I have the Virus TI Desktop. I have it connected to my PC via USB exclusively at the moment. I have my MIDI controller connected to USB as well. When I open Sonar 6, I can load Virus Control and play the Virus with my MIDI controller. Keep in mind this is only with a USB connected to my Virus TI.

So, it seems as though I will have to connect its audio outputs to my PC. Which audio output? Analog/SPDIF? How do I make the Virus send out on those?

Just so you know, I have my Virus configured as an audio device on my PC. I can listen to MP3s, etc now via my Virus. Within Sonar 6, however, the Virus audio device is 'grayed' out and I cannot select it as an input device. Is this because Sonar doesn't fully support it yet?

I guess I just need detailed instructions on how to connect this beast up to my PC. I'm not sure if my Audigy 2 soundcard can handle the inputs.

I thought one of the points of the Virus TI was that it could be your audio device..............be honest with me....do I need to go with something like Cubase to get the full benefit of my TI?

Adam

ORIGINAL: awilki01

So, it seems as though I will have to connect its audio outputs to my PC. Which audio output? Analog/SPDIF? How do I make the Virus send out on those?

Are you referring to recording the sounds from your Virus into Sonar, or using the Virus as your soundcard? I don't typically use the Virus as my soundcard per se, but I can tell how to connect it for recording it into Sonar.

I use the analog Output 1 on my Virus, but you could use the S/PDIF if your soundcard supports it. The Virus should automatically send the signal to the S/PDIF output. See page 133 on your manual to set the analog outputs, but I believe that it is set to Output 1 (L & R) by default. Connect the MIDI IN of the Virus to the MIDI OUT of your soundcard, and vice versa.

...the Virus audio device is 'grayed' out and I cannot select it as an input device. Is this because Sonar doesn't fully support it yet?

No, Sonar supports it. I just tried it and had no problem using my Polar as both an input and output device. In Sonar, go to Options > Audio, then select the Drivers tab in the Audio Options dialog box. I would start by deselecting everything in both the Input Drivers and Output Drivers boxes, then select Virus USB ASIO IN as your input and Virus USB ASIO OUT for your output. You'll have to restart Sonar for the changes to take effect. Hopefully, this works, but if not, then something else needs to be changed in Sonar's audio options.

...I'm not sure if my Audigy 2 soundcard can handle the inputs.

I'm not sure either - does it have two 1/4" inputs? If not, you'll need to get adapters or use S/PDIF if your soundcard supports it. FWIW, I have an E-mu 0404 USB that is dedicated to the Virus to get around the realtime rendering issue. The 0404 has two Neutrik inputs (XLR/1/4"), S/PDIF, and MIDI In/Out. It sells for $199, works great, and is a much better soundcard than the Audigy.

I thought one of the points of the Virus TI was that it could be your audio device..............be honest with me....do I need to go with something like Cubase to get the full benefit of my TI?

Yes, it can be your audio device with Sonar. I also have Cubase SL3 and the TI performs the same way and I get the same error message when trying to bounce the TI to audio. Granted, I'm not as well-versed in Cubase as I am in Sonar, so there may be some user error going on there. Regardless, a cheaper way to go would be to upgrade your soundcard while Cakewalk/Access work out the compatibility issues. Besides, have you been to the Cubase forums recently? Not a happy bunch of campers!

One last thing - if you haven't already done so, go to the Access website and make sure your Virus OS and Virus Control software are up to date - they released updates to both just recently. HTH.

-Dave

p.s. I checked out your tunes - very cool! I'm a fellow trancehead.

Cryo, thanks for the response!!!!!

I went and got me the E-MU 0404 USB and it works great. I'm piping the S/PDIF out of my Virus TI into it. It takes some playing around to get it sync'd up right at first, but once there, its rock solid.

I am able to effectively use Virus Control plugin within Sonar 6 just like a VST. During playback and such I listen to the audio via USB. When I want to record the audio, I just open a new Audio track and have the input as the S/PDIF on the 0404. When I want to do this, I have to go to the Virus Control COMMON tab and move the slider over to SECOND OUT on the Surround Balance. I have my Second Out mapped to Out1 L+R. The S/PDIF connector mirrors that output.

So, it looks like I'm good to go so for....I'll post here if I run into any other problems.

Thanks for the advice...it was a lifesave....

Adam

any news?

I've just seen this thread. I got a Virus TI keyboard edition last week. I've had major probelms installing it into Sonar. It totally froze Sonar and dropped my soundcard. I sorted all this out except it has thrown the latency of my VST's out. Still need to get this sorted.

I could get midi info going into Sonar but absolutly no audio. I only used the USB cable because I was told all audio would go through this. I'm using Sonar 4.
Still stumped.

Any ideas?

I just got the email announcing the release of OS 2.0.3. I'm not sure if there are any fixes with regard to the Sonar issues, but I'll check it out this evening. Anybody else installed it yet? The download comes with some new videos and some new sound banks that the users on the Access forums are raving (no pun intended) about!

no fixes for sonar in 2.0.3

Hi everyone

The problems with the Virus TI and Sonar are now being investigated, so it'd be great if you could help in putting together a list of the Sonar-specific issues encountered with the Virus TI/Virus Control.

I've not used Virus Control for a while due to the issues I had with it, so the problem descriptions below may need some corrections. If so, please let me know. So far I have:

1. Latency
The VC (Virus Control) plugin seems to work okay as far as latency is concerned when it's the only plugin running. However, once you add any other plugins in addition to VC, all the other plugins are delayed to an extent that they’re practically unplayable (presumably to make up for the delay added by the VC plugin).
In OS2.0, Access added a direct mode (clicking the D-button for the desired channel), which is to be used when recording an instrument on that particular channel. This causes the VC plugin to output via the TI’s analog outs rather than its USB output, which effectively gets rid of any delay while recording. However, since no other plugins have this workaround, they get the dreaded latency added. What this means in practical terms is that other plugins are not really usable while the VC plugin is loaded (ie pretty much all the time in a real-world scenario), as severe latency is added to them. If you disable the VC plugin in the synth rack, all other plugins can be used as usual, with no latency added.

2. Audio driver not exposed in Sonar
There's no way of adjusting any of the Virus TI ASIO-USB settings, as Sonar does not seem to expose the TI ASIO-USB Control Panel at all (see attached image). However, I'm actually a bit unsure if the Virus TI audio driver is required in relation to the VC, or if it's only relevant when the TI is being used as a regular audio interface – but I’m guessing this could help with the VC-plugin’s latency as well.

With regard to USB bouncing: It's been quite a while since I experimented with VC and USB recording, so I'm a little rusty on this aspect. As far as I recall, you could do regular - as in realtime - recording of USB tracks but not faster-than-realtime bounces akin to Sonar's freeze - correct? If not, could someone chime in on the specific issues in this respect?

Let me know if there are any clarifications to the above, and if there are any additional issues that need addressing and I'll pass them on.

Thanks!

- Asbjoern

hi mystp,

i don't own the virus ti yet, but i watch from afar with great interest.

thanks for pushing this issue.

Hi Asbjoern,

I also saw your thread on the Unofficial Virus Forums - thanks for taking the lead on this and let me know if/how I can assist you. I'm dying to see the track rendering issue resolved (i.e., one of the primary reasons I upgraded to a TI).

ORIGINAL: mystp

With regard to USB bouncing: It's been quite a while since I experimented with VC and USB recording, so I'm a little rusty on this aspect. As far as I recall, you could do regular - as in realtime - recording of USB tracks but not faster-than-realtime bounces akin to Sonar's freeze - correct? If not, could someone chime in on the specific issues in this respect?

You cannot do any sort of bouncing/freezing/rendering in Sonar, real-time or fast-bounce (at least I can't). I've gotten real-time bouncing to work in Cubase, but who wants to use Cubase?! The workaround in Sonar has been to either 1) reassign a sequenced track to MIDI out and into an analog audio input(s) routed to a new track as you would with any hardware synth or 2) loop the outputs of the soundcard back into another set of inputs, solo the Virus track and record it in real-time to a new track. Both approaches typically require some after-the-fact nudging to get account for latency.

The audio rendering issue and the well-documented latency issue that you mentioned are the only ones that I have personally experienced.