1U? A-station or Virus Rack?

[abruzzi]

mulling a last slot on my rack that is 1U high. I've been contemplating the following:

Wavestation SR
Ensoniq MR Rack
Access Virus Rack (not XL)
Novation A-Station

So here's the thing. I know exactly what I'll get out of the Wavestation, having had other Wavestations, and I quite like it. The Ensoniq I've considering just because it has some nice presets, and when they pop up they go cheap. The other two I have a lot less experience with having never had synths from either company. How would they compare? The Virus has twice the polyphony, but the Novation has a third oscillator. The Access is multitimbral, the A-Station isn't. The Virus Rack seems to cost a bit more (and the XL sells for much more than what I'm prepared to spend.) I'd love to hear people's thoughts on the sound of these two. Or just tell me to punt, buy the MR and play "warm bath" until I'm sick of it.

Any other sub-$500 used 1u synths I should consider? (No E-mu please, I already have a lot of them in this setup including a Morpheus and a PX7 with 4 ROMs) Also most of the big name romplers like the MOTIF Rack and the TR Rack are probably less interesting unless they provide something unique.

[Baus]

First off.... The Virus has 3 Oscillators. You can access it through the OSCILLATOR EDIT page.

I have a Virus Kb which has the first 2 available directly on the frontpanel. The third one can be accessed through the menu pages. According to Virus Rack manual this is the case too for that unit.

I absolutely love that synth. The sounds are so diverse and it has a lot of modulation possibilities.
The Novation I have no experience with. The Wavestation is not my thing and although I am an Ensoniq Freak I am not sure about the MR. I have heard it is way complicated to edit.

[abruzzi]

First off.... The Virus has 3 Oscillators. You can access it through the OSCILLATOR EDIT page.

I have a Virus Kb which has the first 2 available directly on the frontpanel. The third one can be accessed through the menu pages. According to Virus Rack manual this is the case too for that unit.

I absolutely love that synth. The sounds are so diverse and it has a lot of modulation possibilities.
The Novation I have no experience with. The Wavestation is not my thing and although I am an Ensoniq Freak I am not sure about the MR. I have heard it is way complicated to edit.

So what I've read is the Virus Rack (the version based off the B, not the XL based off the C) dropped the third oscillator and has two oscillators, a sub, and noise, more like the virus A. I'm tempted by the MR just because they sell cheap, and is basically Ensoniq's last synth engine, also used in the ASRX, ZR, and Fizmo, albeit with different ROMs, interfaces and such. I love Ensoniq too, but is seems there is no editing except over sysex. If I could edit from the front, no matter how painful, I'd probably jump on that one. These little 1u things are far less common that the keyboards and larger modules, so there are very limited youtube demo videos. I can find a thousand virus B videos but only a could virus rack videos. I know the wavestation will sound like I expect it to, the others, not so sure? As it is, the virus videos I've heard do sound nice, and if I can find on, I currently leaning that direction.

[nuketifromorbit]

Be warned, the virus rack has c**p encoders

[abruzzi]

Be warned, the virus rack has c**p encoders

Heh. What's up with synths and c**p encoders? Are they all just cheaping out?

[Baus]

Yeah, you're right.

I re-read the Manual and it is kind of confusing. First they say that the rack has a third oscillator (so, I assumed a third) and in the later chapter it appears that that third one is the Sub-oscillator.

2 Osc's, Sub and Noise.

And again you're right about the demo's... not so much... and the one demo of factory sounds is so bad!!!

[abruzzi]

Yeah, you're right.

I re-read the Manual and it is kind of confusing. First they say that the rack has a third oscillator (so, I assumed a third) and in the later chapter it appears that that third one is the Sub-oscillator.

2 Osc's, Sub and Noise.

And again you're right about the demo's... not so much... and the one demo of factory sounds is so bad!!!

From what I can tell, the later 1u rack, the Virus Rack XL, is a full Virus C, with no cutbacks.

I'm still keeping my eyes open to see what's out there.

[madtheory]

Personally I prefer the Novation VA stuff to the Virus. Mainly because I find all of the Access instruments to be counter-intuitive. But I think I prefer the Novation sound as well. I've got my KS Rack to do excellent SH-101, OB Matrix 6 (not OBX unfortunately!) and Yamaha CS series type tones.

[abruzzi]

Personally I prefer the Novation VA stuff to the Virus. Mainly because I find all of the Access instruments to be counter-intuitive. But I think I prefer the Novation sound as well. I've got my KS Rack to do excellent SH-101, OB Matrix 6 (not OBX unfortunately!) and Yamaha CS series type tones.

I was trying to find lots of examples, unfortunately the rack versions seem pretty rare which means not that many videos, but the little bits I found, I'd characterize the Novation's sound as more trying to sound analog. The filter at times sounds very chirpy for instance. The Access seems more unabashedly digital, and has some nice sounds.

In the end both are fairly uncommon, so I just snagged a Wavestation SR. I know the sound, and I know how to program it (well, I've never used an SR, I first had an EX and currently have an A/D, but the sound if the same.) I'll keep my eyes out for the others to snag a cheap deal if one comes up. They're both companies that I've never owned any of their synths, so I would like to give them a go eventually, but without the immediate need for a 1u setup, I might instead snag a larger rack model. The MR is also still on my wishlist, but I'm looking for a TS-10 instead because I really want the polyAT.

[Crawling Wind]

Doesn't the PX-7 transmit Poly AT?

Personally I prefer the Novation VA stuff to the Virus. Mainly because I find all of the Access instruments to be counter-intuitive. But I think I prefer the Novation sound as well. I've got my KS Rack to do excellent SH-101, OB Matrix 6 (not OBX unfortunately!) and Yamaha CS series type tones.

I was trying to find lots of examples, unfortunately the rack versions seem pretty rare which means not that many videos, but the little bits I found, I'd characterize the Novation's sound as more trying to sound analog. The filter at times sounds very chirpy for instance. The Access seems more unabashedly digital, and has some nice sounds.

In the end both are fairly uncommon, so I just snagged a Wavestation SR. I know the sound, and I know how to program it (well, I've never used an SR, I first had an EX and currently have an A/D, but the sound if the same.) I'll keep my eyes out for the others to snag a cheap deal if one comes up. They're both companies that I've never owned any of their synths, so I would like to give them a go eventually, but without the immediate need for a 1u setup, I might instead snag a larger rack model. The MR is also still on my wishlist, but I'm looking for a TS-10 instead because I really want the polyAT.

[abruzzi]

Doesn't the PX-7 transmit Poly AT?

Supposedly it will, but the pads are more suited to playing drums than melodic lines. They require a lot more force just to trigger than a keyboard. One octave is a limitation as well. Oddly the sound engine doesn't respond to polyAT. I was surprised to discover the Wavestation will respond to polyAT.

[abruzzi]

BTW, I bought a Wavestation SR, got it installed and love the sound. I'm familiar with wavestations, so this wasn't a surprise. What was a surprise was that the week it showed up, an FS1R showed up for a very reasonable price (considering what FS1Rs have gone for in the past.) I've always regretted selling mine, so I threw caution to the wind and bought it. So I got 2, 1u synths. Since my rack had a TX802 in it, I decided the FS1R could replace it. Unfortunately, since the 2u TX802 was replaced by a 1u FS1R, I'm back to having 1u of free space again (below the SR, the 1u below the MOTU I need to route audio cables from the back of the synths to the front of the mixer.) Fortunately I have no more inputs on the mixer, so I will hopefully not be tempted to fill the space. Anyway, here is the final rolling setup, with a sequencer (PX-7) and small master controller (Prophecy) and a bunch of racks (Mirage, FS1R, Morpheus, Wavestation SR). I'm also considering replacing the Mirage with a EPS16+ I already have, which will consume that extra space, and give me Transwaves, but for the time being, I'll keep the Mirage.









...actually, I have a single, mono input free, and a Matrix 1000 is 1u and mono. the temptation......