The Virus B was the first main hardware revision of the original 1997 Virus or Virus A. Upping the DSP power & the audio output resolution to 24-bit converters means many people day the B has a tighter fatter sound. The Polyphony is upgraded to 24 notes from the previous 12 & it gains an extra 3rd oscillator (not the sub oscillator it has that also) although activing it removes 6 notes of polyphony. The new V3 OS and extra engne power also brings full 'up to' 16 part unison mode for big fat sounds. The Virus B's FM abilities are also extended with more waveform possibilites for both the modulator & the source which can also include external audio.
The extensive mod matrix features 27 sources and 90 destinations including fx parameters, the filters have been tweaked with extra & extensive varieties of selectable saturation & tuning & the 16 multi-parts the Virus can play at once can each have 5 effects plus a shared send effect to a delay. One sound can also access the vocoder meaning the Virus B boasts 82 effects on paper - 5 effects x 16 parts = 80 plus the shared delay & vocoder although only 4 effects are saved with each patch and the 5th is a ring modulator that requires a signal input to function so it's more like 4 fx per part but that is still impressive, with the effect choices per part comprising Phaser, Chorus, Distortion & 'Analog boost' which is an enhancer.
A further OS update to version 4 arrived in 2000 adding more effects, external fx sends using the seperate outs, 16 arpeggiators one for each multi-part & much more.
Virus kb
The Virus KB keyboard was also launched with the same specs and this was the first time you could get a Virus with a key bed attached - the Virus KB has 61 full sized velocity & aftertouch sensitive keys.
Virus B models & especially the keyboard version are quite hard to find secondhand & go for around £500 - £1000 & more for the key version.
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