Access Virus A

Back in 1997, this synth kicked off one of the most legendary lines in electronic music, delivering virtual analog tones that tricked even the staunchest analog purists into thinking it was the real deal—all from a compact Berlin-built powerhouse.

At its core, it runs a digital DSP engine with subtractive and FM synthesis, packing two virtual analog oscillators per voice (saw, square with PWM, plus 64 extra digital waves), a sub-oscillator, and noise generator into 12-voice polyphony across 16 multitimbral parts. Dual multimode filters—lowpass, highpass, bandpass, band-reject—can link in series or parallel for up to 36dB/octave rolloff, with resonance, distortion on filter one, and flexible routing that even lets external audio loop through for processing. Two ADSTR envelopes, three LFOs (one with sample-and-hold), a deep mod matrix, and arpeggiator with up/down modes keep things dynamic, while effects like chorus, delay, global reverb, and even vocoder add polish—all controlled via 32 knobs, 27 buttons, and a clear 2x16 LCD on its sleek 380x250x73mm desktop chassis (just 1.5kg, rack-optional). MIDI in/out/thru handles full CC implementation, with 256 ROM/256 RAM patches plus 128 multis for instant recall.

Players still hunt these down today for that raw, aggressive edge in trance and techno—the hands-on layout shines live, though some note the 20-bit resolution feels dated next to modern gear, and polyphony caps complex layering. It's a time capsule of pure synthesis fun that holds up remarkably well.