Totally Amateur Access Virus Ti Polar Review

Today I get my amateur hands on an Access Virus Ti Polar.
As my "Totally Amateur" video title suggests, I'm far from a professional keyboardist or synthesizer king. My thoughts and opinions are those of a guy who likes synths purely as the toys I feel they are.
Feel free to leave a comment in the comment section below, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
DISCLAIMER: No cats were harmed during the filming of this video. I figured I'd mention that is you can see some interactions between my cat and I during the video. I shooed her away with my foot at one point (she wanted to eat the wires below the table), and led her off the Voyager XL behind me at another point in the video.
Neither instances harmed the cat in any way, so hold your pitchforks folks. :D
Here's hoping I'll have the chance to do more reviews or videos in the near future. Unfortunately, the biggest thing that holds me back from making videos is my emotional state. I tend to go through long periods of lacking any sort of motivation or excitement to make videos. I'm working on it, but it's a lifelong battle.
Thanks again for watching, and please leave a like in the video if you enjoyed it.
Peace!

[@owenkitto27]

I have the dark star and this synth I also really like it’s got a nice style mk1 polar is a beast

[@AdamsOlympia]

Interesting that it has SPDIF I/O .. One of my audio interfaces has that -- It's just a way of sending digital audio over an RCA cable -- so you can get audio into it to process with its FX without going through extra analog/digital conversion steps, or having to rely on computer connectivity for the same.. I'm thinking about getting this Ti Polar as my first Virus synth..So very tempting; Iridium Core is the same price though, so I'm on the fence. Definitely going for TI1 over 2 , as all that extra power would be wasted on me and most people. It's already 80 voices of Polyphony , 16 voice multi-timbral, which would be hard to have that many simultaneous patches at once in your song, using 80 voices at once ... (Bass, a couple Leads, pads, sound FX , flourishes -- probably wouldn't even use 50 voices for me)

[@markchristopher2signal2]

it's a pretty looking synth.. I have the Darkstar TI2 and it's one of those synths to keep. It can do a lot. BTW , I too wanted to use the front controls and not use the Total Integration software.. I did try it last week and I think you will like it.. I watched the tutorials for it and I was able to make more sounds that didn't cross my mind. The software GUI has these important knobs that I have to menu dive on Virus TI..

[@markchristopher2signal2]

Hey man, keep at these videos. I became a fan today.. I'm hooked

[@life-is-inspiring3953]

You can turn off all the other bothering raw sounds one by one under edit.

[@miekwavesoundlab]

Good Vid! I just got Virus TI a few days ago and am looking forward to making my own patches and rom hacking.

[@CaidicusProductions]

That's awesome, let me know how it goes!

[@SeegertJannik]

Did you kick your cat at 6:28 ?

[@CaidicusProductions]

lol no! That's a pretty hilarious question though.

[@SeegertJannik]

Caid Johnson no offence but it just looked like that

[@CaidicusProductions]

@@SeegertJannik lol no offense taken, it does look like that. That said, I don't abuse my cats, that was just a shuffle out from the wires. You can see her behavior after it all, she was fine. Thanks for watching the video!

[@susanbaker3392]

Lol

[@aikighost]

I enjoy analogue synthesis and have quite a bit of modular gear but Im looking for something I can take to gigs easily and make emulate some of my modular patches. Can the virus do this kind of "odd" sound design? Most of the demos I see for the virus are either full of basic subtractive analogue basses or big "lush" pads. These kinds of sounds don't really interest me. If I am to buy a Virus TI2 desktop unit to pair with my MPC for live IDM/Braindance and experimental music will I regret it?

[@CaidicusProductions]

To be honest, I'd recommend a Novation Peak or an ASM Hydrasynth over the Access Virus. The Peak sounds amazing and is a joy to work with, as is the ASM Hydrasynth. I own the desktop module of the ASM Hydrasynth and it is just the perfect digital synth, in my mind.

[@aikighost]

@@CaidicusProductions the problem I have is that Novation Peak and ASM Hydrasynth are both mono timbral. If they were even 4 way multi Id be more interested.

[@CaidicusProductions]

@@aikighost Fair enough, though if you get the chance to try it in a store, the ASM Hydrasynth really sounds... well, it's hard to describe, it just sounds beautiful.

[@aikighost]

@@CaidicusProductions the thing is "beautiful" isn't really what I'm after, the opposite in fact this is the reason I wonder if the virus will suit me. most of the demos I see sound too mellow and "lush" which is not what I'm looking for.

[@miekwavesoundlab]

I just got Virus TI last week and after spending many hours on it, nearly all LFO EG Osc Filter Amp and Effects perams are all designation modulation destinations with the mod matrix. You could for example Envelope LFO Rate to LFO OSC LFO AMP LFO Filter Multi Mode you can stack 16 patches on the same midi channel if you want to go bonkers on 128+ Osc unison. Filter Saturation comes with Mood Ladder filter emu. Tape Delay effect sounds like Roland Space echo emu Distortion types include pedal emu, amp sim, bit crunching, and sample aliasing if you’re after a dirty sound Every patch comes with its own Arp pattern or 32 step sequencer that you can turn into a modulator

[@asmr6773]

Is it reliable. I always wanted it. Know that i have the money to buy it i am like: this is Vintage.

[@CaidicusProductions]

Mines definitely more than a decade old and, despite some discoloration, likely caused by the previous owner being a smoker or something, it works like a charm.

[@asmr6773]

@@CaidicusProductions ok thanks. 👍👍🏻👍🏼👍🏽👍🏾👍🏿. You mean yelowish keys. Seems like those 37 keys digital synths of that era tend to go yellow. I am not an expert, just observation. Probably different designers but same manufacturer. But wathever. 👍👍🏻👍🏼👍🏽👍🏾👍🏿. Do not go MMA on your cat. 🤣 looks bad but i understand.👍

[@CaidicusProductions]

@@asmr6773 Not yellow, it definitely doesn't look all yucky or anything, just not 100% new and white/grey like a new one was. Rather hard to explain in words, but the video does a decent enough job of showing what the device looks like.

[@espacekurzweil]

How can you do a good demo of such a beast, but connected in MONO to your recorder/sound system ????!!!!!

[@CaidicusProductions]

Well, so many of the patches on board are actually just mono patches. One has to intentionally create patches that make use of stereo separation. Thanks for the question.

[@espacekurzweil]

@@CaidicusProductions Almost all patches of my TI2 are stereo, and even more (--> 6 audio mono or 3 pairs of stereo outputs !) This machine is made for at least stereo output... sorry, but I think that making an entire demo video in mono is just a non-sense and does not demonstrate its real potential...

[@WillyJunior]

Sounds pretty dated but I guess that's just the patches

[@susanbaker3392]

Dude you're more than 10 years late your demo in a dinosaur and them patches properly suck lol

[@milk_bath]

Sounds good to me Karen.

[@mattg1094]

Dude stop talking and play

[@CaidicusProductions]

Not sure if you caught the name of the video, but it's a review not a demo, and a totally amateur one at that.

[@mattg1094]

caidicus good point. I retract my rude comment. Good work and keep it up 👍