I owned 6HD for a while until i sold as i needed money to elsewhere.KingJ wrote:I went to get a semi-hard case for my Tyros2 today, and the store that had the case I wanted also had a couple of Alesis Fusions, so I tried one of them
out. Here are my oppinions about it. I tried the Fusion 6HD. The virtual analog is great, and it has a killer hard sync, that you can adjust with the knobs,
and that also changes depending on key velocity. The Wurlitzer sound was almost as good as the one on my XS, but the tremolo sucked. Besides the VA, and
the Wurly sound, everything else on the Fusion pretty much sucked. There were pops in the attack in the low end of the keyboard on many of the sampled
sounds, and there were fairly loud pops every time I switched voices, even if I wasn't playing the keyboard. The key action was one of the worst I've ever
played. I didn't like the way aftertouch was implemented on some of the sounds. The effects were totally pothetic, and there were hissing sounds on some
voices, even if I wasn't playing the keyboard. The FM part of the Fusion was not anything to right home about, and the Fusion had to be the most cheaply
built keyboard I've ever played. My friend who was with me said that it either looked like an old radio, or an Atari. She also said that it looked like
something you would find in Toys Are Us. She said that the knobs look very cheap, and I didn't like the fact that they turned in a 360 degree circle, making
it impossible to tell where they're set by feel like I can on my XS6. Alesis has a good concept with the Fusion, but they have a lot of work to do if they
want to compete in the industry. There's also nothing original in the Fusion either, because the original concept came from the Korg Oasys. My overall rating of the Fusion is 1.5 out of 5 stars. The only reason I give it even that much is because it's VA is
impressive. The Fusion has a completely weird shape, and my friend said it was very unattractive, so much so, that she cringed when the guy brought it
down to hook it up.
BTW, I also found out from the dealer that Alesis is no longer making the Fusion, and it's hard to find in the stores these days. In conclusion, the Fusion
has an impressive VA, and a great Wurly sound, but the rest of it sucks.
It was lova / hate relationship but my experiences totally differs from yours.
I loved it's keyboard feel and have hunted similar ever since. Could't find anything near same quality anywhere. Not even from most expensive dedicated digital pianos etc. I don't know if that proves anything.. maybe at least that i can't stand either too light action with springs attached which is case in most cheap MIDI keyboards or those "hammer action" acoustic piano simulators.
It should be semi weighted synth action. I'm not alone with this opinion either, as many who praise Kawai K5000 or Alesis QS series of keybeds also have told that they appreciate 6HD's action a lot.
What i did not like in 6HD was its user interface. Too much menu surfing which made editing sounds awful slow.
Well, i was used to Waldorf Q in that phase.. . .
I didn't like effects. They were good quality but all but most common bread and butter effects were missing.
As person who has used Jeskola BUZZ software and all of those bizarre effect plugins it offers and VST's after that -i was dissatisfied with those mainly reverb, delay, chorus and flange type of fx.
No dubdelays etc.. there were also too few parameters in effects. For Ensoniq ESP processor lover (16+, ASR10, DP4) at least.
One thing i was after when bought it in the first place was Alesis implementation of FM synthesis.
It was good but creating sounds with it clumsy and slow. Nothing near to Yamaha's FM synths OS. (TX81Z was my first synth @ early ninetees).
40+ knobs and better OS would have made a BIG difference.
I just tried editing PM (Physical Modelling) sounds with it and gave up pretty soon.. too much time consuming work without usable results.
Never used 8 track recorder either.
But i still consider buying another one because of it's KEYBOARD action.
Though i wish that i could find similar from another machine.. . .
Try to search this pages with a word "action".
http://reviews.harmony-central.com/revi ... n+6HD/25/1
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=122648
Here was whole thread dedicated to just keyboard action of the synths:
http://acapella.harmony-central.com/sho ... 365&page=3
And fusion was mentioned couple times too. Ones cause it uses Fatar TP/9 and ones as it "has a decent keybed, too"..
Though that one didn't mention which one.I prefer 6HD as others might like 8HD more.