Access Virus TDM
Not much is documented about the Access Virus TDM as a standalone product, but period reviews show it was an early crossover between hardware synthesis and the DAW. The Virus TDM was a software synth TDM plug-in for Pro Tools, developed by Digidesign with Access Music GmbH, the German company behind the Virus line. Pro-Audio-Review (March 2001, p.46) gave a price of $795 and said it brought virtual synthesis to the Pro Tools environment with what the reviewer called awesome results.
The plug-in was basically a software version of the Access Virus analogue modelling synthesizer. It ran as a TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) insert within Pro Tools. Sound-on-Sound (January 2003, p.28) listed it alongside other TDM plug-ins and described it as a software synth TDM plug-in equivalent of the Access Virus analogue modelling synth. The same publication's test setup (September 2003, p.222) used a Virus Indigo v1.0 with a beige 300 MHz Apple G3 with 256 MB RAM running Mac OS 9.1 - which suggests the TDM plug-in was tested in that environment, though the plug-in itself was the subject of the review.
The Virus TDM had three modes of operation. The most obvious was playing a MIDI keyboard to trigger its sounds. A Unison mode stacked two or more voices per note for thicker textures. As a TDM plug-in, it ran on Digidesign's DSP hardware, which kept latency low and took processing load off the host computer. Beyond the reviews, very little documentation survives. There are no known sales figures, no official spec sheet, and no clear production run.
Known details from period sources:
- Product type: TDM software synth plug-in for Pro Tools
- Developer: Digidesign in collaboration with Access Music GmbH
- List price: $795 (as of March 2001)
- Host platform: Mac OS 9.x (tested on G3/300 with 256 MB RAM)
- Key features: Unison voice stacking, three operation modes, MIDI trigger
- Reviewed in Pro-Audio-Review (March 2001), Sound-on-Sound (Jan 2003, Sep 2003)
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