Virus TI stops working, produces static instead of synthesized sounds after some time

  • This is a posting about an issue that I've had for a long time. I've gone through the official Access support troubleshooting—including wiping and re-updating the Virus, reinstalling DAW and plugin, etc. These have not resolved the issue. I want to know if others have encountered this too, and whether you've found culprits or solutions. My expectation is that this issue is due to the low level engineering/programming of the USB driver (which I believe Access outsources) being of poor quality. Access has a somewhat smug and antagonistic approach to technical support, usually saying that everything is perfect on their end, but it's clear that many of us have issues with their synths and software. Caveat: The synth itself is beautiful. I wish Access would provide more honest, humble, and productive support—including more frequent and timely updates.


    The issue:
    After some time, MIDI routed to the Virus through the Virus TI plugin stops producing the expected synth sound, and instead plays static noise.
    This affects all inputs and outputs. For all intents and purposes, the synth is useless at that point, just playing loud static.
    There's no obvious trigger or steps to reproduce.
    This happens regularly, but not on a schedule or due to any particular action.
    Sometimes, if I just leave my DAW and synth for an hour totally idle and come back to it, playing notes will result in the static.
    The problem can usually be resolved just by unplugging the USB cable, plugging it back in, and waiting for Virus TI to reload. However, that is obviously not helpful when working on music or playing live.


    For the record, my setup:
    MacBook Pro mid-2012, Mac OS X 10.8.5 (but this has happened with all prior versions of OS X)
    8GB RAM, 256GB SSD HD
    Virus TI2 desktop connected directly to MacBook Pro
    Ableton Live 9.6.2 (but this has happened with all prior versions of Ableton Live)
    Virus TI OS 5.10.0, Virus TI Control 5.10.0
    Access Audio Driver, Library and Host Interface 51.0.2.4
    Access MIDI Driver 1.7.0.0