Korg Forums

[themusicman2001]

Ok, now there's a difficult question - and one I hope I can get some pointers on from folks here.

I was chatting to Daz yesterday, and after seeing them on here I mentioned I was considering purchasing a Radias as my next toy, he gave me some great info but also mentioned the Access Virus TI - so I duley got a surfin' round for the latest sound demos, online videos etc and found loads.

I am actually in London tomorrow and have arranged a demo of the Virus TI in Turnkey sometime during the afternoon, unfortunately they don't have a Radias for me to compare to - so I am after the views and opinions of folk here as to what your thoughts are.

Please do excuse my ignorance - but are they radically different synths...? are they easy to use 'out-of-the-box' as it were (so I can reverse engineer a learning curve)...? which has the best suite of functions and patches...? which is the best vocoder...? the easiest arppegiator to use...?

After listening to the superb sounds and effects on both machines in their various online demos - I think I would consider the Virus just a tad superior - am I right with that thought, given my limited knowledge and inexperience of both machines...?

I have a Karma and though I love that burgundy baby, but I have increasingly found myself tweaking the actual sounds and effects - and hence want to play and create my own, hence the desire for one of these machines.

So - please enlilghten me... thanks all.

John
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John
My Gallery | iMac | Virus TI | Korg KARMA

[master logic]

If you have the money i'd go for the Virus; i've got one running along side my Oasys & it's incredible. personally i think the Radias sounds a bit cheesy, a little bit harsh & a bit too retro, in comparison (to my ears) the Virus sounds fat & warm, it can sound classic but at the same time totally fresh & cutting edge. i don't want to seem rude but i've always felt that Korg products aimed at dance music, house, techno, electronic, etc, etc try to "sound" like analog but you don't actually "feel" it when you hear it. I'm not even totally convinced by the AL1 engine within the Oasys & that's why i bought the virus.

[master logic]

You know what? forget what i said in the post above, i've spent my afternoon at work (pretending to work) listening to lots of Radias demos & i have to say that i was totally wrong about the Radias. I don't regret buying the Virus at all but sound wise the Radais is amazing. Hmmmm....wondering if my girlfriend would notice a new additional to my setup.

[MarkF786]

One comment I would add is if you are considering the Virus, unless you want to use the "Total Integration" features to integrate the synth into your computer-based DAW, you might consider buying a used Virus C. In terms of the synth engine, the Virus TI offers very few improvements. Also, the TI seems to still be suffering from many bugs based on the Virus forums I've read. Finally, a used Virus C is less than half the price of the TI.

I owned a Virus C and was very happy with the sound. Sadly, I sold it to fund the purchase of an Oasys, but now I've been considering buying another.

Good luck!

Mark

[Daz]

[themusicman2001]

WOW - excellent info there Daz, thanks for this, very much appreciated.

Update from Access demo in Turnkey London
In a nutshell to be honest - not so interested in this now. Although the chap who helped me was extremely pleasant and helpful, I was expecting to have a demo of what can be done on this machine. Given that I know next to nothing about synthesis and this specific machine, letting me loose on it was not something that was ever going to produce sweeping symphonic soundscapes now was it!!!

I had a play for 30 mins, and will admit to being impressed with the controls and functions available right in front of me, but I couldn't get any polyphony, no fully gated sweeping pads, none of the lush sounds I read are available out of the box!

So, I am now arraning a demo of a Korg Radias with DigitalV - but for this I have to go all the way to Birmingham as the Bristol shop is having a bit of a facelift apparantly. A long way to go, does anyone know of anything closer to Newport...? (Simon??)

Cheers - more when I get it.
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John
My Gallery | iMac | Virus TI | Korg KARMA

[Timo]

Hi John, what kind of music are you into?

Manuel Schleis is a bit of a wizkid at the ol' Virus, particularly - well almost exclusively - towards dance stuff, so if that interests you there are more audio demos from the Virus here (the audio demo for his free Virus TI factory bank is on the top):-

http://www.vengeance-sound.de/eng/indexes/indexFreeSounds.html

I preferred his earlier Virus demos, though:

http://www.vengeance-sound.de/eng/indexes/indexSounds.html

What did you mean by the polyphony?, this is something the TI has lots of. - Access claim up to >80 voices of poly. The Radias has 24-voices in comparison I think.

I understand what you mean about the gated stuff. The Virus's customisable arpeggiator can fake it to an extent, and so can the LFOs of course (a la Zoop).

The Radias looks extremely powerful in this respect as the two step-modulators look like they would be goldmines for gating various parameters and I simply can't wait to road-test one for this use. I absolutely love gated stuff.

A step-modulator seems to rank highly on people's wishlists for the Virus TI though, so the TI may or may not include this at some point in a possible future OS update, but this is mere speculation.
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[master logic]

Before you make any final decisions, checked put all the complaints about the Virus T1 on the Access forum. I've just started to notice a few problems myself.

http://virusti.com/forum/

[themusicman2001]

Hi Timo

Hey - hope you are well... many thanks for this.

I love those demos actually and have come across them before, but I was unable to create anything like this today. It was obviously something I was or wasn't doing but all the sounds I heard today were bland, not multi-polyphonic - despite my turning on multi mode - and no gated arpps at all.

I really was hoping for more from the staff!
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John
My Gallery | iMac | Virus TI | Korg KARMA

[Khazul]

If you can, then one day I would suggest you might end up with both.

I personally *much* prefer the sound of the Virus TI - its my main synth that I use the most. I have a Radias as well, but I rarely use it for the key sounds of a track, but because its alot brighter, then its an excellent compliment to the TI.

Both are very different IMHO, they can cover quite a bit of common ground, though in most of it, the virus to be is a much richer and smoother sounding synth.

The radias by comparison is I think a little on the thin side, though can get real dirty easily. High end on the radias is bright and clean (instead of bright and fizzy like a v-synth, jp80xx or the new SH-201).

Another other major difference I have found between the TI and the Radias is that the radias can very easily manage very punchy sounds - helped alot by its different envelope curve modes and having a compressor on board, so its much better than the TI for deep punchy bass sounds, but still nowhere near as brutal as a v-synth.

The vari-mode filter is nice, but you casn easily acheive the same kind of thing with the filter balance on the TI. The filters on the virus are possibly the most pleasent sounding and characterful of any digital synth with digital filters - they really are very good. Radias filter quite bland by comparison - actually every digital filter I have ever heard seems quite bland by comparison with the virus. The overdrive and waveshapers in the radias seems a little weak to me - nowhere near as rich and gutsey as roland COSM fx, or as soft as the distortion on a virus. On other FX - the Radias hs a great collection - all good, but all rather clean. The virus TI on the other hand has made its mark all over the place with its distinctive phaser. The rest of the fx in the virus are very characterful in-line with the rest of the virus and really gel nicely with the rest of the synth. The virus reverb is very good - as part of a virus, but it aint a reverb for any other kind of use unless you specific want its character.

On wavetable in the TI vs stuff that the Radias can do - Radias has a bunch of real instrument and drum type PCM sounds in it - this allows it to easily acheive much more convincing instruement and drum sounds. Using multiple timbres with SEQ mods, than you can make a passable wavelet pad type sounds as well. If you have ever used a novation KS series synth before - then you will be completely at home with the Radias - the two are actually very similar in many ways (except sound character). The wavetables on the TI on the other hand are aimed at unnatural harmonically rich sounds so it excels at wavelets pads and is capable of sounds with an allmost FM/additive like character to them if you exploit the table sweeps.

Apart from it sound character being hugely different to the virus (which is its main plus for me), the radias really scores with its multi-timbre and seq mods just allways being there. I find it an excellent and very inspiring synth for layering in when I'm just messing around with ideas. Its also a very easy synth to edit once you get used to Korg way of doing things (actually I think easier to edit on the hardware then the TI), but nowhere near as deep on the sysnthesis side as the TI, except perhaps that what osc1 on the radias can do all on its own is quite staggering to the point that most synths would require at least a couple of oscillators to be comparable.

On the polyphony side - I can easily max it out on both synths with a single part, and at the same time I can easily live with the poly capabilities of both - 80 sounds like a hell of alot on the TI until to crank up the unision to max for the most amazing rich and fat lead sounds and pile on the fx - by which time you poly can be as low as 4 or so. So as with all synths how limited you feel by the poly is largely done to how you want to use it. I will tend to hit poly limits on the TI much more - but thats simply because it is a machine that demands to be pushed - and I like that it does allow you to completely abuse its engine in this way.

Suggestion - if can afford it, like the sound and have other sound sources to easily make up other parts in tracks, then there is nothing to compare with a virus TI.

For something more general, then the Radias.

Both are good, both are very different in many ways - only your ears will tell you which is for you. I think the Virus is a synth that you are more likely to really really like, whereas the radias lacks the character to have that kind of impact, but is otherwise a very useful synth, and especially good as a second to a Virus.
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[themusicman2001]

Some excellent information posted here folks, thanks a million.

One additional question: Is it really needed to purchase the full unit inc keyboard if one has an existing keyboard? I have a KARMA so will this do the exact same job as the RADIAS Keyboard?

I appreciate that a rack just sitting there with nothing else might not look as good as the full unit, but is that all?
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John
My Gallery | iMac | Virus TI | Korg KARMA

[Khazul]

[chordial]

Hi John,

Not that I know, but you could try:

Sound Control
5 Rupert Street
Bristol
Avon
BS1 2PY

Phone: 0117 9349955
Web: http://www.soundcontrol.co.uk

There are an oasys dealer, so I would imagine they could arrange for a Radias demo.

Cheers Simon
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Chordial

[themusicman2001]

Cheers Simon - I will call them tomorrow, will let you all know.
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John
My Gallery | iMac | Virus TI | Korg KARMA

[themusicman2001]

Yup - they have one on show and I have arranged for a run through with either Zach or Mikey sometime tomorrow.

Thanks for the pointer...
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John
My Gallery | iMac | Virus TI | Korg KARMA