Access Virus Rack XL User Manual page 12

12
CHAPTER 4
Prologue
Dear Virus Owner,
Congratulations on your choice, the new Virus.
You have purchased a cutting-edge synthesizer
that comes fully loaded with several revolution-
ary features. Here are just a few of the high-
lights:
The Virus delivers the sound characteristics and
tone of traditional analog synthesizers - for in-
stance the Prophet 5 or Memorymoog to name
just two popular examples of the species - in a
previously unparalleled level of quality and han-
dling ease. We're not kidding, the Virus actual
delivers the authentic response of an analog
synth via a digital signal processor, although the
sound shaping and voicing options out-perform
those of it historical predecessors by a consid-
erable margin.
The Virus comes with 1024 slots for storing
SINGLE sounds. These are organized in four
banks. The first two banks (A and B) are located
in the RAM, so you can overwrite them with
new sounds. The other two banks are "hard-
wired", i.e. they're programmed into the FLASH
ROM.
The Virus rack XL offers a maximum of 32 voic-
es. In Multi Mode, these are allocated dynami-
cally to 16 simultaneously available sounds.
You have up to three audio oscillators plus one
suboscillator, a noise generator, a ring modula-
tor, two Multi Mode filters, two envelopes, a
stereo VCA, three LFOs and a saturation stage
(SATURATOR) for cascade filtering, tube and
distortion effects.
The Virus offers a veritable number of effects.
You have a powerful Chorus/Flanger section at
your disposal, as well as the Analog Boost - a
controllable bass emphasis, with each effect
available separately for every sound. Further-
more there is a 6-stage Phaser, and a patch
Distortion. You also get a global reverb/delay
unit that lets you create high-quality reverb ef-
fects and rhythmic delay taps. Delay time can
be synced up to MIDI clock.
With the benefit of two external audio inputs,
the Virus may also serve as an FX device and
signal processor that you can use creatively to
come up with all kinds of effects. External sig-
nals can be processed with filter, gate and lo-fi
effects, routed to the Virus effects section and
serve as a modulation source for frequency and
ring modulation.
Beyond that, you can use internal or external
signals as sources for the Virus' on-board voco-
der serve. The vocoder works with up to 32 fil-
ter bands and offers diverse manipulation and
modulation options.
You'll find parallel external audio inputs on the
front and back panel. You can determine the in-
put sensitivity via a gain selector switch. You're
also free to activate a special Phono EQ that
enables you to connect a record player via a
suitable cord.
The up to three main oscillators produce 66
waveshapes, three of which are dynamically
mixable so that spectral effects are possible
within the confines of a single oscillator. In con-
ventional synthesizers, this type of effect re-
quires several oscillators. Synchronization,
frequency modulation and ring modulation be-
tween the audio oscillators delivers additional
complex spectral effects that you can use for all
kinds of sound shaping purposes.
The filters can be switched in series or in paral-
lel within the voices via several options. When
you switch the filters in series, the saturation
stage is embedded between the filters. Conse-
quently, an overdriven filter resonance can be
re-filtered within the same voice! A maximum of
six filter poles (36 dB slope!) enables radical
tonal manipulations.