Alesis AirSYNTH

I agree with others. It's both very easy to use and very difficult to use. On one hand, there are minimal controls and if you are able to lift your hands over the device, you'll make sounds. But being to control them with any degree of precision is another matter. So they balance each other out IMHO.

I won't reiterate much here. Jog wheel to select one of 50 patches, hold function. Yes, it's lame that they have RCA outs and no midi, but it's 24 bit sound and cheap as all heck so there you go. The control area IS quite small.

I gotta give this thing high numbers for expressiveness. While it's hard to control, you will also quickly stumble on very interesting sounds. And on the whole, the sounds are really quite good. It's not going to get you melodies but you can sci-fi it up with the best of them.

So far, so good. It is plastic and I'd be reluctant to gig with it. But if it sits on a desk, it's probably OK.

No idea.

I tend to like more experiemental gear so that was a good purchase. I can live with it's shortcomings and feel it's overall a good value. I am a little baffled Alesis didn't at *least* put 1/4" jacks on this since DJ's can accomodate that just fine and midi would have been cool, at least midi out, but for what it does I dig it.

This is the easyest of machines to use. No need for a manual, just plug in and wave your hand over the dome! Nothing to program either, it's just a jog dial to pick the sound and the infa-red dome to activate the sound.

Ok so it sucks that it only has phono jacks, but it does come with phono leads and a plug, bonus! No midi which is a shame, (even though the guy at the store said it did, i insisted it didnt and he said i was wrong, cock) although i dont see what you would need midi for other than changing settings on the synth through a sequencer.

Do not buy this synth expecting to use it like a theramin! The pitch does not change through the distance your hand is from the dome. The pitch is almost non existant. This machine is very random, and is more for ambience and noise. I thought i could use it for leads and bass, i was wrong and dissapointed.

Then i fell in love with it! Its b-e-a-utiful! Youve gotta love this machine! So random, very funny at times. I was going through the sounds and looking at the program chart to see what the sounds were and did, i reached number 36 and was greated with a noise remenisent of flicking through radio station and only having channels with bees and zombies, the chart said "Quite possibly the most annoying noise ever". How cool is that?

If you are into IDM, Pshychodelia or Prog then this is the machine for you. The beats sequencer sounds very IDM at times. A lot of the sounds are frequency stuff, like radios going through ring modulators, all very cool. The computer sounds are pretty cute.

The hold feature is pretty good too. Get your sound to a part your happy with, hold the jog dial for a second and the sound sticks untill you tap the jog dial. Easy!

I can see the Air Synth being a cure for writers block because you dont always know what your going to get out of it. Just approach it and and see what comes out, some fantastic groves are bound to appear.

The only problem i can think of is that the sounds stop as soon as you take your hand away, i wish you could have an option on the decay and resonance.

I highly recommend this to someone who wants to make noise, but this should be a small part of a bigger set up.

I think it would sound good running the Air Synth through a Kaos Pad, Air FX or delay pedal.

It's not the strongest of plastics, but dont go throwing it around and it'll last a long time.

Overall, not really what i expected, but for what it does, it is near perfect.

Id definatly buy another one if it was stolen.

i play in a band (www.geocities.com/hookersgreenone) where i'm lucky enough to have the freedom to make stupid synth noises. Music along the lines of The Flaming Lips, Radiohead and 'Pet Sounds' era Beach Boys and the Air Synth is perfect for it!

I'm running it along side a Yamaha RM1X and a stylophone and it fits in fine.

I see this being a much sought after device in the decades to come after it goes out of production.

It's pretty easy to get a sound out of this thing, getting the sound to behave is another matter. A lot of the presets tend towards noise rather than pitch, and the pitched presets can be difficult to control.

The Percussion sounds are just okay, checking out the SFX bank is like strolling through an 80's video game arcade, and the Rhythm sounds are very random; I've gotten some very cool beats once or twice, but most of the time it's not so cool. A few favorites; #15 (Pet Sounds) is the most theremin-like, but you have a two-octave range with a very small control area. (The previous reviewer compared the control area to the size of a softball; I'd say that's a pretty accurate comparison. I'd be very impressed if someone learned to actually play the AirSynth.) #5 (Oberon Swell) is a cheesy vintage Star Trek kind of sound, #3 (FM) is a fun audio abuse sound, kind of like a sick DX100 patch, #39 (Processing) is perfect for games or cartoon soundtracks, and #32 (Water Tourture) makes a great "comb filter" sound if you move your hand slowly.

There's no programming, no editing, no screwing around, just pick a sound and wave your hands over the thing. The manual is pretty clear, but there's not much to tell; there isn't even an On/Off switch.

None of the ordinary "features" apply to the AirSynth. There's no MIDI, no keyboard, no effects, no expansion. It does have a sort of Sequencer, but beat-matching will be hard. The manual says that you can change the preset tempo (120 bpm) by tapping a tempo on the knob, but that's no guarantee. What it does have is a personality, which is hard to find in an affordable piece of gear.

First of all, it looks like something Spock would have carried around in the original Star Trek. It comes in the kind of packaging that consumer electronic gear comes in, and it looks like something you'd see at Target. When you see the thing in a music store, you either get a grin out of it, or you start looking for serious gear. If you read the manual and the program chart closely, no one intended the AirSynth to be a serious instrument on a par with a full-function Synth or Drum Machine. It's got rca jacks instead of 1/4 phone jacks, which makes sense if this product was aimed at DJ's. Alesis did bother to include the AC adapter, and two stereo rca cables, which is a nice touch. It's always a pain when you buy a new piece of gear, and then have to put out another $20 or so for an adapter. I give the AirSynth a 7 because it doesn't pretend to be something it's not.

I sort of addressed this in the "Ease of Use" section, but some things bear repeating.

First of all, the control area is smaller than Alesis would have you believe, and some sounds don't trigger easily. Second, volume control is a problem. Some sounds are much louder than others, and there's no volume knob nor senitivity control. I've run mine into a stereo volume pedal. Third, different sounds behave differently. Some trigger easily, some have to be convinced by tapping on the dome.

The AirSynth is aimed at the Dance/Techno market, but anyone who uses electronic tones in their work can probably find a use for the AirSynth. It generates some great pad sounds, some fun noises, and the occaisional cool beat. The performance element can't be ignored, either. It just looks so cool to wave your hand in the air and make sounds happen.

Although it is hard to control, I can see trying to develop performance techniques for the AirSynth. Using two hands allows you slightly more control over some of the sounds, waving your fingers over the dome produces vibrato-like effects in some of the pitched patches, just opening and closing your hand can produce interesting variations in sound. I think the Airsynth is a very expressive tool, within its limitations.

I haven't had the AirSynth very long, so I don't expect it to fail anytime soon. It seems delicate, and if I took it out on a gig, I would carry it in a padded case, and mount it on a mike stand. If you happen to have one of the nice padded cases for your now-defunct Zip drive, the AirSynth and its adapter fit just fine.

Online registration was very simple, and I got confirmation of my registration within 24 hours. That's been my only contact with Alesis.

Overall rating; it's more than a toy, but not exactly an instrument. Try it before you buy it. I might get a replacement if something happened to this one. For the price of a Delay pedal, it's worth what I paid.

I've been playing since before BBD's came out, and I own a pile of stuff. Mostly, I play Guitar and Percussion, not exactly in the Adrian Belew camp, but I suppose you could call it prog-rock. I got the AirSynth in part for its visual impact. (That "waving your hands in the air" thing again.)

I did compare it to the Hiwatt Echo-theremin, and the AirSynth is much more fun. The Echo-theremin seems to have about the same control area, and the delay adds a weird zipper sound to the theremin; it does have a volume knob, which the AirSynth doesn't. If you want a REAL theremin, buy the Big Briar; just do it, quit screwing around. If you want something fun for about half the price, get an AirSynth.

I don't really hate anything about my AirSynth. It does pretty much what I expected, and even a little more. I do suggest running it through a volume pedal, and maybe a little reverb to fill out the sound. If you really want to go nuts, you could try running some of the theremin sounds through a pitch-shifter, or pitch-corrector. (Alright, I admit it, I've already tried it. It does change the sound, but you'll have to decide if it's an improvment.) The only things I really wish it had would be a volume control and an On/Off switch.

well, given that the Alesis "air" species is based on a unique contorller interface, it can be very easy or very hard.
it's easy to get the thing to make noise... pug it in, wave your hand around over the infrared "eye" and listen to how the sound changes with movement. 3 parameters of any sound patch are controlled with respective placement/motions in an x/y/z spacial field centered above the eye...the people at Alesis boast a "volley ball sized infrared control field," but I've found the detection limited to the radius of, say, a softball...this small area of control may make it "harder to use," but lets face it, it's the only thing out there that works in this way, and with a steady hand, it's easy to keep things under control.

the user interface, patch changing, and such are another matter. ONE KNOB is used (easy, and hell, fun) to select patches indicated only by a 2 digit red lcd turn the knob to the desired patch number, and press the knob to engage. you can press-and-hold the knob with any patch to "freeze" the sound (more on this later). It is handy to note that you can freeze it in a 'non-sounding' position (with hands away from the eye), and this can prevent unwanted activation when scrambling amongst your other gear.
two decimal lights indicate whether an effect is engaged and/or frozen (...the 'engage light' goes off when you engage a patch, and the freeze light goes on when freezing, so you never see both at the same time).


"just go to the '--' patch and tap in the tempo..." jesus, it's a skill in itself to learn to stop just above the eye, since you have to make a big slapping gesture at the damn thing.

a slick little (tiny) box (always looked beefier in photos). just a power jack, and RCA ins and outs on the back.
the rca jacks seem solid, but they were obviously chosen to cut costs.

there are 50 patches in all, covering a completely random array of sounds and the attempted grouping is poor (through patches or similar type are clumped together. The "top 5" (numbers -4) are actually the stuff I'd use least, and they trow off any possibility for intuitive grouping....as in "1-9 are theramins, 10-19 are ambience..." etc.
if you lose the program chart card, you'll have to flip it over (as one is printed on back),...but seriously, just memorize the numbers for the 3-4 tones you use (, because this thing proves to be a really great GARNISH tool).

This nutty noismaker was even built with rudimentary sequencing capabilities. the thing clicks away in loops of 8 clicks, and you can slap around the sensor to sequence in sounds which are auto quantized to the nearest 1/16th note....
since my aim/timing are never perfect, this fucntion offers a great way to stumble onto "accidentally funky" beats
there are also some random melody genereators, where you grab an 8-beat segment from a random stream.

both beat- and melody-programs are grabbed-and-looped with the "freeze" function, but these tempo-based functions suffer greatly! I can NEVER get this noisemaker to sync up with my other gear...not even if I try to set tap other boxes to match the airSYNTH's click.
(there shoulda' been an extra decimal light to serve as a constant BPM indicator)

No editing, no memory, no patch creation...just choose one of the 50 internal sound patches and go.
despite it's complete incapacity for growth, the sounds are very unique and expressive, some are just downright silly.
the main problem with the sounds is that they are voiced at all manner of volumes!
(jesus Alesis, did you not listen to the thing before releasing it? did you not notice that the "didgiri-don't" and "vega transmission" patcehs are really quite, and the "LFO abuse" is really loud).
it is thus a pain to have to constantly adjust whatever volume control you have this thing running through....my best advice is to turn it all the way down whenever going to a new batch and fade it up to usable level.

the bitrate and processing power are not top-of-the-line in either of the AIR models (handicapping anything run "thru" them) but it is a lesser evil in the synth (think of it this way: mid-fi noises from the synth can be resculpted and polished in a hi-fi mix, but the nature of the airFX reduces the fidelity of whatever you run thru it to the processing limits of this "plastic piece of budget gear").

it is solid PLASTIC....one knob to break (seems solidly mounted), and fairly sleek construction.

let me put it this way... I'm a drummer... (not a DJ)...I use this thing to occasionally reach for when I want to add "color" to the mix... I'm sure that if accidentally stricken by drumstick, this thing would be toast (so I keep it out of the way).
my girlfriend/roadie dropped it once (on concrete) and was surprised (yet relieved) that it DID NOT break.
pamper these things, or you'll be pissed.

my GOD those people are funny !....
they had no idea about the volume problem, and though they knew when it had been released, they couldn't much help me to find the store nearest me that had some in stock
(even BOSS can do that!).

since the airFX (the synth's predecessor) came out, people clamored for MIDI (to use it as a controller), but that aside, this thing could be GREAT if it only had a MIDI IN for revieving BPM clock info... sigh

As a drummer, I really enjoy having this thing as a noisemaker. in the "drumming modality," it's hard to shift your attention and coordination to things like piano (or aim well enough to hit the correct bright-red-button on my sampler). I just reach somewhere above this thing and it does what I want (pisses off the rest of the band !)
so three cheers to Alesis for happening to develop something that fits my specialized coordinational needs in such a fun, intuitive way...(I've seen myself on tape, I look funny with my whole pounding away at drums, except one hand reaching out making slow, sensual movements just past the hi-hat).

overall, the ATTEMPTED sequencing and 'synthesizer' functions that this box can muster make it great when used with external gear.
in conjunction with samplers and mixers this thing can be a lot of fun.
sample and reprocess and resample the stock tones to your hearts content.
sample and quantize whatever beats or riffs you (accidentally) "figure out."

this thing is very "right brain"....