The Access Virus has been discontinued

[David Emm]

"Access mastermind Christoph Kemper has confirmed to us that the Access Virus TI2 has no longer been produced for a few months. There were many clues, as the last Access Virus TI2 series was released in 2009. ... Christoph confirmed that he is still interested in synthesizers, but is currently at full capacity with the Kemper amps. It became clear that his company did not have the capacity to develop Kemper amps and Access synthesizers at the same time. In the interview it was suggested that there might be an Access Virus TI3, but he didn't want to specify." ~ Amazona.de

 

I'm an odd man out here, having never had the pleasure of even demoing one of these in a shop. The keyboard version reportedly has a nice keybed, too. Its a genre-defining monster whose original Motorola chips became scarce, hastening its end, IIRC. It seems like a good time for it to be seriously emulated as a softsynth. That may not meet with Christoph's plans, to which he has the preeminent right, but with just a dusting of new features, I suspect it'd be quite popular. Even if you've never heard it directly, you know the sound from its prominence as a groundbreaker. For now, we'll just have to get all dreamy over the faint hint of a TI3. A beautiful synth.      

[ProfD]

Definitely a very cool synth to play.

 

Brotha @MathOfInsects has an Access Virus TI2 listed in the KC Classifieds.😎

[Docbop]

I can understand if you make the Kemper Modeling Guitar amp then why spend/risk a lot on a synthesizer which is a crowded marketplace to compete in.   So many big shows the Kemper is being used by guitarist and keyboard player to they can program a signal chain for every song and parts of a song and use MIDI to switch instantly.  It keeps the space on stage to little or no space only need a monitor.  That is a field only a couple companies are in so the digital amp market pie only get divided up between a couple companies. 

 

 

[mate stubb]

Virus had a pretty amazing production run.

[johnchop]

I’ve got the TI2 desktop, and I’m not letting it go.
 

These guys https://dsp56300.wordpress.com are doing the Motorola DSP in software, so a 100% accurate Virus VST is possible. Access would just have to agree to release the ROM.

[uhoh7]

I found a TI v1 61 a few years ago once I realized the DM12 was not multi-timbral  1100ish. I love the thing. It's quirky, and misbehaves frequently, needing reboot and setting fiddle...then whoom...it's back. This is common behavior apparently. TP9s keybed is as good as it gets for a synth....excepting single channel hard AT. Really gorgeous effects, and you can send anything to them. The last update of the TI....4th I think, each was major, included 4 onboard guitar pedals, which had considerable TLC. You can plug a strat or 335 straight in and with various tweaks and input boost (just for extra distortion), tape delay, chorus, phasing, and a pedal...it's impressive. 

 

Kemper said it was his first attempt to clone guitar amp/pedal in the last TI. He realized it could sound good but that engine was not going to really clone like the Kemper amp can. He thought the synth crowd was pretty tough too. He has a great business with the guitarists now. 

 

Anyway the VIrus TI might be the best ever VA...as soon after the DAWs took over. Finally I have something in the house to pit it against, a UBx-a, just showed up, and while it's no swiss army knife, it sounds incredible, way better that I expected. Keybed not as nice, but polyAT and it's bi-timbral. Not exactly an Andromeda, but it cost about the same as the virus. Many virus demos involve a computer, but it's really nice without one. Only thing you can't do is some custom arp stuff. Menus and layout are very nice to use. Great knobs. 

 

People sometimes pigeonhole the virus...but it's got all manner of oscillators, waves, formants, dual-filters, custom knobs, all in the prophet style interface. Nice screen tells you what the original setting was soon as you move something. A virtual-analog feel but much wider flexibility. No VST is cloning that aspect....real knobs, fast menus, never lags, and no updates  

[DovJ]

The Virus is dead. Long live the Virus!!

 

What other synth gives you the Virus’s sound-shaping power, with incredible multitimbrality (is that really a word?) and a full complement of independent effects per timbre?

 

I love my TI2 Desktop, my only synth (I do have two stage keyboards and a sampler, though). 

[Stokely]

I've heard the Summit described as a "hifi Virus".   I own one, and owned a Virus kb, but there was a pretty long gap between.  I use(d) both for live gigs doing classic rock, so certainly not exploring the deeper side of either, and I can't really say if that description is accurate.   Both can certainly do the sounds I need.   

The Virus I had is still to this day top of the heap for "playability" for a synth out of all the ones I've owned.   The aftertouch in particular was so easy to control, not sure if that was hardware or the programming or (likely) both together.    Same with the velocity.   I didn't need that many patches for it because I found it so easy to adjust everything as needed on the fly (sort of like a mini-game at gigs!)

I made a big mistake selling mine, I wanted to fund a different kind of keyboard but looking back I should have just saved up and kept that...I'd still be using it provided it worked (it would be about 25 years old so perhaps that is iffy).

[johnchop]

On 2/10/2024 at 5:53 PM, johnchop said:

I’ve got the TI2 desktop, and I’m not letting it go.
 

These guys https://dsp56300.wordpress.com are doing the Motorola DSP in software, so a 100% accurate Virus VST is possible. Access would just have to agree to release the ROM.

For the curious, I tried the DSP emulator over the weekend.

 

It’s what you’d expect: it is exactly the same sound, because it’s Virus firmware, and I have the real thing to compare to! 
 

As for specs, I’m running Win 11 on a 13th gen Intel. Barely hits the CPU.
 

Incredible!

 

 

[marino]

I was always curious about the Virus, although in real life, my compulsive crave for "deep" synthesis steered me toward its German rival, the Waldorf Q. But along the years Access added so many new functions to the Virus line. I was especially interested in the big polyphony and the multitimbrality/layering. At some point I was tempted to get a Polar TI2, which was for sale at a decent price - but then I learned that the extra envelopes and other functions were only accessible from the software, and my enthusiasm quickly cooled.

I would appreciate a software version, or even an updated hardware instrument, especially if it includes the large polyphony and multitimbrality.

[johnchop]

The same team has a micro Q option, although I understand it’s a pretty different beast than the Q, which is something they’d like to be able to run as well … along with the Novation Supernova and old Nord stuff!

 

Some addenda:

 

- I was wrong about the CPU hit. The DSP emulator does chew up a thread pretty heartily.

 

- There’s legal gray area around use of ROMs, so interested parties should tread carefully.

[Mark Schmieder]

I never realized the connection as I had not paid attention to who was at the head of Access. Seems like he's had a streak of successes across different parts of the music industry!

[RABid]

The Virus C was my first purchase from Sweetwater oh so many years ago. Since then I have owned the TI and later had a pair of TI2's. Eventually I gave up on ever seeing an update and moved to the smoother sounding Jupiter X.

[Michael W]

So the era of the Virus has seemingly ended.  Very sad.

 

I've had my Virus TI Polar for about 16 years, I guess.  It is the one hardware synth I have been unable to part with.

 

For me, the most wondrous feature of the TI is its ability to do 16 sounds simultaneously on 16 different MIDI channels, and each of the 16 parts has its own independent effects.  EQ, reverb, delay, chorus, distortion, etc.  And it sounds so good.

 

Many years ago I made a bunch of YouTube demo videos of the TI Polar here.