Beiträge von noct

Well, it sounds like you may have things working better for you.
I wish I'd realized you were an administrator; with your comments about not wanting to become a rocket scientist, I was under the impression you might actually benefit from advice I might offer.
With your background, you shouldn't really need help troubleshooting.

So far as "professional musicians use apple computers" - I'm sure plenty use non-Apple as well. Apple has done a very good job cultivating that image though.
It irritates me a little to see people perpetuating the idea that using an Apple product will magically make their life better.
Certainly Apple provided a better experience than early versions of Windows, and their hardware tended to be better at that time as well.
Nowadays, PCs and Apples use the same hardware, and Microsoft has actually improved their OS a lot over the years.

I kind of get the impression you just really want a Mac. Nothing wrong with that, and if you go that route, I hope you enjoy it.
I think you will find yourself spending time becoming an Apple "rocket scientist" if you do, but sometimes it's nice to use something a little different.
One thing I'll say about Apple/Linux over Windows... I'd kill for that kind of command line interface or even a decent terminal.

I'm using the Windows 8 *beta* with the unsupported Reaper DAW and the Virus works just fine for me.
I'm not trying to gloat or anything; just pointing out, like some others have, that moving to Mac isn't necessarily the answer to your problem here.
Apple likes to claim that everything "just works", yet they still have a support department.

I'm not saying *not* to get a Mac, but are you familiar with using Macs? If you are not, are you going to want to learn to troubleshoot a Mac?
Because sooner or later, whatever system you have, you're bound to run into some issue with any computer. That's the nature of technology.
Whether Apple or Windows or LInux is better - I'm going to stay away from that debate.

I will say, if you're using Windows XP, your system most likely doesn't owe you anything at this point; Microsoft doesn't even support XP anymore, as it's extremely old.
You didn't mention the processor you have, but I'm sure you could make use of a new system if you're still running XP; much has changed in the past decade.
Whether you need one to get the Virus and Ableton to work properly, is debatable, but if you want to buy a new system, who am I to talk you out of it?
I'm planning on buying one myself, even though my current system, at around 4-5 years old, still handles everything I throw at it, and I throw a lot at it.

In the interest of potentially being helpful:

When you say XP freezes, does it blue screen? If so, what is the error message? Most likely it'll complain about some .dll or driver or something.
When you say the Virus hangs, is that in combination with XP hanging, or is it by itself and XP continues to work?

Do these issues only happen when the Virus is connected? Do they only happen when using Ableton? Do they only happen when using Ableton with the Virus?

Do they happen immediately? Does it take a while to happen, but once it has happened, occur quickly again afterward?
Is your computer clean? Perhaps it is overheating. Though your "no audiotrax" comment makes me doubt you're doing anything intensive when this occurs, so that's probably not the issue.

Do you have a lot of devices connected to your system? Possibly you're having a power supply issue.

Another possiblity (maybe, I don't know Ableton) - maybe you're pointing Ableton to the wrong software/plugin for the Virus?

Do you notice the Virus connecting/reconnecting a lot? Maybe you have a bad usb cable or the port is dirty or something?
At my workplace, we got a batch of computers with improperly grounded front panels, and touching metal parts would cause the systems to reset - have you tried using a different usb port and/or cable?

Also, unrelated to troubleshooting: I don't know what kind of licensing scheme Ableton has, but if you go with a Mac, you may want to check that you're authorized to use the Mac version of Ableton.
Though if you're willing to splurge on a Mac, I suppose buying another copy of Ableton wouldn't be an issue to you anyway.

Edit: And one more thing - if you haven't posted anything in Access' tech support forums, you may want to consider doing so.
Access should at least have some familiarity with any issues in Ableton for the different operating systems.
For all I know, Virus with Mac version of Ableton is impossible to use - or it could work better than any other combination.
Also, I only noticed you mentioned Ableton before - all in all, the same goes with Cubase as for Ableton, feel free to substitute one for the other throughout my post.
I was going to point out that your title suggests you're using a demo, but I assume at least Ableton was not a demo.

No. The only way you'll be able to approach that via the Virus is reproducing those sounds as accurately as you can manage on the Virus.

The matrix setup looks correct to me. Are you sure you're actually receiving MIDI from the Mod Wheel?

Just gotta say... looking at the title of this thread again, this would make a great commercial or Youtube video.

I'd ask if people really still used midi files on web sites these days, but I have seen it like once in the past 7 years or so... can't remember seeing it on any other occasion recently though.

"No i was not suggesting screw over all Ti1 owners i was suggesting separating the two."
And that doesn't screw over the TI1 owners, how, exactly? Oh, I know, it benefits them because all those extra features would really just be a burden. In fact, you're trying to do them a favor!
Hey, I know, how about they give the TI1 *some* of the new features, and the TI2 some of the others, then we'll all be happy, just so long as we can pretend our mass produced synths are collector's items!

"I was always under the impression and im sure i was not the only one that aventully the Ti2 would have more than just 25% more dsp over the Ti1"
Well, you and any others were under the wrong impression, and Access said they were going to keep the TI at par with the TI2, so if you did research before buying a $2000+ synth, you'd have known better.

"given Accesses history e.g. A vs B, B vs C, C vs Ti, Ti vs samething.
If you check the spec's of those older models you will see that each time they brought out a new model it had a lot more to be desired then just 25% dsp. "
I can't argue with that - I think the primary reason for the TI2 update was probably to resolve some glitchiness with the TI1, but I don't know that for a fact.
Even so, all the research you're doing now trying to argue your invalid point? If you had done it before, you wouldn't be making the ridiculous argument you currently are.
The information was definitely out there, Access didn't lie to people about what they were getting.

"You also said at the start of your message that you dont think there is any great reason for Access to do so.
Well think how many Ti owners have thought no point upgrading to the 2 its the same as the 1 or people thinking of buying a virus that have googled Ti1 vs Ti2 only to realise there the same and thought f**k paying that for a new one i can get a Ti1 off ebay for £800 and the Ti2 wont have nothing over me."
Anytime Access wants to release a new synth that *truly* has superior capabilities, and give it functionality the previous synths simply cannot handle, is fine by me. Intentionally hobbling a synth just to make a quick buck, though, is not going to make their customers happy. Well, not the sensible ones, anyway.

"You also said it wouldn't be very cost effective for Access to work on a OS for the Ti1 and a OS for the Ti2, how cost effective would it of been for Access if we all stayed on the Ti1 after all they are the same. "
It may very well have been better for Access to stick with the TI1. Again, I think they released the TI2 as a revision to the TI, to smooth out some issues the original had. I don't know that for a fact though.
At any rate, I'm sure they had a reason to do so, or they wouldn't have done it - maybe marc or somebody will fill us in on that, I am curious what the reasoning was. I don't expect to get an answer to that though.

"I say there the same coz 25% more dsp is not worth mentioning to me, when i brought my Ti2 i still had my Ti1 for about 4 months after and i did put that extra dsp to the test, but i didn't notice any difference neither or them could run more then 4 parts at once.."
Well, if they're the same, then there's no good reason to treat them differently. I see no reason for them to be "separate but equal"!

"And you say a reliable company that supports all there products, The virus A hasn't seen a update in 2 and a half years The virus B hasn't seen a update in 4 years and the C more then 2 years."
The Virus A is 15 years old, the B is probably 13 years old, the C maybe 11? You're really going to bring up those synths in your argument? I think you're stretching there.
You probably couldn't find another synth that received support like the Virus A for 12.5 years if you tried - if you did, that'd be a very good company behind it.

" I'm not knocking Access im just replying back to what you wrote, I think Access is a Brilliant company and very loyal and ive supported them from the B,
you say i can find many companys that dont support there synth's, yeah course my NL3 hasn't seen an update in years neuther has my moog voyager, nor my prophet or any of my other synth's but thats probably because all the bugs have been ironed out.
Sorry for offending any Ti1 owners, i dont think its right you could go out buy a new Ti2 own it 2 months and be lucky if its worth a £100 more then a Ti1 that could be 6/7 years old..."
I didn't read this as you saying anything against Access, though you are obviously upset - and I understand why you are, and I don't blame you for feeling that way, it's a shitty situation. I don't agree with your "solution" to your problem though, since it would involve Access going against one of the things that makes them a great company. I'd be more inclined to agree with your argument if this were Native Instruments we were talking about, since they have a history of screwing their customers over. It's kind of what they're known for, actually... and I know people that haven't bought their stuff because that behavior concerns them.

Ultimately, it's your responsibility to research what you're buying before you buy it. What you are requesting is just selfish and absurd.
I wish you luck in finding a good price for your TI2, but please see that things are the way they are between the TI and TI2 because it doesn't make any sense for them to be different, and accept that fact.

"...but it should still be considered for the current gen"

I do agree that it would be nice to see some such solution.
However, I'm not sure it is really an option - wouldn't it also be necessary to modify the Virus hardware to interface with such a peripheral?

While I have been fortunate not to experience any issues with my setup, I share your hope that the new Virus, should we see one, is so stable as to leave such concerns behind.
It's unfortunate so many have had trouble with the TI series thus far - while I suspect the percentage of users having problems is lower than it might seem from forum posts, I know I had some concerns about this when I bought my TI2 after reading so many such posts.

The integration is very nice, and seems to be the future for hardware synths. Access was smart enough to see it, and they've made a lot of effort to make it work, but there is always room for improvement.
I hope they will take advantage of the new technologies if they release a new Virus. I agree, we don't know right now how Thunderbolt will pan out, but that's always the way of things with technology - that's part of the reason I like the hybrid idea, it is more forgiving if one of the technologies falls out of favor. Flexibility is also always nice in general.
If picking only one technology to support, USB 3.0 is probably the way to go today, as every computer will have that soon enough.
If USB is what they choose, I seriously hope they go with the new USB - why pick something that will be left behind before the Virus after the next is released?

I don't think there is any great reason for Access to do so, if only because, if I recall correctly, they've already said they won't do so, and thus doing so would probably anger many TI owners.
Beyond that, it makes little sense from their point of view - as you've said, there is very little difference between the TI and the TI2. From the perspective of software development, it's more convenient and cost effective to work on one piece of code, e.g. an OS for the TI and the TI2, than to work on two, particularly when they are basically the same device.
Would your suggestion really boost their sales? I believe a lot of Access's success has been because people know they are a reliable company that supports their products - that kind of reputation is hard to earn, and I don't think Access would benefit in the long run from the damage abandoning the TI would likely do them.
Also, when the TI3 comes out (assuming it does, as it hasn't even been announced that I'm aware of), we can probably continue to expect updates to the TI2, Access supports their synths. I'm sure you could find many other companies out there that do not, and their forums are probably filled with tears. If you prefer your synths to be forgotten by their makers, though, perhaps that is the place for you. Alternatively, you may want to consider your purchases more carefully in the future so you avoid the situation you are currently in. It is nice that you are suggesting Access should screw over all the TI owners because it would benefit you; I own a TI2, but I still think that's a bit sad to see.

I understand why you've thought of this idea, but I feel I have to bring some logic into the topic:

"...a product that anyone can use, out of the box, in any system, with no hiccups or headaches". Nothing is perfect; that product does not exist, and your idea won't make it exist. Your peripheral has to interface with "environments that vary drastically".
So now there are more complications since we have an additional interface between the Virus and your peripheral, and we still have to interface with said environments. I don't think that will work out very well.

Looking at this from another angle, people seem to have as many or more issues with the DAW aspects of Total Integration, even when using the officially supported DAWs. Nobody is proposing that Access introduce their own DAW though. There is a reason for that, and it applies here as well: people rightfully expect that the Virus should just integrate into a normal setup with minimal effort involved. Also, there would be the likelihood of the Access DAW having issues of its own.

If you want a system that works out of the box for almost everyone, you actually want Access to implement as little as possible and spend more time on testing and bug fixing. Developing new hardware and software will take away from the time they can devote to that.

I'd rather see Access focus their efforts on making standard PC interfaces work as perfectly as possible.
The new technologies you mentioned should really be more than enough to allow for all the needs a new Virus should have.

The problems stemming from the use of USB 1.1 likely don't have much bearing on the capabilities of the newer technologies to perform sufficiently for a new Virus; it is, after all, the nature of new technologies to differ from old technologies, usually in ways that address the shortcomings of their predecessors.
Given that USB 1.1 more or less did the job while causing a few issues that didn't affect everyone, one can probably surmise that upgraded USB technology should be enough to eliminate many of those issues.
Even if the new USB isn't good enough, one of the other technologies should be.

You mention the MOTU USB/Firewire hybrid - that's an idea I could get behind. There's no reason Access couldn't provide multiple ways to connect a Virus to a PC - but built into the Virus and based on PC standards.

Adding in "optional" peripherals, though, is just going to cause more problems for people, and probably for Access as well, since it's more hardware and software they have to create and maintain.
Then there are other issues, for instance, how many people are going to want it? What if Access makes too many and can't get rid of them? What if Access stops making them and you want one?
What if you use a laptop, is there a version for that? How about tablets (I'm sure somebody will want to use some new DAW that runs on a tablet, crazy as that seems).
In my opinion, it shouldn't be necessary, and it could be an inconvenience. For myself, installing hardware in a PC is no big deal, but there are those out there that would not want to poke around in one.
And what if you have multiple systems you might use your Virus on, do you buy a peripheral for each?

I'd almost forgotten about this post!
For what it's worth, I think you made some really good points. Having said that, I'm definitely looking forward to the new features coming in OS 5 - I do wonder though how comfortable it will be to edit e.g. the third and fourth envelopes.

It's kind of funny, for a while now I've found myself wondering they will add to the next Virus, since it surely must be coming. I really couldn't see that there was a whole lot missing. Sampling, perhaps, would be nice - but in agreement with your post, how well could that be integrated into the Virus? (Access, if you're listening, and have some incredible ideas in that area, don't let my idle musing stop you)

I've been wishing somebody would put out a modern hardware sampler for a while now, but everybody is selling/using software these days; hardware is probably an extremely tough sell!
Also, if I understanding a post I saw on this forum correctly, Access is also working on some crazy modeling guitar amp that effectively samples amplifiers and reconstructs them. First off, that looks like it could be awesome - if it works well, then with the Internet, guitarists could end up with effectively any amp setup they wanted. But ignoring guitarists for now, this makes me wonder if Access may be up to something similar for synthesizers.

Anyway, I digress. The point I'm trying to make is that I imagine the next Virus will, at a minimum, have some means to directly handle the new envelopes and filter settings. Possibly more controls would actually be the main selling point, that and USB 3 and perhaps more polyphony because it'd be hard to not end up with more of that if they're using new hardware, and who doesn't like more polyphony? But primarily, a new hardware interface? It could happen.

Zitat von Splaaat

It has been ooooooooooonnnne whoooooole year!!! Oh, I'm a consumer first Ever since I jumped into the mixing/mastering profession, my Polar is just sitting by my side looking pretty. But, that is no excuse for not having my FREE yearly update for FREE.

Free updates are so 1990s. If Access wants to keep up they're going to have to start charging for all this DLC like the rest of the software industry.
Then they can put out more updates with all the money they'll be getting, and we can buy more, in an infinite loop of profit and features! DLC Charlie, DLC!

Glad I could help! I ran into that issue myself. It took me a little while to figure out what was going on; I'm pretty sure I didn't click the buttons to hide the threads in the first place...

This probably isn't it, but do you have the threads collapsed? There is a - or + symbol next to Threads or Announcements & Important Threads, clicking that can hide threads.

Hey Daniel,

I posted some information on the other thread, and like I stated there, there are some things I'm trying to figure out yet. Whether those things are important are not, I don't know.

Anyway, these offsets are based off the first patch:
284: Determines if categories are used and possibly how many?
285: First category value.
286: Second category value.
290: Seems to have something to do with categories, but I'm not certain what.
It changes if the categories change; but two otherwise identical patches with categories swapped between category 1 and category 2 seem to have the same value for that offset.

I've only given a quick look into the location of the categories, but I can say this much:

It seems like there is data stored in two locations for categories... I have to figure out what's up with the second section still.
The first section is directly after the patch name. I think the first set of hexadecimal is 00 if there are no categories, or 02 if there are.
I assume the 02 is indicating that there *can* be up to 2 categories, but I may be wrong. Regardless of the number of categories set, it seems to always be 02 if there are more than 0.
The next set of hex after that corresponds to the first category, and the hex after that, the second.
So something like PATCHNAME 02 06 08 seems to mean there are categories for the patch and the first is Acid and the second is Arp. I haven't bothered to determine the values for the other categories yet, it should be easy enough but I'm lazy. I'll around to it.
As I said, there is a second section, I think 5 hex chars after that, but I haven't figured out what it represents.
I really have to look more into this, as this is incomplete and half guesswork, but hopefully this helps you a little.

Glad I could help a little. I hope things work out for you, that sounds like a rough situation.

For what it's worth, I'm not saying you made a mistake with your Ram patches; rather, I don't think Ram patches are going to match across every Virus. I think your best bet is probably to just focus on the Rom banks. Besides which, it's more common for users to change the patches in the Ram banks than in the Rom, so the usefulness of a list of factory Ram patches may be debatable.

If you only want the .mid for the Rom banks, I think those are actually installed on your computer with Virus Control; for me, they're under Documents/Access Music/Virus TI/Patches. Otherwise, there is a ridiculous number of .mid files available from this link:
http://virus.info/page/render/…virus_ti.html?id=1&cat=10

I have to say, I can't believe you went through all those patches by hand, I think I'd have given up on that before I got halfway through the first bank; just thinking about doing it is painful! And as you suggested, it would be very possible to have a few errors show up when entering 3400 patches by hand. Hopefully you can get some use out of the .mid files. I've mentioned in the past that I am working with those files myself, but you seem to be interested in doing this yourself. If you decide you're interested in what I'm doing, let me know; I don't have something useable at the moment, but it shouldn't be too long before I do.

If you follow the link attached to a poster's name, you'll see their profile. Under the General Information section of the profile, there is a link to their posts. So if you click your name at the top left of the page, where it says "Welcome %username", you can easily access your own posts.

One quick suggestion, it may make sense to consider doing something different with the background image or the text colors, as they don't contrast very well, making it more difficult to read in situations where e.g. the text overlaps a few keys of the Virus.

I notice you seem to have gotten all the factory patch names and categories; out of curiosity, did you rip these from the patch files as discussed in the other thread?
Also, so far as Ram patches go, I am not sure how consistent that will be across different users; I haven't touched Ram-D on my Virus yet, but it still has different patches than that shown on your site.