONLY major
thing that requires menu editing is the routing matrix.

The front panel gives you dedicated knobs for almost everything:

You will have easy access to editing the five oscillators and their volumes,
sweeping the filters and resonances and changing filter types, and shaping
the amplifier and filter envelopes. These are the most important parameters
of any synthesizer and affect the sound the most.

Then there is slightly harder access to effects and LFO editing. The effects
section has five editing knobs and a button to toggle between which effect
you are editing the parameters for, but you will be able to press that
button and raise the effect amount to hear which effect you are applying,
and with practice you will then learn each effect's offset from where you
currently are, and know how many presses you need to apply to reach the one
you want to edit. The LFO section is similar but slightly harder, in that
you have to press a button to toggle between the 3 LFOs to select the one
you are editing, and then press another button to toggle what you want the
LFO to affect, which is something that will take some time to get used to
when doing it blind.

The only section that will be really difficult or even impossible is the
modulation matrix, which consists entirely of using the LCD. The huge amount
of parameters you can select as sources and destinations mean that you'll be
out of luck when it comes to editing the matrix. The good news in that
regard though, is that Matrix editing is not required for sound design. It's
just a useful extra that adds some extra movement.

The front panel also gives you complete, easy patch browsing access with
bank change and program change buttons. The fact that there are hundreds of
banks with tens of thousands of sounds means that you will find everything
you need here, and be able to tweak it with the front panel access available
to you.

You'll also have the three soft knobs right on the front panel, which are
mapped to useful modulations for pretty much every preset in the entire
library. This means that you will be able to quickly transform presets with
just 3 knobs.

There is no shortage of useful sounds and editing ability for you here.
You'll be getting sounds that cover the whole range of what you'll need to
make any genre of music, and I am sure you will get great use out of a
Virus.

Compared to the other synthesizers you mentioned, the Poly Evolver and Nord
Wave, you will get FAR more diverse sounds out of the Virus. The Poly
Evolver and Nord Wave are much more basic synthesizers and don't have
anywhere NEAR as many synthesis features, waveforms, routing capabilities
and effects. This means their front panels can afford to have dedicated
knobs for every parameter, since there aren't that many. I still would not
recommend either of them though, because the Virus ABSOLUTELY has all the
front panel editing capabilities you need, as mentioned above, as well as
the tens of thousands of fantastic presets. You will get MUCH more diversity
out of the Virus, and easy control of the majority of parameters, including
ALL of the important ones.

Note that the Desktop model is the same as the Keyboard model, just lacking
a keyboard. Get whichever one you think you will prefer. It might be easier
to have the keyboard model so that you can play the sound within a very
short distance from the knobs, rather than having to spread out your arms to
play a keyboard with one hand and edit with another. I'd say in your
situation, a keyboard is going to be greatly beneficial. It doesn't hurt
that the Virus keyboard is a super high quality Fatar keybed with great feel
and 61 keys, which is enough range to play everything you need. 88 keys are
only really needed when playing classical piano music. You don't need such a
large range for synth sounds, so 61 keys will work excellently.

On to the plugin aspect of the Virus: The Total Integration plugin picks up
everything you do on the front panel of the hardware unit, so you will be
able to load in the plugin and then use the hardware unit for patch browsing
and editing of all 16 parts. Audio can be routed via the plugin, and will be
in sync with your DAW. I suggest creating a song template in your sequencer,
with the Virus plugin pre-loaded, and all 16 parts set up and assigned to
the USB outputs (3 stereo outputs), so that you can just load up that
template every time and start focusing on selecting and editing sounds right
away, whenever you get the urge to make music.

Lastly, make sure you get the TI2 model, since it has an improved front
panel editing surface compared to the first TI models.

Now, over to the plugin. There are three reasons to use it; the first
benefit is that it transports all of the sound data digitally over a single
USB wire, which frees up your audio interface and also saves you from
invoking an extra step of AD/DA conversion and all the noise and distortion
that sampling artifacts add, since you get the purest signal directly from
the source instead of going through lossy conversion and dealing with
sampling errors and the like. Secondly, the plugin will be stored inside
your project and will save all of your sounds and all the edits you've made
to them, meaning that you do not have to save your sounds in the synthesizer
and later remember which ones you've picked and so on; it's all right there
in your project every time you load it up. This means that you no longer
have the problem of loading up an old project and noticing that it no longer
sounds the same. The plugin gives you "total recall" of every parameter. The
third and final benefit is that it lets you automate every parameter of all
sixteen synth parts using your DAWs native automation lanes, rather than
having to deal with sending MIDI CCs, which are far more bulky and harder to
edit.

The benefit of using it as a pure audio source, without the plugin, are
pretty much zero. Even though you say you come from an audio input
background, I guarantee that you will get used to the plugin quickly. Just
set up a template project where the plugin is already pre-loaded and has
sixteen midi tracks ready for each of the sixteen sounds it can produce at
once. Then all you'll have to do is use the Virus TI's front panel to choose
between the various parts, select sounds for them, and record the notes into
your sixteen midi tracks. You can record all knob movements and so on as
well by simply twisting them. This will also allow you to erase or edit
automation or MIDI notes instead of having to throw away a whole take, as is
the case with audio. I recommend the plugin route, and yes your term "midi
on steroids" is accurate. It offers extremely tight integration. The total
settings recall with every project load, the easy automation access, and the
sound quality are well worth it.

On to the next question, regarding the sound card: Yes, the Virus actually
lets you take its one stereo input, two of its stereo outputs, as well as
its midi input and output ports, allowing you to use them as a sound card
and MIDI interface. The sound quality is good, comparable to "professional
hobbyist" sound interfaces for hundreds of dollars. That's because it
employs the high quality AD/DA circuits that it uses for its regular audio
outputs. It will definitely give you good results. Note that if you do use
the Virus as a sound card, it disables the ability to use the plugin for
audio transfer, since the USB lead's audio transfer capabilities will be
used for the sound card features. The plugin will still act as a total
recall and automation helper though.