i rarely use that many voices, but having 16 awesome sounding synths to my hand, all in one single box is something that I don’t wanna miss. The TI2 is Hardware-Songwriters Dream, with is thousands of preset slots, to recall it from your hardware sequencer when you come back to a project. working with the TI in a Hardware-Setup is a little bit like working with Plugins in a DAW. In my current setup, even if I exclude my separate sequencer, I have 12 dedicated MIDI Tracks (on Digitone and Digitakt); that’s more than enough for the Virus to provide anything I “cannot” do on the Elektron Devices. Integrates very well into a setup. All you need is some kind of intelligent midi hub for that.
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As far as I remember, there is a 3rd party project, that created a awesome solution, that comes very near the original TI Plug-in, and if I recall that correctly, it even does audio on macs.
Potentially controversial thought, but could you get close using one of the mpcs, if you just used the plugins? They also have a wealth of decent FX built in.
I know everyone thinks of them primarily as samplers, but there’s no obligation to use samples at all, in which case you have a hugely versatile multitimbral synth on your hands.
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I think the FX on the Virus TI2 are exceptional and get excited to use them. I wouldn’t want to settle for decent. Most synths have decent or less than decent FX; I think great FX are as important as the synth engine.
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The Akai Instruments are all great but beyond subtractive basics, most of them cannot do the kinds of synthesis the virus can do. Hype is the closest I suppose as it does have different macro algorithms with different synthesis types but with a limited set of controls.
It’s also hard to compare the two because a big part of the virus is the immediacy of the interface & dedicated controls which is not apparent at first, but are very well laid out & designed.
You are also limited to 8 instrument slots on the MPC (although you could record/sample them also). Those 8 slots are for the entire project so you are stuck with the sounds you choose, whereas using program changes you could use completely different sounds on the virus for each Sequence.
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The Mystery Island editor. I think is the one it gets the job done and does solve the problem for macs including with Apple silicon. It does do audio. It’s about 60.00 I think?
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I think Fors could make a pretty capable TI successor if they ever decided to get into hardware. Their synths and fx sound fantastic
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Facts
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I’m dreaming of a new Virus in my lifetime with OLED color touch screen, new tech and good Mac OS X integration.
So long as we’re dreaming…
Access/Elektron collaboration. A4 form factor, Elektron UI into the Virus synth engine, with all 16 parts as individually sequenced tracks. And of course Overbridge support.
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Now that would be awesome! Especially if Elektron improved their sequencer to allow for random, ping pong, backwards and probability modes that Eurorack sequencers have.
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i really wish ess/fors would do a hardware digital synth. inside an elektron box would likely be my favorite synth of all time
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You can replace butter only with butter. Get a virus it’s actually a cheap synth considering that you get
16(!) Poly synths with a massive fx section each.
And it’s DAW integration works beautifully IMHO.
1000/16 = 62,5
Just saying … 
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Wack
I love my MPC and I had a Virus in the past. Not even close….
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Four DSI tetra’s, although you don’t get the vst integration, or the smoothness.
there is one software synth that can do Virus 100% - It is the DSP56300 emulator + Virus B or C roms 
Thank me later 
save your money for bying some other nice hardware.
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If software is on the table then I would say that only Vital has so far been able to get me that same wide lucid sound. It’s unison has that same airy quality. It’s free and ridiculously powerful. I prefer it over Serum, Spire, Pigments, etc.
Closest thing in hardware is probably the Waldorf Kyra.
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Well said. For ITB vst its Falcon. It has it all.
This has been completely possible for some time now. Mystery Islands Virus Editor is the way.
Native Apple Silicon Support, USB MIDI support for macOS 10.13 and greater.
Native AAX, AudioUnit, VST, VST3 and Standalone App for macOS and Windows available.
MIDI and audio over USB are all possible.
I have the editor but don’t use the audio over USB as I find tracking synths the old-fashioned way sounds much better. Audio over USB leads to sterile results to my ears, I like analogue gain staging. But to each their own.
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