M-Audio Venom Synthesizer

[Anderton]

One of the main features of the editor is that it lets you see the same data in different ways. As one example, if you want to edit voice parameters of a Single that live in a Multi, you can get there from the drop-down menu by selecting any of the Singles that are in use. But, many times you’ll want to edit a Single’s parameters in context with related parameters from other singles. If you choose the Voice tab in the lower right, this is exactly what happens if you want to do voice editing.

You’ll note that some Parts are set to Multi, and others to Single. This is simply to indicate whether the Part is being controlled by the Multi page settings, or the settings associated with the single sound. Why is this useful? Because suppose you want to swap out a Part with a Part having different parameter settings – go into Single mode, and you can do that. But you might also want to apply a consistent set of parameters, as determined by the Multi, to whatever Single part you call up. Then you’d specify Multi.

For completeness, we’ll also show the page for doing this kind of editing magic with the various arpeggiation/pattern options.

And finally, let’s look at the page for common editing of the Aux parameters.

Also note that in the Aux screen, you can include notes on the patch – a nice touch.

The point of all this is that we’re in the synth equivalent of Burger King’s marketing slogan of “have it your way.” You can see an overview of what’s going on, the details of individual sounds, how related parameters in various Parts relate to each other, and so on.

[Anderton]

Let’s touch on storage for a bit. The Multis point to file locations, not to copies of the files. So, moving them around could lead to problems were it not for what Vyzex calls the “Store Manager.” This basically keeps track of housekeeping for you, and maintains the integrity of the links to the various files. Actually there’s much more to the story than that, but that’s the concept in a nutshell. The Store Manager recommends where to store things in order to maintain link integrity, and warns you if you’re about to do something that would alter that integrity.

In addition to saving Single program files, you can also save Single Bundles that include an associated pattern. This is particularly handy with something like drum sounds, where you might want to have a particular electro pattern wedded to a particular electro-sounding patch. Similarly, unlike Multi files that simply reference the file locations used in a Multi, a Multi Bundle includes the sounds and the Patterns. Bundles therefore always maintain the correct sounds and Patterns. This is unlike a standard Multi patch, where if you change the destination files, then the Multi will reference those instead.

The latter may sound like something you wouldn’t want to have happen, but if you think about it for a second, this lets you create a Multi “structure” where you can “plug-in” different files and Patterns that are subject to the Multi parameters. On the other hand if you always want the Multi to call up a specific sets of Single sounds and Patterns, then use the Multi Bundles.

But wait – there’s more. A Set file is basically a backup of everything that’s in the Venom – think of it as a snapshot of the Venom’s contents at the time you save it. The term “set” makes a lot of sense, because you could save and load entire sets of patches.

There’s also a Collection view. The Collection contains “favorites” of Multis, Patterns, and Singles that you can see at any time when any given set of patches is selected. This uses drag-and-drop to get files into the editor, so it makes it easy to do the “mix and match thang” when you want to experiment with, for example, bringing particular Single files into a Multi.

A somewhat more specialized version of the Collection is the Bank, which shows the two banks of Multis (one factory, one user) and the four Single banks (two factory, two user). There are two main items of interest here. The first is that you can send the factory patches to the user banks to rearrange the order, or create the equivalent of a set list. The second is the Patch Collider, a super-cool feature that definitely deserves its own post...so we'll cover that next.

The deeper you dig into Venom, the more there is to find. This is a very, very sophisticated synthesizer and yet the designers have done a good job of making it so users can approach the "top-level" aspects from a superficial level and still get gratifying results, or dig deeper and gorge themselves on synthesis. It's tough to pull this off, but Venom does as good a job as anything else out there.

[Anderton]

The Patch Collider is basically an algorithmic patch creator that uses two or patches as its source. If you select two patches, as shown in the following shot, you can mix, blend, or morph them.

Mix All creates a Bank of new Singles by randomly picking parameters from as many singles as you’ve selected. It’s all random, so it’s kind of like panning for gold...you have to keep looking to find the nuggets. However, the Vyzex editor makes this easy by giving you a list of patches you can set through and audition with the QWERTY keyboard’s arrow keys, or you can use a slider to step through them. The results are highly unpredictable – you may even get no sound at all – but that’s the whole idea. If you find one you like, you can save it back to the Bank, or stuff it into a collection.

Mix relates to having two patches selected, and while it’s another random patch generator, it also has a slider so you can “weight” the results as being more like one patch than another. Again, it creates a new bank of Singles and you can save the ones you like. Blend is similar but less randomized, as it builds new patches by taking “chunks” of data rather than dealing solely with individual parameters; the probably of chunks coming from the selected Singles is 50-50. Morph does what you’d expect – you have a starting patch, an ending patch, and a bank of patches that interpolates parameter values as it morphs from one patch into the other.

There’s one more option: Generate 4, which appears only if you’ve selected four patches for “collision therapy.” This one is wild – check out the graphic.

This mixes or blends parameters from four different patches; every time you click the mouse, a new Single is born with the parameter weighting determined by where you click in the four quadrants. After 128 clicks, you have a bank of patches available for auditioning. Note that if you lose patience, you can just drag around to build up 128 points quickly.

So, how useful is the patch collider? Well, I logged a lot of hours with random patch generators on computers like Commodore-64s back when Dr. T’s was into creating that kind of software, and to use a fairy tale analogy, let’s just say you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find the prince or princess. But when you do, you can end up with some really cool sounds you never would have come up with yourself, and mercifully, the Vyzex editor makes it easy to audition them.

[Anderton]

I guess we've hit the big time! We now have the dubious distinction of being hit by spammers. If you see someone with one post who is either quoting text from this or some other pro review, or says something like "Good review like! Keep up good work!", please hit the report button. What these people do is post without obvious spam, then at some point in in the future, modify their sig so it says "Vacations in Newark," "Viag*a for Pets", "Nuclear Sunglasses," etc.

[U&I]

Having now had a chance to demo a unit I have a few things to add.

Keyboard feel is light but springy enough to be useful and everything is rather aesthetically pleasing on the eye.

Great selection of on board sounds which can in all honesty be tweaked quite extensively via the front panel modulation knobs and soft buttons - quite often far enough from the original to be useful (within context away from the editor).

Strong points for me are the tonal character, when it's rude it's beautifully and brutally rude, but can also sound wonderfully smooth an silky if needs be and it has a great bottom end presence I might add.

Highlight are the FM, Sync, Ring Mod sounds IMHO which where all fantastic. Don't know if some of you would view this as a compliment but certain sounds where not too dissimilar (IMHO) too the Kawai K4R when employing AM and filters routed in series - anybody who has used a K4 will know what I mean about the super gnarly quality of the filter at times - one of the things that endeared me to it for so many years.

Anyway, my biggest gripe was the lack of after touch at all on the keyboard and a hug omission by AVID (once again IMHO). So many of these sounds where screaming for after touch as a mod source when just outright playing that it really felt to be lacking as a feature on a performance synth with this sort of sonic character.

By no means a deal breaker, but there where times when things like FM depth, fx modulations etc etc (yes I could go on) could have been fantastically deployed with an adept and judicious use of after touch for that extra wow factor when playing the unit itself.

[Anderton]

 

Originally Posted by U&I

Having now had a chance to demo a unit I have a few things to add.

Keyboard feel is light but springy enough to be useful and everything is rather aesthetically pleasing on the eye.

Great selection of on board sounds which can in all honesty be tweaked quite extensively via the front panel modulation knobs and soft buttons - quite often far enough from the original to be useful (within context away from the editor).

Strong points for me are the tonal character, when it's rude it's beautifully and brutally rude, but can also sound wonderfully smooth an silky if needs be and it has a great bottom end presence I might add.

Highlight are the FM, Sync, Ring Mod sounds IMHO which where all fantastic. Don't know if some of you would view this as a compliment but certain sounds where not too dissimilar (IMHO) too the Kawai K4R when employing AM and filters routed in series - anybody who has used a K4 will know what I mean about the super gnarly quality of the filter at times - one of the things that endeared me to it for so many years.

Anyway, my biggest gripe was the lack of after touch at all on the keyboard and a hug omission by AVID (once again IMHO). So many of these sounds where screaming for after touch as a mod source when just outright playing that it really felt to be lacking as a feature on a performance synth with this sort of sonic character.

By no means a deal breaker, but there where times when things like FM depth, fx modulations etc etc (yes I could go on) could have been fantastically deployed with an adept and judicious use of after touch for that extra wow factor when playing the unit itself.

 

Thanks for the observations, interesting point about the K4

I had mentioned the lack of aftertouch way back in post #5, but it bears repeating. These days to get around the lack of aftertouch in so many keyboards, i've gotten used to hooking up an expression pedal instead. It's not the same thing, but...

Speaking of aftertouch, not to crash the thread but I reviewed Arturia's Analog Experience Laboratory and checked out the aftertouch by recording it into Sonar. I was very surprised at how smooth and controllable it is (it's not "afterswitch"), given the included keyboard's low cost. Maybe it's some new aftertouch approach we'll see incorporated in more keyboards, or maybe they just the old school way right.

But I'd sure like to see Ensoniq's poly aftertouch technology resurrected by somebody...I wonder if the patent has run out yet.

Finally, good point about the ability to get smooth sounds. This is also something I mentioned early on, but is always worth mentioning; Venom is not a one-trick pony by any means.

[ggm1960]

Although I'm not currently doing gigs there is always the possibility that I'll start again. Are there any recommendations for a case?

[Anderton]

 

Originally Posted by ggm1960

Although I'm not currently doing gigs there is always the possibility that I'll start again. Are there any recommendations for a case?

 

I don't know of any "official" case for it, but it looks like a lot of the ones listed here would work. You'd probably want a hard case, not a gig bag.

[Psicraft]

 

Originally Posted by Anderton

So, how useful is the patch collider? Well, I logged a lot of hours with random patch generators on computers like Commodore-64s back when Dr. T’s was into creating that kind of software, and to use a fairy tale analogy, let’s just say you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find the prince or princess. But when you do, you can end up with some really cool sounds you never would have come up with yourself, and mercifully, the Vyzex editor makes it easy to audition them.

 

Hi Craig,

When we were calibrating the Patch Collider functions for Venom we pushed the safety margins pretty close to their breaking points on the randomization process in order to be sure that the net results were striking and unique. What we (and our beta testers) found was that the resulting Patch Collider output generates a high percentage of very useful results thanks to the extreme possibilities of the Venom mod matrix and the thoughtful design behind the sound generating architecture. I think it's important for readers not to infer too close a comparison between Dr. T's random Juno-106 patch generator from 1985 and Vyzex Venom's circa-2011 Patch Collider as a result.

Cheers,

Tony

[Anderton]

Good point...I was merely trying to point out I've logged a lot of hours with this kind of thing. To me, the biggest problem wasn't generating patches as much as auditioning them, and that's the Vyzex editor's strongest point IMHO. Generating patches that are useable, and generating patches that I want to use in a particular piece of music, are two very different things....which is why the ability to generate a bunch of patches and audition them efficiently is the most important aspect to me. I'm sure I "throw away" a lot of patches that other people would use, but hey, I'm picky

[Psicraft]

 

Originally Posted by Anderton

To me, the biggest problem wasn't generating patches as much as auditioning them, and that's the Vyzex editor's strongest point IMHO. Generating patches that are useable, and generating patches that I want to use in a particular piece of music, are two very different things....which is why the ability to generate a bunch of patches and audition them efficiently is the most important aspect to me. I'm sure I "throw away" a lot of patches that other people would use, but hey, I'm picky

 

We've actually streamlined these capabilities quite a bit in the pending v1.5 update to Vyzex Venom (which can be publicly evaluated by anyone who wants to join our external tester group at http://www.vyzor.com/support/viewforum.php?f=53). It's now easy to transfer all the Collided patches into the Collection with one button click (with automatic naming so you know which Patch Collider function created them), or you can rename and collect any single sound within the Patch Collider dialogs. Initial feedback so far is quite enthusiastic - You are more than welcome to check it out if you haven't already, Craig!

Also, a note regarding Vyzor Venom (the VST/AU retail upgrade version of the Venom editor): It's almost ready for release and I can confirm the price will only be $19.95 available for direct download from our soon to be launched online store. Ahem. We now return you to your regular program...

[Jercat]

I just unboxed my Venom. Hooked it up. Is it normal for it to have all kinds of white noise/aliasing gibberish when NOTHING is being played on it? I can even effect the noise by turning up the Direct Monitor knob. The noise changes depending on which preset I hit last. I've never encountered anything like this on ANY syth....I just want to know if this is normal or if I need to return it....I'll probably be returning it either way, but need to know if I need a replacement or just go another direction!

Thanks

[Anderton]

 

Originally Posted by Jercat

I just unboxed my Venom. Hooked it up. Is it normal for it to have all kinds of white noise/aliasing gibberish when NOTHING is being played on it? I can even effect the noise by turning up the Direct Monitor knob. The noise changes depending on which preset I hit last.

 

If I'd had that experience, this would have been a VERY different review, to say the least. Is anything plugged in other than the output? Is the mic input down all the way?

One piece of advice: I once had a Peavey synthesizer that needed to be rebooted after updating. When I played it, I got the most crazy sounds I'd ever heard from a synth. See if a reboot procedure is documented somewhere...maybe Tony knows it off the top of his head..I never ran into the problem you have, so never looked into what would be needed to do a complete factory reset. But I'd give that a try first.

OTOH I sampled a bunch of those Peavey sounds before I rebooted, and I've used them in quite a few techno tunes

[Psicraft]

Hi Jercat,

While hardware support is not my 'thing' I end up doing quite a bit of hardware troubleshooting for users of our editors at the Vyzor support forums - My first question is are you listening through the headphones? If you are trying to monitor Venom's output via a DAW connection or other patched digital audio system (into your computer speakers for example) then it could be that you are actually monitoring the output of Venom's audio inputs through whatever effects are loaded in the current preset.

So the operative question here - Do you hear this noise through Venom's headphone out jacks?

Tony

[billcar2004]

I keep reading that the venom can do more creamier analog sounds but I havent actualy heard any demos, only the more gritty sounds, obviously their selling point. Maybe I have missed any. I would be looking for the more analogy sounds aswell. Early Depeche mode type sounds. could it do the brass vangelis bladderunner sound (

) at 0.28

[MBP]

Hey - this review / thread is fantastic. I got a venom for hobby / learning purposes, and have been climbing a very steep learning curve having no experience with synthesizers in the past. This thread has REALLY complimented the manuals in a vital way for me.

I don't have anything to add from a technical perspective, but I want to contribute, so here's a trick I have discovered and found useful. Forgive me if this is totally obvious or not an appropriate topic for this thread. I am using a VPN type program to mirror my computer's display of the venom editor on my iPad, which is a perfect match to the resolution of Vyzex. The software lets me directly adjust all visible dials via the touch screen, and I can pinch-zoom to magnify any set of controls to be whatever size they need to for me to interact smoothly.

The result is that the iPad feels like a natural extension of the synth - it is less distracting and more immediate/interactive than using a mouse to adjust parameters on the computer. It may not be quite the same as having physical controls, but it is close, and the ability to focus on just a part of the Vyzex editor by zooming gives it a nice customizable feel.

I have seen some templates for touchOSC that let an iPad control the venom, but this seems like a simple way to dig into the dirt of this synthesizer in a more direct and spontaneous way.

[badseed79]

Hi there,

I got a Venom as soon as it hit the streets, and have found it to be a very 'musical' synth - something not to be sniffed at!

However, there are a few major issues that I've run into, and it'd be great if the M-Audio folks keeping an eye on this thread could comment:

1. Clocking irregularities - apparently M-Audio are aware of this. To test, simply sync a piece of software as slave (i.e. Ableton Live) to the Venom's tempo, and have a play. You'll be able to see that the Venom clock is all over the place.

2. Poor OSX drivers - the latency at a buffer of 128 samples is 15+ ms on my mid-2010 Macbook Pro (8gb ram / i7 2.66ghz cpu). For comparison on my old Presonus Firebox audio interface I get less than half the latency at the same buffer and bit rate (the Venom only supports 44.1khz).

3. It is also a major annoyance that the Venom will only start up to the same 'Multi' patch - especially since it's one that you can't overwrite. Surely it wouldn't be too hard to restart in the same patch it was on on last shutdown? (like pretty much every other hardware synth).

So, in conclusion, I *do* like the unit a lot, however, I really need to have the above issues fixed before I can really make use of the Venom.

badseed

[Anderton]

 

Originally Posted by badseed79

1. Clocking irregularities - apparently M-Audio are aware of this. To test, simply sync a piece of software as slave (i.e. Ableton Live) to the Venom's tempo, and have a play. You'll be able to see that the Venom clock is all over the place.

 

Well I'm not an M-Audio person, but I'll comment anyway.

Is there a reason you need to use Venom as the master clock? It seems you could just slave it to a more stable source until there's a fix.

 

2. Poor OSX drivers - the latency at a buffer of 128 samples is 15+ ms on my mid-2010 Macbook Pro (8gb ram / i7 2.66ghz cpu). For comparison on my old Presonus Firebox audio interface I get less than half the latency at the same buffer and bit rate (the Venom only supports 44.1khz).

 

15ms sounds about right at 128 samples. Are you sure you're comparing apples and oranges - round-trip latency including both software buffers and hardware? I don't recall what the Presonus reports (although I think it's an excellent interface). I think Ableton Live is one of the best DAWs in terms of analyzing overall latency, so if you're measuring the Venom and Presonus latency using Live, I would tend to trust it.

 

3. It is also a major annoyance that the Venom will only start up to the same 'Multi' patch - especially since it's one that you can't overwrite. Surely it wouldn't be too hard to restart in the same patch it was on on last shutdown? (like pretty much every other hardware synth).

 

I think there might be a way to do that...I'll check. Tony might weigh in as well.

[Psicraft]

 

Originally Posted by MBP

Hey - this review / thread is fantastic. I got a venom for hobby / learning purposes, and have been climbing a very steep learning curve having no experience with synthesizers in the past. This thread has REALLY complimented the manuals in a vital way for me.

 

We can really thank Craig for taking the initiative here and posting so many professional in-depth magazine-article-grade installments since he got his Venom. Craig, it's great to see the vast power of web 2.0 being used for good instead of evil (such as spamvertising and other vile content). Kudos to you, sir - I've found this thread very educational, myself: For example...

 

Originally Posted by MBP

I don't have anything to add from a technical perspective, but I want to contribute, so here's a trick I have discovered and found useful. Forgive me if this is totally obvious or not an appropriate topic for this thread. I am using a VPN type program to mirror my computer's display of the venom editor on my iPad, which is a perfect match to the resolution of Vyzex. The software lets me directly adjust all visible dials via the touch screen, and I can pinch-zoom to magnify any set of controls to be whatever size they need to for me to interact smoothly.

The result is that the iPad feels like a natural extension of the synth - it is less distracting and more immediate/interactive than using a mouse to adjust parameters on the computer. It may not be quite the same as having physical controls, but it is close, and the ability to focus on just a part of the Vyzex editor by zooming gives it a nice customizable feel.

I have seen some templates for touchOSC that let an iPad control the venom, but this seems like a simple way to dig into the dirt of this synthesizer in a more direct and spontaneous way.

 

This is a fantastic idea - I really appreciate you sharing it, MBP. What VPN program are you using? I would like to have our guys check this out and if it works to our satisfaction we'll add appropriate content to our product pages to get the word out.

It may not be obvious to most desktop users, but all of our editors are actually designed to be touch-screen friendly - We've been expecting the tablet revolution to hit the desktop for several years now, which is why our editors do most of their tasks with interactive controls instead of menus and the controls themselves are sized and laid out for finger gestures. Using a VPN client to port the UI to an iPAD is a brilliant idea - One we'd talked about trying when we had the time, but until now we've not had the time to look into it.

Feel free to drop by the Vyzor support board and sign up for advance release access to the pending upgrades, by the way. The direct link is in one of my earlier posts to this thread. Once you are there we should get a thread going specifically for iPAD remote control so that we can take this experience one step further.

Cheers,

Tony

[Psicraft]

 

Originally Posted by Anderton

I think there might be a way to do that...I'll check. Tony might weigh in as well.

 

The 'start-up on Multi' functionality is defined by firmware so when running Venom on its own this is what you'll get. I think it makes a great firmware update request that there be a global option to allow other startup states like 'last mode, last program' so I will make sure to mention this the next time I am meeting with Taiho. Knowing him it's already on the wish list... ;-)

When the pending Vyzor Venom VST/AU version of the editor is released, users will be able to choose the program and mode they want for each project file and these will be enforced by the editor when the file is loaded by the DAW, which will achieve the same effect without a firmware change, but I understand that this application is only part of the equation for Venom users. Simply having the synth power-up to the last state and program by default would be the real fix for anyone using this synth live without a computer attached.

Cheers,

Tony

[Anderton]

 

Originally Posted by MBP

I don't have anything to add from a technical perspective, but I want to contribute, so here's a trick I have discovered and found useful.

 

That is effing BRILLIANT!! Thanks!!!!!!

[MBP]

 

Originally Posted by Psicraft

We can really thank Craig for taking the initiative here and posting so many professional in-depth magazine-article-grade installments since he got his Venom. Craig, it's great to see the vast power of web 2.0 being used for good instead of evil (such as spamvertising and other vile content). Kudos to you, sir - I've found this thread very educational, myself: For example...

This is a fantastic idea - I really appreciate you sharing it, MBP. What VPN program are you using? I would like to have our guys check this out and if it works to our satisfaction we'll add appropriate content to our product pages to get the word out.

It may not be obvious to most desktop users, but all of our editors are actually designed to be touch-screen friendly - We've been expecting the tablet revolution to hit the desktop for several years now, which is why our editors do most of their tasks with interactive controls instead of menus and the controls themselves are sized and laid out for finger gestures. Using a VPN client to port the UI to an iPAD is a brilliant idea - One we'd talked about trying when we had the time, but until now we've not had the time to look into it.

Feel free to drop by the Vyzor support board and sign up for advance release access to the pending upgrades, by the way. The direct link is in one of my earlier posts to this thread. Once you are there we should get a thread going specifically for iPAD remote control so that we can take this experience one step further.

Cheers,

Tony

 

Hey! That was a better response than I expected! I am using "Splashtop" which is a pretty robust program and very cheap. It is amazing how seamlessly it handles zooming into regions of the screen while still correctly mapping the touch interface.

I think I may just take your suggestion and sign up for the advance release access. I have been checking the page daily for a while - I am eager to get my hands on a pattern editor! I am so pleased I was able to add something of value. I have been having a BLAST with the synthesizer and editor. Learning, learning, learning - a very steep curve right now. The good news is I have no prior experience with synths, so every feature of the venom I uncover is like opening a present - I don't have any of the "it doesn't work quite the same as..." or "it doesn't sound as xxxxx as..." reactions. Basically, as a tool for learning about music sculpting, the combination of software and hardware is just absurdly cool.

[MBP]

 

Originally Posted by Anderton

That is effing BRILLIANT!! Thanks!!!!!!

 

Glad to hear it! It really does make a difference. I realize it adds one MORE piece of hardware, but you can kind of put the laptop out of the way and just park the iPad in front of you. I imagine a strategically placed music stand with a couple of rubber bands would integrate the whole thing into a reasonably compact form.

[MBP]

 

Originally Posted by Psicraft

Feel free to drop by the Vyzor support board and sign up for advance release access to the pending upgrades, by the way. The direct link is in one of my earlier posts to this thread. Once you are there we should get a thread going specifically for iPAD remote control so that we can take this experience one step further.

Cheers,

Tony

 

Hey - I registered and the vyzex / vyzor website, but am not seeing a link to send you a PM requesting access to the advanced release access area. What am I missing? My username there is the same as here. Thanks in advance.

[Psicraft]

 

Originally Posted by MBP

Hey - I registered and the vyzex / vyzor website, but am not seeing a link to send you a PM requesting access to the advanced release access area. What am I missing? My username there is the same as here. Thanks in advance.

 

Ah Daniel-San. That is time-honored anti-spam countermeasure preventing your post from showing until Miyagi approves.

(Sorry MBP - 80s flashback there. Happens from time to time - Just ask Craig...)

Your post has been approved and is now visible. Post once or twice more and the system will recognize you as one of the good guys.

Incidentally... IK Multimedia make an excellent Mic-Stand iPAD mount called the iKlip. It can be had for about $40 and is totally gig-worthy.