LOL, quality of what? The lack of capabilities compared to today’s synthesizers? Take TAL NoiseMaker even more limited synth. In your opinion, it should offer more quality.
The topic starter already wants to update Virus, maybe because he feels it’s missing capabilities. Virus is a dead end; it doesn’t really go anywhere. Surge, on the other hand, is a long-living, community-driven, constantly updated tool. You don’t need to use all its features at once. It would be happily be a simple subtractive synth at first.
I also remember that you prefer the easy way and don’t like putting in effort to release tracks, so it’s no wonder you like Virus so much.

I don’t understand at all how it’s possible to offer something like Virus to people today and be proud of it. It’s as if they’re stuck in the mid-2000s, when it was the most top tool for EDM trash, (and just because VSTi's were not strong back than) and can’t seem to move on, considering it the pinnacle. It didn’t inspire me with its mediocrity back then, and even less so today."

 

Last edited: Nov 15, 2025 at 2:47 PM

I'm probably going to go with OsTIrus (TI), not that I don't think Surge XT is worthy enough, just that TI seems a better fit for a few reasons. I might change my mind, but I already have a synth that imports/resynthesizes, so those features are uneeded for TI. Given that TI is, if recalled correctly, at least in part, VA, makes it a good compliment to my setup.

 

I call BS. Absynth is/was one of the best soft synthesizers ever made. I still have the retail box from 1.0 on my shelf downstairs. If you were using it to try to make Minimoog stuff, you were using it totally wrong heh.

 

Do you need the synthesizer for your mix, and what kind of music do you make?
How long have you been making music? Are you a beginner or more advanced?

 

The synth was fine for that time period, but has harshness (filter resonance) etc. NI's stuff from back in the day was generally good, but they failed to update their catalogue, they seem now only in the sample library business as a whole, pretty sad. Seems like Omnisphere took over the same niche where Absynth was popular, despite being generally less capable in creative functions.

 

Good—whatever works for you. At the end of the day, it makes no difference what you choose. The important thing is that it inspires you to experiment with sound and make more tracks

 

Will you ever calm down with your nonsense? Have you heard anything besides Vengeance presets? Have you ever programmed the TI yourself? Have you seen the Ultimate X Sounds banks for the TI? No, man, it’s not just "trash EDM" — it goes from classic analog Moog/Roland-like stuff to sci-fi soundtracks that even Absynth can’t handle. Show us something similar made with SURGE?

For those who didn’t understand what I’m talking about — the Virus TI is like a Marshall amp and a Gibson Les Paul in the world of guitar music.

 

Fanboyism is incorrigible—once it kicks in, people stop respecting themselves. Now we have new revelations: the DSP software sounds really vintage, a so-called ‘true classic.’ Access? It has nothing to do with Roland or Moog—it’s just a piece of VA crap from the late ’90s. Typical EDM kids.

Marshall amp

 

it's an entirely different story from a plugin when you have 5 octaves of fatar keys and so many realtime controls. It's kind of hard to take comments like "harsh resonances" seriously from people who stick Soothe2 on every track anyway. Maybe they think you mean the little toy Snow that DeadMAu5 made all his early records with. I wouldn't part with Ti2 for any Moog below a Voyager.

 

Recently, I was in the market for a hand wood saw and realized soon enough that the decision/purchase wasn't so simple, because there are Japanese-style hand wood saws available, too, where the blade is thinner and the main power cut is done on the pull stroke, rather than the push stroke, as is the case for most other saws.
So what to get?
The sales folks explained the pros and cons as best they could but of course the decision rested with me. But what they didn't tell me, and what tipped the balance for me, was the physics of it:

If you lie a string flat on a flat surface and push it on one end, toward the other end, what does it do? Naturally, it bunches up. But what happens if you pull the string in the direction opposite of the other end? It stays straight. So I purchased the Japanese saw-- actually two of them.

So OsTIrus is the Japanese-style saw, until further notice. :D

Another thing: Music making is maybe a bit like mixing a drink. Ideally, perhaps, you get a drink you don't have to fiddle with too much to get it to where you like it, yes? Well, I bought this earlier. This pinkish-coloured drink is much too sweet for me, so I don't like it as it is, but there's a simple addition that works brilliantly and that's a splash of pure, unsweetened cranberry juice. It knocks out the sugar and adds some (complimentary) flavour.

So if I can get a synth that only needs one or two ingredients at the most, sounds great in a fundamental way, and is easy on my time and patience, then I'm good to go.

 

Last edited: Nov 16, 2025 at 8:22 AM

As long as the engine is clean (no aliasing and harsh filter resonances), VA synths can emulate easily classic "cult" synths (and if we don't use high resonance sweeps and high register, the VA doesn't even have to be good). Btw, I don't think Virus' engine is very good compared to what we have now, I remember Adam Szabo's plugin clone vst being better in this regard. Using extreme settings can easily prove this.

Anyway, the best shot at creating the most authentic sounding vintage sounds without necessarily modeling anything specific in terms of behavior is stuff like Reaktor that allows sufficient control over signal paths (the ability to saturate/distort and EQ can be crucial to the formula of the exact timbre, if we want to be maximally close). The problem is who cares, cuz you can use 20 years old crappy vsts and in the final mix the sound could be indistinguishable, if production is non-trivial (including lots of layers and processing). The character of individual synths shines only in isolation or very sparse mixes.

 

Agreed. Quite true. Nothing special, you can achieve the same or very close results no matter what you use. So why bother if its tone isn’t especially unique, when in 2025 there are far more flexible and exciting VA algorithms? It can be a workhorse as any other VSTi and over the years, you may have become so attached that breaking the habit is hard but that doesn’t change the fact that Virus will never reach the legendary synth Hall-of-Fame status because its personality is pretty mediocre. It’s also why Behringer will never attempt to make a clone of it

Spoiler: +

And yes, yesterday, in the heat of the argument, I was a bit harsh and unfair to the Virus and may have exaggerated—my apologies to all who admire it

 

Last edited: Nov 16, 2025 at 12:26 PM

im sorry... are you really saying Serum is subpar compared to Sylenth and Spire?! I mean, i don't care, its your opinion, but Serum is so much more powerful than those two. Trumps the virus too.

 

I disagree. First of all, Behringer can't just clone anything they want, because the patent for the Virus TI belongs to the company Access (Kemper GmbH).

Access, with its Virus products, has already achieved worldwide fame. For example: Depeche Mode, Madonna, Linkin Park and The Prodigy, and throughout the entire techno and synth music scene. The Virus sound is unique. I also once owned a Virus TI Desktop; back then, I couldn't find anything comparable. Today, there's the free

OsTIrus Emulator for Access Virus TI/Snow - DSP56300 Emulator by The Usual Suspects.
Infos and Free Download: https://dsp56300.wordpress.com/ostirus-downloads

Access Virus TI - Modeled Analogue Synth
SOS Review: www.soundonsound.com/reviews/access-virus-ti

225 Access Virus Sounds.......in 13 minutes......

 

Aight...

So I tried to make an identical patch on both synths. It's just a basic saw arp with 3 voice unison, just a bit of filter action. A good way to get a sense for the basic tonality of these synths IMO. It actually required a good bit of tweaking to get it this close, just considering how the envelopes and key tracking etc are different from each synth. I think it's pretty darn close.

Like I said, I think they are both great. I'm curious if some of these folks who are saying only complete fools would delude themselves into thinking surge approach the greatness of the virus.

Anyway... have at em:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hLhNT_h0693prL_nCrnbqoL9yZMlXamR?usp=drive_link

 

that demo is really redicoulus,
Bland VA chewing-gum tones, buried in enough reverb to make a Casio SA-76 sound epic
No character at all—there’s nothing uniquely ‘Virus’ about it

 

Both are free, why the synth vs synth? Pointless..

 

These "better" and "superior" comparisons are absolute rubbish. They're neither fair nor true. Each of these virtual synthesizers is an instrument, sounds unique, and has its place. However, tastes differ. What one person likes, another might not. Each individual chooses their own instruments (plugins), and what they like or find useful gets installed or deleted.

A brief comparison of the 4 Syths beginning with the letter S:

Spire --> Synth (Analogue / Subtractive) Plugin by Reveal Sound

Spire is a software polyphonic synthesizer that combines powerful sound engine modulation and flexible architecture, a graphical interface provides unparalleled usability. Spire is the embodiment of the best opportunities, both software and hardware synthesizers.
VERSATILE OSCILLATORS
4x multimode polymorphing oscillators
Classic, Noise, FM, AMSync, SawPWM, HardFM, Vowel.

Sylenth1 --> Synth (Analogue / Subtractive) Plugin by LennarDigital

Sylenth1 is a polyphonic virtual analog synthesizer.
It has four unison oscillators which use an "innovate" synthesis technique that allows the generation of many simultaneous high-quality waveforms in realtime, using only minimal amounts of CPU resources. It also features two "analog sounding" filter sections, which can be taken way past the point of self-oscillation. These filters incorporate several non-linear saturation stages to produce harmonically rich sounds. Sylenth1's extensive modulation options offer possibilities to sculpture the sound, and it has a set of six built-in mastering sound-effects.

Serum 2 --> Synth Plugin by Xfer Records

Xfer Records' Serum 2 builds upon the groundbreaking foundation of its predecessor, aiming to be the definitive wavetable synthesizer for modern music producers. Driven by the desire to create a synthesizer that combines high-quality sound with an intuitive, visual workflow, Serum 2 empowers users to explore the depths of sound design with ease.
The core of Serum 2 remains its powerful wavetable oscillator, now refined with enhanced flexibility

Surge XT --> Synth (Hybrid) Plugin by Surge Synth Team

Synthesis method: Subtractive hybrid.
Each patch contain two scenes which are separate instances of the entire synthesis engine (except effects) that can be used for layered or split patches.

 

It's a free world where everyone is allowed and encouraged to have their own opinion.