Beiträge von SOS

Ha!

you were too fast. I just sent you a pm with the patch attached.

Thanks!

Thanks Ruari!

So, what's the best way to post a single Virus patch?

Also, what I posted earlier about crackling being solely a playback issue should be disregarded. That was yesterday, this is today. I managed to work pretty much crackle free last night, but today my Virus is crackling with just single oscillator filter sweeps. I'm starting to worry that there is something wrong with my Virus (although I don't see what could have happened to it sitting in my rack with minimal use during the school year).

Just to followup a little more...

I'm pretty sure the crackling problem is somehow related to midi playback. It seems that I can play pretty resource intensive patches in realtime (with a keyboard) through Virus Control without any, or many, glitches. It is when I record a sequence that things start clicking and popping. I have tried all the recommendations, such as giving the Virus a measure to adjust, to no avail.

I have tried playing with the live button on and off, with the sequencer running and not, without any real issues. The problem occurs when I record and playback midi clips in Live. In fact, usually while I'm recording, I don't hear many glitches at all. Playback is the problem. Unfortunately, that means I am having a tough time getting the Virus into audio. Fortunately, this has to be a bug (and is hence fixable). Right?

Okay, so I retried the analog outs and the problem persists.

So again, can this be confirmed/ fixed? Do the guys at Access already know about Virus Control causing crackling? Is anyone willing to try my patch and see if they can reproduce the results?

Thanks

Thanks Marc,

I have tried using the "D" button and experienced the same problems. Is there a difference between routing the signal to specific outs by right clicking and depressing the "D" button? I'm going to try it to be safe...

So I have been communicating with Jorg from Access Music about issues with crackling and would like to share some of the conversation. I informed Jorg that I had made a patch with heavy unison and a high release setting and that although the complexity meter was low that I have been experiencing heavy glitching from a simple 4 note chord phrase.

A video link (sorry about the quality) of the issue can be found here:

Now, I ended up re-reading the Virus setup guide and found the section about polyphony reduction and discovered that many of the usual suspects (unison, high release, analog filter) were indeed at play in contributing to my Virus running out of resources. I ended up asking Jorg if running out of power could cause crackling to which he replied:

Zitat

If the Virus runs out of power it indeed can cause crackling especially with UNISON sounds, since in that case the amount of voices the unit would have to produce normally go over the limit quite heavily and then the TI needs to "cut off" voices very quickly to get new voices out. This doesn't happen with just one voice over or so.

However, what I don't understand is why I can hold down huge chords and even press down whole octaves using the same patch in stand alone and never hear the faintest crackle. The last email that I received from Jorg suggested that this may be due to the internal sample rate of the Virus being set to 44.1 instead of 48 (in which case the Virus would have more power). The answer is nope. I have set the internal sample rate to 48 and played the keys like an ape on acid and not heard a single click. Voice stealing, yes. Crackling, not at all.

So, I have come to the tentative conclusion that the problem is somehow related to Virus Control. I have tried using the direct outs with the same issues.

And just to clarify, this is not an issue related to my DAW's soundcard and audio buffers. I can get crackle free performance with the virus depending on the patch. Also, I am not talking about an over the top crazy patch here. No reverb, release about 3/4 of the way, no oscillator 3, distortion as only effect, and a unison of 4.

So, my question is, can this be fixed? Can someone confirm that Virus Control is the main culprit? Can I give you my patch to see if the results are reproducible? Anyone else having similar issues (particularly after OS 4)?

Just to put it out there, I am using a Virus TI Mk 1 desktop, on a PC running Windows 7 32bit, with Ableton. My soundcard is the Emu 1616m PCI.

I was just informed by Access support that the crackling that I am experiencing is likely due to the Virus running out of resources, largely because of a high unison setting on some of my patches. Hence, I think it would be really useful to have a pan spread option in each hypersaw oscillator as found in the unison.

Thanks!

Okay, so I was a bit off the mark. Crackling has returned irrespective of whether or not the patch is saved to ram. Interestingly, the patch works without a single glitch when used without Virus Control. I am going to try and roll back the drivers to see if there is any improvement. I have had my Virus since '06 and have only had these problems since the last 2 releases.

Hey, I think I may have found a bug but i want to know if anyone else can replicate the behavior. It seems to me that when I open Virus Control and begin editing a sound from the "start" patch that I get random crackles and pops in the upper frequency range whenever changing a parameter, whether it be the filter or oscillator etc. However, if I save the patch (into the hardware's ram), it seems that many of the undesirable artifacts disappear.

Last night when I was making a saw patch based on 7th chords the Virus broke up/crackled with a unison of 4 (although the release was very high). At first I thought the unison was too high, but didn't get better results when going down to 2. Since I had designed the patch using the hypersaw oscillators (each set to only 1 voice) I tried switching to the classic oscillators which seemed to give less artifacts, even though they showed more bars on the hardware complexity indicator. Finally, I tried saving the original hypersaw patch to the hardware and experienced far fewer problems, even with the unison at 4.

Anyone else getting crackles while editing in VC?

Rolled back to last official release, crackling gone. Hopefully this can get sorted before the official 4.5 release.

My specs:
OS: Windows 7 32bit
DAW: Live 8.2.1
MOBO: Asus M4A78 Pro
Processor: AMD Phenom II Quad 2.8 GHz
RAM: 3 GB (4 installed)
Soundcard: EMU 1616m PCI
Buffer: 528
I run Live at 88.2 kHz, 32 bit. Virus not plugged into hub.

I seem to be getting crackles all over the place with 4.5. I never had problems with crackling before (although I have read about it from various users over the years). Now if I turn a knob (while using VC), I get subtle crackling, almost like a digital variant of a loose analog connection. I haven't messed with buffer settings yet, although nothing has changed in my setup and this hasn't ever been a problem in the last 5 years that I've had the Virus.

Anyone else experiencing this?

I'm not sure how it works with other DAWs, but in Ableton you can only modulate a clocked LFO by drawing automation curves. You can't automate a clocked LFO in realtime (with the Virus).

This was recently brought up in the feature request forum, so you should +1 if it's something you want.

I think people are surprised by the lack of this feature because just about every soft synth can do this. However, I do not think it's too common to find tempo synced LFO automation in the hardware world, although it seems like something Access could add.

I don't know, but I have a Waldorf Pulse (which has a 24 db filter), a Novation Super Bass Station (switchable between 12/24 db), and a Sherman Filterbank that achieves 24 db when the filters are run in serial. I have never noticed a darkening effect on any of these devices when the the filters are open. I haven't looked too closely at what happens to the highs on a spectrum analyzer when using the Virus's analog emulations, but it sounds like the highs are cut and the mids are boosted even when the filter is totally open (or perhaps the low end is boosted).

Don't get me wrong, I don't feel like the Virus has to do and/or emulate everything, but as this is the feature request section of the forum I just wanted to put it out there that I would like some new "analog/vintage" filter algos.

Hey Angus,

You could possibly get 10 separate tracks in Ableton (although not without some difficulties, and putting the bulk of your sounds in left or right mono with Live's utility plugin). Specifically, Virus Control allows you to stream audio from 3 stereo usb channels and the 3 stereo analog outs. However, using the analog outs with VC is problematic because you lose sample accuracy. Therefore, if you are using VC, I suggest sticking with the usb outs.

What you have to do is use Live's "external instrument" plugin and route it to the track with the Virus. When you use external instrument, you will see a drop down menu allowing you to select which midi channel you want to access on the Virus (no pun intended) and another menu allowing you to select from usb channels 3/4 and 4/6 (1/2 are reserved for the track that the Virus is on). To assign each Virus part to a specific usb out in VC, simply right click on the "D" in the VC mixer and assign which out you want. If you want more than 3 stereo channels, you can use Live's utility to isolate L/R channels into mono.

As a final note, I don't know if this is across the board for all users, but I need to perform a kind of clunky workaround to get the virus into audio in Live. If I simply try and record usb parts into audio in one of Live's audio channels, the audio (during recording) plays back in sync with the track/metronome, but the resultant audio file is totally off (late about a 1/2 -1/4 note, which requires warping). To get Virus audio in sync, I perform a realtime bounce through a somewhat elaborate system of loading Virus parts into Live's instrument rack plugin and running a parallel "dummy" external audio effect (not actually going to anything). The reason this works is that Live forces realtime bouncing for hardware instruments and effects. If I simply record, the Virus is off. I f I perform a realtime bounce (which in effect seems like the same thing), the Virus is spot on . I only mention it because it sounds like you're just starting out with the Virus in Live.

Hope this helps.

While I appreciate the current "analog" offerings, I find that they have too much of a darkening effect for many uses (just my opinion). I would also love to see some analog modelling beyond the lowpass filters (i.e. high and band).

+1 on tempo synced LFO rates in the mod matrix!

As far as vowel filter frequency, isn't that already available in the form of "frequency shifter frequency?" I'm not in front of my Virus right now, so I could be wrong, but I believe the matrix doesn't have separate names for the filtering options in the filter effects area.

Okay, will do. Thanks

Thanks Marc,

I'm really wondering if this is an Ableton issue. Specifically, Ableton has an issue with delay comp taking on the latency of the highest latency plugin. Here is a video that I made a while ago (but never got a reply to) that may relate in the sense that it displays an anomaly in the way Ableton handles delay comp.

Nevertheless, I'll try and make a video later that specifically addresses the issue I'm talking about in my above posts.

Thanks again.

What I'm talking about is realtime input of midi notes.

I am aware of what the live button is for, and I get sample accurate timing with the live button disengaged during playback.

And therein lies the problem... To achieve sample accurate playback of a midi track, the live button must be disengaged. However, to record a new midi part, i.e. on channel 2, you must engage the live button so that you do not feel the latency from realtime input (keyboard playing). By engaging the live button to record your new midi part, your other previously recorded midi parts, i.e. channels 1, 3, or whatever, are knocked out of sync while the live button is engaged. Once the live button is off, all tracks are of course fine. I am concerned with the process of recording midi, however, because having to engage the live button to not feel playing latency and subsequently knocking your other midi tracks out of sync is a pain in the sense that it is hard to play on time when you are getting phasing and weirdness between the Virus itself and other instruments in your track that are playing in time (whoa, run on sentence). My usual solution is to drag wrongly played/quantized notes after the fact, but this is not ideal and not a process that I have to deal with in my other soft and hardware synths.

Hopefully this helps clear up what I'm talking about...

Thanks for the reply AntonyB, but to clarify, I am referring to midi parts not audio (I'm not sure we're talking about the same thing here).

Why does it matter? Because when I play a hi hat line on channel 1 and then go to play a clap part on channel 2 and engage the live button (so as to reduce input latency), the clap part is knocked out of sync about a 16th note (live mode does not offer accurate playback and since it must be engaged globally, affects all channels). I only use drums as an illustration because it is easiest to hear the effect. It is even harder to tell with pads, material with long-decaying effects, and/or lots of automation. Why does that matter? Because when I play parts in with the Virus it is way harder to get smaller note signatures in time as compared with other hardware and soft synths.

Therefore, I am curious to see how other people handle this. Do folks just fix notes after the fact in a piano role? I would also be curious to know if this is something that occurs in all DAWs. I am an Ableton Live user and I have had some issues in the past with Live knocking recording channels out of sync when using latency inducing plugs (try using the Virus through VC on one channel and then playing into FXpansion Geist's sequencer, for example).

Anyways, all input is appreciated.