Alesis Ion

Modelled Analogue Synthesizer

Reviews : Keyboard

The Ion might be a latecomer to the world of analogue modelling, but this has afforded Alesis the opportunity of learning from all the virtual analogues already on the market. Free and radical, or negative particle? We find out...

Paul Nagle

Photos: Mark Ewing

It was something of a surprise when Alesis announced the 'analogue' successor to their flagship polysynth, Andromeda. It was not to be, as many hoped, a cheaper spin-off of the same technology, but a DSP modelling synth instead.

The Andromeda was a daring experiment: a modern analogue keyboard-based megasynth, seemingly designed by committee and with a plethora of features to befuddle us elderly gentlemen raised on Jupiters and Prophets. On my first encounter with it, I remember gazing helplessly over its complex facade and wondering where to start. In contrast, the Ion's spacious panel is much less intimidating and, although it hasn't a true analogue bone in its body, any major compromise in sound is hard to spot except, inevitably, in the minds of those for whom analogue will always be best.

Flat Ion

The Ion looks striking; perhaps suggesting a certain Waldorfian character with its red and silver colour scheme and chunky 360-degree, high-resolution pots. There are 30 of these dark, rubbery, grabbable beasties, the only significant drawback being the single set of envelope controls shared by filter, pitch/mod and amplifier. The knobs feel great, but the buttons — 70 of them — are (very) small and feel rather cheap.

The front-panel legending is rather small for my eyesight, and this is worse in low lighting conditions. This point aside, however, the Ion looks great in a dimly lit environment with its many useful indicator LEDs. Some of the LEDs are built into buttons and can change in intensity according to underlying parameter values. Thus, transposing the oscillators from zero by up to three octaves generates a progressively brighter red from the Up switch indicator. And while we're discussing impressive visuals, the three performance wheels are also backlit, and may be configured to grow brighter as you move them. Because this looks lovely, it is the default action — but you can have them constantly backlit if you prefer it.

The 160x160 LCD is fine but, because the synth is perfectly flat with no raised control panel, I found myself stooping far over the keyboard in order to see it properly. Nevertheless, page and 'soft' keys guide you through the various menus and the use of graphics is very informative throughout, especially when displaying envelope curves and waveforms. There are many parameters for which there are no dedicated controls, so strategically placed Edit buttons (backlit in green) access additional options. Data entry is performed via a combination of 'soft' buttons and a notched clear plastic pot. This data-entry knob doesn't always perform intuitively, requiring clockwise turning to increase values, step on through patches, and so on, but anti-clockwise turning within some menus (to progress through the mod matrix slots, for example).

Overall, I found the panel design a bit of a mixed bag. I liked the large knobs and found the space between them to be generous, but the layout seemed a little eccentric. For example, oscillators, mixers and filters are numbered not from the top of the panel but from the bottom, although the two LFO buttons are placed in the conventional order. Then there's the positioning of the envelope mode selector buttons behind the knobs, meaning you must reach your fingers over them to select which of three envelopes are active.

Whenever you touch a knob, the screen displays the relevant menu, as if you had pressed an Edit button. As this behaviour is not something you'd always want, it can be turned off globally — but then you lose the handy display of values for cutoff, resonance and so on, until you specifically enter an Edit menu. I think a better solution would be for the various menus to time out automatically and return to the Home screen after a few seconds (you can do this at any time by pressing the Home button — located, inconveniently, close to the top of the panel).

Turning to the keyboard for a moment, it is an insubstantial four-octave affair with velocity and release-velocity action — but sadly no aftertouch. You can assign Mod Wheel 2 to transmit aftertouch as a limited compromise.

The synth's rear features stereo audio outputs, two additional outputs, control and sustain pedal inputs, the ubiquitous MIDI trio and also stereo audio inputs. All audio ins and outs are 24-bit balanced, and power is courtesy of a standard IEC 'kettle' connector.

Ion Drive

Alesis have given the Ion considerable DSP muscle courtesy of a combination of processors. The main CPU is a 32-bit Motorola Coldfire and nine further DSP chips of Alesis' own design (one for each voice plus one for the effects) work together to form a sound engine running at 500MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second). So how does this translate to real-world features? Well, the Ion boasts just eight notes of polyphony and four-part multitimbrality, so you probably won't be creating monster layered patches or writing full songs on it — not without overdubs, anyway. Alesis have concentrated on sound quality first and foremost — and if that means a synthesizer with only eight voices, so be it.

First impressions are important, and, compared to other virtual analogues in its class, the Ion's raw sound might not immediately grab you. It's curious that Alesis — of all companies — chose to bestow such a limited effects processor upon their new synth. There's no reverb and the delay is hardly worth speaking of (don't worry though, I will). Indeed, it was only when I got the Ion into my studio and began in-depth analysis of its sound alongside an array of real analogues that I started to get impressed. And, after a few days, I was very impressed.

MIDI Transmission All the front-panel knobs transmit data so that it can be recorded by a sequencer; specifically, it is MIDI NRPNs (Non-Registered Parameter Numbers) that are sent. Whilst more editable than a stream of system-exclusive data, this does create its own problems for those of us who like to play around with sequencers — or simply edit controllers by redrawing a few curves in Cubase. An example will best illustrate why I find NRPNs frustrating. First, turn the Ion's 'Cutoff1' knob and record its output. You will see that, as you turn the knob, four MIDI controllers are generated. These correspond to the parameter identifier in LSB and MSB format (ie. Least Significant Byte, CC98; Most Significant Byte, CC99) plus the actual data. Again, this is in LSB and MSB format — data entry being a combination of controller numbers 38 and 6. When your tweaking involves the turning of a single knob, you can easily find the data-entry curves in your sequencer and make edits — but how about if you turn several? All those nested data-entry controllers become a total mess in such a situation — but on the plus side, they do allow a greater resolution than standard MIDI controllers with their range of values from 0-127 only. One way to make your tweaks more editable is to use the modulation matrix to 'remap' specific MIDI controllers to those functions you wish to control remotely — but it's a bit of a drag if you like to do this sort of thing a lot.

Oscillators

The Ion's control panel is laid out from left to right to reflect its signal path, with the controls for its three oscillators on the left, followed by a pre-filter mixer. Performance controls, such as the three lit wheels and the buttons governing portamento and the arpeggiator, are situated at the edge of the control panel and fall easily under your left hand.

The Ion has three oscillators per voice, each with continuously variable waveshapes. Select a square waveform and the waveshapes available range from a narrow pulse to a full, hollow square wave. The sawtooth varies from positive saw, through triangle, to negative saw, and the sine wave changes to a 'deformed sine' that adds higher harmonics. All the waveforms are shown graphically on the display. Each oscillator's pitch may be transposed in octaves (within a range of ±3), semitones (±7), or may be fine-tuned in half-cent intervals (a cent is one percent of a semitone). The oscillators sound great, especially when subtly detuned against each other, and they offer several noteworthy features to cause envy amongst rivals.

Firstly, oscillator sync is available in hard or soft modes. Hard sync is the one we're all familiar with, where the sync'ed oscillator resets its waveforms in line with the master. With the Ion's soft-sync implementation, the slaved waveform reverses direction whenever the master waveform begins its cycle, resulting in a wave with no sharp edges and a different mixture of harmonics. Oscillator 1 is always the master and either Oscillator 2 or both Oscillators 2 and 3 may be sync slaves.

The second spicy feature is an impressive FM implementation with three algorithms available that modulate the oscillators in various configurations. There's 3>2>1 (where Oscillator 3 modulates Oscillator 2, which in turn modulates Oscillator 1), 3>1<2 1="" 2="" 3="" and="" modulate="" or="" oscillator="" scillator="">1 (where Oscillator 3 plays no part in FM). FM may be either linear or exponential, and it has a dedicated level control for instant gratification.

The oscillators pass through a pre-filter mixer stage along with noise (selectable from white or pink), ring modulation (using Oscillators 1 and 2) and the external audio input. As with almost everything on the Ion, this mixer isn't as simple as it might appear. The synth has two filters per voice, so the mixer menu is the place to decide how much of each audio source to route to each filter — with the default setting being to send equal amounts to both. Since the external audio signal is a stereo source, the routing is a balance. In its 'middle' setting, the left channel goes entirely to Filter 1 and the right channel to Filter 2. Altering the balance allows the signals to be sent to either of the two filters in the amount you desire. A further choice in the mixer menu routes the output of Filter 1 into Filter 2, so you can cascade them in series. There are yet more signal routing options to discuss, but as they happen after the filter section, we'll head straight into that first.

Filters

The Ion has superbly controllable envelopes, and editing them via the display is simplicity itself.

Alesis have really gone to town on the Ion's twin filters, with no less than 17 different types available to each, plus a bypass option. If I list them all, you must promise not to drool on your magazine (or keyboard, if you're reading this on the SOS web site). The full list can be found in the box below.

Each filter has a dedicated bi-polar envelope amount knob and the Edit menu provides a graphical representation of all settings via on-screen sliders (with filter frequency displayed in Hz), plus a further option — key-tracking. Finally, Filter 2 has an offset function. When enabled via its button, this ties the frequency of Filter 2 to a fixed offset from that of Filter 1. In this case, adjusting Filter 1's cutoff sweeps both of them.

If the wonders of the Ion's filters seem complete, there is still the not-insignificant matter of the Post-Filter Mixer to examine. This useful little extra determines the amount of each filter that will be sent to the output stage and the panning of each of them in the stereo field. And there's more, because at this stage, you can introduce a 'Pre-Filter' signal back into the mix. The source is selectable from any of the oscillators, the ring modulaton, noise source, or even the whole 'pre-filter' input mix. With dedicated knobs for each mix signal, too, this is pant-wettingly good fun (forgive me; I don't get out much).

Filter Types The Ion's manual is careful not to name the specific synths on which its various filters are modelled, but if I borrow some of its language, and you look closely at the two-letter names for the various types, you should find it pretty easy to guess. 'mg': a four-pole low-pass modelled on that of the most famous monophonic analogue synth ever made. 'ob': a two-pole low-pass closely resembling the one in a classic synth xpander... whoops, I mean expander module. 'ob': a two-pole band-pass. 'ob': a two-pole high-pass. 'rp': a four-pole low-pass modelled on the one in a popular semi-modular synth. 'tb': a three-pole low-pass (think 'little silver bass synth'). 'jp': a four-pole low-pass (from an eight-voice synth noted for its coloured buttons amongst other things); 'Eight-pole low-pass': all the filters from here on were created for the Ion; this one gives a very steep cutoff. '8ve dual band-pass': two two-pole band-pass filters spaced one octave apart. 'six-pole band-pass': like an exaggerated version of the 'ob' band-pass. 'phase warp': an analogue phaser effect based on eight all-pass filters in series. 'comb filter 1': multiple resonant peaks and notches which are not harmonically related. 'comb filter 2': as above, but the signal is additionally filtered to warm up the sound. 'vocal formant 1': three band-pass filters emulating 'ah' and 'oo' vowel sounds. 'vocal formant 2': as above, but 'oh' and 'ee' vowel sounds. 'vocal formant 3': a five-band formant filter. 'band limit': a two-pole high-pass filter and a two-pole low-pass filter in series, limiting the signal to everything between them; resonance adjusts bandwidth. That's quite an impressive collection — imagine the hardware required to build a polyphonic analogue synth containing that lot! There are some beautiful filters here, ranging from the (A)RP low-pass that clips when it gets a loud input level, to the delightful phasing filter and the expressive vocal filters. They all respond smoothly, with only the maximum resonance settings (in some cases) proving a little harsh and digital-sounding. And with two such flexible filters to play with, you are not reduced to merely emulating such classics as Moogs, Oberheims, Jupiters and so on, but can go where no-one has gone before. Perhaps this truly is the first of the next generation of Virtual Analogues?

Modulation

Three envelopes, two LFOs and separate Sample and Hold serve as familiar modulation sources, but there are even more available within the modulation matrix. Accessed via a dedicated button to the left of the display, 12 totally free modulation connections may be made for each program. You can use them to dynamically control waveform pitch and shape (for all waves, not just the square wave), filter routing, panning, frequency, mixer settings, effects and more.

On the right, the top panel continues to reflect the signal path through the Ion. After the twin filters, the signal passes through another mixer to the output. The single set of envelope controls (one of the Ion's less welcome aspects) are underneath, and the buttons relating to patch and part programming and selection are sensibly grouped in the middle with the display.

Modulation parameters include: source (36 choices plus MIDI controller numbers 1 to 119), level, and destination (78 of them!) plus an additional modifier — offset. With this, you can add a fixed offset — positive or negative — to the destination value. In a nutshell, the Mod Matrix is a cracker and covers virtually everything you could expect to see. It's so comprehensive it can hold its head high next to classic synths such as the Oberheim Xpander — especially given the inclusion of exotica such as a 'tracking generator'. The purpose of this is to remap a modulation source (for example the mod wheel, a note value, or velocity) to produce a warped, decidedly non-linear output. In practical terms, you might use it to create unusual pitch variations over certain areas of the keyboard or to rescale a MIDI controller so that it only starts to act after exceeding a specific value. Such concepts are far easier to grasp after a little hands-on time, but for the experimentally inclined, they're a godsend.

All the waveforms of both LFOs are simultaneously available in the modulation matrix. These waves include the expected sine, triangle, sawtooth and square along with phase-shifted versions of each. Additionally, totally random modulation sources are on hand as well as sample and hold. Most S&H implementations on modern instruments sample a noise waveform to produce a random output, but the Ion's S&H adopts a more versatile approach. It can sample sources such as note velocity, LFO waveforms, MIDI controller numbers, envelopes and the tracking generator output, again reminding us of the Oberheim Xpander. There's a smoothing parameter, and the S&H-rate, reset-on-note, and sync-to-MIDI-Clock parameters are comprehensively programmable, as with the LFOs.

If the S&H and the LFOs have a fine spec, then the envelopes are damn near perfect. Indeed, the Ion has my favourite envelope implementation ever, of any synth I've had in my studio. There's only one fly in the ointment; there's just a single set of hardware controls for all three envelopes.

This aside, why are the envelopes so good? Well, for a start, you've got control over the slope of the attack, decay and release components of the envelope independently — with a choice of linear or exponential curves (positive or negative). The envelope times range from a snappy 0.5ms to a languid 30 seconds for attack, decay or release time. Better still (and reminiscent of the Chroma Polaris) if you set the release to maximum, it enters Hold mode, sustaining indefinitely. All envelopes should do this! You'll note that the envelopes have five knobs rather than the traditional four. The extra stage is a sustain time — so you can have the sustain level gradually die away to nothing if you like — or set it to maximum for behaviour like a standard ADSR. And we're not finished yet! Envelopes may be programmed to 'free-run', which means they pass through an entire attack-and-release phase, regardless of how long you hold a key. This is ideal for triggering spot effects, especially when you want to create a long, evolving sound without tying up your hands to do it. The envelopes can reset at zero whenever a key is played or work in legato mode, where they carry on from their previous level on hitting a new note. This latter is great for monosynth emulations. Finally, envelopes may be set to loop, and there are various modes available. One of these involves looping the attack and decay portion for as long as you hold down a note — or forever if the envelope happens to be set to 'free-run'! The manual advises you not to do this accidentally for the amplifier envelope; if you do, you can then only kill the note by playing enough non-looping notes to steal the voice. As I didn't read the manual right away [you shock me, Paul — Ed], I found this behaviour rather disconcerting, stumbling across a scenario where an envelope continued to loop even when looping was deactivated.

To briefly summarise: the envelopes are awesome! Having one of them freely assignable (the 'pitch/mod' envelope) in combination with the Modulation Matrix allows for completely different envelope shapes for each filter. Or you can perform such cool tricks as fading a signal between the filters using the mod envelope whilst doing traditional filter sweeps with the filter envelope. This is not a synth you're going to explore fully in a few days — or even a few months!

Sounds

With four colour-coded banks of sounds — 512 patches in total — the Ion has plenty to audition. The banks are titled Red, Green, Blue and Yellow, and the last of these is supposedly the user bank, but this is slightly misleading, as all the banks may in fact be overwritten with user patches. Patch locations follow roughly the same order in each bank, starting with synth bass and leads and ending with sound effects and percussion.

The Ion's rear panel sports two stereo outputs, a headphone jack, a stereo input, and sustain and expression pedal connections. There are also the usual MIDI In, Out, and Thru sockets.

For multitimbral play, there are 64 Setup locations that refer to (up to) four patches, each with their own MIDI channel, output routing and panning, high and low key ranges, effects level, transpose settings and response to the mod wheels. Each of the four parts in an Ion Setup (labelled A-D) may be enabled or disabled via dedicated front-panel buttons located below the display; a second row of buttons denotes which part is currently active for editing (only one at once). With careful use of panning, each part can be routed to its own output if necessary.

I was struck by how fat and 'American' the Ion sounds when compared to other modelled analogues I own. And its bass can be as warm or as cutting as the best of my analogue monosynths too — always a good test. It may be modelled analogue, but carefully audition a few of its patches and then tell me whether you care! Alesis have clearly put a lot of effort into minimising digital artifacts and the result is one of the most organic-sounding DSP-based instruments yet. For some of my favourites, see the box below.

One slight gripe — whilst playing some of these patches, I really missed having an aftertouch-enabled keyboard and, despite being no Keith Emerson, I started to find the Ion's a little light. Also, its flat, squarish shape leaves the keyboard indented slightly and my sloppy fingers often hit the panel as I hurtled in typical careless fashion towards the highest note.

Factory Favourites Here are just a few of the Ion's factory sounds I particularly liked — many of them from bank Green, as it happens. Red, 041: 'Clusters' — a resonant, string-like pad making good use of the Phase Warp filter. Green, 003: 'J00p1t3r' — very analogue and Jupiter-like, and lovely at the bass end. Green, 010: 'Mini Classic' — a lovely solo patch for those 'where's my cape?' moments. Green, 018: 'Porta Lead' — another marvellous, warm lead. Green, 027: 'Massive Pad' — mod wheel 2 brings in noise under this, well, massive pad... Green, 030: 'Aeon Choir' — this uses the two-pole high-pass and warp filters to produce a lush vocal texture. Green, 051: 'Profit Strings' — my Prophet 5 never sounded quite this good. Green, 052: 'Violacoder' — a stunning vocalised solo string that makes great use of the 40-band vocoder. Green, 081: 'E.P.?O.K.!' — this virtual analogue synth can also do electric pianos, organs, clavs and so on. This was my favourite of the pianos. Blue, 021: 'Phase Pad' — OK, I'm a sucker for these warm pads. Blue, 058: 'AbitOffTheTop' — a zappy, brassy, Xpander-like patch. User, 058: 'Kugel Flugel' — a simple brassy sawtooth, but very usable. Add a splash of external reverb or delay to this lot, and you're ready to gig.

Effects

In contrast to the generous options in its synthesis engine, the Ion's effects offer slim pickings. This was a surprise — and a disappointment given Alesis' undoubted history in this field. Each of the four parts has its own modelled Drive effect selectable from six types: 'Compressor', 'RMS Limiter', 'Tube Overdrive', 'Distortion', 'Tube Amp' and 'Fuzz Pedal'. These do an adequate job of boosting and dirtying things up, but I probably wouldn't have pined had they been omitted entirely.

The Master effects are slightly more interesting, consisting of the following types: 'Super Phaser', 'String Phaser', 'Theta Flanger', 'Thru Zero Flanger', 'Chorus', and 'Slap Back'. Some of them sound particularly analogue and convincing — especially the flangers — but there are no reverbs, and the only pure delay effect ('Slap Back') — has a maximum time of just 80ms, rendering it useless for echo duties. Quite why Alesis couldn't have added one of their cheap multi-effects chips at the end of the signal chain, I don't know, but at least the effects parameters, such as they are, are present in the Modulation Matrix.

Also included in this section is a 40-band vocoder. So many synths include these today that it's easy to overlook them, but Alesis have provided a generous selection of tweakable parameters and routing, enabling you to process the synth's own signals or use the stereo audio input to provide both the source and carrier signals to drive it. Some example patches in the (Yellow) User bank were perfect starting points and, overall, the vocoder does a splendid job.

Don't expect Novation-style effects per multitimbral part, as Alesis have spent their DSP currency elsewhere. Thus, all Master effects settings refer to part A of a multitimbral setup only; parts B-D have merely a send amount.

Performance Tools

It's great to see dedicated buttons included for Unison mode and mono/polyphonic operation, and the portamento settings in the Voice Edit menu are comprehensive, as I came to expect from the Ion. You can choose from portamento or glissando with either a fixed or scaled rate — in other words, you can choose whether the time to glide between notes is the same regardless of their distance apart or whether it should vary according to the interval. Portamento can be set to work on all notes, or just on those played in legato fashion.

Also in this menu is a pitch-wheel option by means of which the wheel may be set to operate on all notes or just held notes — a handy performance feature. Then there's 'analogue drift'; a means to make your perfectly-tuned digital synth behave like a temperamental box of old-fashioned circuits. Setting this to extremes, I was able to recreate an almost exact replica of my Jupiter 6 before I've had a chance to hit its Tune button.

At the top left-hand corner of the panel (not traditionally the location for such a performance tool) is the arpeggiator. Its interface consists of a tempo knob and a tap-tempo button that also serves as visual tempo indicator, courtesy of its integral LED. Buttons to enable and latch the arpeggiator are provided too, and the associated LCD-based Edit menu offers access to 32 preset patterns complete with settings such as arpeggio length, range, span (in other words, whether arpeggios go above, below or above and below the base notes) and note order.

Final Thoughts

Alesis have raised the bar in terms of what we should expect to hear from future modelled analogue instruments. The Ion's rich, warm tones, its many varied filters and versatile signal routing, the powerful modulation matrix and marvellous envelopes all add up to a synthesizer that even the most nerdy analogue anorak cannot simply dismiss as cold and digital.

Sometimes the user interface delights, at other times it frustrates. I loved the knobs, disliked the buttons, loved the wheels but wasn't keen on the feel of the keyboard and the angle of the display. In the end, though, whether or not I like an instrument always boils down to the sound. When this is right, I find you can forgive practically everything, and, despite its surprisingly limited effects implementation, the Ion delivers beautifully in the sonic department.

How it will sell in music stores, perhaps standing next to polished, more polyphonic competitors such as Novation's KS series, I can't predict. But it deserves to do well, especially with those of us who really enjoy getting in deep and exploring.

Problems were remarkably few given the early version of the operating software (v1.0). I noticed the occasional 'crack' when playing some patches — this is possibly caused by the free-running nature of the oscillators (apparently, a future OS upgrade should add an option to reset the oscillators' phase when a note is played). I also managed to crash the Ion by recording too many knob twiddles into Cubase and playing them back again. I sent Alesis a MIDI file of my wild excesses, whereupon they quickly spotted the bug at fault. The plan is that an upgrade to fix this particular problem should be available by the time you read this, but if your music is of the controller-heavy type, try before you buy. Aside from these niggles, and my initial confusion with envelope looping, the Ion performed well.

The factory sounds are, on the whole, good, but it's when you start programming your own material that the instrument makes you grin and mutter 'aha' a lot. In fact, if I didn't already own a stack of DSP synths, the Ion would probably be part of my collection by now, and if Alesis release a rack version, I doubt I'll be able to resist. After all, none of my ageing analogues are getting any younger, and the Ion's range of Moog, Oberheim, Roland and ARP sounds is very convincing. What's more, the Ion's exotic vocal textures and comb and phasing filters offer the potential for much more tonal tinkering than any of its immediate rivals. If you are looking for a modelled analogue synthesizer and put sound and flexibility above polyphony and effects, you owe it to yourself to spend time with the Ion.

Published in SOS September 2003

Roland VR760

Performance Keyboard

Reviews : Keyboard

This impressive-looking instrument provides modelled classic organ, piano and supporting timbres, and is designed to appeal to keyboard players looking for an all-round stage tool — though it could also form the centrepiece of a home setup.

Hugh Robjohns

Photos: Mark Ewing

Regular readers of this magazine may find it surprising that a review of this particular keyboard has been left in my hands — I'm known for many things, but keyboard reviews is not normally one of them! The one area where I do dabble, though, is Hammond organ emulations, being a self-declared Hammond aficionado. From this introduction, then, you will have deduced that the Roland VR760 involves a Hammond organ sound module — indeed, this is demonstrably its underpinning strength, with sound generation derived directly from Roland's VK8 combo organ. But the VR760 is not just an organ: it is much more of a multi-functional keyboard which can provide a versatile and solid centrepiece for any home or stage keyboard setup. In fact, it's the latter which offers the main market for this instrument.

Four In One

The VR760 is essentially four instruments in one. Its foundation is, clearly, the Hammond organ emulation, complete with drawbars and Leslie simulations. Next comes a range of acoustic and electric pianos. The former are derived from Roland's FP and RD-Series instruments, while the latter are newly sampled for the VR760 and claimed to be the best electronic piano samples Roland have ever produced. The mandatory harpsichord and clavinet sounds are also on offer, and all of these voices can be processed with a comprehensive suite of digital effects. The third element is a synthesizer section which provides strings, brass, choirs and bass sounds, plus some synth-lead and pad sounds, and there's provision to extend the sonic range of the instrument further via up to two SRX sound expansion cards. The fourth and final part of the keyboard is a pretty basic rhythm unit containing four different drum set sounds which can be controlled independently via MIDI — as can each of the three instrument sections, of course. It's apparent, then, that this is an all-rounder of a 'supporting keyboard.'

First Impressions

After opening the large box and unpacking the keyboard, the first thing I noticed was that it was much bigger than I was expecting. Most organ keyboards have five octaves (61 notes) but the VR760 has a 76-note keyboard, from a bottom 'E' to a top 'G'. The advantage, of course, is that playing two different sounds on a split keyboard becomes a lot easier, and expansive piano parts can be accommodated comfortably too.

The keyboard also features wooden end-cheeks, giving it an upmarket appearance, and the manual refers to the nicks and scratches which the end-cheeks are bound to acquire during a life on the road as a "badge of honour", which put a smile on my face. I'll try to think of it that way the next time some of my kit gets scratched, instead of just cursing!

Exhibiting its organ roots (I find myself wanting to say 'organic roots', but that sounds rather agricultural!), the keyboard has 'waterfall'-style keys with a very light and fast action (more of that in a moment) and classic square fronts to the keys. The requirements of a good organ keyboard are fundamentally different to those of a piano, and Roland have chosen the former here, but although the keyboard doesn't have a piano keyboard action or weighting, it is fully velocity sensitive and has a monophonic aftertouch, both of which are put to good effect with the piano and synth sound-generators.

Although I'm jumping ahead a little here, it is worth mentioning a facility in the configuration menus that affects the action of the keyboard when it is used to control the organ sound-generator. By default, the keys have a very shallow action which Roland refer to as 'Quick Firing'. The design is such that only a slight depression (about 3mm) causes the corresponding notes to sound. This gives the keyboard a very fast response which is important for obtaining proper glissandos and rapid repetition effects — both mainstays of popular organ playing techniques.

However, the frequent side effect of such a shallow action is 'key bounce', where notes can sometimes be sounded accidentally after a key is released suddenly. I didn't find this a problem during my tests, but as Roland mention it specifically in the VR760's manual, I guess it's an issue that figured in the instrument's development. Consequently there is a menu option that allows the action to be changed, requiring a much deeper depression of each key (about 6mm) before the note sounds.

Getting Organised

After the size of the keyboard, my second major impression of the instrument was the number of knobs and buttons on it. This is clearly an instrument intended for live performance duties, with the majority of features being instantly accessible through dedicated controls, grouped into distinct instrumental and control sections on two layers. The lower row of controls relates to the three main sound-generator sections, while the upper section consists of the LCD and menu controls, and some of the overall facilities, such as reverb.

The Organ controls and drawbar section.

Starting on the left hand-side, the first set of controls applies to the organ section, beginning with the nine familiar harmonic drawbars. I was pleased to discover that the correct 'fold-down' and 'fold-up' of notes towards the top and bottom of the keyboard, respectively, has been maintained, since this is an important element of the Hammond sound. The organ tone-generator is also fully polyphonic, so 'full arm' glissandos sound right too! A rotary vibrato-chorus control (and associated on-off button) offers three levels of each effect, arranged in exactly the same order as the equivalent control on a proper tonewheel Hammond.

Four illuminated push-buttons provide the percussion controls with second- and third-harmonic selectors, soft and slow options. Menu options allow these facilities to be customised in terms of normal and soft percussion levels, fast and slow times, recharge time, and the relative volume of the drawbar sounds when the percussion is set to normal — but the default settings are pretty accurate.

The ubiquitous Leslie speaker simulator has three push-button controls, with an on-off button, plus Brake and Slow-Fast switches. Leslie speed can also be controlled by hand using the D-beam facility (more in a moment), or a footswitch. Again, menu options enable a high degree of flexibility, with separate adjustments for the tweeter and woofer elements of the system, including the 'spread' and distance of the virtual microphones, as well as fast and slow speeds, and rise and fall times when changing speeds. The default settings are, again, very good, and quite believable when auditioned on a decent stereo speaker system.

No two Hammonds ever sound the same, and it is these variations that form an essential part of the unique character of the instrument. Roland have gone some way towards allowing for some individuality by providing various controls to alter the tonality of the organ sound. The first of these is a push-button that toggles through three tone-generator settings labelled Clean, Vintage 1 and Vintage 2. Vintage 1 emulates the tonewheels and filter sets of the last generation of tonewheel organs in the 1970s, while Vintage 2 has the slightly more mellow sound of the typical 1960s instruments. Both include all the 'leakage' side tones that escape when a key is played and that are associated with the Hammond. The Clean setting sounds like Vintage 1, but without the leakage noise. A menu option allows the volume of the leakage tones in the Vintage settings to be adjusted, but not removed altogether. Another menu enables the amount of key-click to be controlled, with separate settings for the onset and release noises.

The second tone-modifying section is based on Roland's COSM technology and aims to simulate the tonality of various amp and speaker combinations. An overdrive effect is also available. The COSM amplifier section consists of a push-button that toggles through four 'Types'. The first replicates a stock valve amp and Leslie combination, while the second substitutes the kind of high-powered guitar valve amp often used by rock bands in the 1970s, and gives a far more mid-heavy sound. Type 3 offers an alternative type of rotary speaker (I wonder whose?), and Type 4 seems similar to Type 1 but with far more distortion and a more compressed sound. The Overdrive control can be used with any setting, although the character and amount of overdrive varies considerably depending on which Type is in use.

The final control in the organ section is a rotary knob for setting the level of the organ sound within the overall keyboard output (a menu function also enables the level of the organ's contribution to the internal reverb processor to be adjusted). A couple of other controls pertinent to the organ are located on the upper section of the control panel. In the 'One Touch' section are three buttons labelled Organ, Piano, and Synth. By pressing one of these you automatically mute the other two sound generators and cancel any Split modes that might be active at the time. Thus it's easy to switch from a layered sound of piano and strings, say, to just full-range organ. The other control is labelled 'H-Bar Manual' and instantly switches the drawbar registration from that stored in the current patch memory to the physical settings on the drawbars themselves.

It's worth stating that if any of the keyboard controls are adjusted, be they in the organ, piano or synth sections, they only 'take over' from the patch memory settings when they are moved through the same setting. So to change the 8ft drawbar setting, for example, you have to pull (or push) it through the memory setting before regaining manual control — hence the reason for adding the H-Bar Manual button.

Two final menu settings applicable to the organ sound-generator include an octave-shift facility (+/-2 octaves), useful when playing on a split keyboard, and a fine-tune control (+/-50 cents). In fact, each of the three sound-generator sections — organ, piano and synth — can be tuned independently, relative to a master tune control spanning the range 415-466Hz. There is also a transpose facility to shift the keyboard down six or up five semitones.

Get The Picture With V-Link In common with some of Roland's other recent products, the VR760 features 'V-Link'. A button near the Registration section activates this facility, which can be used to switch between video images stored on a connected Edirol DV7PR 'Digital Video Presenter'. Image switching can be activated either by pressing the eight registration memory buttons or, if they are suitably configured, by pressing the eight bottom keys on the keyboard.

Fender Benders

The piano and synth controls are somewhat simpler than those of the organ, but are no less versatile. The piano facilities include a tone-selection panel, more COSM modelling features, a collection of digital effects, and an output volume control. Whereas the organ generator is fully polyphonic, the piano and synth sections combine to provide up to 128 simultaneous voices derived from a 96MB internal PCM wave memory.

The COSM modelling implementation on the VR760 even allows the distance between the virtual microphone and the sound source to be altered, instantly, via a convenient rotary control.

The piano section is equipped with nine separate voices, only one of which can be active at a time. These are grouped into acoustic pianos, electric pianos, and 'Others' — each with three variations. The acoustics include a concert grand, a more mellow classical piano, and much brighter, harder 'European' piano — all very usable and useful variations. 

I have an entry-level Roland HP piano for practising at home, and have always found the acoustic piano sounds very good, but the electric pianos have always disappointed. However, the electric piano contingent on the VR760 is a real breath of fresh air. There are three variations of Rhodes — vintage, brighter, and hot-rodded — while under the heading of 'Others' we have a lovely Wurlitzer electric piano, the obligatory Clavinet, and a nice woody harpsichord. The Rhodes and Wurly pianos are fantastic — indeed, in the context of a multi-purpose keyboard, as 'naked' sources, these are all pretty good voices. However, they can be enhanced further with the application of some COSM modelling. The COSM controls here include a push-button to select one of two Types of modelling and a rotary knob to change the virtual mic distance or amp EQ. In the case of the acoustic pianos, the modelling affects the type of microphones used to capture the piano — a small-diaphragm condenser or dynamic mic — while it simulates a vintage electric piano amplifier or guitar amp for the electric piano sounds.

The multi-effects section can be switched between Chorus, Tremolo, Wah and Phaser effects, with rotary controls for depth and rate (the last complete with an LED that flashes to show the current speed). These effects can be applied to any piano sound, although they really come to into their own with the electric piano sounds.

Once again, the menu structure provides a lot of scope to customise the piano section, with the same two-octave shift and section-tuning facilities as the organ, an overall stereo width control, four levels of stretch tuning, decay and release times, three levels of touch sensitivity, and an echo send-level parameter. The effects section can also be customised, with settings for the chorus return level, mono or stereo tremolo modes, modulated or touch-sensitive wah effects, and the amount of filter resonance in the wah and phaser effects.

Connectivity The rear panel of the VR760 is well equipped. Mains power is connected to the right-hand side of the keyboard via the usual IEC connector, adjacent to a power switch. On the left-hand side are all the output, foot controller and MIDI sockets. There's a stereo headphone socket, a pair of balanced line-level outputs on XLRs, and a pair of unbalanced line-level outputs on quarter-inch sockets. With nothing plugged into the right output jack socket the left output carries a mono mix. There are three foot-controller sockets, again on quarter-inch sockets, catering for a damper pedal, an expression (volume) pedal, and a control footswitch. The damper pedal normally only affects the piano voices, but can be assigned to the organ or synth parts too, if required. Likewise, the expression pedal normally affects only the organ voices, but can also be assigned to the other parts. I was surprised that the damper and expression pedals were not supplied with the keyboard. The only accessories are the mains cord, handbook and a music rack. It's almost impossible to play a realistic piano part without using the damper pedal, and a major element of an organ part is pedal dynamics. While I can understand not supplying a foot controller for the Control facility, omitting the damper and expression pedals does seem particularly stingy to me. Hopefully, dealers will be more generous and considerate! The control switch facility provides a great deal of useful functionality, partly because it will operate with either a footswitch or a volume pedal. Depending on which type of controller is connected, the control options include rotary speaker speed (switched or continuously variable), the amount of organ overdrive effect, tonewheel brake effect, patch memory incrementing up or down, piano soft or sostenuto, adding extra piano octaves (as per the D-Beam), pedal wah-wah effects, synth glide (as per the D-Beam), rhythm section start-stop, and external sequencer start-stop. The LCD contrast control is tucked away on the back panel next to the usual trio of MIDI sockets, and a Compact Flash memory card slot (with metal protection bracket) is also provided. The manual doesn't specify this, but the slot appears to be able to accept both Type 1 and Type II cards, which can be used optionally to store the registration and system memory data. The supplied music rest can be attached (with screws) to the rear of the keyboard if required.

Synth Section

The third main voice section is for the synthesizer, which is equipped similarly to the piano. A group of six buttons provides access to the different voices, each of which has three variations. The categories are Strings (Orchestral, European and Jupiter 8); Choir (Real Choir, Female Vox and Jazz Scat); Brass (Brass Section, Concert Brass and OB Fat Brass); Synth Lead (Vintage, Dual and Retro); Synth Pad (OB Pad, 2.3 Pad and Glassy Pad); Bass (Acoustic, Fretless and Hefty); and SRX Expansion (see below).

On their own, none of these sounds is likely to win any awards for authenticity, but when used in a layer with other sounds they fit in remarkably well, and the variations have been well chosen in the main — particularly the strings and brass, where they each have usefully different tonal characteristics. The only voice I found difficult to use was the Jazz Scat voice, which seems to require a particularly skilful and consistent touch for the most effective use, since different key velocities trigger radically different samples.

As I've already mentioned, the VR760 has provision to accept two SRX Wave Expansion boards, which can be fitted after removing a plate on the underside of the keyboard. The current collection includes Drum Kits, Concert Piano, Studio SRX, Symphonique Strings, Supreme Dance, Complete Orchestra, Ultimate Keys, Platinum Trax, and World Collection (the last four being derived from JV80 sample sets). When installed, the SRX voices are all available in one long list and are accessed via the SRX button and its associated plus and minus buttons to scroll through the options.

The Synth voices can also be modified using four rotary controls to adjust attack and release times, filter cutoff frequency and filter resonance, thereby allowing both tone shaping and some real-time manual effects. Like the piano section, the synth also has its own dedicated multi-effects processor, but in this case there's just a single control knob to adjust the amount of effect. To modify the effect or substitute another, you have to delve into the menu system, which tends to preclude real-time manipulations but does provide access to a full range of effects and parameters, just as you would find on a stand-alone processor.

The effects list includes equalisers, overdrive/distortion, phasers/flangers, rotary effects, dynamics, delays, pitch shifts, reverb, and various combination effects. They are all usable, versatile, controllable, and well suited to the task at hand. The final control elements are an output volume control and an 'Active Expression' facility. The latter applies when an EV7 expression pedal is connected, and allows the player to control either the volume or the timbre of the synth section independently from any other sounds that might be layered with it — enabling string parts to be faded up under a piano, or expression to be added to a lead solo, for example.

Like the other sections, the synth registration menus provide a range of customisation parameters. For example, the voices can be switched between monophonic, polyphonic or mono-legato modes, and different rates and kinds of portamento (glide) can be applied. There are also the now familiar octave-shift, reverb send level and section tuning parameters.

Rhythm & Control: The Drum Styles & D-Beam To the left of the LCD screen is the D-Beam controller section and the controls for the internal rhythm section. The latter is provided with an on-off button and volume control, the current rhythm program and tempo being selected via the LCD screen. There are 23 pre-programmed rhythms, almost all in 4/4 (with one each in 6/8, 5/4 and 7/4), and spanning the common styles including Jazz Funk, 8- and 16-Beat Pop, Blues, R&B, Jazz and Latin. The pre-programmed rhythms are pretty basic and mundane, and lack any variation options or programmability. Essentially, they are provided to act as a metronome for practising, or perhaps to give a little inspiration when composing. However, the audio samples themselves are pretty good and they can be accessed and played via MIDI, if required. There are four different kits to choose from — Pop, Rock, R&B and Jazz — each with 27 sounds (although about a dozen are common to all four sets). The D-beam controller has become a standard feature on many of Roland's more recent keyboards. On the VR760 it can be used to change different parameters for each of the three primary voice generators. For example, it switches the rotary speaker speed between fast and slow if allocated to the organ voice generator. If assigned to the piano it can be used to add notes an octave higher than those played, as well as adding the sub-octave if the hand is brought closer to the panel. For the synth section the D-beam controls the glide effect between notes. An LED changes colour to indicate the current status. While I'm sure some users will find this a useful facility, I think I would generally prefer to use a footswitch or controller — but the option is there for either mode of operation. In addition to the D-Beam facility, there is also a conventional two-axis Bender/Modulation control (pitch-bend left/right, modulation forwards). The maximum amount of pitch-bend can be programmed into different registration patches, and the modulation action can be used to switch the rotary speaker speed, if required.

Generic Functions

The upper layer of controls on the VR760 applies largely to all three voice generators. Over at the left-hand side is a master volume control, while at the opposite end of the panel is a master reverb return level knob and program selector (room, hall or church reverb) plus a three-band equaliser (with a sweep mid control).

In the centre is a backlit LCD which shows the current mode, voice settings and menu parameters, as appropriate. There's also a two-digit LED display to indicate the current registration (or patch; the first digit represents the bank and the second the memory, both from 1-8). If a patch has been altered from its memory settings a dot in the bottom right-hand corner illuminates. Adjacent to these displays are the usual quartet of cursor buttons and increment, decrement, Enter and Exit buttons for selecting and cancelling menu options. If the last two are pressed together, the VR760 enters 'demo mode' with a choice of five songs.

The registration memories are accessed via the group of buttons to the right-hand side. One of the eight memory banks is selected first by pressing the small Bank button, followed by one of the larger number keys. Then any of the eight memory locations in the selected bank can be recalled. A Write button enables new patches to be stored in any of the 64 memory locations (eight banks with eight registrations each).

The registration buttons also double up to provide access to the configuration menus, if the Edit button immediately above them is pressed. Although it is simple to navigate to any menu page from any other, it's quicker to use the memory buttons to gain direct access to the required section — such as the organ parameters, or the utility section, for example.

The Piano section and Synth section controls.

The remaining buttons above the registration controls engage the keyboard Split facility, activate the manual drawbars, and provide 'One-Touch' instant activation of one of the three main voice sections. Holding down the Split button enables the split point to be selected in the usual way, and the current upper and lower voice selections are shown on the LCD. The current sound-generator allocations can be changed fairly quickly with the cursor and Inc/Dec buttons — two or three key strokes at most. However, altering the octave shift (which is almost always necessary when in split mode) requires a lot of key strokes to enter the registration menu for the appropriate voice section, scroll to the octave-shift parameter and then adjust up or down as required.

If you always work with pre-programmed patches, these parameters can all be stored, but trying to change things on the fly is not as easy as it could be. It would have been nice if the octave-shift parameter had been more readily accessible for each voice section through a short-cut combination; shortcuts are already provided for directly accessing such things as the tonewheel leakage level menu screen (Edit + Perc buttons) or the piano stereo width (Edit + Ac Piano buttons). Many of the keyboard shortcuts seem poorly chosen, as they access parameters which would rarely, if ever, need to be changed once configured, whereas some parameters, such as octave shifting, which do need to be adjusted during a performance, are difficult and tedious to access.

Conclusions

The VR760 is an interesting keyboard which will appeal to a lot of stage musicians because of its versatility and sound quality. The Hammond organ and rotary speaker emulations are extremely good, although I felt the 'leakage level' was a tad excessive (however, this can be adjusted through the menu). Roland's COSM modelling has been put to good effect in providing different amp/speaker combinations, which really helps to introduce some character, and the keyboard has a nice responsive action.

The modelling has also been used well with the quite excellent electric piano sounds, and I fell in love with the Wurly EP200 emulation! Roland's acoustic pianos have always been pretty good, and the VR760 is no exception, although I did find it rather odd playing acoustic and electric piano sounds on an unweighted organ keyboard.

The synth sounds provide a useful range of supportive ambient and lead sounds, although the SRX option obviously allows this aspect to be extended and customised further. The rhythm section is obviously rather limited and inflexible — disappointingly so — when the VR760 is used as a stand-alone instrument, although it does serve a useful function as a practice metronome. However, the embedded sound sets are good and they can be accessed via MIDI, helping the VR760 to serve as a complete production platform when connected to a sequencer at home.

If you're a synth/organ player and looking for a fine-sounding, performance-oriented all-rounder of a keyboard, the VR760 must be placed at the top of your shortlist. Piano players may find the lack of a weighted keyboard a drawback, but as you can't play fast synth leads or organ parts on a weighted keyboard, there has to be a compromise. On balance, Roland have got it pretty much spot-on with this machine.

Published in SOS November 2003

Phoenix Audio N90DRC - AES 2012

Access Virus Indigo 2 Redback

Modelled Analogue Synthesizer • Virus OS 6 Update

Reviews : Keyboard

This limited edition collectable synth comes complete with the advantages of new features in the latest Virus OS — and these features can also be added to previous Virus synths via a free update.

Nick Magnus

Photos: Mike Cameron

It may sound like a venomous antipodean arachnid, and you may even find mention of it on the web (groan...) but this particular Redback is in fact a limited edition version of Access' Indigo 2 virtual analogue s ynthesizer. The differences between the Redback and regular Indigo 2 are purely cosmetic, with the additional 'collectibility factor' that every Redback sports the signatures of its creators, Guido Kirsch and Christoph Kemper. Instead of the standard Indigo silver body/blue lights colour scheme, the Redback is decorated in the same vampiric black livery and red illuminations as the Virus-C. Curiously, the back of the instrument is not red but black — however, the name does not refer to the rear panel. Look carefully around the Tempo LED, and if you get the angle of light just right, you will see a glossy black spider printed on the matt black panel. The red LED is on the back of the spider's abdomen — hence the arachnid moniker.

The release of the Redback also heralds the latest OS update, OS 6.0, for the Virus range of synths. The Virus operating system was last reviewed with the Virus-C, at which point it had reached version 5.0. (If you're not familiar with the family history of either the Virus OS or the Indigo series, I suggest reading the relevant reviews for the story so far; see the 'Recommended Reading' box for a list.)

Viral Evolution

OS 6 is compatible with the Virus C, KC, Indigo2 and rack XL. The Redback ships with the new operating system pre-installed (although the review model did not), as should all new purchases of the other models. If your C-series Virus has an earlier version, there's no need to feel left out, as OS 6 is a free 660Kb (zipped) download from the Access website. (www.access-music.de). OS 6 introduces three new enhancements, two of which are improvements to existing functions. The third is completely new and, as far as I am aware, unique to the Virus-C family of synths. The three enhancements are:

New Arpeggiator Patterns

The original 40 arpeggiator patterns have been augmented by 24 new ones. These offer a variety of 16th-note and syncopated sequencer-style patterns, apparently designed to complement each other when two or more are running in parallel in a multi-part arrangement. The patterns' dynamics information (note velocity and gate time) includes judiciously placed notes of extremely short duration which help to accentuate the syncopation and add to the 'groove factor'.

Control Panel Shortcuts

Due to the numerous parameters of the Virus, and its limited panel space, many parameters are accessible only via the edit menus, and OS 6 provides control-panel shortcuts to a number of these otherwise menu-bound features. A selection of panel knobs now have alternative functions that can be accessed by using any one of the seven Edit buttons as 'shift' buttons. It doesn't matter which Edit button you use for this — the result is the same. For example, to access the 'Filter Envelope Time' parameter, press and hold any Edit button, then twiddle the filter envelope Sustain knob.

This additional accessibility is helpful, although the ergonomics of certain button/knob combinations make playing the keyboard whilst adjusting rather awkward, and reminiscent of Waddington's 'Twister' game — an extra hand would be useful! You will need to consult and become familiar with the list of available shortcuts (see 'Control Panel Shortcuts' box), as there is no screening on the panel itself of the available shortcuts. I would have liked to see the facility to assign personal custom shortcuts — I feel there are many Effect parameters that would benefit from more immediate access, for example. Nevertheless, the choices on offer are undoubtedly useful.

Pure Tuning

Recommended Reading: The Virus in SOS Virus Indigo & OS 4.0 June 2001 Virus C & OS 5.0 August 2002 Virus Indigo 2 October 2002

Pure Tuning addresses the subject of polyphonic pitch intonation, and is the most significant enhancement in OS 6. Equal temperament tuning has been in common usage since the late 18th century, and was adopted to enable polyphonic instruments, most notably keyboards, to be played in any key without having to retune the instrument. Prior to this, instruments were specially tuned (and still are by those striving for period authenticity) to achieve the 'purest' intonation for a particular piece of music, depending on its key. However, if the notes of one specific chord are perfectly tuned (ie. there is no beating between the notes), that purity of tuning is lost when you stray away from the root key. You can just about get away with subdominant and dominant chords, but add a few accidentals and things start to sound pretty awful. This is because the frequency ratio between every semitone will not be consistent. So although a keyboard perfectly tuned for C-major will sound 'sweet' in that key, the frequency ratio between the tonic, third and fifth of an F-sharp major chord will be out of kilter: they will beat excessively and sound out of tune.

Equal temperament circumvents this problem by adopting a compromise. Essentially, if the frequency ratio of an octave interval is exactly 2:1 (in other words, any given note is exactly twice the frequency of the octave below it), and if the frequency ratio of all 12 semitones in between is constant, then chords in any key should sound equally good — or equally bad, depending on your cultural upbringing! That constant frequency ratio, incidentally, is 1:1.059463. However, as one who failed maths 'O' level three times, I really must refer you to the 'Addendum VC OS 6' PDF file that accompanies the OS 6 download for a full explanation of the mathematics!

The equal temperament system has served Western ears well for many years, so why should we want to improve it? The answer to that is simple enough: it's because now we can. The Virus' Pure Tuning algorithm analyses any chord being played and instantly adjusts the notes' relative tuning to produce a 'perfectly' intoned chord. On a traditional instrument this would be rather like having Superman adjusting the tuning of every individual note at super-speed as you play — best keep that green Kryptonite out of the way! The software even attempts to take into account the context of each note. For example, C-major and A-minor have two notes ('C' and 'E') in common, but in the 'C' chord they are root and third, while in the A-minor chord they are minor third and fifth — so the frequency ratios of those notes would need to be different for each of these chords.

The Redback offers the same functionality as a regular silver Virus Indigo 2 (running the new V6 OS). What sets it apart is that striking red and black colour scheme and signature nameplate.

Pure Tuning offers 128 degrees of variation, from equal temperament at one extreme to fully pure tuning at the other. I personally found the fully pure setting to be rather stark in nature, and the in-between settings seemed rather more musical to my ears. I also discovered that the order in which notes are introduced can affect the way tuning is resolved. For example, play a G-minor triad ('G', 'B-flat', 'D') then move the 'G' down to an 'F' while continuing to sound the 'B-flat' and 'D', making the chord more like a G-minor seventh. Now release that chord and play the same notes again — 'F', 'B-flat' and 'D'. This time, the Virus interprets it as a second-inversion B-flat major chord, and the tuning is markedly different — much purer. This would suggest that, given the right clues and a fair wind, the Virus can tell the difference between a root major and its relative minor seventh by context. Clever stuff indeed! The only catch is that it doesn't always make the right decision if you are playing one-handed chords without the root at the bottom. That would require the Virus to be a clairvoyant telepath.

Applied to heavily modulated, processed sounds such as chorused pads with lots of delay or reverb, it's well-nigh impossible to hear the effect of Pure Tuning at any setting. However, the differences are blindingly obvious with sounds that employ little in the way of pitch modulation or oscillator detuning, such as electric pianos. Pure Tuning really comes into its own when playing distorted or overdriven chords. Normally, you would avoid playing full chords (especially minors) when using distortion, because of the excessive grunge produced by all those mathematically dysfunctional frequencies flying around. However, turn Pure Tuning up to maximum, and it's possible to play a wide range of distorted chords, even high up the keyboard, that would be a complete grungy mess using equal temperament. Minor chords and distortion remain unhappy bedfellows regardless of tuning purity although reducing such a chord to just two notes does clean things up considerably. One last point: Pure Tuning is a global parameter in the system menu, and is not programmable per patch. What a shame!

Control Panel Shortcuts TO ACCESS THIS PRESS 'EDIT' AND TWIDDLE THIS Part Volume (for Multi and Multi/Single Mode) Master Volume Filters 1&2 Key Follow Filter env amount Filter envelope time Filter env sustain Amplifier envelope time Amp env sustain Noise Colour Mixer Noise volume Oscillator 3 volume Mixer sub-osc volume Master clock tempo Soft knob 1 Mid EQ gain FX delay/reverb send Mid EQ frequency FX delay/reverb delay Mid EQ Q-factor FX delay/reverb feedback FM mode FM amount Saturation type Osc volume knob TO ACCESS THIS PRESS THESE Global EQ bypass EFX-edit (or select) + Undo Arpeggiator Hold Arp-edit + Arp-On Single patch dump Store + Single (in Single mode) Arrangement Dump Store + Single (in Multi mode)

Conclusion

All new Virus models come with free SoundDiver Virus combined editor/librarian software for Windows and Mac OS. The Redback is available in 'a limited quantity for a limited time', and amazingly at no extra cost over the standard Indigo 2. So if this sexy-looking signature model floats your boat (and why not?) you'd better get your skates on to avoid disappointment. For all I know, they might be sold out by the time this review goes to press! 

Published in SOS November 2003

Bock Audio ifet - AES 2012