Newsgroup: it.arti.musica.strumenti.tastiere
Titolo: Alesis Andromeda

Forse non sono l'unico in questo NG interessato a leggere le impressioni di
4 "fortunelli" che hanno avuto di piacere di suonare questo analogico
moderno...
Price Paid: 3,700.00 (canadian $)
Ease of Use: 9
This instrument was among first 5 or so in Canada, equipped with so called
preliminary, but well written and educational manual, and with very first
version - as usual a bit bugged - of operating software. Factory patches are
excellent and Andromeda sounds like not much before: fat, fat and fat. Warm
and smooth. Clean - no background oscillators noise, no noise at all.
Americanish sound rather than japaneese. Editing is greatly improved due to
an unique approach: push any button or move any knob and you'll see related
page on huge LCD display, with graphic representations of envelopes. Nice!
Features: 10
16 voices of polyphony is a riot! It's a real analog without all the hassle
of real analogs (tuning), but with all the bells and whistles of last 25
years technology achievements - MIDI, on-board effects etc. Very basic
arpeggiator and step-sequencer, but hey - that's the classic approach!
On-board effects are great - all these delays, ping-pongs, reverbs and extra
analog distortion on top. Communication with outside world provided by
typical Alesis's PCMCIA Type 1 card.
Expressiveness/Sounds: 10
Very convincing sound programing, with all the classic sounds and a lot
more. Very responsive keyboard with aftertouch, typically good Alesis's
rubberized wheels plus extremely good ribbon controler. All controllers
freely assignable. Effects are georgeous (delays and reverbs in particular),
plus analog distortion with nice guitarish warmth! However, using Andromeda
for strictly dance production may be rather unwise, since out there is
plenty of other and better for this task equipped analog emulations.
Reliability: 10
It's an massive keyboard, rather heavy. Andromeda seems to be very solid in
construction.
Customer Support: N/A
N/A
Overall Rating: 9
Definitely good and solid product. A bit pricey, but... After several days
of messing with Andromeda I've found some minor bugs and obvious glitches in
OS, i.e. tempo knob in range .5 to 500 BPM (!), displaying tempo with four
digits accuracy (i.e. 125.4782), is next to impossible to set manually. Even
+/_ buttons does not do any good. External sequencer can control tempo, but
without updated display on Andromeda's LCD, so... Also, LCD goes blank
sometimes with no apparent reason, and than goes back with no reason as
well. Big surprise: there's no digital output! Strange, that having 16
separate analog outputs for every voice Alesis forgot about two ADAT
outputs, or at least S/PDIF for digital recording of entire mix! Ooops! I do
owe Korg Z1 and used to owe Roland Jupiter 8 (what a wonderful analog was
it!), but Andromeda is a class itself, hard to compare to anything. I love
most of everything about Andromeda (automatic tuning, effects, sounds and
editing capabilities, expressiveness, cool look). Definitive sound source
for JMJ/Vangelis/Klaus alikes, but for dance addicts there is mucho other,
cheaper and better armed toys on market. Andromeda is for serious synthesis
freaks and not a toy! Buying it for look or factory sounds only means
driving an Porshe
in no-autobahn country.
Submitted by Matthew Dobrski at 03/11/2001 18:19
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Price Paid: US $2700
Ease of Use: 10
Its got a lot of knobs, but all pretty selft explanitory, the screen is very
very nice, and teaches you a lot about envs, and fitlers and sounds. so
cool. so easy. it is a complex synth though.
Features: 10
16 not poly, real analog tho. very fat! Good built in fx, 16 part multi
timber (16 midi channels), can put more ram cards in it. Very good
arpeggiator and step sequencer :)
Expressiveness/Sounds: 10
After playing with this synth since i got it yesterday, all i can do is
smile. Why? It really does sound like a moog, memorymoog, obx, and an arp
2600. Why is this so wonderful? Because these are the bass, pads, strange
noise, string kings of all synths from the 70s. American. And guess what?
Those old ones break down a lot, drift horridly, and cost a ton of money to
maintain. THIS THING IS FAT! Way fatter than roland synths. And no, the
jp8080, the ms2000, supernova and virus do not even come close to the
fatness, warmth, and sonic quality of this beast. It has its own sound as
well! can do things other synths cannot! brilliant pass, pads, electronic
strings! amazing. Analog heaven. With the ribbon controler you can really
make it scream!
Reliability: 10
Only owned it 1 day. but feels very sturdy.
Customer Support: 10
Alesis is pretty good.
Overall Rating: 10
Do not listen to these nay sayers. Why, because at stores they use crappy
monitors, and you can not hear the full range of the sound, the bass and the
highs.
This is an Analog workstation. It is worth every penny, 16 voices, enough
for bass, the killer drums, and pads all in the same mix at the same time on
multi outs for great outboard fx, and pads do fine with on board fx. If you
were to buy a minimoog, memorymoog, obx, and an arp2600, you'd spend way
more than this, without fx, without midi, Without the nice semi weighted
keyboard, without the cool layout, without the screen. It is as complex as a
modular synth. It can sound insanly wacky, or smooth, creamy, warm, fat,
bassy, agressive, dark, pretty, noisey and musical.
I recomend this synth over every synth on the market for this one very
reason. It teaches you about synthesis. How? you can dial up a preset, and
go how do they do that? and you can hit the view buttons on everything and
it shows you how the sound looks, how the env's are set, the filter, etc.. I
have owned this for one day, and sounds that for years have baffled me, like
really good pads, i know how to make now, and feel so stupid at the same
time for not knowing how to all these years.
Also, with the advanced EGs (envelope generators) ADDSRR, and the way you
can modulate these, it goes way beyond the Matrix 12 and Expander with FAT
VCO instead of boring stale osc that those two synths have, i think they are
curtis chips dunno. So i must give props, this thing burries most older
synths. and the filters can run at the same time. man, the filters are
great, arp, moog, ober. You still need a roland sh101, tb303, or juno 106 to
do acid filter sounds, because it cannot sound like that. You can get some
bass tones that sound a tiny bit roland, but it must be paired with a good
roland synth. But it was never made to sound roland. It sounds American, not
japanees.
I hope this synth makes alesis a lot of money, and i hope all the people who
worked on this wonderful synth make a lot of money too.
Submitted by Bryan Erickson at 03/07/2001 08:32
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Price Paid: US $2500
Ease of Use: 9
Not sure about the software version, but the manual says "preliminary" on
the cover... mmmmmmm........ Preliminary. (Simpsons joke!) The presets sound
great, and the realtime controller ribbon and mod wheel do wonderful things
on some of them. Editing patches seems really easy, this thing has so many
knobs and buttons that almost all control a single funtion. Some parameters
are controlled with "soft" knobs that change function depending on what you
are doing. The screen changes to reflect the knobs and buttons that are
currently being pressed, including graphical display of envelopes, etc. I
don't think it could be much easier. I'll chop off one point due to the
overall complexity of the instrument...This thing is complicated simply
because of the flexibility...
Features: 10
16 Voices, 16 Parts, Weighted Synth Action is very good. Built in effects
are basically 2 global effects in mix mode. This is somewhat limiting, but
you have so many outs you can always route to external effects. Also, it
seems that a little delay/phasing/flang/chorus and verb are all this board
need... see below... This board is fully MIDI capable, aftertouch, a full
and robust MIDI implementation
Expressiveness/Sounds: 10
This is where this keyboard, and any other for that matter, shows its true
value. I currently own a Novation Nova II 36 Voice and a Waldorf Micro Q. In
the past I had owned both a nord rack and a micro modular. I also have
various other syths from Roland/Yamaha/Korg that aren't really for this type
of sound. When I first heard or this board I was skeptical. First, I have
heard many classic analog synths (Arp, Sequential, Moog) and was never
really that impressed. They seemed very hard to maintain, and tuning them
after years of use can be difficult. In comparison to my VA gear, I never
ever really wanted an analog synth. The guys at my local store were nice
enough to let me try the Andromeda in my studio. I only tried it after I
heard about the auto-tuning and calibration feature. Initially at the store
I was not impressed, but something told me to dig deeper so I took it
home...
My first comment would be that you can immediately hear that this synth is
Analog... It connot be compared to any of my VA gear in any way. The way the
sounds fit into the mix, the utter fatness and warmth of this synth cannot
be overlooked. I have access to some Arp and Moog synths still and I gave
them another listen to see how they compared. The Andromeda easily
overshadowed the vintage synths in its accuracy and sound quality. All of
the warmth, none of the noise or fluctuations you might expect. I will never
buy an old analog synth, but after listening to this Andromeda I am a
convert... Analog is better, fatter, warmer and more musically expressive.
This synth seems to breathe...
Reliability: N/A
This synth seems really reliable. The tuning calibration function seems to
work flawlessly, and the case seems very durable. There is a little plastic
in the case construction... My unit seemed to be a little unbalanced when I
set it on the desk... a little rubber foot took care of the problem... I am
choosing no opinion because I have only had it a few days. Because it is
analog, it may require service at some point...
Customer Support: N/A
No contact with them
Overall Rating: 10
If it were lost or stolen, I'd have to get another. There is no going
back... period.
Submitted by Mark at 03/06/2001 19:48
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Price Paid: tried in store
Ease of Use: N/A
No opinion i was lost with it for only two hrs
Features: 8
Some complained on the knobs and keys. I have no complains about the knobs.
The keyboard is average. It looks better in real than on pics.
Expressiveness/Sounds: 10
I hade about 2 hrs with this monster using headphones only. I wasn't in mode
to ask Ricke at Estrad to hook it up. I don't agree with Magnus Ottosson at
Ottosonic, who said it wasn't so special and wouldn't beat his Expander. In
the headphones i can tell that with this machine you can make
Rock-The-Eart-Sounds that blows anybody away with tons of everything
including nice non-anlogish type of sounds. Sure, you should be able to,
with this price tag. The question i hade was how does it sound? Does it have
a nice color or atitude? Some high end synths need to be programmed with
tons of mods befor they good. With Andromeda you can dig deep into mod
routings but a raw basic 2 osc and a filter does sound very good. It does
have "it".(or Estrad use tube headphones) The factory presets are better
than average. I did not try different effect settings but some presets are
with reverb and was very good as well. I don't claim to know all synths and
their effects but for the first time i think a synth should be equipped with
effects.(Jeee, they are gonna think i'm getting payed) I give it 10. (with
headphones)
Reliability: N/A
No opinion
Customer Support: N/A
No opinion
Overall Rating: 9
I want it now.
Submitted by hakan olsson at 02/26/2001 03:49
--
Bye-by:
Stv
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La musica è al tempo stesso il linguaggio più completo per
comunicare i sentimenti e il più difficile da interpretare. (A.S.)
ste...@inwind.it
 (Generic E-Mail)
s...@libero.it
 (Music E-Mail - SoundOnSound Recording Xtudio)
ste...@ondanomala.com
 (Ondanomala E-Mail)
http://www.ondanomala.com
 (Sito ufficiale Ondanomala)
http://free2.kyberlandia.it/Steeve/
 (Sito con MP3)
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