After testing two virus tis (one polar and one snow) with two macbook pros, an imac and a hackintosh, sending probably close to 100 emails back and forth with access technical support and buying extra leads and hubs on their recommendation I still have sync issues which i consider to be unacceptable when using synced lfos and arps. Jorg who works on access tech support has outlined the limitations of the virus ti as follows: (direct quote from his email)
"the Virus TI is a hardware synth integrated into a software environment and we actually recommend to start the playback even a bar ahead of the first note triggering the TI. I know this is mostly not practical during actual song-writing, but moving a playhead around quickly and especially not to specific bars can cause the USB not to be able to catch up quick enough."
he even admits that the limitations are not practical during actual song writing! Having to start the virus a bar early is not acceptable. The viruses i have used also normally loose sync roughly every 1 in 30 starts of the playhead, then suddenly catch up with themselves change the sound drastically which is very annoying.
The reason the sound changes when the virus goes out of sync is because the lfos and arp are following midi timecode data that gets sent along the usb to the virus. sometimes this data gets delayed/confused for some reason, even on a perfectly setup system. it is important to note that midi note on/off data, cc data and audio sent along the usb very rarely get delayed, its only the midi timecode that is the issue.
-- Solution --
Add the option of setting the virus LFOs and Arps to a bpm counter in the virus rather than having them follow the midi timecode sent over the usb. This way even if the midi time code arrives late it doesnt matter, as the virus has its own rock solid bpm to guide the speed of the lfos and arps. This would allow users to drop the playhead wherever they liked without fear of the sound they are making suddenly changing due to poorly synced midi timecode.
Its a simple solution to a huge problem that i know alot of people suffer from, many people end up opting to use the midi port and audio outs on the virus instead of putting up with the poorly syncing usb which is a real shame!
After a huge amount of time and effort on my part trying to get Virus Control working properly, Access have stated they are not interested in applying my suggested fix as it does not fix the underlying problem of the timecode going out of sync. personally i dont care about the underlying problem so long as the synth performs properly. which for alot of people it would seem, it doesnt. If Access have a better solution i would also be happy for them to implement that but until then, why not just let users set their own lfo/arp bpm and free us from the sync issues.
If you use Virus Control with Logic and make complex sounds with the lfos and arps then im pretty sure you understand the issues i am talking about. please comment this thread and help me persuade access to implement this idea so that i can get on with making some tunes!!
best
Al.