The Usual Suspects has released OsTIrus, a plugin that supports emulation of the Access Virus TI line of synthesizers.
OsTIrus runs inside your DAW and can be controlled like any normal softsynth. OsTIrus supports loading multiple instances, multitimbrality, enhanced voice allocation, and can be used as an FX plugin for other tracks in your DAW.
OsTIrus is capable of producing bit-accurate output of the original by emulating the digital processors at the heart of the Virus TI.
Availability:
OsTIrus is available now as a free download. download from our website at the following link:
Works very well. They also have emulations of the Virus A/B/C and the Waldorf Q+. all of them sound great. these are not just approximate software emulations of the VA synths, but simulations of the Motorola 56k DSP chip in the synth, on which you then run the original OS downloaded from Access or Waldorf, load sound banks for those synths etc.. So you’re getting the same sound that came out of the original chips. I was an early and long-time Virus user and I was able to dial in favorite old patches in moments.
One correction: it’s the waldorf micro-Q.
Yes, the plugins emulate the DSP chips the original synths used. Because it’s an emulation it’s rather heavy on the CPU. But on a modern machine (e.g. Apple M2) it’s well worth trying. I’m very happy that I can now use my Virus TI inside the DAW again since Access had abandoned software support some years ago already. One other thing to note: you’ll need a firmware file from the emulated synths, which owners of the hardware TI already have in their Access-software installers.
Thanks for the correction, I am always mixing the two up. I’ve been running the plugins ona slightly older Intel i9 Mac and they run smoothly. Have not yet checked to see how many voices/instances I can run at once, but it barely made a dent in my CPU meter with 10 voices.
Is there a catch? Is it safe? *
*See Marathon Man.
It’s basically illegal to run the EPROM firmware on anything else than the original hardware. This is regardless if you own the hardware or not.
Unless the hardware manufacturer I.e. owner of the firmware allows this.
If you like to stay of the clean side, I wouldn’t want to run it. Otherwise, the internet is full of illegal stuff, so anyways.
This is, pretty much, bullshit (at least in the US). As far as I’m aware, there is no provision in the Access EULA for the Virus TI, at least, that explicitly forbids you to load the Virus ‘firmware.bin’ file on a computer. Also, most likely since Access or its lawyers never thought of it, there is nothing that explicitly forbids you from using the .bin file in an emulator once it is on your computer. Furthermore, Access provides free access to a .msi (Windows) that installs the damn thing on your computer if you have a registered account as a Virus TI/TI2 owner (maybe for others as well, but I registered a TI-61 so I don’t know).
As to some general “law” that prohibits the use of equipment firmware in an emulator, no such thing exists in the US, because (to the best of my knowledge) it has never been litigated. People build and use emulators for many valid reasons and I suspect that rightful owners could easily make a case for their right to use the firmware (that the manufacturing company installed on their computer) for testing or problem solving. Most firmware EULAs forbid you from altering changing or selling the firmware, but not from using it.
Then, above all, there is the Navy “law” that goes something like “If some behavior is not explicitly forbidden then it’s OK to engage i it until it is explicitly forbidden”.
Finally, I doubt that Access would even bother with worrying about it because they pretty much abandoned the Viri a long, long time ago.
I know it’s also illegal to fool people to buy hardware synths that
Should have a proper software update
As system progress by selling something
That is not working whit todays computers