Our Virus C & Virus B Presets Are Compatible With The Usual Suspects Osirus!

You heard it here at the source! All Kulshan Studios hardware Virus C/Virus B soundsets will work 100% in the The Usual Suspects Osirus plugin! All the original filters, modulations, FX, and oscillator waves are perfectly-emulated in the DSP56300 Project’s code clones, and our Trance, Psytrance, Hands Up, and other hardware soundbanks will all load into the plugin with 100% accuracy! Whether you’re using only the software, or keeping it as a backup in case your hardware breaks, you’ll have full access to the exact same sounds no matter what!

You can grab the packs right now and put the power of classic Virus synths in your modern tunes!

So you can just load the soundbanks in, and get busy writing your next club banger with the full power of the Virus C and Virus B!

To load the presets into the plugin, after you install the plugin and get the firmware installed, open the plugin, and go to

Browser

Right click on Data Sources

Select Add Folders

Choose the master folder where you store all your downloaded soundsets

The preset packs will all appear in Data Sources under their various folder and subfolder names, and since the packs are organized by genre, and subdivided by patch category, you can get right to work writing your next massive festival anthem!

Transform your productions with authentic Virus tones. Shop the preset collection below

Note: you can improve the emulator plugin’s dynamic polyphony and increase the available voices of the synth by using an external reverb plugin like ValhallaRoom, ValhallaShimmer, Valhalla Supermassive, or Valhalla VintageVerb, or Eventide Blackhole. If you use ValhallaRoom, here are some free presets optimized for modern productions using the Virus that will add professional depth and space to your tracks

Our JP-8080 & JP-8000 Presets Are Compatible With The Usual Suspects JE-8086 Plugin!

You heard it here at the source! All Kulshan Studios hardware JP-8000/JP-8080 performance banks work on The Usual Suspects JE-8086 VST plugin! All the original SuperSaws, filters, modulations, FX, and oscillator waves are perfectly-emulated in the DSP56300 Project’s code clones, and all our Trance, Techno, Hands Up, House, Hardstyle, Drum n Bass, Ambient, and Synthwave hardware soundbanks will all load into the plugin with 100% accuracy! Whether you’re using only the software, or keeping it as a backup in case your hardware breaks, you’ll have full access to the exact same sounds no matter what!

So if you’ve been wanting to use our sounds in a bit-perfect plugin that IS exactly a JP80x0, your time has come!

You can just load the soundbanks in, and get right to work writing your next club smasher with the full power of the legendary JP-8000!

To load the presets into the plugin, after you install the plugin and get the firmware installed, open the plugin, and go to

Browser

Right click on Data Sources

Select Add Folders

Choose the master folder where you store all your downloaded soundsets

The preset packs will all appear in Data Sources under their various folder and subfolder names, and since the packs are organized by genre, and subdivided by patch category, you can get right to work writing your next massive festival anthem!

Transform your productions with authentic JP-8080 tones. Shop the performance bank collection below

Note: you can improve the emulator plugin’s sound by using an external reverb plugin like ValhallaRoom, ValhallaShimmer, Valhalla Supermassive, or Valhalla VintageVerb, or Eventide Blackhole. If you use ValhallaRoom, here are some free presets optimized for modern productions using the JP that will add professional depth and space to your tracks

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

We’ve been keeping this under wraps for a couple months, but now we are proud to announce that we spent the last few weeks working with DiscoDSP to overhaul and expand the Factory I bank on their Discovery Pro VSTi, and it is part of the latest release of the 8.14 update!

So existing Discovery Pro users, you can grab your updated version, and discover a whole world of epic Trance, Hardstyle, Psytrance, House, Techno, Pop, Drum n Bass, and Dubstep sounds, all ready to use in your next big tune!

Most of the sounds we made for the new Factory I bank were designed using features totally unique to Discovery Pro, so if you like the sound of our banks for the original Nord Lead 2X, you can combine our banks with the new factory sounds, to make even more massive Trance, House, Ambient, DnB, and Industrial tunes!

Our Jupiter-X Banks Are Compatible With Zenology Pro!

You heard it right! Our Jupiter-X banks, the ones included with the JD-08 soundbanks, all load into the Zenology Pro VSTi!

So if you’re a Zenology Pro user in search of some new sounds for it, swing on by our JD-08 section and check out what we’ve got!

GearNews Review of the new Virus C Soundbank!

GearNews’ contributor Rob Puricelli just included Nisli’s latest Virus C/B soundbank in his review of some new synth presets and MPE gear! Check it out and see what the GearNews crew are saying about Nisli’s latest work!

Heka Psytrance Soundset for Access Virus C & Virus B Series & Osirus

$27.00

94 hypnotic Psytrance presets for the legendary Access Virus C and Virus B synthesizer series. These patches are 100% Psytrance-oriented, which means no weird brass, pianos, or FX. The patches in Heka come straight out of songs written using the C. So this soundset is designed to exploit the C’s unison, spectral waves, and multitimbral virtual analog sound engine to their fullest potential!

Patches in Heka are based on sounds from songs by the likes of Infected Mushroom, Astrix, Amiranu, Invisible Reality, Ovnimoon, Ajja, Phaxe, Ace Ventura, Vini Vici, Blisargon Demogorgon, Atmos, Morten Granau, BliSS, Filt, Liquid Soul, and many many more!

And to cap off the bank some patches were set to INIT, so you have room to write and store your own patches without overwriting any existing sounds!

Only additional FX applied to these sounds was ValhallaRoom reverb to the Leads, Plucks, Pads, and Acid sounds.

Sounds in this preset pack are suitable for the Full On Psytrance, Progressive Psytrance, Dark Psytrance, and Forest Psytrance genres, and are organized by category into Leads, Plucks, Pads, Acid sounds, and Basses, for quick reference

All patches are royalty-free and delivered instantly via email as a 24-hour download link

Requirements: Access Virus C, Virus KC, Virus Rack XL, Virus Indigo 2, or Access Virus B, Virus KB, Virus Rack, or Virus Indigo synthesizer

Also compatible with DiscoDSP Retromulator, Adam Szabo Viper VSTi,* and the The Usual Suspects Osirus

*there will be some differences in some sounds due to differences in the architecture and features between the C, B, and Viper

“if you’re a fan of Vini Vici, Infected Mushroom, Astrix, BliSS, Liquid Soul and other Psytrance acts, this is for you.” - Rob Puricelli, GearNews

Add to cart

New Virus C & Virus B Soundset is out now!

Hey Virus C and B users! Nisli just wrapped up work on another soundbank for the Access Virus C and B! This time it’s a big collection of Psytrance presets, for Full On, Progressive, Dark, and Forest Psytrance!

So if you’ve been wanting some fresh psychedelic sounds for your C, now you have some to work with!

Heka Psytrance Soundset for Access Virus C & Virus B Series & Osirus

$27.00

94 hypnotic Psytrance presets for the legendary Access Virus C and Virus B synthesizer series. These patches are 100% Psytrance-oriented, which means no weird brass, pianos, or FX. The patches in Heka come straight out of songs written using the C. So this soundset is designed to exploit the C’s unison, spectral waves, and multitimbral virtual analog sound engine to their fullest potential!

Patches in Heka are based on sounds from songs by the likes of Infected Mushroom, Astrix, Amiranu, Invisible Reality, Ovnimoon, Ajja, Phaxe, Ace Ventura, Vini Vici, Blisargon Demogorgon, Atmos, Morten Granau, BliSS, Filt, Liquid Soul, and many many more!

And to cap off the bank some patches were set to INIT, so you have room to write and store your own patches without overwriting any existing sounds!

Only additional FX applied to these sounds was ValhallaRoom reverb to the Leads, Plucks, Pads, and Acid sounds.

Sounds in this preset pack are suitable for the Full On Psytrance, Progressive Psytrance, Dark Psytrance, and Forest Psytrance genres, and are organized by category into Leads, Plucks, Pads, Acid sounds, and Basses, for quick reference

All patches are royalty-free and delivered instantly via email as a 24-hour download link

Requirements: Access Virus C, Virus KC, Virus Rack XL, Virus Indigo 2, or Access Virus B, Virus KB, Virus Rack, or Virus Indigo synthesizer

Also compatible with DiscoDSP Retromulator, Adam Szabo Viper VSTi,* and the The Usual Suspects Osirus

*there will be some differences in some sounds due to differences in the architecture and features between the C, B, and Viper

“if you’re a fan of Vini Vici, Infected Mushroom, Astrix, BliSS, Liquid Soul and other Psytrance acts, this is for you.” - Rob Puricelli, GearNews

Add to cart

How The JP-8080 SuperSaw Is Really Made

The secret’s out! The Usual Suspects developers cracked the code on what gives the JP-8000 SuperSaw its unique character, and… it is not what you’d expect

(88.2 kHz sample rate, is the answer, apparently)

The devs go into greater detail in this video

How To Use Access Virus C FX On Other Synths

Love your Virus C FX and wish you could use them on your Moog, or Nord, or Prophet? Don’t know how to make that work?

Wonder no more!

Just plug the output(s) of your source synth into the Inputs on the back of the Virus C, turn on the Virus, and in Bank C, scroll to the end of the bank, to patch #125.

The preset is called >>INPUT<<

Start playing sounds from your source synth, and start experimenting with the FX and filters!

Enjoy!

Can You Use A Phone Charger To Power A Roland JD-08?

The answer, is yes, yes you can. We’re using a 25W Hoco phone charger on a 2 meter USB-C cable to power our JD-08. Pretty much any brand should suffice, although if Roland offers their own special charger for these things, go with that, if you want.

We’re using a regular DIN-to-USB interface cable to connect the JD for MIDI, because running the JD entirely over USB was throwing super crazy MIDI signals into the synth that were triggering random parameters whether we wanted it or not.

Windows 11 is funny about MIDI, and so rather than fight with it forever, and we didn’t want to spend a king’s ransom on batteries, we opted to run the synth in a more traditional way.

Since the user manual is vague on what kind of external power these can safely run on, we rolled the dice, and went with a regular wall wart phone charger.

And, it works!

So if you ended up here from a google search that had previously given you little more than an aging Reddit thread, this nugget in 2025 is direct and authoritative from us here at Kulshan Studios.

Good luck!

More News for Virus Users!

Well folks, Nisli worked hard, and has gotten the FIRST Virus C AND Virus B soundbank made, and they’re for sale in our shop right now!

They’re contained in the same pack, so when you buy the pack for the C, you also get the pack for the B at the same time. They’ve said they’ll work on making the sounds work on the Virus A as well, but that may be a little ways off.

But for now, enjoy these 94 Trance sounds for the Access Virus C and Virus B, ready to use in your next monster tune!

We're Branching Out!

If you enjoy our sounds, and want to achieve clean, professional mixdowns using then, without having to do a lot of guesswork or wade through hours of contradictory Youtube videos, you are now in luck!

We convinced Dawnchaser and Amiranu to send us the FL Studio project files for their best recent tunes, and we compiled their EQ and FX processing chains into one tidy, organized project file, and you can grab it right now!

Check it out here

Secret LFO Trick for Roland JD-08

Those of you who have a JD-08 may have discovered the free-running rate on the LFO only goes up to 100, and it is far short of the buzzy audio rate speed that makes for cool buzzing lead sounds.

Turns out there’s a secret trick that allows you to pass that 100 rate, and push it to the extreme.

First, you need to dive into the System menu to set the JD’s MIDI clock source to Internal.

After that, press and hold Common, and then press Effect, to switch the JD to its hidden Internal Tempo setting. The default is 120.0. Crank it up to 300.0 (the maximum).

After that, press Common and Effect again to exit that menu system.

Press Common, and go to LFO, and set LFO 1 to Sync - ON.

Exit the Common menu system, and go to the pitch control section. Nudge the Pitch LFO control up some, to help preview the sound when you start modding it.

Go to the LFO 1 control section, and while playing notes, start turning up the LFO Rate. Up until 1/32 or so it sounds like the normal LFO speed. Once you pass it and get into 1/64, you enter proper audio rate territory.

While designing our N R G! Hands Up Soundset for Roland JD-08, we use 1/64t a lot, because it hits the high rate buzzy sweet spot many classic Tune Up! and Groove Coverage sounds hit in their classic tunes.

You may find it useful for genres other than Hands Up and Eurodance, so, have fun!

Can The Access Virus C Load Virus TI Patches?

The short answer: Sort of?

The long answer:

So, since the Virus C lacks wavetables, HyperSaws, and a bunch of the bonus FX, and even has fewer FX slots overall, forcing you to choose between Reverb and Delay on sounds, if you try to import a TI patch into the C, you could get chaos, unless the TI sound used the same parameters a C has in its menus.

As our sound designer associate has learned, pretty much all HyperSaw-based leads will default Oscs 1 and 2 to Pulse waves, with the PW thrown out to about 2:00 on the dials. Some Distortion FX get auto-ported to the Highpass distortion option. And the ratio delays get auto converted to Reverb (even though the C has 2:1, 4:3, etc, Delays available). The EQs mostly get reverted to their default positions, so expect to have to tweak those if you try to port over sounds.

Any sounds made using standard analog-style waveforms survive the upload though, and even most LFO and modulation settings make it through, although some that are routed to Destinations of FX that are not in the C’s memory get defaulted to random Destinations.

There ARE workarounds to the HyperSaw problem, vis a vis Unison, and running all 3 oscs at once, but it’s risky doing so for pads, because of voice stealing, which becomes more pronounced when Osc 3 is active.

However, our designer friend found that raw and gritty Trance leads, in the vibe of Raus by DuMonde, or Back by Airbase, or Symphonica by Timmus sound great. That classic Virus sound definitely does not disappoint, once you compensate for the functionality differences between the TI and C.

So there you have it. Virus TI sounds CAN be loaded into the Virus C, but some will require some work to sound similar.

News For Access Virus Users!

Hey Virus C, B, and A users! We have news!

One of our MIDI pack creators is partnering with us to work on an extensive project to port our current and future Virus TI Series soundsets over to the older Virus models! They’re focusing on the sounds the older synths are actually capable of, so some of the crazier wavetable and HyperSaw leads won’t survive the conversion, but a lot of other sounds will, and Ascension is mostly complete, for the Virus C!

After that they’ll start porting sounds over to the B and A, and sometime early next year, you’ll start seeing fresh banks for the entire Access Virus synth family up in our store!

So if you’ve been waiting for us to get off our keister and start making sounds for you, get ready! Because one of our vendors is making it happen! Stay tuned!

ATTENTION ADAM SZABO AIRWAVE VST USERS

Adam Szabo, the maker of the JP6K and Viper VSTs just released a JP-8080 VST clone, and it sounds awesome! It’s called Airwave, and from the demos, it sounds spectacular!

If you’re wondering if our JP banks will load into the new Airwave JP-modeling plugin, the answer, direct from the developer to us, is YES.

If you have been wanting a proper JP, and want a plugin that natively loads our banks, and sounds like the original, Airwave is IT!

Grab it, and our banks, and start making your classic-flavored trance anthems today!

📢 Important Update: Price Adjustment Incoming January 1st + Your Exclusive Loyalty Pre-Sale!

Hey everyone, all of us at Kulshan Studios wanted to announce an important update!

Effective January 1st, 2026, our sound bank prices will be adjusted across our entire catalog. This change reflects the increased effort involved in the growing complexity, cross-compatibility, and sheer volume of world-class patches we deliver every month. It’s a lot of work for us to maintain the high standards you’ve come to expect!

Most of our products, particularly the flagship synths like the Sequential Prophet Rev2 and Access Virus TI, and classics like the Nord Lead 3, JP-8080 and Nord Lead 2X, as well as multi-format banks for the boutique JD-08, will officially move to their new tiered pricing then. These changes reflect the synths’ pedigrees, the additional instruments that can load their presets, and the growing number of software plugins (like OsTIrus) that can run their patches.

The Loyalty Pre-Sale: Your Last Chance to Save Big!

As a thank you for your ongoing support, we are offering an exclusive opportunity to purchase any pack at the current, low price, with an added discount.

This Loyalty Pre-Sale runs from now through January 1st, 2026! And here is the best part: All current sales discounts still apply!

This is your absolute last chance to save before the new, permanent price structure takes effect.

So don't wait until the New Year! Secure your sound banks now and write your hits at the best possible price.

JD-800, JUNO-X AND JUPITER-X USERS!

BIG update from us here, for all you users of the JD-08, JD-800, Juno-X, Jupiter-X, and Jupiter-Xm!

ALL our JD-08 soundbanks now include bank files for the original JD-800, and for the JD-800 Model Expansion for the Jupiter-X and Juno-X synths!

And they’ve included files for the JD-800 Cloud VST for a while now, so you also have that available, if you use the plugin version!

So if you’ve been waiting for us to make sounds for those synths, your time has come!

New Product & Store News

Hey everyone, you may have noticed there’s been some changes happening here at the Kulshan Studios Store.

We’ve been undergoing a mix of restructuring in the backend, and undertaking a huge push to expand the usability of our existing soundsets, and make brand new banks for newer synths in our inventory. And we’ve also added several new freebies for you all, including presets for the Mininova, and some effect plugin presets that might be highly useful to any ValhallaRoom users out there.

So our homepage looks a bit different, and you’ll notice that our soundbanks, especially those for the JP-8080, JD-08, Blofeld, and Nord Lead 2X, have been gradually growing in terms of what other synths their banks are compatible with.

It’s been a mammoth undertaking, and we are happy to declare that our JP, Blofeld, and NL2X banks all work with multiple VST clones of the original hardware, and we have gotten 1 of our JD banks to be compatible with every other synth in its family, including the Jupiter-X series that can load the Zenology JD-800 software. We will begin work on making the other 4 JD-08 soundbanks compatible with all those other synths, and we will begin a huge project of making more new soundbanks for the JD, all of which will also be compatible with the JD-08 plugin, JD-800 keyboard, JD-990, Jupiter-X, and Jupiter-Xm.

Since more of our banks are becoming compatible with more software and hardware synths, and since making all that possible takes a lot of time and effort, you will see modest changes to the prices of some of our soundbanks after the New Year.

We will still work hard to keep prices affordable for everyone, but expect some increases to some banks after the New Year.

So now is a good time to snap up our soundbanks!

*But maybe wait a couple weeks on the JD-08 banks besides Glissade 1. We still need to convert the other 4 to the other data formats for the other Roland keyboards.

Access Virus TI2 Review 2025

The keyboard. The myth. The legend. Most powerful VA synth ever made. A VST-In-A-Box. Opinions vary wildly on the Access Virus TI2, but no one can deny the impact it had on popular music. First released in 2009 as a follow-up to the Virus TI, it sported more effects, polyphony, and features that pulled it light years ahead of the competition. Even today, very few other hardware synths come close (the Kyra is the closest that comes to mind, but it hasn’t seen nearly as widespread of adoption as the Virus has). It has even spawned multiple VST clones, including the OsTIrus emulator, that is an exact code clone of the TI. But for all the pomp and fanfare, does it still hold up? Is it still useful for modern music in 2025 and beyond? Let’s take a look.

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OSCILLATORS

As always, we start with the oscillators. The TI2 sports 2 main oscillators, plus a 3rd oscillator, and a sub oscillator, that runs an octave below everything else. The 2 main oscillators run the gamut from typical analog style waveforms, to sines, to a JP-8000 style HyperSaw that goes beyond the JP by sporting 2 additional Saws inside the HyperSaw, to bring it up to 9, from the JP’s original 7. So it can get denser and lusher, while also following the logarithmic scale of detuning that the JP was known for. And it sounds amazing when running 2 HyperSaws at different octaves, with some gentle vibrato and chorus and reverb.

Unlike the JP though, there does not appear to be much, if any hipassing occuring on the HyperSaw at the oscillator level, so there is a lot more low frequency content in the sound, which can require some EQing to clean up.

Additionally, the TI2 sports 63 (64 incl the sine) wavetables, and graintable and formant oscillators, which collectively puts the Virus in league with more modern VSTs like Massive or Serum (although the Virus is still more limited than those plugins).

But how do the oscillators sound?

Well, Virus synths have always had a reputation for sounding ‘darker’ than synths from other manufacturers. And this is no different. The sizzle of a Roland Sawtooth or the sheen of a Waldorf Pulse wave are not there. This sounds a bit more like the Slim Phatty, where the highs have been rolled off at a lower cutoff point. And from our research, that was an intentional move on Access’ part, to make it sound more “analog”.

Which, fair enough.

But if you want a brighter sound that sizzles more, you will need to use the onboard FX to boost the highs to approximate the sound of other synths.

On that same token, it does mean that Virus sounds are ‘warmer’ and don’t clash with bright JP or Prophet sounds as readily.

The wavetables are nice and glossy and metallic, and there’s tons of under the hood modulation options for tweaking the wavetables to behave in very exciting ways. The graintable and formant oscillators are also very exciting. The closest synth we can think of comparable to all this is the Blofeld, which has 1/4 the polyphony of the TI2.

If you look to the Virus for a main sound machine for modern music, it’ll be hard to top all this. But be prepared to boost the highs in order to make things as bright as a Blofeld or Nord.

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FILTERS

So now you have a basic idea bout the oscillators. But what about the filters?

The Virus sports all the typical filter types, plus Moog-style filters, and you can run 2 separate filter banks in series or parallel, to create some incredible morphing evolving textures. Some folks complain that the filters sound too digital, but, if you’re buying a Virtual Analog synthesizer that includes wavetables, Digital is a feature, not a bug.

The Analog-style filters are quite nice, and yield some good juicy round textures. But for most uses, the standard lopass and other filters are all you need. Most of the core functions are buried in menus and submenus, so be prepared to wade around to set Key Follow values and other deep granular settings.

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ENVELOPES

The envelopes are one of the Virus’ strongest areas. The versatility in here is matched only by the Blofeld and Mininova.

They can sound nice and tight, but can also be slower and looser, so you can faithfully replicate sounds from across multiple synth eras with minimal difficulty. The TI2 excels in snappy plucks and massive evolving pads, and those are 2 core functions we use it for musically, a lot.

There are extra settings within the menus for Attack and Sustain curves and a handful of other very cool options to add extra sound sculpting capabilities.

And hidden deeper in the menus are 2 additional envelopes that can be used for modulations, so you’re not limited to just LFOs and the Filter and Amp envelopes. It’s super nice…. when you’re willing to menu dive to get there.

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LFO

Now’s where we begin to get into the weeds on the real sound design capabilities of the Virus. With 3 LFOs, it has a lot of options available to do some truly wild sounds. It has all the usual waveforms to modulate with, plus Sine, and… Wave. Which, the 64 additional Waves are not exactly Wavetables, and there isn’t much info about them, but they do open up a lot of wild possibilities for sound design.

In general the LFOs behave and operate as you would expect. But within the submenus, you can find specific routings hardwired to each LFO that can run independent of the Mod Matrix. One to pay particular attention to is the hardwired setting for the Pitch on LFO 3. That’s where you can add very gentle vibrator/ pitch modulation that won’t turn the sound into cartoon noises. Trying to set such pitch modulations from the Mod Matrix ends in chaotic disaster, because for whatever reason, Access chose to make modulating the pitch an all-or-nothing affair from the conventional modulation section. If you want delicate wavers and pitch variations, LFO 3’s submenus are where you need to go.

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MODULATION

And now, for the spot with the true power on this synth. The mighty Mod Matrix.

Despite what the lighted numbers say, you have far more than just 6 slots to work with. Each Slot contains a series of tables that enables you to route loads of settings to a parameter, so you can effectively assign a different source for each lighted Slot, and then assign multiple Destinations in each one. It’s an unbelievable amount of modulation power for a hardware synth from 2009.

We often compare the Blofeld to the TI2 for the sheer modulation capacity, and for good reason. You can modulate practically everything on this synth. Much more than the Blofeld.

Even the deeper granular settings on different effects are up for grabs in the Mod Destinations, and that capability makes this synth absurdly overpowered for making complex evolving sounds .

What’s really nice is routing external synths through the TI2 and then using some modulation on effects, to process other synths with exotic evolving textures to take other synths like the Prophet Rev2 or Nord Lead 2X into totally unheard territory.

Be forewarned that one parameter you probably don’t want to try and modulate here is Oscillator Pitch. For whatever reason, this section treats pitch changes as All or Nothing, so if you want to modulate pitch with any Envelopes or LFOs, it will turn your patch into a cartoon noise. Subtlety for pitch is not doable in the modulation on the TI2 (unlike the Mininova or Blofeld).

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EFFECTS

And now we reach one of the most polarizing parts of the TI2. The effects. Some folks say that drowning presets in FX masks the dullness of the oscillators. But when it comes to the Virus, the effects are as much a part of the synth’s sound as the oscillators themselves.

And the FX are one of those areas where the Virus truly shines. The EQ is really nice for adding extra bite or bass to patches (or removing mud from mids). Or for adding any of a number of different kinds of Chorus, Distortion, Pad Enhancing, or other exciting effects.

The last firmware update added additional distortion types, which opens up further exciting possibilities for the TI2 to enter uncharted sonic territory.

A particular favorite of ours is the Rate Reducer on the TI2, which is fully modulatable, and sounds spectacular on Prophet and Nord patches, where the brighter oscillators achieve a new kind of bite and grit with the Rate Reduction (and a touch of Phaser). The Delay is not quite as nice as the JP-8080’s, in our opinion. And modern reverb plugins like ValhallaRoom or Supermassive sound a bit fuller and more lush, but the Virus reverb still sounds excellent, and makes everything it touches super epic.

When starting from Init on a patch, be forewarned that by default, the Virus has Analog Boost turned on at about 33% or so, which adds a bunch of low-mid saturation to patches, which can both complicate mixing the sound later, and also eats up some extra CPU. So make sure to turn that off, to start your patch totally fresh, and maintain a clean mix later.

We have not yet attempted to try and run other synths through the FX section while also playing patches on the Virus in Multitimbral mode, but someday we will try that, and if it works, make a video about it - if it works, that would be a game-changer for live performers who might want to use the Virus FX on other synths during a gig, to minimize the need for additional pedals and FX boxes on stage.

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CONCLUSION

So here at the end of all things, is the TI2 still worthit in 2025? Does it still hold up?

Compared to Serum 2 or Massive X, the Virus may seem a bit underpowered, we’ll admit. The TI2 was superpowered and groundbreaking for its day, but, that was in 2009. A lot has happened in the music industry since then.

But. The character of the TI2 is still unmistakable and makes every song it is used in sound better. It’s nearly impossible for a song to sound bad when you use a Virus in it.

And its sound and modulation capabilities and FX still give it an edge over nearly every other hardware synth on the market today, and its stability and functionality remains unparalleled.

Its only real weaknesses now are that its DSP chips are no longer in production, so if its DSP burns out, you’re SOL on repairing it. The Total Integration plugin for the TI also hasn’t been updated in years. and users report stability issues and massive CPU consumption problems. And running the Access TI plugin in your DAW and doing audio over USB also neuters the output volume of the synth quite significantly.

Having said that, Aura Plugins makes a very nice, stable VST interface plugin that can use MIDI over USB, and Analog Out for the audio, so you can have full control over all parameters from a stable plugin and have full volume coming from the synth.

And The Usual Suspects have been hard at work cloning the code from the DSP to make the TI2 work as a full software emulation in any DAW, so the actual sound and functionality of the synth can live on in perpetuity for generations to come.

So is it still worthit?

Yes. Definitely. If you can get one, get one. And if you are happy with a software version, Adam Szabo’s Viper VST, and OsTIrus will scratch your Virus itch very nicely.

Dawnchaser is a Pacific Northwest-based electronic music producer, mountaineer, documenter of all things adventure, mountain, and travel-related, and manager of Kulshan Recordings. If he’s not in the studio writing music about adventures, he’s out on one.

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The Usual Suspects Return With a JP8080 Emulation!

The Usual Suspects are back, and it looks like this time they’ve figured out how to emulate the elusive and legendary Roland JP8080!

From what we can hear in the demo, it sounds like a fully exact emulation, excluding perhaps the DAC’s specific sound. But as far as we can hear on our end here in the studio, all the JP8080 oscillator and effect and filter behaviors and tones are precisely captured, so it sounds like this will be the definitive software clone of the JP8080! So classic trance sounds will live on even after the last JP8080’s chips give out and there’s no replacements left!

Take a listen below and see what you think

No word yet on whether or not our performance banks will load into it, but given that our Virus TI2 and Nord Lead 2X sound banks load into the OsTIrus and Nodal 2X Red emulations, it seems more than likely that our JP8080 performance banks will also load fully into the plugin. It sounds truly fantastic, and we’re super excited to see another of our favorite classic VA synths immortalized in a software emulation that can outlive the original.

…Now we’re just waiting on a Novation Supernova II clone

Keep an eye on The Usual Suspects’ site and this space for further updates!

Dawnchaser is a Pacific Northwest-based electronic music producer, mountaineer, documenter of all things adventure, mountain, and travel-related, and manager of Kulshan Recordings. If he’s not in the studio writing music about adventures, he’s out on one.

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