M-Audio Venom Analog Modeling Synthesizer

[topaz]

The fist time I saw a venom was 4 months ago. The keyboard player has since done about 30 shows with it
And uses it every day in his studio.

You sir are wrong,

BTW first time I saw a Venom in real life was last night at GC.

The keyboard keybed, ugh, I would say that keyboard would last max 10 gigs if you gig with it.

[Sparky77]

The fist time I saw a venom was 4 months ago. The keyboard player has since done about 30 shows with it
And uses it every day in his studio.

You sir are wrong,

BTW first time I saw a Venom in real life was last night at GC.

The keyboard keybed, ugh, I would say that keyboard would last max 10 gigs if you gig with it.

Personally, I don't have any problems with the keyboard. I own several MIDI keyboards and use Venom as my studio controller.

I was not expecting weighted keys or hand carved inlays. Although on my next keyboard I do plan to hire European craftsmen to carve different animals on every key.

Boy, that will be something.t

[CapnLockheed]

The fist time I saw a venom was 4 months ago. The keyboard player has since done about 30 shows with it
And uses it every day in his studio.

You sir are wrong,

BTW first time I saw a Venom in real life was last night at GC.

The keyboard keybed, ugh, I would say that keyboard would last max 10 gigs if you gig with it.

Personally, I don't have any problems with the keyboard. I own several MIDI keyboards and use Venom as my studio controller.

I was not expecting weighted keys or hand carved inlays. Although on my next keyboard I do plan to hire European craftsmen to carve different animals on every key.

Boy, that will be something.t

Gee Dad.....it was a Wurlitzer

[frank3si]

My Venom arrived yesterday; unboxed it last night but didn't get to fire it up until this morning. Works perfectly, looks cool. And I can see it's going to be quite a time soak - hours went by playing with the presets and I haven't even hooked it up to a laptop yet. I was a touch leery about the amount of heavily-advertised "aggressive" and "in your face" sounds, as my interest is more in the ambient realm, but I found a ton of stuff I could work with. Add in the impending release of "Sonic Boost for Venom" and I think this is going to be an amazing machine...

Tomorrow morning I'll do the drivers and firmware updates via laptop, plus install the last version of the editor - pending mkdr's upcoming release. That should really complete the picture!

[bachmaninoff]

Wow!

I took the Venom out of the box just yesterday, played around with it and updated the firmware... No dead keys, and I didn't encounter any major problems while playing the unit. Had no problems with the Vyzex editor either, using Win7/64. So it seems that I'll continue to use the Vyzex standalone alongside whichever DAW I'm in the mood for. Some interesting behavior noted using Orion 64 bit. I sync'd Orion's global tempo to Venom's internal tempo and Orion's tempo flopped between the tempo the Venom set and 1 BPM less. It still seemed to keep up, just had a slight 'human' feel to it. Interesting... Will try other DAWs to see if anything similar happens.

I don't know why I thought the Venom would work on USB bus power, but sadly it does not. Wall-wart only. Never assume in this price range, right? This is one of a few advantages the X-Station has over the Venom. But the Venom has some interesting waveforms to work with. And it's multi-timbral, unlike the X-Station!

I was seriously considering getting an Akai Miniak at one time, and they had reached $200 at Novamusik iirc, I'm kicking myself for not getting one. Never played one, but I hear the keyboard action was great. I wish there was an easy way to swap out the keyboard mechanism in the Venom, the feel is going to take some getting used to...

[CapnLockheed]

I can see it's going to be quite a time soak - hours went by playing with the presets and I haven't even hooked it up to a laptop yet.

He..he...welcome to Club Venom!!8)

This is one of a few advantages the X-Station has over the Venom. But the Venom has some interesting waveforms to work with. And it's multi-timbral, unlike the X-Station!

The X-Station has a LOT more immediate tactile controllers...it's bristling with knobs and sliders compared to the Venom. In addition it also has a LOT of templates already written for many of my fav VSTi's. All in all tho, I think they'll compliment each other nicely!

[K-Bee]

I can see it's going to be quite a time soak - hours went by playing with the presets and I haven't even hooked it up to a laptop yet.

He..he...welcome to Club Venom!!8)

I did that for two weeks!

[frank3si]

I can see it's going to be quite a time soak - hours went by playing with the presets and I haven't even hooked it up to a laptop yet.

He..he...welcome to Club Venom!!8)

I did that for two weeks!

I can see why - this thing is a blast.

I do have a question: as noted earlier, I'm a guitarist with my first real synth, so I know I've got a learning curve. I just used Cubase over the summer to mix the multitracks of a band I had in the 1980s, so that I'm familiar with, MIDI not so.

Anyway, I just installed the latest drivers, updated the firmware, and installed the newest version of the editor. All went well, and adjustments I make on the editor are heard through Venom, so we have no communication issues. But when I started the editor for the first time, there was a message about not having MIDI channels set or selected. I took a quick look in the MIDI tab of the editor once it started, but didn't touch anything as all seems well. Did I miss something, or is there something I still need to assign? For now I just have Venom connected to a laptop rather than to my recording PC, though I'll want to do that in the near future...

Thanks for any input!

[breakmixer]

I can see it's going to be quite a time soak - hours went by playing with the presets and I haven't even hooked it up to a laptop yet.

He..he...welcome to Club Venom!!8)

I did that for two weeks!

I can see why - this thing is a blast.

I do have a question: as noted earlier, I'm a guitarist with my first real synth, so I know I've got a learning curve. I just used Cubase over the summer to mix the multitracks of a band I had in the 1980s, so that I'm familiar with, MIDI not so.

Anyway, I just installed the latest drivers, updated the firmware, and installed the newest version of the editor. All went well, and adjustments I make on the editor are heard through Venom, so we have no communication issues. But when I started the editor for the first time, there was a message about not having MIDI channels set or selected. I took a quick look in the MIDI tab of the editor once it started, but didn't touch anything as all seems well. Did I miss something, or is there something I still need to assign? For now I just have Venom connected to a laptop rather than to my recording PC, though I'll want to do that in the near future...

Thanks for any input!

On the standalone editor - select venom synth in/out, for the midi in/outs(Not venom midi in/out btw), make sure you 'untick' all midi ports open when selecting these, in preferences de-select(untick) autosense on start-up, it will then default to your chosen selection upon next start-up - however I'm crap at explaining - on the top of the editor you can choose to open the pdf manual - it is explained properly there.

I can run cubase alongside the editor btw, setting up a midi device in cubase called venom and assigning it to 'Venom Synth Out' then selecting that to a midi track, to be able to then run the editor as well at the same time as cubase you must start the editor before launching cubase. It's almost like having a VST editor. Although cannot wait for Mkdr to do his!

[CapnLockheed]

Although cannot wait for Mkdr to do his!

No doubt being able to use an editor inside Cubase as a plugin will be very handy!!

[KungFuDaz]

Any news on the VST editor by MKDR ??

[Wormhelmet]

Yes, I have a donation via Paypal i'll gladly give for the editor when he gets done!

Such a nice sounding synth and the multi ability is great. I have some vst's that sound as good, but I can't just turn them on with no computer and hook audio and midi in and out of my PC with them....

That was an instant gratification purchase with no buyers remorse.

I plan on getting the Patch Adamz vintage presets at some point, but really like a lot of the presets already, plus its really easy to start twisting your own cool sounds.

[KungFuDaz]

So ... got my Venom all set up nicely working like a charm through ableton live on windows 7 64 bit .. using tascam us600 audio interface.

Only problem I'm having now is the venom won't sync to vysex.

I can load vysex and edit patches alright and save them on my pc.

I want to be able to sync them so they're actually stored on the venom.

I have the latest drivers/firmware etc yet on the vysex global mode switch between direct and virtual bank modes it doesn't matter which I press the venom will not sync !!


I'm probably doing something stupid that I can't see, has anyone else had anything similar happen???

Thanks

[topaz]

Have you set venomsynth in out and opened banks view then hit "sync selected" ?

So ... got my Venom all set up nicely working like a charm through ableton live on windows 7 64 bit .. using tascam us600 audio interface.

Only problem I'm having now is the venom won't sync to vysex.

I can load vysex and edit patches alright and save them on my pc.

I want to be able to sync them so they're actually stored on the venom.

I have the latest drivers/firmware etc yet on the vysex global mode switch between direct and virtual bank modes it doesn't matter which I press the venom will not sync !!


I'm probably doing something stupid that I can't see, has anyone else had anything similar happen???

Thanks

[KungFuDaz]

Have you set venomsynth in out and opened banks view then hit "sync selected" ?

Aha I have now and it worked great thanks

Knew it must be something silly I'd missed

Thanks again