Spire or Dune2 - which one sounds more like a Virus?

[recursive one]

I find it hard to believe the virus "sound" is still a thing.

Magic of the brand name associated with certain type of music I like.

[4damind]

discoDSP makes a Nord emulation, should sound fairly similar unless George has screwed up again

No it's not a Nord Lead emulation it's only inspired by the Nord Lead and sounds different.
Spire has a TI emulated filter which makes it a bit easier to sound in the direction of a Virus. Afaik the developers of Spire are from this Russian Virus synth project (there is a thread here about this synth, no idea if they stopped the development or why there are no news)

[recursive one]

Afaik the developers of Spire are from this Russian Virus synth project

I guess I'm responsible for spreading this misinformation over KVR, but I was wrong. Actually they seem to be two completely independent teams (both from Russia).

[Edmsoundware]

In my opinion Dune2 definatelly !

[V0RT3X]

It's been a while since I seen one of these threads on KVR.

[xamido]

Yeah, once in a while we need the customary Virus thread.

Btw for the OP (since i do own a virus ti), i believe that dune 2 sound is closer (not similar though) . Spire have this modern bright sound, while for me virus have always got that mellow darker sound. Besides, you can use wavetable on dune to get those metallic sound + you can always added new WT.

For me personally, virus WT are boring. They are kinda thin, i always have to layer its oscillator to get those low end.

[bulvanskägg]

So, what's special about Virus? Is it the sound quality or the kinds of sounds it makes? If it is the former, I suppose there are several plugins with excellent sound quality. If it is the latter, judging from the description online the Virus can do various types of synthesis. So why not use a specialized plugin for the type one is interested in? Utterly freakish and bloated sounds are usually not very musical, so it is a bit like with having a Ferrari in the garage while living in a country with a speed limit of 90mph

Perhaps you should go back and read what the guy wrote earlier in the thread.

[chk071]

Or just check out some gear sites, to see how many well known artists have a Virus as their main work horse in their studio. Especially a lot of popular ambient artists call it their own.

[V0RT3X]

I don't like the virus sound personally. I used to want a Virus Ti so bad, and came pretty damn close to financing one a few years ago. That all changed after i got to play one at a music store with a good pair of headphones plugged into it. I was actually surprised with the Virus, and thought what's the point of owning this when i can get better quality on my computer? Sure it has it's own "sound" but as far as the actual design it isn't that special.

Oh and it likes to aliase...

I think if i owned it, i would feel like i wasted money on an expensive midi controller, because chances are I would be using the keyboard to control my software synthesizers.

I'd rather own a Prophet 12 if i was looking for a $3000 synthesizer.

[recursive one]

I came across a Reaktor ensemble which comes with original Virus waveforms, here it is

http://www.native-instruments.com/en/co ... show/4597/

I guess, they can be extracted and recoded into Dune2 format. I hope there will be no legal issues with that since the ensemble is hosted by Native Instruments and it is unlikely that they would store illegal content.

What is the name of the tool used to prepare Dune2 wavetables? Is it free?

[recursive one]

double post

[recursive one]

Now that I have the real thing I decided to make an actual comparison between these three synths. Here it is

https://soundcloud.com/recursion-loop/v ... e-vs-dune2

First you hear Virus TI playing a short loop for 4 times with filter automation, then Spire playning the same loop, then Dune2 doing the same. There are 4 different simple patches compared. I used a 2 pole lowpass filter without any saturation in Virus and Infecto 2 pole lowpass in Spire - these filters do behave quite similarly. As for Dune2, it's filters are very different, I tried 2 pole XP lowpass and 2 pole transistor lowpass but none of them sounds anyhthing similar to the Virus filter. The patches have similar (and very basic) dessign, except that in the last example I've used global unison in Virus and Dune 2 and per-oscillator unison in Spire (as it doesn't have global).

Overall, Spire sounds more similar to Virus

[ariston]

While I really don't care about the Virus sound one way or the other, it's always great to hear some comparisons. Thanks for your efforts, recursive!

[aMUSEd]

Now that I have the real thing I decided to make an actual comparison between these three synths. Here it is

https://soundcloud.com/recursion-loop/v ... e-vs-dune2

First you hear Virus TI playing a short loop for 4 times with filter automation, then Spire playning the same loop, then Dune2 doing the same. There are 4 different simple patches compared. I used a 2 pole lowpass filter without any saturation in Virus and Infecto 2 pole lowpass in Spire - these filters do behave quite similarly. As for Dune2, it's filters are very different, I tried 2 pole XP lowpass and 2 pole transistor lowpass but none of them sounds anyhthing similar to the Virus filter. The patches have similar (and very basic) dessign, except that in the last example I've used global unison in Virus and Dune 2 and per-oscillator unison in Spire (as it doesn't have global).

Overall, Spire sounds more similar to Virus

I have all 3 and came to a similar conclusion, in addition Spire's fx section, particularly the reverb, is very Virus like. I think Dune 2's sound engine is closer to the Virus technically but the end product is usually run through filters and fx and that is where the differences show. If you want lots of voices though Dune 2 does it better.

[Elektronisch]

Dont forget virus differs in phase, you can hear it and see it in the waveform in the last example wheres virus sounds punchy and beefy. You can "mimic" that sound with Dune 2 by running Halfrect + lowpass filter FX before actual Filter.

P.S. in the end i dont think filters make much difference if the sound is solid without filter modulation in action.