From the developer Usual Suspects comes their latest release – OsTIrus, a plugin that supports emulation of the Access Virus TI line of synthesizers.
Few synthesizers are as famous as the Virus Ti for trance and other dance genres of the early 2000s to today. The good folks at The Usual Suspects have made waves in the past for the release of Osirus, a Virus A/B/C emulator, and Vavra, a Waldorf microQ emulator.
You can read our article about their Access Virus C emulation to get some background information.
OsTIrus is their latest release, and it targets the Virus Ti, Ti 2, and Snow as you might imagine from the name. I was a donator for early access, so I’m perhaps a bit biased, but I think it’s their best release yet.
OsTIrus features all the functions you’d expect of a hardware Virus Ti. It has six stereo outputs, three analog and three digital.
Polyphony is unlimited, restricted more by the emulated DSP chips and their clock speed rather than any hard restrictions coded into the emulator itself. You can also use sample rates up to 96kHz, which should suit folks who are rather obsessive about aliasing.
You’ve got the full range of features like grain table and formant oscillators, wavetables unique to the hardware synthesizer, and the ever-famous hypersaw.
Unlike the hardware unit, you’re not going to have to rely on MIDI DIN to get the best possible MIDI timing out of the synth. Everything works as intended, and is flawless going by the time I’ve had with it.
Sound-wise, this thing absolutely slays. I’m not one for the trance and dance sort of stuff in my personal works.
However, the Virus Ti is built with ambient pads and smooth Reese basses in mind. Patch management is also a breeze thanks to the patch browser. You can surf presets via categories, banks, or any other criteria you might have in mind.
As with all previous releases, the emulator itself is free. You do have to provide a legally acquired Virus Ti firmware file to make the most of it. However, if you can swing that, you’re in for one of the best softsynths in recent memory.
OsTIrus is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The plugin has an instrument and FX version in VST, VST3, AU, and CLAP formats.
If you have the cash to spare, I highly recommend donating to the developers to help fund some exciting new projects that are in the works.
Download: OsTIrus (FREE)
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