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[Rob Gardner]

I've been drooling over the manual for the new Midas Venice Firewire console for a while now, and have seen at least one positive review:

http://www.etnow.com/news/2011/4/first-tour-for-midas-digilogue-venicef-with-eliza-doolittle

I'm currently driving the 'old' Midas Venice 320 in my club and am already putting a bug in my boss's ear to upgrade at the end of the year (I know, no shame  ). Anyone here have any hands on with this desk?

[Marsellus Fariss]

I've been drooling over the manual for the new Midas Venice Firewire console for a while now, and have seen at least one positive review:

http://www.etnow.com/news/2011/4/first-tour-for-midas-digilogue-venicef-with-eliza-doolittle

I'm currently driving the 'old' Midas Venice 320 in my club and am already putting a bug in my boss's ear to upgrade at the end of the year (I know, no shame  ). Anyone here have any hands on with this desk?

I'm really interested in the quality, latency and routing options of the FireWire buss.

[luis Markson]

I'm really interested in the quality, latency and routing options of the FireWire buss.

I wondering if using a DAW for processing (as per review) is doable via a separate FW interface.. I've got Logic, a MBP and a RME FF800. Might be an option for L/R compression?

[Marsellus Fariss]

I wondering if using a DAW for processing (as per review) is doable via a separate FW interface.. I've got Logic, a MBP and a RME FF800. Might be an option for L/R compression?

Sure, as you can with most any console already, but why would you IF the firewire buss on the Venice is stable and low latency enough to be up to the task. One cable solution. Venice+macbook+host software= WIN! That's what I'm drooling over.

If your asking about using DAW's as plugin hosts, yes you can although I recommend using something lighter and with less overhead like Main Stage, Waves Multirack or Live Professor that's specifically designed to be a live plug host. 

[luis Markson]

Sure, as you can with most any console already, but why would you IF the firewire buss on the Venice is stable and low latency enough to be up to the task. One cable solution. Venice+macbook+host software= WIN! That's what I'm drooling over.

If your asking about using DAW's as plugin hosts, yes you can although I recommend using something lighter and with less overhead like Main Stage, Waves Multirack or Live Professor that's specifically designed to be a live plug host.

I've not seen this done before..... How common is it?

[Rob Gardner]

I've not seen this done before..... How common is it?

I've seen quite a few friends do this with a USB audio interface (Marsellus included), the key is to have a device with low enough latency so that the I/O delay is unnoticeable. It seems to me that since Firewire is at least 800 mbps that you would easily overcome latency issues. I'd probably just build a dedicated workstation for that purpose, I'm throwing together a simple rig right now for my SMAART setup.

Beside the Firewire stuff, I love how they finally got the layout of the desk right - phantom power on the top surface (not in the back, ugh!), split up the subgroup buttons (not grouped as 1-2 and 3-4 so you have to pan out bus assignments - whoever thought that was a good idea?), got the sub buttons out of the fader area, put sub, FX and master faders at the right end of the desk, etc. - pretty much everything that I have complaints with on my current desk. Also, the EQ is Verona style with variable Q on each sweep! The price is pretty much unbeatable...

[Bob Leonard]

I've not seen this done before..... How common is it?

I've seen quite a few friends do this with a USB audio interface (Marsellus included), the key is to have a device with low enough latency so that the I/O delay is unnoticeable. It seems to me that since Firewire is at least 800 mbps that you would easily overcome latency issues. I'd probably just build a dedicated workstation for that purpose, I'm throwing together a simple rig right now for my SMAART setup.

Beside the Firewire stuff, I love how they finally got the layout of the desk right - phantom power on the top surface (not in the back, ugh!), split up the subgroup buttons (not grouped as 1-2 and 3-4 so you have to pan out bus assignments - whoever thought that was a good idea?), got the sub buttons out of the fader area, put sub, FX and master faders at the right end of the desk, etc. - pretty much everything that I have complaints with on my current desk. Also, the EQ is Verona style with variable Q on each sweep! The price is pretty much unbeatable...

Rob,
I recently upgraded my rackmount board and after almost a year of comparing the LS9, Venice, and APB Pro House, the APB won hands down. I had decided to stay in an analog world, and although the LS9 has nice features and a nice layout it just wasn't for me. The Midas board fit the bill and had the firewire interface which my old board also had, and which I used to feed a Cubase 5 system.
 
I finally purchased the APB based on feature set and sound quality. It's an amazing board, leaves nothing to be desired, and the sound quality is well above that of both the LS9 and the Midas. If not having the firewire is not a big deal, and with all of the interfaces available I wouldn't think it should be, then I would suggest you look at the APB lineup. Here is a link to the board I bought;
 
http://www.apb-dynasonics.com/products/Products_ProRackHouse.html
 
 

[Rob Gardner]

Hey, Bob,

Thanks for the great feedback! I really have been wanting to get my hands on some APB stuff, especially after seeing the Punch Brothers' onstage IEM rig last year (they had the ProRack-Monitor - sexy!). I think the ProDesk 424 would be the best  'Venice equivalent' for my situation due to space constraints at my FOH position and I've heard nothing but great things about the preamps, layout, etc. Still, the firewire on the Venice is pretty tantalizing as well... It'll be a tough decision but I'm gonna have to sit on it until at least Spring 2012. I guess I have pretty high class problems if I'm griping about upgrading from a Midas... 

[Marsellus Fariss]

I've not seen this done before..... How common is it?

It's not very common but likely to become more so I suspect. Problem now is you have to trust your hardware, PC and software to not crash in the middle of the show. And there's the problem of latency. Right now software companies that publish plugin host software don't have (or don't engineer) any way  of monitoring the round trip latency of your I/O box AND so far I've not seen any software with good latency monitoring of even the actual plug-in on it's own. Your kind of left to "roll your own," do the homework and determine your rig's latency and capabilities. I think it's quite unreasonable to expect somebody to buy a laptop, an audio I/O box, and sell them very expensive software only to wind up with a totally unusable rig due to latency and reliability. I think these companies need to qualify hardware and provide helpful information on configuration and provide some latency monitoring capability.

A well designed built in firewire buss would take a lot of that headache out of the equation. As does MADI cards. There's still latency but it's much easier to manage.   

[Bob Leonard]

It's not very common but likely to become more so I suspect. Problem now is you have to trust your hardware, PC and software to not crash in the middle of the show. And there's the problem of latency. Right now software companies that publish plugin host software don't have (or don't engineer) any way  of monitoring the round trip latency of your I/O box AND so far I've not seen any software with good latency monitoring of even the actual plug-in on it's own. Your kind of left to "roll your own," do the homework and determine your rig's latency and capabilities. I think it's quite unreasonable to expect somebody to buy a laptop, an audio I/O box, and sell them very expensive software only to wind up with a totally unusable rig due to latency and reliability. I think these companies need to qualify hardware and provide helpful information on configuration and provide some latency monitoring capability.

A well designed built in firewire buss would take a lot of that headache out of the equation. As does MADI cards. There's still latency but it's much easier to manage.   

You hit the nail on the head. A good system is the first requirement, but it will only be as good as the application sitting on top of it. I'll be keeping my old 1640 for use as a recording interface. Combined with Cubase 5 the latency is down to 2-3ms. Better than needed for almost anything I may do and certainly good enough to record and monitor without problems. The APB doesn't have firewire, but I won't miss it at all as this is not the boards primary function. Should I need a firewire interface I'll go to MOTU for the solution. I have owned there interfaces in the past and performance is similar if not as good. One less thing to go wrong with the board.

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