This is the VIRUS kb, a keyboard version of the Virus b, the successor to the original Virus. This page is intended to answer some questions about it.


 

 [Virus logo, stolen from the ACCESS site]
New: Virus kb images. click on this link VIRUS kb -- top view. Click on the image to get a closer view (c. 100K)
Click on the image to get a closer view (c. 100K)
The VIRUS b comes in two flavors, keyboard (an Access debut) and rack. As far as I know both will offer the following improvements. As more details become available, I will put them on the separate VIRUS b page (not much there yet, really)

In addition to the features of the VIRUS, the kb has the following features that are not supported by the classic VIRUS, since these are hardware differences:

  • 16 voices (faster DSP)
  • 5 octave keyboard
  • 24 Bit processing
  • PART buttons (that switch between the parts of a multi)
  • LFO 1 KEYFOLLOW and LFO 2 KEY TRIGGER and SATURATION are replaced by "EDIT" buttons that call up a menu. There are 4 more, I can't quite remember where they are.
  • LFO SHAPE has 5 LEDs. The settings are: Sine, Tri, Saw, Pulse and WAVE. this is where you select any of the other waves that were previously only available to the oscillators. I'm sure there will be some clever way to do this in software in the VIRUS
  • 2 footswitch connectors

everything else will be just like the regular VIRUS, including OS compatibility: the OS versions will be the same for both Viruses. (although I don't know if the VIRUS kb will be able to run older OS versions than 2.5).

The Virus kb has a slightly faster DSP, that's how it has 16 voice polyphony. This might mean that some things will be possible on this DSP that aren't possible on the hardware of the original VIRUS.
Then again this might just be a thing Access will solve with a VIRUS MK II...;)

as for the rumor mill, while explaining how the 512 sounds came about, Christoph suggested that he is working on a feature where the OS will allow the user to burn their own sounds into the FlashROM. (the 512 sounds are 256 factory presets, which are read only, plus 256 RAM slots, the ones we have been using all along. The only difference is that now we can access the 256 sounds which had been hidden from view before.)

The list price for the Virus kb is 3690 DM or 1874.05 EUR, street prices should be a good 10% below that.