Very cool synth engine - Access Virus TI Snow from the house of Kemper

  • I used a bit of money from my annual bonus to acquire another synth. This is from the house of Kemper - an Access Virus TI Snow.


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    Just look at how dinky that thing is, it's smaller than a magazine.


    It's got all the sounds of the large Virus synth engines, but just half the polyphony. But since I usually use just one voice when playing through it with my guitar, this was not a problem for me.


    The sounds are gorgeous. I have a Yamaha Motif Rack XS which really kicks ass when it comes to organic sounds, but this does something entirely different - electronic, digital sounds, with analog warmth. Also, the Yamaha arpeggios cannot be programmed, which I found a limitation when trying to create original music. Why would I want to use someone else's arps? Probably the only drawback of this great synth.


    The TI Snows are now out of production, but I managed to find one in mint condition. The plastic is still on the screen.


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    Seller was a standup guy, he even gave me a free bag that Kemper offers for this dinky little thing.


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    Really happy with it, it has some cool control options as well. Planning to get four expression pedals so that I can achieve full control over it's LFOs and other parameters while also screwing around with FX on the Kemper.



    The size and weight are a god send. I'm planning to junk my massive 10U rack box because I found it too unwieldy to cart around. Plan to mount this on a pedal board along with some other FX. Will get a smaller rack to house the Yamaha and maybe some other FX.


    Off to a good start in 2017, though I really should curb my gear spending. :thumbup:


    If anyone wants sound clips, I'd be happy to oblige!

  • Yes to sound clips!


    I've been tempted by the full version with more knobs (I love to have everything within reach) but it's quite expensive. The classic Virus A-C models abound in the local classifieds for a lot less, but they lack the "total integration" DAW features, which sound really handy. And of course the sound engine has evolved since the nineties.


    Pretty cool that Christoph Kemper first revolutionized the electronic music world at a very young age -- the list of artists using the Virus is impressive -- and then went on to do the same for the guitar world.


    When you say you're playing through it with your guitar, I take it you're using a midi pickup of some sort?

  • Well done, AJ! Awesome, mate.


    Also, the Yamaha arpeggios cannot be programmed, which I found a limitation when trying to create original music. Why would I want to use someone else's arps? Probably the only drawback of this great synth.

    I'm pretty sure you can do it using the "MOTIF-RACK XS Editor" app, but I don't personally use it. I only fired it up in order to get David Polich's libraries into the RAM banks. You're probably in the same boat - wanting to follow the KISS principle wherever possible.


    Clips, mate, or it didn't happen. :D

  • Congratulations for your purchase is a great synth.
    Now if they can implement a little bit of it in the Kemper that woul be awesome. The synth in the AxeFx is really interesting, but with this background the kemper incarnation could be absolutely amazing.


  • Yes, Mr CK has got an impressive body of inventions to his credit. People still rave about the older models as well, with some describing them as warmer, but I think the newer ones have more polyphony and sounds onboard.


    I'm using a Fishman Triple Play to control the synth. Plan to pick up a cheap midi keyboard as well for some general noodling, but it works like a charm for my electronic rock project.


    And yes, the full-featured Viruses have so many more knobs, but I wouldn't be able to use them as well as a guitar. The great thing about the synths is that you can control those same knobs using an expression pedal, which is what I plan to do. Since I can hook up 4 expression pedals to my foot controller, and there's the possibility to expand it to eight, I think I could control most of the knobs just by using my feet.


    I was toying with the idea of getting the bigger Virus too, but my main consideration was size: Carting around my big rack box with the Yamaha, my bass pedal stuff, the Kemper and my sequencer is just not feasible any longer. i can barely get it up stairs and I'm scared one of these days I will really strain something.


    The idea is to now carry my Kemper in a backpack, my foot controller and expression pedals on one board, and all my FX and synth stuff on another board. I'll also get a rack case for the sequencer and my Motif so that I can take those along only if necessary. Might involve more wiring at a gig, but it's much more convenient than having one big box. Sort of a modular approach to my kit.



    Well done, AJ! Awesome, mate.


    I'm pretty sure you can do it using the "MOTIF-RACK XS Editor" app, but I don't personally use it. I only fired it up in order to get David Polich's libraries into the RAM banks. You're probably in the same boat - wanting to follow the KISS principle wherever possible.
    Clips, mate, or it didn't happen. :D


    Can't do it, Nicky! The arps on the Motif Rack XS cannot be programmed, you can only do that with the full fledged keyboard versions. It's a bit of a drawback imo, but then again, how much are you going to squeeze into a 1U rack space? The onboard arps are not bad, but you're limited to about 6,000 and even those only work with certain categories of instruments.


    I'm going to keep it though, it sounds fantastic for actual real world instruments, especially the strings and horns.



    Clips will be coming shortly, gents.

    Congratulations for your purchase is a great synth.
    Now if they can implement a little bit of it in the Kemper that woul be awesome. The synth in the AxeFx is really interesting, but with this background the kemper incarnation could be absolutely amazing.


    Thanks, man! It would be great if they could get some synth sounds on to the Kemper. One thing I've noticed is that some of the technology on the Virus was actually incorporated into the Kemper, such as formant shift :thumbup

  • Can't do it, Nicky! The arps on the Motif Rack XS cannot be programmed, you can only do that with the full fledged keyboard versions. It's a bit of a drawback imo, but then again, how much are you going to squeeze into a 1U rack space? The onboard arps are not bad, but you're limited to about 6,000 and even those only work with certain categories of instruments.

    Incredible, AJ! I'd never have guessed it - as you'd have noticed, I said "I'm pretty sure...", cause I knew that the unit itself is choc-full of patterns, and the editor's very-powerful. It doesn't make sense, mate. I mean, even the little Novation Nova from nearly 20 years ago only had 128 factory patterns, but it also offered 128 user-programmable ones. With 6000 arps onboard, this shortcoming blows my mind!


    That said, I've never, not once, used an arp pattern in a song; I've always programmed every note. Same thing with loops - don't use 'em. I want to feel like I truly own my music, you know?


    For your live playing 'though, I can sure see the attraction. Thanks for sharing bud, and well done again on the purchase. Excellent find and deal.

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    Here's a demo of some of the TI Snow sounds. There are five demos where I try to show:
    1) Pink Floydish ambience
    2) Arp sounds
    3) Laser style sounds
    4) Interesting noise possibilities
    5) Old school sounds


    After the first five demos, I thought I would show how the sounds sit in a mix. My mixing is terrible, but hopefully you should get an idea of how well the Virus sits in a band setting. Some of the drums may be out of tempo, they were put down after the recordings were done, so there may be some parts that drift a bit. Cheers!

  • Saw 3 more Japanese bands today using it. I couldn't begin to count how many I've now seen in total, but it's at least many dozens. I'm guessing that Japan would have to be Christoph's largest customer base, from what I've seen.


    Thanks for sharing, AJ!


    Can you let me know some of the bands? I've done a lot of searching for videos of these synths, but seem to have gone through most of them without running into any Japanese bands.

  • Oh man, I dump "approved" pieces into my 3500-strong clip library, AJ, so off the top of my head, there's no hope! Hang on... I'll have look now...


    Altima - Cyber Cyber
    CTS - Beautiful Love World
    fripSide × angela - The End Of Escape - awesome lead breaks in this one
    Kotoko x Altima - Plasmic Fire


    My guess is that you're not seeing many Japanese videos 'cause Sony et al are very-strict as far as free access to full-length videos is concerned. You're only likely to see up to a minute-and-a-half-length ones on PooToob, with some companies' being exceptions. Judicious surfing and searching will yield results 'though. I've used jpopsuki.tv for years, but it has been down of late...


    Off to bed. I took this browse on at 6:15AM 'cause I love ya man.

  • You're a nutter, Nicky! I bet you'll be up in five hours fresh as a daisy. Manic people are like that :)


    PS: 10 to 4am out here :thumbup

  • Lucky if I get 3 hours bro'. One's usually "enough"... sort of.


    Anyway, to remain on-topic and keep the mods happy, it's never too late in the evening or morning to be able to justify perusing music videos for signs of the much-loved-and-vaunted VIRUS range...

  • I've been hankering after a synth for a while now. Finally decided on a Virus Ti Keyboard. Totally loving the thing so far. So much power :) Haven't got my head around integrating it with Logic Pro X yet. The Access site is pretty useless as the instructions they give relate to quite an old version of Logic. I keep googling, but a lot of pre-knowledge is presumed, and I know nothing about MIDI. A steep learning curve, but I'll get there.

  • I've been hankering after a synth for a while now. Finally decided on a Virus Ti Keyboard. Totally loving the thing so far. So much power :) Haven't got my head around integrating it with Logic Pro X yet. The Access site is pretty useless as the instructions they give relate to quite an old version of Logic. I keep googling, but a lot of pre-knowledge is presumed, and I know nothing about MIDI. A steep learning curve, but I'll get there.


    Pretty simple, Bilbo, you don't even need midi. Just hook it up using USB and you'll get three channels of sound directly streaming to your DAW. Fire up the Virus TI plugin and you'll be able to tweak the synth sounds as well.

  • I know it's supposed to be simple, but something's awry. I can use the Virus to control the Logic Pro's software synths no problem. But, if I try to play the Virus from within the Daw I get loads of white noise and crap introduced from somewhere, and I can't figure out why. So, if I combine the 2, all I'm able to do is to benefit from the Virus as a control input, and as a sound card for the software instruments.