The Access Virus TI Synth
	This is the Access Virus TI desktop model which I use. There are other versions available - with a keyboard integrated and a stylish limited edition called the PØLAR. The desktop comes with a rack mounting kit as well.

This is an awesome bit of kit! It is used everywhere and has the kind of super heavy phat sounds that sends the most discerning dub-step fan, or drum 'n bass head into a frenzy :)

There are far more presets which cover all bases from gorgeous pads, wonderful EFX and off the wall wierdige that couldn't help to inspire all but the most blocked of artists!

This device is far more than a fun game of "spot the preset used in commercial music". The synthesis engines are so powerful, diverse and flexible that the smallest knob tweak can take you from calm to chaos and thanks to the plugin controller, most of the more hidden parameters are nicely displayed to get you tweaking with the best of them.

After years of promising myself a Virus (model A B, C) as they came out, I finally gave in and bought a TI. There was a big waiting list as it had many revolutionary features, not least the TI (total integration) where it is connected to your DAW with a USB cable and integrates into your music application as a plug-in. It works really well with Cubase SX3, and since upgraing to version 5 is still as good. I have played with it in Ableton 8, but IMO the integration is not as good and the window tends to get in the way and I have not figured out automation yet. This may just be my lack of understanding though!

This beastie has settled into the studio quite nicely now. So much so, I'd say it was the centre of the studio and it is possibly the most used piece of kit.

There are thousands of presets on board from default and many more downloadable from the Access site. Anyone can save banks of patches and they can be uploaded and then downloaded to another users Virus without having to clear out some that are already on there. As far as I can tell you just keep adding and they all stay there!

I have spent a lot of time getting used to the TI features. This is a wonderful concept, not least because saving sounds is done with the track you are working on so there's no need to do system excl dumps. Each arrangement in Cubase has the current state of the Virus saved in it giving you the Utopian total recall feature, making the older kit look clunky and un-user friendly!

As part of Total Integration, the audio from the PC is also produced by the device. I have not found a way to sever this link and get the VST sound coming out of the PC interface and Access sounds coming from the virus audio outs. This means choosing between the convenience of the Delta interface and the low latency audition mode of the Virus which is a shame. Am I missing something here?

I used to experience problems playing several parts together, almost as if it was running out of polyphony. No doubt this device has some amazing effect and algorithms and it’s easy to load up a sound to use a lot of resources. I replaced my DAW almost immediately, re-building as a dual core Pentium E6600 type device which was much more stable and usable.

The recommendation is to run the TI on its own USB bus into the host computer which I do. V2 brought load indicators so you could see a very rough idea of the power each sound takes up (only in the Virus display) but this is not a serious trouble shooting tool by any means.

If 2-3 bars are lit, that patch does not use too much CPU. If all 5 bars are lit it is heavy and may give problems if you are playing a number of notes / long decaying sounds. 5 bars also usually seem to mean it’s a really phat sound however. :) It is suprisingly easy to take a preset with 1 bar and make it 5 bars unintentionally. One brilliant way of doing that is playing with unison.

This is a wonderful piece of kit and the sounds are -awesome-. Well worth the cost, and that not counting the fact that Access regularly release updates which give you whole new features for free as its all software. New features range from absolutely amazingly practical enhancements (which you wonder how you ever did without it), to off the wall experimental enhancements which may not be any use at all apart from to inspire a few new tracks.

Brilliant.

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