Virus Control Center on 64 bit MacOS

  • Apple - deprecating hardware compatibility since 2002 8)


    Apple products really should come with a warning sticker attached stating.

    "Important note: future OS updates may (and most definitely will) brake compatibility and cause other issues with 3rd party software and hardware"


    One can not be wondering what January 2020 will bring along, as the hardened runtime will be applied fully, for now its on a grace period. Not to mention the deprecation on OpenGL api, it may be the very next OS update that will brake all the 'again working' plugins for you. Little bit like the sudden death of HAL api, which was working on the still on the final public beta of Catalina but killed (for some reason) in the "final" release of the OS. The very reason why your Virus integration is dead now, and so is Elektron Overbridge. Apple did not exactly mention that the HAL api will be killed. They just killed it.


    "Apple updates are lot like a box of chocolates, youll never know what you gonna get" - Forest Gump

  • Apple - deprecating hardware compatibility since 2002 8)


    Apple products really should come with a warning sticker attached stating.

    "Important note: future OS updates may (and most definitely will) brake compatibility and cause other issues with 3rd party software and hardware"

    True - but the opposing argument is that Apple are optimising / simplifying / securing the OS - in theory at least - by stripping out support for historic features. Painful - definitely - but there are benefits. Very different from Microsoft's approach.


    The most recent MacOS download for the Virus is dated October 2017 - that's not great. It seems Access stopped focussing on the virus quite some time ago. So we can't associate all the blame with Apple here - and if some 3rd party is involved - then that's a relationship Access established.

  • So the TI2 came out in 2009, 10 years ago. I could understand that Access stoped working on a new driver after 10 years. Roland does that after 7 years of a product being discontinued iirc. But Access is still selling these synths as of today (for quite some money) and I wonder if the box still says "Comes with Total Integration for Mac and PC) --- As a buyer of a brand new synth I would expect this to be working.


    I hope they fix it as I like working with TI on my Mac, so far I am not switching to 10.15 for several reasons.

  • i understand if a product is discontinued, but access is selling the TI2 series till today so they have to support there hardware. (and future os compatibility, as they are selling the TI2)


    2009 i bought a TI2 (the desktop version) now in 2019 the price is about 100€ higher! why? for the troubles you will run into, if you buy one?


    in 2019/2020 a hardware synth (still selling) in the price range of 1.800 to 2.200 with such troubles is not the best advertising.


    don't get me wrong, the TI2 is a great synth (I love it) but these driver and software stories are driving customers angry!

    (there are several threads in this forum where users speak about that)

  • So the TI2 came out in 2009, 10 years ago. I could understand that Access stoped working on a new driver after 10 years. Roland does that after 7 years of a product being discontinued iirc. But Access is still selling these synths as of today (for quite some money) and I wonder if the box still says "Comes with Total Integration for Mac and PC) --- As a buyer of a brand new synth I would expect this to be working.


    I hope they fix it as I like working with TI on my Mac, so far I am not switching to 10.15 for several reasons.

    Roland rock.. all my stuff already has Catalina drivers.. sure, some of it is newer than the virus.. but.. the point is, they obviously care. Simple as that.

  • Exactly.. It's not as if they aren't selling them *everywhere* still for top dollar.. overseas that is.. I just found out, to my pleasant surprise, that all major retailers in Australia are out of stock.. with the new import fees and ship costs to Australia, I doubt people will buy them from overseas. This means if I strike and sell now, I may be able to get a bit of money back on it and just be rid of it. I'll bounce any stems using it to audio in all my projects, and just be done with it. That's IF I can get a good price and not lose a cent to what I paid and maybe even make some money..


    Edit.. excellent news! as I was writing this I did a search of eBay AU, and there is not a single virus ti2 desktop for sale in Australia. There is one Polar from a reseller for 4100$ on the entire site.. Time to strike! Mine is beyond mint, I have never touched the hardware, it has sat on a desktop, non racked, only using the plugin editor. It's literally like brand new. I'll be sad at first , but knowing I am not going to stay on this 8 core mac forever, and knowing I will have no other option in future than Catalina, I am not going to torture myself over the virus. I'd rather it be gone and not have that constant worried feeling about it.. I mean, the next version of Logic and Cubase will likely be Catalina minimum (cubase is already mojave minimum with 10.5), and I do use those almost as much as I use Pro Tools, depending on the project.. Curiously, I spent all day in bootcamp today, and it outperformed mac os on the same iMac as far as virtual instruments and plugin count was concerned, but I just don't think I can get used to Windows as an OS overall.. It's really difficult to like (just my opinion please don't shoot).

  • I have just thought of something. Sadly, I couldn't part with my virus.. I am not going to sit here bouncing stems of 1000 songs in realtime and I still want to use it cause it covers almost my entire song sounds needs in some cases.


    I have an idea. I keep reading that the virus midi works in Catalina but not the audio. And that VCC will never work.


    So.. my proposed solution.. can you please chime in on this Marc? As I am interested in the new mac pro and i'll have to use Catalina.


    I install the virus midi driver which i presume will still install on Catalina?

    I use the physical audio outs of the virus for audio, going into my UA apollo.


    Virus control PLUGIN will still then save the virus settings and load them with my songs and the midi will be sent to it properly as it always has done, correct?


    If i want to use some features of virus control centre, I simply log into my bootcamp partition and run it there.


    All good?


    And not using the USB for audio, will mean I am not really subject to that latency or worrying about (for example) putting Logic in small buffer mode.. The latency will more or less be instant now like my other hardware synths (well with whatever the D/A latency of the virus is).


    Do you still recommend i run the midi over USB or the standard midi ports in this case?

  • Hi, I am a very patient guy.. but 2 weeks I thought was enough to wait for an answer?


    Should i maybe be contacting them at support directly?


    I am surprised if it wouldn't work, but can't take the risk unless I know..


    As long as Marc is sure that Midi is working fine between catalina virus au plugin and the synth, then yeah, it will work. This is all I need to know for sure.


    Once again in case the previous post was too long.


    Catalina proposed Virus TI workaround:

    1) Use USB for midi only with the virus plugin, therefore still essentially have total integration and patch recall with the DAW.

    2) Use physical audio outs into a mixer for sound rather than rely on audio via USB, which is not working in Catalina

    3) Use the standalone librarian in Windows via Bootcamp where needed.


    Yes? No?

  • As long as Marc is sure that Midi is working fine between catalina virus au plugin and the synth, then yeah, it will work. This is all I need to know for sure.

    As per several posts by Marc, in this thread, the other thread and the official announcement, MIDI works. If you want more confirmation, you have to contact Access Music Support or a forum member of whom you know is already working with Catalina.

    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+

  • In case it helps (just noticed the latest posts on here), this is where I got to when using the analogue outputs.

    I've actually got reasonable-ish results in Cubase 10.5.11, using the external outputs, but timing isn't completely consistent and there's a fair bit of timing jitter.

    Here's what I'm having to do:

    Plug-in set up with analogue outputs, into one of my RME Mulitfaces.

    Live mode on the plug-in checked. This is the crucial bit! ...and you'll need to check it every session, since it doesn't get remembered.

    Virus set up as an External Instrument in Cubase (you'll have to check the guides on how to do that).

    MIDI channel sending to plug-in (e.g. 01. Virus TI - Midi In).

    To test, I have a group channel, with the External Instrument instance routed into it. Then an audio channel, with input as the group channel. I then record the audio on that channel and check the start timing. I'm using an Init patch, with Osc Phase Init set to 1.

    It's not straight-forward, but it's kind-of useable. Hope that helps!

    If anyone has a better solution, please do respond.

  • Dear Marc, are there ANY news regarding Catalina and Big Sur Support?

    I mean, honestly, you guys got to tell us, your buyers SOMETHING?
    Are you still working on Catalina and Big Sur Support? Is there any progress? Did you guys reach the company who made the driver for you? Did you gave up on Mac? Come on, give as any info Access Music....

  • I'm sorry, I'm a beginner. Just bought my virus TI2....question.... is this screenshot the VCC? If so, mine works in Catalina.

    No, the Virus Control Center is a different application ( Mac OS App) which is used to update the firmware of the Viru, and to backup and restore RAM and ROM (!) sound banks.


    Not being able to use Virus Control Center means:

    - No more OS Updates for the Virus TI

    - No more use of the ROM banks to store alternative sound sets (e.g. for live performances)

    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+

  • Dear Marc, are there ANY news regarding Catalina and Big Sur Support?

    I mean, honestly, you guys got to tell us, your buyers SOMETHING?
    Are you still working on Catalina and Big Sur Support? Is there any progress? Did you guys reach the company who made the driver for you? Did you gave up on Mac? Come on, give as any info Access Music....

    !?!?!?!?!?!?

  • How do the people at Kemper even sleep at night? You could have whipped up an update in no time. Are you boycotting Mac's yearly update system? That's the only reason I can think of for not doing your job. Even then it's a bad reason. The instrument is advertised with certain features which it should always have. And if it is boycotting it's just another fine example at how lazy Windows programmers are. Yes, it may take a little extra effort for you to keep up with Apple, but you guys are supposedly esteemed in the profession, this really shouldn't be hard for you to keep up with a higher standard of programming and workmanship.

  • If Access doesn't want update there own drivers for new version of OSX, ok it is comercial decision, a really bad decision too. But Access must Open to the community the source code for the TI drives, maybe we can update the software again.