M-Audio Venom $200 at Sweetwater

[blavatsky]

Anybody played with a venom? Some pretty damn cool sounds on vids I saw, has a real nice decimator/bit reducer effect and big list of VA waveforms as well as a few sampled drum kits. Had to pick one up even though I don't have the space hehe.

[preqwal]

Was close to getting one of these last month. The sound engine sounds nice, but the more I read into it the more it seemed it wasn't stand alone and needed the PC software to really program it Heard it's got some crazy bug where the sound cuts off when switching between patches too.

Let me know how you get on as it does look and sound nice on all the vids I've seen and M-Audio generally make pretty good products!

[ellaguru]

Was close to getting one of these last month. The sound engine sounds nice, but the more I read into it the more it seemed it wasn't stand alone and needed the PC software to really program it Heard it's got some crazy bug where the sound cuts off when switching between patches too.

that sounds awful...

Let me know how you get on as it does look and sound nice on all the vids I've seen and M-Audio generally make pretty good products!

personalli i can confirm that: i have a fast track pro and i had a key49e, they work(ed) great.

[blavatsky]

Yeah i read about the software, sort of a bummer but I have a x-station/MEK/Minibrute for more hands on needs...I figure if I can get about 20 or so good start-off patches using the editor some, I can tweak those on the venom to get other stuff.

[blavatsky]

Quick update on the venom:

-Sound is very nice, definite grit and digital-ness but can do some soft analog stuff too.

-Built in drum kits are nice: 808,909 a couple more. Easy to tweak/filter/effect.

-Can do multitimbral/channel stuff or splits

-The software to make patches is great, i don't love using the PC to edit patches but it can do some great stuff (like morph/blend patches for random sounds)

Really the one downside is editing, but if you can pre-tweak a handful of patches to play with it really opens up. Oh and it has (yikes) frozen a couple of times but I think my firmware may be out of date. I recommend for the price.

[ellaguru]

Really the one downside is editing, but if you can pre-tweak a handful of patches to play with it really opens up. Oh and it has (yikes) frozen a couple of times but I think my firmware may be out of date. I recommend for the price.

that's cool. the real secret of every synth is to put the hands into it, so doing your own patches is the best thing.
how about the price?

[blavatsky]

^ if you can still find these for 200, I would jump on it, i've had a ton of fun with mine already.

It has a great multiple patch morpher/mixer that will give you like 100 different variations of patches, it's how i've been finding a lot of unique sounds. Need to sample this into the SP555 and get busy....

Plus you can layer 4 different patches (with their own effects) and play at once, something the x-station/micron/microkorg etc cannot touch.