Seems like the Virus TI can't produce real Square/Pulse waves...

  • Have you ever actually passed the osc's pulse wave through a oscilloscope?
    Here's the result of a single oscillator pulse wave at 50% PW with filters fully opened and no effect/saturation whatsoever:
    TIsquarewave.png
    The sub-oscillator has an even quirkier shape:
    TISubOcs.png
    I've searched through the wavetables too but none of the squary ones give real square shapes either. Quite a pity, I was trying to reproduce a Micromoon VST patch but I'm missing the punch that real square/pulse waves produce. I suppose it's giving the virus TI its own character (it's analog emulation after all, so it's not supposed to produce perfectly symmetrical waves) but still, a nice sharp square wave somewhere in a wavetable would have been nice!

  • Set Analog Boost intensity to Off.

    Bass Player and Synthesist.
    Virus TI2 Darkstar | Virus TI2 Desktop | Sub 37 | Voyager RME | Machinedrum | Analog Four | Digitone | MPC Live | NI Maschine+
    Mac OS 13.5.1 (Ventura) | Cubase Pro 11.0 | Ableton Live 9.6 | Logic 10.4 | MainStage 3.4 | NI Komplete Ultimate 13 | RME Fireface UFX+

  • Them you‘re doing something wrong. Mine produce nice squares.

    Bass Player and Synthesist.
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  • Yeah, this is indeed odd, Mr. Ketchup! Do the waves in your first image sound like squares? They look like funky down-saws. I assume you have checked all parameters including Osc Balance?
    Let us know if you still maintain your premise. :)

  • Hey,

    i hooked up my Virus Ti Keyboard to my Oscilloscope today and i was getting the exact same waveform as shown in the pictures.

    I was irritated and double checked every settin in the virus, as well as in the oscilloscope.

    I thought, maybe its my scope, so i checked the square wave from a friends virus ti desktop.
    His square-waves arent ill, they look just like they should.

    Somehow mine wont do that.


    I reinstalled the latest firmware, but that didnt help.


    I dont use usb to pass the audio along, i use the main out.


    Maybe somebody else knows sth.?

  • Ok. I just checked that at my Virus and can get the exact same result... when running the Square through a High Pass Filter!


    Either you have set any of the Filters on the Virus to High Pass, our you have a high pass somewhere else in your audio path.

  • Indeed that was it oliAtBass. Had found that out myself but forgot to post here. I'm used to my Moog Mother 32 filter settings, in which setting Hi-pass mode all the way open is the proper way to get an unaffected oscillator sound, whereas on the TI it doesn't work the same.

  • No problem. Was actually pretty interesting to investigate and verify this issue. On the Virus it seems that you should use a fully open lo-pass filter to get the pure oscillator sound.


    And on further discussion another thought crossed my mind: A couple of years ago, someone found out that the Virus saw wave seems to have less upper harmonics than other synths. There‘s even a video on YouTube showing that on a spectrum analyzer - which I found to be true as well.

    What if the same applies to the LP filter, that it‘s never fully open, and if you want full harmonic content you have to switch to HP. Gotta try that!

    Bass Player and Synthesist.
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  • setting Hi-pass mode all the way open is the proper way to get an unaffected oscillator sound, whereas on the TI it doesn't work the same.

    What if the same applies to the LP filter, that it‘s never fully open, and if you want full harmonic content you have to switch to HP. Gotta try that!

    It sounds like Mr. Ketchup is saying there is someway that a wide open Hi-pass on the TI2 still affects an oscillator??

  • It sounds like Mr. Ketchup is saying there is someway that a wide open Hi-pass on the TI2 still affects an oscillator??

    Yes, exactly. And according to my analysis (see oscilloscope pics) that’s actually true. LP cutoff at 0, tracking at 0, without resonance, attenuates the low frequencies. Which sort of makes sense because even at the lowest filter cutoff you want to have tracking to remove rumble as you go up on the keyboard.


    Waitaminute... tracking... could be used to move the filter even further down when combined with the Key Follow Base. Right?

    Bass Player and Synthesist.
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  • But not further down than "0" cutoff (LP) ?

    Why not? The cutoff value "0" in that case is obviously pretty low but not 0 Hz or "off".

    Pretty easy to check with an oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer.

    Bass Player and Synthesist.
    Virus TI2 Darkstar | Virus TI2 Desktop | Sub 37 | Voyager RME | Machinedrum | Analog Four | Digitone | MPC Live | NI Maschine+
    Mac OS 13.5.1 (Ventura) | Cubase Pro 11.0 | Ableton Live 9.6 | Logic 10.4 | MainStage 3.4 | NI Komplete Ultimate 13 | RME Fireface UFX+

  • Did a couple of experiments, results:

    • The cutoff frequency of the High-Pass Filter does not go any lower when applying keytracking and Key Follow Base.
    • The lowest cutoff frequency of the High-Pass Filter is around 30Hz. Which means there's always a slight attenuation of the lowest frequencies.
    • The highest cutoff frequency of the Low-Pass Filter is beyond 20kHz and there's no obvious difference in the upper spectrum between a fully open High-Pass and a fully open Low-Pass Filter. So, the LPF is virtually off with Cutoff is set to 127, Resonance at 0 and no keytracking.
    • If you want a full and bright sawtooth wave, use the HyperSaw oscillator (the Classic oscillator saw is rather dull in comparison), set it to 1.0 and no spread and send it through an fully open Low-Pass Filter.

    Bass Player and Synthesist.
    Virus TI2 Darkstar | Virus TI2 Desktop | Sub 37 | Voyager RME | Machinedrum | Analog Four | Digitone | MPC Live | NI Maschine+
    Mac OS 13.5.1 (Ventura) | Cubase Pro 11.0 | Ableton Live 9.6 | Logic 10.4 | MainStage 3.4 | NI Komplete Ultimate 13 | RME Fireface UFX+

  • Excellent research Oli! Especially concerning Hypersaw subbing for Classic saw! Thank you!

    there's no obvious difference in the upper spectrum between a fully open High-Pass and a fully open Low-Pass Filter

    So then how is the High-Pass affecting square waves as discussed earlier?

  • Excellent research Oli! Especially concerning Hypersaw subbing for Classic saw! Thank you!

    So then how is the High-Pass affecting square waves as discussed earlier?


    As already mentioned in my post above and shown in the pictures. Attenuating the root and low partials of a square wave yields the spikey asymetrical waveform as posted in the original question.

    Bass Player and Synthesist.
    Virus TI2 Darkstar | Virus TI2 Desktop | Sub 37 | Voyager RME | Machinedrum | Analog Four | Digitone | MPC Live | NI Maschine+
    Mac OS 13.5.1 (Ventura) | Cubase Pro 11.0 | Ableton Live 9.6 | Logic 10.4 | MainStage 3.4 | NI Komplete Ultimate 13 | RME Fireface UFX+

  • Attenuating the root and low partials of a square wave yields the spikey asymetrical waveform as posted in the original question.

    Sorry, I am confused! - So "attenuating" means the filter is not fully open? If so, it has already been stated that a square wave still gets attenuated with a fully open Hi Pass, but it has also been stated that a fully open Hi Pass or Lo Pass has no affect. Again, my apologies for my confusion!

  • Sorry, I am confused! - So "attenuating" means the filter is not fully open? If so, it has already been stated that a square wave still gets attenuated with a fully open Hi Pass, but it has also been stated that a fully open Hi Pass or Lo Pass has no affect. Again, my apologies for my confusion!

    This must be a misunderstanding, because

    • The lowest cutoff frequency of the High-Pass Filter is around 30Hz. Which means there's always a slight attenuation of the lowest frequencies.


    I'm probably expressing myself not sufficiently clear.


    IOW, the High-Pass filter, even if fully open, always affects the signal.

    Bass Player and Synthesist.
    Virus TI2 Darkstar | Virus TI2 Desktop | Sub 37 | Voyager RME | Machinedrum | Analog Four | Digitone | MPC Live | NI Maschine+
    Mac OS 13.5.1 (Ventura) | Cubase Pro 11.0 | Ableton Live 9.6 | Logic 10.4 | MainStage 3.4 | NI Komplete Ultimate 13 | RME Fireface UFX+