Folks,
I wanted to assert that in my experience, the Virus TI is working great with Sonar. I am here to share a way of working that can help answer questions raised in this thread and dramatically improve the experience of using Sonar and the Virus TI.
And yes I created many of the presets for the TI, but I'm here as a legitimate Sonar user and not some kind of Access stooge.
The thread begins with a complaint about latency. The latency that's being described is inherent to the design of the TI as a plugin reliant on DSP which is never fewer than 2 hops away via USB. And please, let's not steer this towards a discussion of why firewire or USB 2.0 would be better in this regard, as it is covered well elsewhere: when the TI was being developed, these didn't fit its pricing model.
This "limitation" of inherent latencey is also the source of the Virus' ability to provide the benefits of both hardware and software at the same time, and with the correct techniques described below, I don't t find it limiting at all.
One or more writers then note that the TI is virtually latency-free when using the Virus' analog outs and Virus Control. This is correct.
In response, however, another adds that while this provides great "standalone" results, it seems to not work well in the context of playback against other plugins. This is also correct, in that you can't send delay compensated instructions to the hardware and then monitor with the source of the delay dramatically reduced by a routing shortcut; it makes the rest of the mix feel late!
Between these ideas lies the answer, a hybrid approach as follows: when a user wants to record the TI and hear their performance, they should monitor the current multitimbral part via the analog outs. When they want to hear the synth played back with perfect timing, they should switch back to and monitor via the USB outs.
And, because of an update which was released subsequently to this thread's beginning, this no longer requires ANY menu mousing. In the most recent version of Virus Control, notice the small "D" icon each PART of the multitimbral
stack. This button provides a ONE CLICK shortcut to instantaneously enable the selected part for Direct Monitoring at the analog outs (whilst recording). When the D is switched off, the part reverts to the selected outputs, presumably a delay compensated USB 1+2 pair.
And yes, as the later authors note, certain other small problems are entirely solved with the latest OS (currently 1.23).
I am in fact right now working on a Sonar 5 track which uses the TI for bass, pads, and synth hits against a bed of stylus RMX, DFHS, RMIV, Kontakt, and a suite of guitar related sims and fx. The TI recording perfomance and playback timing of this setup seems just right for me (a 25-year semi-professional musician) and the direct monitoring output option is a godsend when instances of too many other CPU intensive plugins force my overall ASIO latency to an unbearable 256ms. In fact, I often record on the Virus even those parts I wish to be played back in Kontakt or some other instrument... A hidden "bonus" of the TI.
Hope this helps, If this post doesn't seem straightforward enough for you, I would be glad to help answer any specific questions here. I may also put together a tutorial covering this and other TI Power User tips.
-m@