M-Audio Venom 12-Voice Virtual Analog Synthesizer

Comments about M-Audio Venom 12-Voice Virtual Analog Synthesizer:

I just got this synth and I've fallen in love with it. I could instantly figure out what I was doing right from when I turned it on. This is the first synth I have ever owned, and I know next to nothing about the geek jargon used in the promo video, but I can still get great sounds from the synth. I'm sure that when I learn how to use the software, I'll be unstopable! I would recomend this product to people who have, or don't have bacround in analog synths (like me!) Oh, and by the way, the arpeggiator is my best friend!

Comments about M-Audio Venom 12-Voice Virtual Analog Synthesizer:

Super flexible synth, great for all types of electronic music. Traditional synth sounds are somewhat passed up in favor of more edgy and modern sounds. Built-in drumkits are excellent, and the four-part multi timbrality works great.

Comments about M-Audio Venom 12-Voice Virtual Analog Synthesizer:

The most amazing sounds ever!! Excellent first for MAudio... truly intuitive, amazing sounds and super easy to customize.

Comments about M-Audio Venom 12-Voice Virtual Analog Synthesizer:

I've had this synth for almost a month now. Easy to play right out of the box. It is a virtual analog machine which means (I think) they sampled analog waveforms for your base waveforms. There are some FM and digital waveforms too, as well as TR808 and TR909 drum kits. Tons of arpeggiator patterns and four banks of 128 factory patches each.

They tout this as the gritty, edgy synth, and it is. But it also does warm, fat, and classic synth quite well.

There is also an included software editor which really opens up the power of this synth. The front panel controls are limited, but useful for live performance.

The good: Sounds great. I often think I'm hearing my Juno 106 through this thing. It is very unobtrusive being only a 4-octave keyboard. The factory patches are pretty good and will get you jamming, but you'll soon want to tweak the sound to your liking. There's a bit of a learning curve with the editing. If you've programmed analog synths before, you'll know your way around, but the editor is split into four basic sections for the single patch editing and not all the knobs were where I would have put them.

I could go on and on about the abilities of multi and single, but just search the internet and you'll find that. I find that layering patches in multi mode leads to some real fun. And I love the ability in the software to "blend" and "mix" and "morph" patches--you select two or more patches, and the editor creates random patches using settings from them. Fast way to create new and unexpected sounds.

A real bonus for me is that this also acts as a USB audio interface. I also record simple guitar/vocal pieces and I can go straight through the Venom now rather than using an additional interface. I would not recommend it being your interface if you're doing complex recording, but for laying down quick songwriting ideas, or simple arrangements, this works great straight into your recording software (I use Cubase 5).

Also good, is the modulation matrix. Three LFOs, three envelopes, as well as many other sources for modulation can be routed to control numerous aspects of the sound. You can have up to 16 modulation sources routed.

The Bad: no aftertouch, and I miss that. But at this price you gotta cut something. The screen is a little difficult to read at the angle it is at, but not bad. The software was a bit glitchy, but I received an updated 1.14 version from the Vyzex support team (it's not even released to the public yet) after an email to them. Very helpful so if you buy one, get the new version from them at the Vyzex support forums.

Bottom line: at this price point I don't know that there is anything that even comes close. The demos all show this thing doing funky little multi mode patches with arpeggiated bass lines and stuff, and while that's all well and good, it's a little gimmicky. But once you throw that away, and start playing some real synth, you can discover that this is quite a deep synth.