How to emulate the Access Virus in 2022 (and why you still wanna own the real hardware synthesizer)
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- Опубликовано: 6 июл 2024
- Recently the emulation project around the Access #Virus Synthesizer with its @Moto #DSP56300 has seen a massive improvement in simplifying the emulator's setup.
I show you how easy it is to get your own Virus-synthesizer in your DAW.
However, finally you might get an idea why it is not so production-ready. 
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Fantastic review. My Ryzen 5600 doesn't even blink on this synth. Very nice playback with no glitches
I just bought me a Virus b and the sound is amazing!Your Channel is great!
I am very happy seeing this…as much as l was really sad putting away my old Powercore pci card, where l was running my virus b powercore version. Thank you very much for this suggestion
nice, i almost missed this plugin. insane sound quality. it is exactly as you say.
As an Access Virus B owner I am very excited to see this. I am finding it much more enjoyable to use VSTs these days and the DSP56300 emulator is exciting to discover. Thank you for this video!
Have you tried this VST with your Virus B? I'm very close to buying a Virus B/C, but, I'm trying to find answers on if all the knobs/buttons will be midi mapped to all the controls of the VST.
@@Dubb1000 I am unable to see how the Osirus can be used as a virtual controller for the Virus B. You can certainly replicate the behaviour in each, but this is independent of one another. I've just posted a quick video of the same CC data being passed to Osirus and Virus B if you are interested (ruclips.net/video/J_v0LsQj4FE/видео.html).
I think that they've optimized the CPU performance a bit in the last couple of updates, but on my Ryzen 7 3700X desktop PC with the latency (blocks) set to 2 inside the plugin and with a 256 samples buffer size, it hits no more than 7-8% CPU usage, which is outstanding! It also seems like some resources are shared between instances, because adding a second instance of the emulator takes only an additional 1-2% of CPU.
What a great sounding synth, very impressive considering it came out in the late 90s!
Wow that for sure is an amazing performance. Beside the fact that I have lot of hardware available :D I don't have any latest-generation CPU (AMD, Intel, Apple) here around. But would love to see an increased performance when using this plugin.
Nice to know that! goin to check it out once more.
That sounds too low. I think more recent versions of the emulator plugin measure the CPU usage "correctly" now. It's about 20 to 25% for any patch on my i5-11600K (which is quite a bit faster in single core performance and slightly faster in multi core performance than your Ryzen).
@@chakko007 Very possible, although I have yet to encounter a situation where I get underruns before reaching 100% of CPU in a project even with 2 blocks of latency in the emulator (aka not the "accurate" way to measure its CPU usage). And I often run multiple instances without any issues.
@@VincentZauhar update: sometimes the CPU only reports at 3% but the response time with ableton (especially with push) gets considerable slow. the emulation is perfect though. and its already perfect for offline composing / arranging. for live shows, its almost there, but not quite yet. very close though! the response time needs to be much faster, without the lag (it feels like 500ms+)
It's a great way to get some unique sounds into your ITB workflow, that no other VST sounds like. Definitely never a replacement for the real deal though -- one of the hardware's biggest strengths is that is such a brilliant, performative synth for hands on sound shaping and on the fly design. Few synths can get you into such a wide range of sounds, so quickly...and sound amazing doing it.
Fully agree. Since the video, I thought a lot about integrating the VST into my workflow vs. the hardware. However, both have their pros and cons.
I have the Virus TI2 but I still very much appreciate this emulation.
I'd love to have a TI2 in my hands, maybe once in the future... : )
2010 mac pro here with 32 gigs ram. This plugin works pretty great on single patches. With that said, some patches will cause spikes in ableton. It's totally worth the trouble, it sounds amazing.
Wow, your RAM sure is certainly maxed out for a 2010 Mac!
I'm just running mine with Ableton Live 10 on a four year old i7 HP laptop, Virus C ROM, running 3-4% with one instance. I haven't had any issues and it sounds good
Very cool, I’ve been wondering when someone would do something like this to preserve the digital synths of this time. Would be very interesting to hear a sound comparison to see how much of the “virus sound” comes from software vs the hardware (DAC etc)
will be done sir! :)
@@lb659 That’s my point, the software is identical, but you don’t have the digital to analog conversion. Will be some difference
@@PeterMoberg you are correct, a friend pulled his Virus C out and the DAC makes a difference.
@@PeterMoberg the Virus TI has both USB and SP/DIF outputs. you were able to have fully digital outputs since more than a decade with the Virus. A/D conversion is really only the last resort.
Hello, can anyone say, is it possible to use it as controller for the hardware virus and save the patches on the original? thanks
man have you ever tried the Viper vst synth by Adam Szabo? from the demos it seems to be pretty faithful to the Access Virus
Sadly Adam Szabo plugins are only for windows
cool stuff
on processors like ryzen 5, it's amazing.
the emulation is 1:1 not counting the DAC. the virus ROM is the virus itself, and as long as it can run on a moterolla dsp (emulated or phyiscal), it is exactly the same.
Agree and this is exactly what I’m expecting
When you say "the emulation is 1:1", I don't know if doing a perfect emulation is that easy. I would expect some corner cases where the emulation would behave differently. Take video game emulation for instance, not all games runs perfectly on all emulators. There are often glitches and artifacts.
@@NiamorH the Virus itself is not emulated. The Motorola DSP is. It runs the instructions like in original hardware. For video game emulation it's a completely different world, because there is the system consisting of multiple different chips to be emulated.
I dont own a virus but from my understanding, the DSP56300 sounds exactly the same and for free so I'm happy..
More synths incoming. 🙂The Waldorf microQ is in alpha now in the emulator, and will surely be released as beta/final in a few weeks or months time.
😍 I'm really looking forward to check this out asap.
@@MarcRenton Me too. 👍
is anyone can this work on mac m1?
My 2018 laptop i7 8th generation had terrible performance. So I bought a new desktop a lenovo idea centre with a i7 12th generation and the emulator run’s perfectly even with multiple instances. This is exact on the virus c sound! I think it is worth buying a new computer it is so good!
Thanks for the hint,.Yes I fully get that, also from the other viewer's comments. A lot of things have happened on improving the CPU's performance rather than just increasing their clock-speed.
Good to know. There was me hoping to turn an old Lenovo ThinkPad into a Virus C. Worth a try, but I doubt I'll get any more than a single instance working :(
Cool! We need a virus battle🤣
Imagine a world where everybody has a Virus, ... a Virus B
Cool Stuff, but waiting normal optimization 😞
The emulation is amazing, but nothing beats the real hardware. When I tried this emulation I was sure I want to buy the Virus Ti. For Virus C/B I hear no difference in sound. But Ti/Ti2 is the next level. I really love and use the the both nowadays. :)
One day I'll have a TI2 Polar on my desk. Then I will make an ultimate comparison :)
I think it sounds just as the original, even better, because its just clear and pure. It runs the original ROM, how else should it sound? :D
It's not a Virus Emulation, you are running the real room. Only the DSP is an emulation
The Virus Ti use the same algotryhm. With the same setting between a Virus C and a Ti. It will sound pretty close
But of course the Ti offer many new stuff like effect, new osc etc...
I think it will be a difference in real B and emulation. TI is not next level, it's a soft level. TI sounds like a great softsynth, B sounds like analog.
@@MarcRenton Don't. The Virus A and B maybe..... TI sounds like a VST. I compared the 2 viruses I had with this OSIRUS and OsTIrus and the VST's are bang on just as good. Tip to you guys having high cpu problems.... Right click the interface and change Latency (blocks) to 1 (default).
Viper VST can import Virus TI factory soundbanks.
Didn’t know that
@@MarcRenton It was made possible in recent versions. You just import OS4_Bank*.mid into VST or any other Virus soundbank in .mid format if you have or could find sources. Some patches sound bad but many are usable. Viper as name somewhat imply was inspired by Virus. Adam Szabo did great job with Viper (Virus inspired) and JP6K (JP 8000 inspired) affordable VSTs. You should check it out and test it. It is more CPU friendly to use than emulation of another (Motorola) (CPU) DSP non-native intensive instructions, which take precious power of multi-purpose CPU. You get small collection of Virus soundbank by default in newer versions, it was created by hand by Adam Szabo.
@@303machine Cool Thanks for the insights, yes I should check out the other VSTs as well
No Mac version though
@@junglestar From website: The VST Plugins are made with the FlowStone application, which currently can only create VST Plugins for Windows. If one day it has the possibility to create Mac plugins as well, all products will be available in that format.
I loved this synth but I opened the emulation today and it does not produce sound. I cannot figure out what is wrong.
Could you figure out the problem?
Suona ovviamente identico trattandosi di va, ma per ora troppo cpu killer. spero che il progetto si allarghi ed includa qualcosa di clavia che montava lo stesso dsp. [edit] if memory serves well.
you give me no choice but to learn the manual in German now and to post a video about my progress
🤣
Which CPU will be the best for it? Intel vs. AMD? Which model?
Can't tell yo since I've tested this only on my Intel-based Mac
AMD
Investing in a decent PCIe soundcard with DSP/FPGA will gain you far more performance than a CPU upgrade
How i can get factory Virus A soundbank ?
Download the emulator and then download the ROM for Virus A. It's the same principle for video game emulation. Think of the emulator as the console or arcade board and the ROM is the game or the data of the game. In this case the ROM is your desired Virus A, B, C etc.
when compared with real virus series there is a big difference in sound for the worse
Love this video! Great plugin, and the CPU use is very low with the July 2022 update! Single mode works perfectly from the Virus C ROM I installed. Anyone know if the Multimode feature works? I can only get the part 1 bank sound to play in Multimode. Wonder if this feature is not available or if I'm missing something. I watched many RUclips videos about this, and no one was running it in multimode. The big thing about the Virus hardware was the multitimbral functionality. I'm sure it would crush my CPU after a few parts were playing at once, but still want to try it if it's available somehow. LOL And know out there?
Thanks! But why do you want to use the multitimbral-feature in a plugin? You could fire up multiple AU/VST-instances instead. From the OS/DAW-point of view it is easier to schedule the load on multiple CPU-cores.
@@MarcRenton I ask if anyone has information and get a lecture on how DAWs work? Welcome to the internet I guess. The UI itself has a multitimbral tab. I ask this question purely out of curiosity. I know perfectly that I can set up multiple tracks in a DAW "for the same effect". The UI teases that it can do multitimbral playback within the plugin itself. I just wanted to ask out there if anyone knows if it can and how to get it to work, regardless of the practicality. Next time if you don't know something, just say "I don't know." and resist the temptation to shame someone who is curious. It doesn't make you look "smarter", it just makes you look like an a-hole.
@@KristianWontroba No, I think yo got my reply completely wrong, that is a shame. If you ask out of pure curiosity that is even better.
But I replied because I was expecting that someone was using the multitimbral mode for something very specific:
- Eg. one could argue that in the multitimbral-mode you can store way more complex pads than just a single pad.
- Or one could come up with the point to be more compatible to old project-setups of songs that were produced a long time a go.
- IMHO (older?) versions of Cubase and/or ProTools allowed only a certain amount of plugins to be loaded. Hence, eg. it made sense to load multiple instruments into one Kontakt-instance. I hope these days are over...
I assume there are more reasons to use the mode.
@@KristianWontroba you just specify a port for the Osiris vst and then each multi/patch is from midi channel 1-16. It is like controlling a external synth but the port is how it receives the midi channel/sequencer
Well, I won't call it piracy as what about those who can't find a virus in the market and the used ones that are available on platforms like ebay are listed thrice to its original price...
The virus ti2 desktop until last year was widely available all throughout the market with a fairly good price as of now none are available...
PC Chips aren't close enough for GPU or even ASIC/DSP for specific keyboards. Also requirement for PC for multithreading and parallelism gets in the way.
Absolutely. It is interesting that modern CPUs still can't handle specific problems in an effective way. Hence, an emulation-layer is necessary in between, which makes things even worse.
The way the motorola DSPs do maths is weird compared to a mainstream CPU: 24bit fixed point where numbers are fractions between -1 and 1. So there are multiple bitshifts and masks required for each arithmetic instruction on the motorola. (I think, anyway.) It runs great on my AMD desktop, not on my Thinkpad.
I have 12 of them running on my M1 Mac mini 8gb.. 0 issues
Plenty of over head for the rest of the track.
This is great to hear! I also will check it out on my m2 very soon
@@MarcRenton I use Logic & I find it to be very good on performance. but not super stable as it's an unsigned plugin.
I will however get a Virus as soon as I have some space for it.
Can it so the ti2 with all effects?
No, see the project's website: The TI's have a different processor/architecture than the Virus A/B/C. Hence, no TI-power ;-)
@@MarcRenton one day we can hope
@@MarcRenton But how then you can load a TI patches in the real Virus B?
you need at least 16gb RAM
disable intel ht in bios
Interesting thought,
but how is the Hyper Threading related to the fact that the DSP has more registers than a x64 cpu? (source: Emulation FAQ)
BTW, I'm on a mac xD (Mac Pro trash can and Macbook Pro 2018) so I have no Bios. However I've an Linux workstation (Intel I7 4790) but it is not optimized/configured for audio-stuff
@@MarcRenton try disabling multiprocessing in daw
I'm sorry, but I can't disagree more. I own the Virus KB and this emulator works perfectly with the 4.9 ROM without any stutters. Old Intel i7 CPU uses just 3-4% in REAPER as VSTi, version 1.2.20 in my case. Windows 7 64bit.
Indeed that is interesting. Which exact i7 is that?
@@MarcRenton i7 4770, HT enabled. Radeon 290 series Graphics, 32GB RAM, 13 TB SSDs in summary, Win 7 x64.
Reaper 5.99 and Emulator v1.2.20 as VST2.
Soundcard is RME Hammerfall PCI with RPM and/or Multiface.
Absolutely no dropouts, CPU spikes or anything else. Besides music, I use this PC for video editing mainly.
@@mshaftenberg Your RME Hammerfall soundcard is taking the DSP loading of the plugin.. The Hammerfall has an FPGA processor configured as an Audio DSP. Much like the Walfdorf Kyra. If you wish to confirm this, remove your soundcard and try the plugin with software emulated windows soundcard drivers.
@@jameshare1848 Maybe you can provide a source for this theory? To my knowledge the RME Hammerfall DSP doesn't take any workload from the VST/CPU regarding effects. The FPGA is for audio routing, unless you speak of the TotalMix FX, which - in my case - isn't supported (HDSP PCI). TotalMix FX has its own plugins and makes software EQ and compressing obsolete, but this doesn't apply to the VST system.
@@mshaftenberg I should have said audio stream rather than plugin. While using USB audio interfaces or onboard audio devices, the CPU is processing the audio through software drivers, so DSP software emulation essentially. When using VST plugins without a DSP soundcard the CPU has to render the output of the VST then send it to the software drivers, which it also has process, and then send the processed audio over USB to an audio output. When using a PCIe/Thunderbolt device with it's own DSP chip the CPU renders the VST plugin audio and sends it directly to the DSP chip, over a very wide PCI bus, to do the rest. This saves a huge amount of CPU overhead and reduces latency significantly. I also have an RME HDSPe AIO and can get down to 64 sample latency which is great for playing softsynths live. I also have a steinburg UR824 which I use as an ADAT interface. If I use the USB audio drivers on the UR824 I can barley get down to 1024 samples before the dreaded clicks and pops start happening and CPU usage increases dramatically.
Why would it be hard? The Access Virus is a "virtual2 analogue synthesizer". Go on keep feeling bad for buying a virus lol.
The lag is killing.