VINTAGE TECHNOLOGY ARCHIVE / SYNTH / ACCESS

Access

German virtual analog that held its own against the legends

If you were making trance, drum and bass, or any form of electronic music in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Access Virus was the synth that separated the bedroom producers from the serious ones. This German-engineered virtual analog powerhouse delivered sounds so thick and aggressive that it made digital synthesis feel genuinely dangerous for the first time.

Founded1997, Dortmund, Germany
FounderChristoph Kemper
HeadquartersDortmund, Germany
Models in Archive2
Golden Era1997–2005
Known ForVirtual analog synthesis, trance leads, unison detune, DSP-based architecture

History

Access Music was founded by Christoph Kemper, a name that would later become even more famous for the Kemper Profiling Amplifier. But before he revolutionized the guitar world, Kemper had his sights set on synthesizers. The company emerged in the mid-1990s during a strange inflection point in electronic music — analog synths were climbing in price on the used market, digital workstations felt sterile and clinical, and a new generation of producers desperately wanted fat, warm sounds without mortgaging their flats to buy a Jupiter-8.

The original Virus, released in 1997, was a revelation. It used DSP chips to model analog oscillator behavior, filter saturation, and all the beautiful imperfections that made classic synths sound alive. But it wasn't just an analog emulator — Kemper and his team pushed the architecture into territory that no analog synth could reach: hypersaw oscillators with massive unison stacks, built-in effects that rivaled dedicated rack units, and a modulation matrix deep enough to lose yourself in for weeks.

The timing was perfect. Electronic dance music was exploding globally, and the Virus became the weapon of choice for producers working in trance, progressive house, drum and bass, and the emerging psytrance scene. Its aggressive, buzzing leads and impossibly wide supersaws became the defining textures of an era. When you heard that massive trance anthem riser at a festival in 1999, there was a very good chance a Virus was behind it.

Access iterated rapidly through the lineup — the Virus A, B, C, and eventually the TI (Total Integration) series each brought more DSP power, more polyphony, and tighter integration with computer-based production workflows. The Virus TI, with its USB audio and MIDI integration directly into DAWs, was ahead of its time and remains a deeply capable instrument today. Throughout it all, the company maintained its base in Dortmund, a small but fiercely dedicated team producing instruments with a level of build quality and sonic character that belied their relatively modest size.

Notable Instruments

Virus A

The one that started it all. Released in 1997, the Virus A arrived in a modest desktop module that looked more like a piece of networking equipment than a musical instrument. But the sounds that came out of it were anything but modest. The dual-oscillator architecture with its hypersaw mode could stack up to nine detuned sawtooth waves per voice, creating a wall of sound so massive it felt like standing in front of a jet engine. The filters — modeled on classic analog topologies — had a saturation circuit that added genuine grit and warmth.

Producers like Ferry Corsten, Armin van Buuren, and BT latched onto the Virus A immediately. Its characteristic supersaw lead became so ubiquitous in trance music that an entire subgenre was essentially defined by one synth patch. But the Virus A was far more versatile than its reputation suggested. Its FM capabilities, ring modulation, and extensive modulation routing made it equally at home producing evolving ambient textures, gnarly bass sounds, and delicate pad work. The Virus A was also a secret weapon in more experimental electronic music — Autechre and Squarepusher both used Access synths to craft some of their most twisted sonic experiments.

Virus B

The Virus B, released in 2000, took everything right about the original and gave it more room to breathe. Double the DSP power meant more polyphony, more effects, and the ability to run more complex patches without the dreaded voice-stealing that plagued heavy Virus A sessions. The addition of a vocoder, grain oscillator modes, and an expanded effects section transformed it from a brilliant lead synth into a complete production tool.

The keyboard version, the Virus KB, was particularly beloved — a proper 61-key instrument with velocity and aftertouch that made the Virus feel like a real performance synthesizer rather than just a studio box. The B-series also introduced the iconic red and blue color schemes that made Access synths visually distinctive on stage. In an era when most electronic musicians hid behind laptops, a Virus on a keyboard stand was a statement of intent: this person was actually playing something.

Models

Synthesizers

Other Models

VINTAGE TECHNOLOGY ARCHIVE / 03-16-2026 / FEEDBACK