The Usual Suspects is happy to announce the release of their latest emulation, OsTIrus. OsTIrus is a plugin which supports emulation of the Access Virus TI line of synthesizers. Like their previous emulators Osirus and Vavra, OsTIrus runs inside your DAW directly and can be controlled like any normal softsynth. Past users of the Virus TI will be able to relive their experience with this legendary synthesizer while having all the modern comforts of software plugins.
OsTIrus supports loading multiple instances, multitimbrality, enhanced voice allocation, and can be used as an FX plugin for other tracks in your DAW. Unlike other software versions of hardware inspired plugins, OsTIrus is already capable of producing bit-accurate output of the original by emulating the digital processors at the heart of the Virus TI.
OsTIrus is available for download from their website at the following link:
https://dsp56300.wordpress.com/ostirus
the Virus TI DSP code can run with sample rates that are higher than what the hardware is capable of. We can use this to our advantage in OsTIrus because we are not limited to the hardware.
The hardware only supports up to two different sample rates:
- 44100 Hz (TI, TI2, Snow)
- 48000 Hz (TI, TI2)
However, the DSP code can handle the following sample rates, too:
- 32000 Hz
- 64000 Hz
- 88200 Hz
- 96000 Hz
Adjusting the Sample Rate in OsTIrus
The following is implemented since OsTIrus version 1.3.8:
By default, OsTIrus uses either 44100 Hz or 48000 Hz, it automatically selects the best sample rate to match the host/DAW sample rate.
However, the sample rate can be overwritten manually in the advanced settings context menu:
Impact
Note that the DSPs run at the same clock rate no matter what sample rate is selected, running at a higher sample rate will reduce the maximum voice count.
Furthermore, we cannot say how much development has gone into this never-finished-feature. That a higher sample rate increases the quality of the generated audio is not guaranteed and is up to you to decide if its worth it.