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I've become kinda picky about analog sounds over the years and just had to check the virus out because everyone raves about it so much. I realized almost immediately that this wasn't something I was going to keep.
It's just amazing that everyone seems to be in agreement that this is the 'most analog sounding' digital synth. It sounds much closer to a vst plugin than a real analog to me. I've used many v.a. and analog synths before and I can say that the nord modular stuff is much closer to the real deal. That equipment will never be as popular as the virus line because you have to have a clue to use that stuff. If you want crazy advanced digital synthesis, go with Waldorf. I actually found myself longing for the sounds of my vst plugins when trying to work with the classic.
The interface is flashy looking (if that's your thing), but not as well thought out as you might assume. Continuous knobs would make multi-timbral use much better and the buttons make a loud 'click' when you press them (not a huge deal, I know, but annoying as hell after a while).
The virus fails the '1 oscillator' test (but so do many of its colleagues). It's an exercise in covering up. First you cover up crappy oscillators with a decent filter, then you cover up the resulting fake tone with some digital effects. Like I said before, the result is comparable to what you would get from a nice vst plugin, with an admittedly punchier sound.
'Warm' is not in this synth's vocabulary. Neither is 'powerful'. Compare it to a humble little matrix 1000 and hear the difference. You can play the unison mode game to try to get this thing to sound powerful, but after hours of phase locking and syncing and detuning, I wasn't able to get it to sound any more interesting. Unison mode on the micro Q, on the other hand, is absolutely out of this world (in a very digital sort of way).
Don't count on resale value either, but you should know that if you're buying digital.
In conclusion, this synth is very good for easy access (no pun intended) to generic top-40 type synth sounds, which is why it is so popular. At current prices you pay less than $10 an oscillator, so remember that you get what you pay for. Check out plugins by Rob Papen, Waldorf, Korg and Native Instruments for similar sounds. If you want hardware that actually deserves the studio space, go analog. (:
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