Access Music User Forum

I'm not a huge fan of Massive or Reaktor - always sounded generally a bit muddy to my ear.
I do love their FM synths, though - and more so when the programmer really knows what he's doing. Check out http://www.youtube.com/user/mvsmsx - usually all parts in the videos are made with multiple FM8 instances

Generally speaking, I think there's two main reasons you find huge differences in the sound quality between the Virus and other synths, especially software:
1: you've become accustomed to its sound being present in an enormous amount of tracks, so that it's what your ear has set as a standard
2: the Virus has been worked on for years by Access and the code is so refined that they have an edge over people that are relatively new; it sounds like it does because they love their product, or at least that's what it sounds like to me. This is true for other hardware manufacturers and I'm pretty sure it's the same for other small software makers, like Lennar Digital (who makes Sylenth1) or even the free synth1 by Ichiro Toda.
Just my 2 cents ofc.

The quality of the sound from the softsynths all depends on the quality of your soundcard and AD converters used.

For me it seems that virtual instruments sound bad mostly because the summing is bad. Sound card's DA converter has got nothing to do with it. There are very few who record their material from audio interface outputs to tape or something - that's the only way when DA is important. Otherwise it's all being exported/bounced to a file.

I have numerous soft synths and the Virus is unmatched for sound quaility. Having said that, there's an advantage of having a dedicated piece of hardware assisting that sound. The only softsyth that comes close to the depth and resonance of the Virus is U-he's Zebra 2.5. Phenomenal synth! Fun too!

Quoted from "Prime_NL"

The quality of the sound from the softsynths all depends on the quality of your soundcard and AD converters used.

Partially true: a synth programmed like shite will sound shite on Apogee. It's the case for many commercial plug-ins.

Thanks Woodster77 for suggestion
Alaso SOLARIS 5.0 by zargmusic has warm character..