Hello all,
The summary is, I'm wondering how well a Virus might fit into my workflow and would like to hear some opinions before I consider putting down money as the Virus costs a fair bit of coin!
I am a hobbyist musician, I do not make music for money and thus am limited in how much I can spend. I am however very tempted by the fact that the Virus behaves like a soft synth - you can load it as an AU in Logic, lay down MIDI tracks with the mouse (since I am not a great keyboard player), mix the sounds through some good software effect plugins (Space Designer is excellent) and then not have to worry about recording and so forth. I currently have an Alesis Micron and it's difficult to edit its patches and it's difficult to record from, in each song I make I have to remember the patches that I use and I don't think you get that problem with the Access Virus TI.
Though I have a few MIDI controllers I've never gotten used to using them. I draw in automation using the mouse.
Are there any other synthesizers on the market that combine this integration of hardware + software editing out of the box? I am wondering what advantages the Virus has over these alternatives with respect to integration. Synths that come to mind are the Novation Ultranova and the Roland GAIA. I feel somewhat that I have wasted the capabilities of the Alesis Micron and do not want to make the same mistake with a new synth, whatever it may be. I also don't want to buy a Virus and then discover that I cannot unleash its power, either!
Thank you all for your opinions.