Closest FREE vst synth, to ACCESS Virus or whatever

[gaggle of hermits]

I would love to be able to reproduce this patch from my Summit
So far I didin't find anything close.

have you tried newfangled's generate? it does those kinds of sounds all day long, though you might need to switch the built-in reverb for an external for that sound as you'll need a reverb that can handle the flat-topping distortion well. the free Pendulate might do the job.

it's also quite funny watching people chat about how they can tell precisely what a certain synth sounds like then run for the hills when presented with a blind comparison because *checks notes* it has too many effects on it. or it's too muffled. or it's the wrong kind of sound.

[chk071]

it's also quite funny watching people chat about how they can tell precisely what a certain synth sounds like then run for the hills when presented with a blind comparison because *checks notes* it has too many effects on it. or it's too muffled. or it's the wrong kind of sound.

Or maybe you don't understand the obvious: That there are naturally specific things which distinguish synthesizers.

[gaggle of hermits]

Or maybe you don't understand the obvious: That there are naturally specific things which distinguish synthesizers.

oh I understand that. and it's always the thing that's not exercised in the blind test.

[zerocrossing]

I loaded up Osirus and the first preset on loading 'AutoBendBC' sounded very familiar to me.
Was used in the track 'Feelings per Room' by Saafi Brothers as is with no processing. Lazy sods.

https://youtu.be/zzu3ZHEScCo?si=4XwLunZfgEL-sJ9Q&t=120

It's crazy how many stock Virus presets you recognize from various late 90's/early 00's songs. I used to have a Virus TI Snow, which also had a few presets that sounded familiar, but the Virus C banks in Osirus are even more recognizable.
Makes me feel a bit better about using presets in my stuff...

There’s a big anti-preset contingent here, those who consider it cheating, but top artist from Pink Floyd to Michael Jackson have been using presets in hit songs since the first synth with preset memory was sold. I’m pretty sure my brother’s never changed a preset on his old Yamaha ROMpler.

[kenny saunders]

I loaded up Osirus and the first preset on loading 'AutoBendBC' sounded very familiar to me.
Was used in the track 'Feelings per Room' by Saafi Brothers as is with no processing. Lazy sods.

https://youtu.be/zzu3ZHEScCo?si=4XwLunZfgEL-sJ9Q&t=120

It's crazy how many stock Virus presets you recognize from various late 90's/early 00's songs. I used to have a Virus TI Snow, which also had a few presets that sounded familiar, but the Virus C banks in Osirus are even more recognizable.
Makes me feel a bit better about using presets in my stuff...

There’s a big anti-preset contingent here, those who consider it cheating, but top artist from Pink Floyd to Michael Jackson have been using presets in hit songs since the first synth with preset memory was sold. I’m pretty sure my brother’s never changed a preset on his old Yamaha ROMpler.

Do these people also look down their noses on Beethoven, and his contemporaries, for just using the same damn orchestral presets?

[osiris]

Anti-Preset? Then how do you make music. Non presets? If you make a preset, isn't that a preset? I will NEVER understand people.

[zerocrossing]

Anti-Preset? Then how do you make music. Non presets? If you make a preset, isn't that a preset? I will NEVER understand people.

Many classic synthesizers didn’t have presets. You just tweaked them to where you wanted them and played. Often continuing to tweak while you played.

[osiris]

I don't think they had memory chips. So yes, no presets. MS-20 came with no presets, but the VST comes with over 200 (I believe.) So, basically you're not a real musician unless you wipe those out and just fork around with it for an hour or so to get something you like? I feel like the preset designer is like the Hollywood Screenwriter. Underappreciated, then everyone else takes credit for their hard work.

[Digivolt]

Weren't the presets printed in the manuals though ?

[teilo]

I know people are saying OsTIrus is not free, but the plugin itself is free. What is not free is the Virus TI firmware that you need to run the plugin. However, it is is a grey area. The firmware file is freely available from Access, but it's intended for updating the the hardware, and of course it's copyrighted.

[digitalboytn]

Anti-Preset? Then how do you make music. Non presets? If you make a preset, isn't that a preset? I will NEVER understand people.

Many classic synthesizers didn’t have presets. You just tweaked them to where you wanted them and played. Often continuing to tweak while you played.

There was a lot of tweaking going on in the 80's and 90's and beyond..

Apparently,the Eagles used to have lines of coke on their amps and speaker boxes and they would turn around,have a quick snort and then get on with the show

[nix808]

speaker tweaking tweeters

[SouledOut]

I know people are saying OsTIrus is not free, but the plugin itself is free. What is not free is the Virus TI firmware that you need to run the plugin. However, it is is a grey area. The firmware file is freely available from Access, but it's intended for updating the the hardware, and of course it's copyrighted.

It is not even a grey area imho but it's legit on the basis that what's not explicitly forbidden, is allowed. And it's not forbidden anywhere afaik. Copyrighted OS binary - sure. Nobody takes it and claims it's his work. Still, if you buy a hw synth, you OWN the thing, there is no licensing involved. Of course the binary was meant to be used in the Virus instrument, but how that intention limits us from using it with a chip emulator? Note, that using OsTIrus does not get you a Virus TI - you get to use the sound engine, but still miss all that the hardware instrument offers.

Personally I installed OsTIrus out of curiosity to see, how it will compare to other great VSTis I use, like ANA 2 or VPS Avenger. There is nothing exceptional to its sound, not to my ears anyway and while it is sounding great out of the box I don't see me using it much if at all. The hw manufacturers basically overslept the home studio revolution and this is the result.

[osiris]

Weren't the presets printed in the manuals though ?

Some. I had some ancient xerox pdf called The Moog Cookbook. It had a lot of presets in it, they were shown using drawings of where the knobs should be to make a certain sound. It was glorious and I learned so much about programming sounds from it, but I can't find it now.

[zerocrossing]

I know people are saying OsTIrus is not free, but the plugin itself is free. What is not free is the Virus TI firmware that you need to run the plugin. However, it is is a grey area. The firmware file is freely available from Access, but it's intended for updating the the hardware, and of course it's copyrighted.

It is not even a grey area imho but it's legit on the basis that what's not explicitly forbidden, is allowed. And it's not forbidden anywhere afaik. Copyrighted OS binary - sure. Nobody takes it and claims it's his work. Still, if you buy a hw synth, you OWN the thing, there is no licensing involved. Of course the binary was meant to be used in the Virus instrument, but how that intention limits us from using it with a chip emulator? Note, that using OsTIrus does not get you a Virus TI - you get to use the sound engine, but still miss all that the hardware instrument offers.

Personally I installed OsTIrus out of curiosity to see, how it will compare to other great VSTis I use, like ANA 2 or VPS Avenger. There is nothing exceptional to its sound, not to my ears anyway and while it is sounding great out of the box I don't see me using it much if at all. The hw manufacturers basically overslept the home studio revolution and this is the result.

Yeah, I already came to that conclusion with a hardware TI. I owned a Virus C in the 00s, and I really liked it a lot, but around 2005 I went ITB and found that there were plugins that I thought sounded just as good, and in some ways better. Years later I found a TI at a good price and picked it up and frankly thought Dune 2 (the version of the time) was significantly better sounding to my ears. Cut to 2024 and the Virus TI is the same, but Dune 3 is even better, and it’s been joined by many other great plugins.

I think people who love the Virus love it because it was a huge part of the music scene in some genres, and they just bonded to it. Of course it sounds good and has lots of voices, effects, etc, but if you don’t care about that specific sound, I feel there are better options. I installed the Virus C and Waldorf Microwave 2 ROMs and spent a few hours reminiscing and then never launched them again. I frankly just don’t care. Vital or Surge XT are much better choices in the realm of free plugins, IMO. If you can come up with a bit of cash, there are even better options.