Korg Forums

laughing_bear · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 5:46 pm Post subject: Alesis Andromeda

Is there a more recent alternative to this board that you think to be better?

Kontrol49 · Platinum Member Joined: 04 Mar 2006 Posts: 1280

laughing_bear · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 8:04 pm Post subject:

WAAAWWW

You DO have some nice keyboards in your crib man! Love it!

Thanks for that, I could get one for 1600 euros new, but I just dished out for an M3 and Radias, however, I am really tempted.

Never looked into that baby, hence did not hear about tuning problems. Did that occur from day one or after warranty was passed? Wink

Sure I do not want to spend 1.6K on a sausage.

Must give it a good thought, if you have some useful links to read up, I'd be grateful for that.

How about soundbanks, is there good stuff available from top notch programmers? People like Rob Papen or similiar?

Cheers and thanks for your time!

Kontrol49 · Platinum Member Joined: 04 Mar 2006 Posts: 1280

Most of the Tuning issues were with the first batch of ASIC's chips(Pronounced A6)Hence where the Name came from..

Not sure which Serial Numbers were affected but many were sent back to the factory to have the new chips fitted,there was a forum which had a list of the Andromedas serial Numbers which were suspected of being dodgy,so if you were buying or being offered a 2nd hand model you could see if it was possibly gonna be a dud.

Most of the later models were rectified,so chances are buying a 2nd hand model maybe ok,Like many Analogs they work best if left to warm up then retune and have the Background tuning on so it alters the tuning according to ambient temperatures.To be honest I don't think many of the A6 have tuning problems now most that were still under warranty have probably been sorted.You cna tell one which has tuning issues by playing a few notes straight after another as each note will use an availible voice,and you can hear the Voices will be out of tune with each other,(More easy to spot if you continually press the same pitch note,you get that oscialltor drift,After initial tune up you shouldn't get that,if its still there its probably got Bad chips.

Not sure if you can still get them new,Alesis were rumoured to have halted production,as they were in some financial trouble,and were bought out or taken over by Numark,I bought mine new 2 years ago,Once warmed and tuned up never had a Problem with Voices whatsoever.

The Andromedas do also have a lot of Bugs with its O.S that Alesis were well aware of but due to financial problems I suspect they cut short the support for the A6,Personally for all its bugs I have only had one freeze,Had it almost 2 years now,the only crash was one of the Known bugs,whereby if you have your Sequencer or Midi devices hooked up to the A6 and switch the Andromeda on after the Connected device it would lock up due to some bug with the Active sensing,but if you power the A6 up first it doesn't affect it.an annoying problem but worked round so it can't cause any issues.

As for Soundbanks,I will say the Onboard sounds apart from a few are dire and don't really showcase the A6 abilities to full extent,Never tried the Rob Papen and the other few commercial banks for it,I have always been into programming so have created most of my own stuff anyway,it can do all manner of Ethereal pads to strange SFX and everything in between,it can growl as well as mellow timbres,a sort of Jack of all trades master of None synth

It may seem a lot of money for the Synth but it was almost double the price when released,and some reviewers classed it as the best New wave analog ever to grace the MI scene,and at that,with its current market value it even more a superb buy it certainly adds a presence to the Sound Pallette thats for sure.

If your a Programmer or have an interest in all manner of subtractive synthesis the Andromeda will keep you interested for hours,Its panel looks more daunting than you think its really quite well laid out and the routing capabilities and Modualtion are one of the best this side of a Modular,its eseentially a Hardwired Modular.

The fact that many A6 don't seem to grace the secondhand market often is testiment to its Desirability of the Owners.I'd certainly never part with Mine,You can pick them up usually around the £1000 Sterling secondhand,or possibly a little less,Anything significantly less I would go over it with a fine toothed Comb it could well be one of the Flakey tuning models.

If I was to choose only 2 synths on which to create Music the Andromeda would be in that 2 along with the Voyager

Here's a good In depth review from Sound on Sound,this review swung my decision to finally Buy one,after drooling over it since its release,but the original Price was a littl hard to swallow.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr01/articles/alesis.asp
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--Korg Nautilus~~Korg Modwave--Korg SV-1-Korg Wavestate--

laughing_bear · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 9:17 pm Post subject:

Shame I don't have the time to fly to London to try it...

Thanks for all the info! Very interesting read!

I am wonderingt, Arturia ORIGIN might be an alternative as well.

http://www.arturia.com/evolution/en/products/origin/intro.html

Sharp · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 10:10 pm Post subject:

laughing_bear · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 11:53 pm Post subject:

LOL so whats that? Alesis is going belly up and Arturia no support, I think I get a bass triangle instead Wink

Sharp · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 11:58 pm Post subject:

Na...get yourself an OASYS Smile

LAC-1 and AL-1 will blow your mind. MOD7...ha..!!! hooo sweet lord it's good.

Regards.
Sharp.

laughing_bear · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 12:23 am Post subject:

Too much money for me, I settled for a Radias and M3 instead, Love it Exclamation

Synthoid · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 12:46 am Post subject: