Access Music
Access Music is a German based company which was founded in 1997. The company is focused in production of musical instruments. The rise of this company is based on their idea of making their own synthesizer without cloning their competitors. Their first synthesizer was comprised of 12-voice virtual analog keys. Since 1997, the company has focused on creating the some of the most powerful synthesizers on the market.
Although the company’s name is Access Music GmbH, they are commonly referred to as Access Virus, due to the fact that they only have one product. Although the Virus is the only product released under Access Music’s name, the company has also programmed synthesizers for other companies, like Oberheim.
Access Music’s first synthesizer was the Virus A. Virus A was upgraded to Virus B and then to Virus C. All the three synthesizers utilize the same single Motorola DSP chip. The difference between the three models is the minor hardware and firmware operating system upgrades.
All models of the Virus synthesizer have built in effects, which include chorus, phase, distortion, delay, and reverb. The oscillator waveforms can also be modulated using ring modulation, phase distortion, and frequency modulation.
In 2005, Access Music released a new synthesizer; the Virus TI series which included the 37-key Virus TI Polar and the 61-key Virus TI Keyboard. The firmware programming of Virus A and Virus TI is almost the same which means the sound produced is also almost similar. To expand upon the Virus TI models, the Virus TI Snow was released in 2008. In 2009, a revised version of Virus TI line, called Virus TI2, was released.
