Taking a leaf from Access' book?

purusha · Joined: Mar 13, 2008 Posts: 131 Location: Ilkley

With all the recent discussion over whether certain Nord kit will no longer supported, I think I have to give a mention to one company who's been getting it right IMO on this front: Access

When new machines arrived and old ones went out of production, Access continued to support older machines.

Wouldn't it be nice if Nord did something similar to the way Access have approached the Virus Ti 2? New hardware, but software (OS) that runs on the original Ti - albeit with less polyphony.

Imagine if Nord similarly produced a G2 Mark 2, but with firmware compatible with the old G2!

Surely must be possible if they put their minds to it?

spiral · Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 10:40 am Post subject:

I think that makes sense but the difference is that the Ti series has been a financial/market success for Access. It is my impression the G2 didn't really sell all that well so i doubt they will continue to push forward with it.

What i had thought about was, what if they had just copied the Virus Ti and made the G2 integrate as a plugin. It seems like the hardware is in place to do it (but im not a programmer). I think a bigger problem is, the G2 is a harder sell as a stand-alone-only synth, whereas the Ti can be used without software (i know because i own one and have never used the software).

It is still a good thought and i would love a G3.

purusha · Joined: Mar 13, 2008 Posts: 131 Location: Ilkley

The thing I've picked up from reading the forums over the years is one of the major selling points for the Virus line has been that Access have supported their hardware very well indeed.

You buy a Virus knowing that there's a good track record of proper support in terms of updates and new features. That's a part of what's sold more than a few units.

The dropping of (allegedly) promised NM1 support does seem to have potentially impacted on sales of G2 - something various people on this forum have suggested.

Access' approach is something well worth emulating IMO. Not too late for Clavia/Nord to start to think about...

Smile

rhombus · Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2009 5:01 pm Post subject:

I wouldn't pat Access Music too much on the back. I have a Virus TI Snow and while it's a neat little box there's some criticisms I have of the TI line. First of all, multitimbrality is only supported when the TI is connected to a PC via USB. If you want to use the MIDI port you're limited to only 1 part multitimbrality. Otherwise you have to do MIDI over USB. The TI line is very much made for integration with a PC, which can either be a huge plus or a huge minus depending on whether you're into making music with a PC.

Also, the TI software on the PC is a VST based on a non-current spec like most VST software is. This limits their support to 32-bit software only and as a 64-bit user it's somewhat infuriating. At least Clavia has gone to the extra effort to create 64-bit drivers (tho the NMG2 ones aren't public yet). Then again, Clavia's not doing anything with VSTs so I'm sure the process must be a bit simpler for them.

ark · Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2009 5:13 pm Post subject:

rhombus · Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2009 5:21 pm Post subject:

Well then even better on Clavia's part. I'm still using one of their betas. Smile

sopheapsem · Joined: Apr 26, 2007 Posts: 7 Location: San Francisco

well i'm not sure about the snow, but i have a virus desktop and i never use it with a PC. it is not just 1 part multitimbral, but 16. the snow may be a different story, since you are pretty limited to a small physical face grab, but it's at least somewhat grabbabble compared to the G2 engine, for instance. i think the snow is a huge amount less PC-dependent than the MICRO, which, let's face it, is the main inspiration behind most of these new-book-sized-very-powerful-6-knob-synths.

It'd be good to track Access' success with their new Virus updates/grades, since it's essentially what all the NORDMODULAR folks have been asking of Clavia since G1/v3: upgrade the hardware, update software with major new features that work with both the upgraded hardware and the previous generation. cause yeah, it only makes sense for a software company to continue stellar support if they are continuing to make a living selling said software, especially if said software is also a piece of hardware.

Oli · Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:46 am Post subject:

Exactly this point was mentioned to me quite a bit when I was shopping for a G2, with comments like 'look at what happened to the G1; Access don't do that'. Feels like deja vu reading this here.

...i still wanted a virtual modular hardware synth though

peterkadar · Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 7:01 pm Post subject:

I think Spiral broke it down correctly: The Virus line sells well, but aside from myself, I don't know ANYONE who has a G2. I know one guy with a NM1, and he says that he loved it, but bemoans the fact that he no longer owns a computer that will work with it. So it sits around gathering dust. I remember the outctry that erupted when Clavia said they weren't going to support the NM1 anymore, and that definitely influenced me when I first saw the G2 and G2x. Especially because the latter model was very expensive (at least $3500 Cdn) at the time.

Of course, I did end up eventually getting a G2, but mine was used, and I got it for an amazing price. Even still, it felt incomplete to me until I got the expansion board and could play some of the more lush sounds with decent polyphony. I'm grateful that they've updated the OS to work with newer machines, and now I'll see if I can find one on the cheap.

If Nord decided to do a G3, it would be awesome if they made it backwards compatible with the existing NM1 and G2 libraries out there. Also, in terms of hardware, I think they would need to emphasize the hardware, live performance instrument side of it more. Like how they did with the G2 compared to the NM1.