I Bet You Wanted To See This...
From the original Analog Industries archive. Some links and images from that era no longer resolve.
(Click image for full-sized.)
Avid has been doing some kind of teasing campaign for some sort of Magic Box that will be released at NAMM. Gearjunkies got the specs and posted them this morning, but Avid apparently stepped on them pretty hard, and since Gearjunkies are, like, professional and stuff, they removed the post.
I, however, could give neither a flying fuck, nor a rolling doughnut, about Avid’s hopes and dreams of a sneaky tease-y product roll-out. So here’s what my wife (her Google-Fu is deep) was able to pull this morning about the Venom, which will be released under the M-Audio brand. The original was in Romanian, and this is the Googlish:
Venom comes with 512 patches and 256 straight multi-sound patch (the layers) made by the renowned team of sound designers in the world. All the Venom will find a classical arpeggios, for more animation. With the new synth engine of the M-Audio, Venom flavor blends anolog sound on digital power. Thus they create a distinctive note that is distinguished easily from other digital synthesizers. Where you have 4 oscillators and 53 sample drum sounds from the keyboards of cargo last 40 years, and an oscillator for a DSP May retro vibe. Each of the 12 simultaneous voice virtual analog oscillators have three each, which gives tremendous flexibility for octave, intervals and detuning. For more ways to manipulate the sound, the filter multimodal operations can 12dB/octava Venom (2-pole) and 24 dB / octave (4-pole).
We haven’t found any pictures yet, but it’s only a matter of time. And Avid, if you’re thinking of writing me to ask me to take this down, either don’t bother, or make it at least vaguely threatening. Anything in between will be a disappointment.
24 comments
Is there an M-Audio brand? I'm confused on this. Avid uses their brands like James Bond uses covert identities - carelessly.
I vote that Avid keep the poor translation for the English market press releases, though. The awkward juxtaposition of phrases at least kept me slightly interested/entertained in what appears to be a completely useless and boring product.
@joshua_schnable: Avid decided awhile ago to erase the M-Audio and Digidesign brands. It's all Avid now. Why a corporation would choose to throw away many years of name recognition isn't something I can answer, but it's what they did.
--Adam
Your professionalism never fails to make me think "this guy has made it and needs to impress no one". ;)
If it was any company but Avid, I wouldn't really care. But an opportunity to make them upset is too good to pass up.
-CR
I'm going with what a certain person in your twitter feed replied, "Let me guess: Update of the Axiom hardware with a shit VA crammed inside."
Is there an M-Audio brand? I'm confused on this. Avid uses their brands like James Bond uses covert identities - carelessly.
I vote that Avid keep the poor translation for the English market press releases, though. The awkward juxtaposition of phrases at least kept me slightly interested/entertained in what appears to be a completely useless and boring product.
I've spoke to someone that has one, and I won't reveal any details in the interests of not putting him in an uncomfortable position, but I'm embarrassed to say that it actually sounds kind of cool.
I won't, of course, get one. Because, well, it's made by Avid.
-CR
So, it's, like, a virtual analog synth with an arpeggiator?
ZOMG TEH FUTURE IT'S HERE!!1
So... it's basically just an slightly-less-ugly Novation X-Station?
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!
As someone who has worked in marketing, I do have to play devil's advocate here and say that marketers are often roped in to secrecy campaigns that we know are doomed from the get-go, but upon which a client insists. Still, it's likely that someone low on the M-Audio totem pole will get chewed out for this...
That being said, you're actually doing them a bit of a favor, by revealing some - by not all! - of the new product. Now everyone will just wonder how it sounds, and want more details on what it does.
@joshua_schnable: Avid decided awhile ago to erase the M-Audio and Digidesign brands. It's all Avid now. Why a corporation would choose to throw away many years of name recognition isn't something I can answer, but it's what they did.
--Adam
These decades-old methods of teasing are just retarded. Motherfuckers need to grow up.
-CR
@studio nebula was wondering about that myself. It seems like they're straddling the line though - this product still has the M-Audio badge. Is this just the transition period?
@Chris Randall I think it depends on how you go about it. Perhaps teaser videos of someone saying "wow!" to a something off-camera are done, but secrecy still works. Think about the iPad - all Apple did was float the right rumors, and people were literally shaking when it was revealed. Not to say that's a good or a bad thing, but they managed to get anticipation to a fever pitch for a product without leaking any real details, or spending a single dollar on pre-launch marketing.
@mnml~: I don't want to be all banal and say "that's comparing Apples to oranges." Mainly because it's not. It's like comparing someone that is very, very good at what they do to someone that is not.
But in any event, Apple creates products that, for better or worse, define your life and lifestyle, while Avid (not generally, but specifically with the M-Audio line) releases products that are just dumbed-down cheapened versions of things someone with more creativity and insight thought up. They're trotting this nonsense out like it's some sort of groundbreaking shit, when it is obvious to even the most casual observer that it is the usual well-trod path, and they're just trying to get a piece of the action. Some cog in their salt mines was like "hey, you know what? We have all this shit with keys. Let's slam a synth engine up in that bitch." And some other cogs were like "okay. Can it be like a Virus TI, except way, way, way cheaper?" And the first cog says "HELLS YEAH! LET ME CALL CHINA AND GET 'EM PRINTING THESE FUCKERS OUT!"
You want ground-breaking? Look to Yamaha with the chances they take, or Korg (who arguably take more chances.) Roland is busy trying to recreate past glories, but you never know when they'll bust out some weird VariOS shit. Virtually every other company takes a risk now and then. But not these guys. They're so fucking vapid it's almost painful.
-CR
@mnml~: Apple did with the iPad something (more or less) completely new, they innovate and anticipation was not feeded of Gruber drooling over something that was not in the frame of a "viral clip" ;) ... would be hilarious to watch though.
What was the last teaser ad campaign that wasn't lame? The 300Z teaser with the typewriter is the only one I can think of.
I think M-Audio is still a brand, at least for now.
It looks like a cross between the Artuira Analogue Experience keyboard and that little desktop box that holds soft synths inside of it. Can't think of the name.
And M-Audio is still very much a brand name.
Did Apple put out a bunch of TV ads with the silhouette of an iPad and ask "what is it?" No, they leaked some clues to news organizations and they ran with it big time. That's how you do a teaser campaign in 2010.
@several people: mea culpa. M-Audio is still a brand, it seems, although if you enter http://www.m-audio.com/ into your browser, the very first line of text on the ensuing page says "M-Audio is Avid." However, the Digidesign name seems to have been more thoroughly absorbed, as you can see if you do the same experiment with digidesign.com.
--Adam
@synthetic my point exactly. Though I think Chris also makes an interesting point.
I think I once had a Hot Wheel car named Venom, like when I was five.
The graphic design aesthetic that pervades the music gear industry proves that you can be talented in one medium, but utter shit in another.
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