I saw a write-up of the new Venice F a couple of months ago. Keep in mind that Midas is now owned and operated by Uli Behri$#@r's fine organization. The original Venice was actually manufactured by Dynacord in Germany. The new Venice looks like it is being made in the UK, we'll see how they fare with manufacturing an "economical" board. I suspect that Uli has finally realized that his name on an audio product tags it as "not exactly pro" and so he's bought a respectable name to build upon....kind like how Hartley Peavey bought Crest.
In any case the new Venice LOOKED really intriguing. Firewire connectivity like the A&H ZED, a slew of "pro" features, hard to say how well it is built until they get the "real test" in the field.

Yikes. That's almost distressing. I hope they don't ruin a good thing. Though, I can't help but feel that the desire to sell more is going to end up in cheapening out.

They don't plan on ruining it, I was talking with them at NAMM this January and they were very clear - the whole point of the collaberation is to give Midas more extensive resources for R&D and to simply share whatever Midas comes up with with the Behringer designers. So their plan is basically use Midas to improve Behringer as much as possible and leave Midas alone - Since Uli has the Behringer brand for the economical side of things, he has no desire to cheapen Midas in any way, they're essentially going to be left to their own devices.

That's their plan anyways, the next few years will tell what actually happens...

Midas is being used like a lot of auto mfr's use racing as their proving grounds for the stuff you get in your typical daily commuter.

That too, I agree. Just repeating myself at this point, but I'm fairly confident they aren't going to mess with Midas in any ways that Midas isn't going to mess with themselves. Behringer gear may be total junk, but Uli is easily one of the smartest business people ever to come to this industry - and buying Midas just to make it like Behringer would eventually defeat the purpose of buying it in the first place (just like if Fender had turned all the Jacksons into Tele-clones when they bought Jackson, wouldn't make any sense).

Well, here's a demo of the Venice F 32. I'm actually quite surprised at how affordable these are. I wonder if anyone around here has used one or owns one.

Klark-Teknik also went along in the sale with Midas.

It seems inconceivable anyone with any business sense would buy out two companies with reputations for such high quality just to re-brand crap. One would hope something like this raises the bar for B-ger without lowering the bar at Klark or Midas. Only time will tell.

To use moonbaby's reference, I felt Peavey acquiring Crest helped Peavey improve their product line, without ruining the Crest line. Although there was a short period of time right after the two joined forces that a Crest "Performance" line emerged that was scary inexpensive. It faded away pretty quickly, so you'd like to think the industry-big-picture guys trumped the bookkeeping squad - in an effort to maintain the Crest reputation.

All I know is a $18k piece like Klark's new hard-drive recorder, or a $70k Digital Midas will be a tough sell if it gets lumped in with the B-ger brand. If it gets the B-ger stink on it, it's doomed. Bedroom rockstars won't be able to afford it, and professionals won't touch it with a 10ft. pole.

Again, only time will tell.

Well here it is for better or worse. The Pro 2 Digital console.

[[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.citizen-…|*"]Midas Consoles | Pro 2[/]="http://www.citizen-…|*"]Midas Consoles | Pro 2[/]