Beiträge von Ecaroh

I just came back from a gig with my Virus, no any kind of trouble with it. I am happy with that. Anyway what I've learned to do is take down volumy from both my Virus and also from Nord Stage which is midi-connected to Virus, when I leave the stage for break. As said earlier, Virus have even generated midi ghost notes to my Nord. I don't risk anymore those terrible ghost notes from big sound system when I am not there.

Btw I am not having metal to metal setup when I am on the stage. Virus is the upper keyboard, it's tilted but there are also big enough rubber contacts which touch Virus' bottom. On the other hand, those ghost notes happen not so often... This is a rare thing but very serious, at least for those of us who do gigs. Access should really try to find out what's going on. And this ghost notes issue isn't very new, I just read about someone complaining about same thing in post on 2011. All this been said, Virus did a great job again on the gig. It sounds SO amazing. Also, same day I used in the studio for commercial music. It's a tool which I use all the time.

Very interesting and something which makes sense to me... Access should take a note here and see if they can reproduce or confirm this idea.

namahshaman & flabberbob

I have thought about stage situation - what are the main differences compared to situation at home? I wasn't kidding when I said that I have never had "ghost notes" at home and Virus have been left on for hours. Like namahshaman, I have Virus above my Nord Stage and it has been tilted a little. Also, there are perhaps some vibrations and movements that aren't there at home: when I play on stage keyboard stand moves a little, at home it's on the table. Also, there's more sound coming from stage in general. And when left alone for a break, this sound system is playing background music.

Could Virus be more vulnerable to this kind of things? Definetily it should not, if it's for live players like they promote it. I am sure that there are (lot?) more users who have these issues but because they aren't so usual they ingnore or just tolarate them. I can also see that this isn't very new one. For example, just read a first post from this thread from 2011:

http://virus.info/forum/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=2882

Hi,

We just had a long thread about "ghost notes" - Virus occationally triggering sounds without touching it. Also, I have experienced strange bender behavior, hanging notes, problems with "total integration". And I have brand new Polar Ti2. In my Logic setup Virus is VERY far from total integration, in fact I use it via old fashioned MIDI. I really got frustrated to try and try to make work with usb-TI, sometimes it was quite Ok and then suddenly everything went crazy.

So what can I say, welcome to Virus world. Great sounds but be prepared to have problems. Access team has told me to send my unit back, but I have hesitated for few reasons: first, these problems seem to be very typical, quite many seem to have them. Maybe they are bugs or unwanted "features"? Secondly, they don't happen (fortunately!!!) very often. This makes diagnostics very difficult. It's very possible, that if Access gets my unit there they won't experience any of my problems. As said earlier, it's Murphy's law that they tend to happen on stage, when damage is maximal... And thirdly and most importantly, I use my Virus every day, I don't want to have weeks or months interruption to my work.

So this being my case, I just tolerate these issues at the moment. I still have lot of warranty left. Let's see if those problems still exist or get worse...

All this been said, I love my Virus sound and keyboard too. It's one of my favorite tools. I just wish it would be little more stable.

Zitat von Marc

as i said before, i wasn't able to create a ghost note when leaving the polar on for a night but that doesn't mean a lot. as for the knobs: if those send values on their own you should consider servicing your virus. if the pedal sends values without touching it is likely that the pedal has a problem. please understand that telediagnosis will not proof reliable in this case.
best, marc

Yes, I very well understand the diagnostics problem here. I have had a synth with knobs sending values without touching them and it needed repair. Also, it's very typical that pedal (especially when left somewhere in the middle) can send values or jump here and there around this point. These two are quite typical cases which clearly point to hardware problematic.

But my question was that is it likely that we (5 or more users here) are having hardware problem here? Physically keys are very different to encoders or potentiometers. With keys you need much more power/physical movement to make them react. I don't know the Virus construction here; is it in principal possible to get note on message without key going down? Some technical expert can maybe answer that. As said earlier, I have never experienced anything like that in 20 years with synths.

My problem with my brand new Virus TI2 Polar is that I have some strange problems (bender going crazy and now ghost notes) which happen very seldom and it's far from clear what is problem here. I am using Virus weekly in my work and I would like be to sure have a real hardware problems before I am going to send it to away for possible months or so. Problem is of course that can they (Access) experience this problem at all if they get my unit there? Or is it perhaps something that exists there with all the Viruses, kind of an rare unwanted hardware feature...?

Reading these posts I'd say that at least 4-5 users are having something close to my "ghost notes" issue. What is probably the most crucial question here: are we having hardware or firmware issue here? I know that sometimes faulty knobs can send values on their own. For example my control pedal can send some values without touching it if it's somewhere between highest or lowest point. But can keys do the same in principal? Maybe Marc can estimate this possibility... My Polar is just few months old.

flabberbob: In those circumstances where it happened there was no significally more sound vibrations or radio interference, or at least I think so...

Wait a minute, I remember one more thing which might give some more light to this issue:
Once when it happened, it was not Virus itself sounding but my Nord instead. In that case, in Virus I was having "a control patch" which is in fact itself silent (= part is off in multimode) but controlling Nord organ instead via Midi (through iConnect). Btw this is what I do also with my Virus: I occationally play Nord organ / synth with Polar. So this is a real MIDI issue: Virus can somehow generate midi note-on messages and these messages also come out from its Midi-outs. Very strange...

I wish I could give you anything but I can't. My Polar was yesterday running alone (at home) about 4 hours with same patch and same setup which was there last time on stage when IT happened. 4 hours and nothing. "Ghost notes" is a good term to aply here: they happen only when there's maximal damage And they don't appear when you'd like to learn from them.

Few more things to add: on stage Virus isn't connected to any computer. Only connection is iConnect MIDI router which connects Virus to my Nord Stagepiano. Also, Virus is connected to it with standard MIDI cables, so no USB midi here. I am using multi mode.

I can only tell you that fortunately it's not very often. I do 1-3 gigs per week with Virus and it happens perhaps in one gig in three or something like that. In fact I don't know if this general "hanging notes" issue is related to "ghost notes" issue. Former happens when you play Virus. Both of them are quite rare. My gigs are mostly about four hours long with Virus powered on. Not everytime happens this kind of things. And as said earlier, strangely it hasn't happened in my home.. (Although in Logic quite many strange issues have been there, but this is another story...)

I am having OS 5.01.05. What do you think, should I go to newest one 5.0.3? Idea of going back to OS4 seems little frustrating cause some of my on-stage-presets use new features of OS5...

Thanks all to your replies. I am not alone obviously...

IMO Access should really take this seriously. I've played synths and keyboards for more than 20 years and this is the first synth doing it: randomly triggering notes. Virus - now the best synth of the year 2013 - is promoted as great tool for a live player. If it really is what it is said, this kind of issues just can't be there. Imagine a gig setup with huge stage and huge sound system and suddenly it starts...

Ok, now the solution is to always remember to take down the main volume when you go to break after your set. And when playing your music always be prepared to play "panic" whenever you encounter these hanging notes... Not very nice for someone who would just want to put his/her energy to perform music?

Hi,

I am a live keyboard player using Virus on stage. I have had issues with bender etc. but this is the newest one:

Virus seems to sometimes generate some hanging notes even without anybody touching it. Now it was second time when me and my bandmates were having break at the back stage when somebody from the crowd came to us to say that "there's some strange noise comig from your sound system." I realized immediately that it's my Virus again. Somehow it had generated some notes... VERY annoying thing to happen.

What is strange that it has never happened at my home when Virus has been on a long time alone and the setup is same which I use on stage...

Anybody have had these "ghost notes"?

On stage I have Nord Stage 2 and Virus TI2 Polar connected to iConnectMIDI which is controlled by iPhone.

I can see that many people would like the have more power to the bass sounds etc...

My personal view is that good compressor would help in many cases. In fact I've recently been experimenting putting my two very different synths together: Virus Ti2 and Arturia Origin. These two complement nicely each other and strengthen each others weaknesses. What I've done, is to put Virus into Origin's audio-ins and give it some effects (and yes, compressor is the main one) and mix them together. I can tell you that this pair gives you for example supersaw-type leads that would make Lady Gaga jealous Origin has kind of aggressive analog presence which is lacking in Virus. On the other hand, as we all know Virus has huge amount of polyphony, quality effects, and all its specialities which I don't get from Origin.

Still waiting for an answer from Access support...

They kindly ask us to contact them whenever we have problems, but how long normally does it take for them to answer? There was of course all these holiday times between and I did not expect anything to happen at that time.

( flabberbob: yes, I checked my spam folder)

About my bender problem:

"Bender goin crazy"-issue happens also outside DAW and now it seems that it happens also even without usb-connection to computer. It does not happen all the time so I have wait to see it happen. But when it does, only thing to fix it it resetting.

I contacted to support but no any answer yet how to proceed. I really hope that Access will give me some idea, if this is hardware issue or more likely OS-bug. In former case I have to start to think sending it back.

Whole thing with my brand new Polar starts to became more and more frustrating. Great sound but problems problems problems...

(And reading this forum makes me see that I am not the onlyone. Come on, this was voted for best synth of the year!)

TSBENSE

By "latching" do you mean that you have hanging notes issue? And to be precise, how does your bender misbehave? Is it like mine which gets crazy just upwards and resetting helps for a while? And do you have this issue in Logic / other DAW or even without usb-connection to computer. These might help us to define the problem; is it OS or hardware related? Does it need Logic to happen?

Thx

Hi,

While doing my newest project with Virus (OS5) and Logic this problem has been there few times:

For some reason Polar keyboard seems gets crazy with upper bender range. Suddenly I can notice that bender does not reach the highest value when turning it up. For example, if preset has +12 bender range up Polar gets somewhere near 10 semitones. Downwards it seems to be ok. My first idea was that my brand new Polar is having hardware problem with bender. But now I am not sure anymore: resetting Polar makes it ok again and it can work well quite long. Also, I haven't noticed any problem when I use it as just synth without DAW connection. It can be there still, cause I don't use bender very much. Anyway at least it seems that bender can't be totally broken cause resetting Virus helps...

Btw with this project, I did not bother trying to use TI-plugin because of those latency and synchronizing problems. So this time I am using Virus via USB midi.

Anybody having anything similar or having any idea what might be the problem here?

P.S. I must say that I am beginning to feel quite disappointed with my first Virus. I wasn't expecting it to be perfect in everything but now there are too many problems here and there: spdif problematic, occational hanging notes, latency and sync issues and now this bender. Am I having a bad unit or is it like this?

Zitat von robg

You won't overcome latency and the other problems with a dedicated card I'm afraid. I've gone back to midi/audio cables and that's about as solid as it can get.

robg:

Does this mean that you don't use TI-plugin at all? If so, this means that there quite many (?) users using their Virus like any other synth. This should be a quite serious signal for Access developers: Total Integration isn't so total after all, if just some users can take benefit from it. Personally I am starting a new project and maybe I'll do the same: give up TI and use Virus via midi. (I have had issues with OS5 with Logic and latency is one big problem. Other thing is that TI has crashed Logic quite many times.) Or then I will give it one another chance...?

So TI is a nice idea, but is it "just an idea" at the moment?

Very good and welcomed idea! Editor and librarian too.

I think that quite many of us allready have iPads (myself included) and trend is increasing.

I would happily put some money to have it, if necessary..

P.S. It's easy to think some other possibilities to develope new iTI even further. This iEditor might have kind of setlist functions: pressing some song on the list you would have special multipreset (stored in the iPad, not in the Virus internal memory). Or it might even have stepsequencer which is missing in Virus itself. In one word, iPad integration would add great new features to this great synth and bring it to 2010s...!

flabberbob:

I am not sure if I understand what you mean...? My quantized test track (playing simple 1/4s) plays well and in sync to Logic-click, if I playback it with any other software plugin.

Also, if I play same track with Virus "normal way" (without TI-plugin, sending MIDI-data via USB to Virus) everything plays well. So somehow in my setup TI (OS5?) gives me 80ms latency. Also, TI have crashed Logic pro 9 many times.

Thanks guys for clarifying some very basic things!

I am a newbie here, but I think I am a quite fast learner.

Now, about audio outs:

As UltimateOutsider supposed, I was using USB1 L+R setup. And this gave me both (a) latency feeling (when you press a key you hear it delayed) and also (b) very much delayed playback compared to Logic's click. As said earlier, in this (b) case my test pattern 4x1/4 bass drum was quantized. Now I understand little bit better what's happening: Virus is routed via USB to whatever soundcard I am using.

But then I tested the other option. I changed my bass drum to Virus' analog outs OUT1 L+R. What happens? This gets rid of latency (a); playing feels very immediate. This is good improvement. But strangely, latency (b), playback against Logic click, is very very delayed. If we speak about milliseconds, when I give Virus -90.0 ms correction then we are close to Logic's click.

Conclusion: this playback latency (b) seems to be very much same, no matter if you use analog or USB-outs setup.