Product: Alesis Fusion 6HD
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted
10/28/2005
at
12:22pm
by
dd
Ease of Use
:
No Opinion
1.0
The sound bank buttons, like piano, strings, etc make it easy to navigate.
Features
:
6
The fact that Alesis will continue to upgrade software and sounds means that this keyboard has a great future. My big complaint is that this was advertised as semi-weighted and it is not, it is just like my Triton 61 note. The in
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
No Opinion
The Analog sounds are great. I geuss they have already come up with new sounds and a new piano, so its hard to say yet. Overall I would say it is better than my triton in synth sounds, but worse in some stock sounds, but I haven't upgraded new sounds yet.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
I will post an update soon, I just wanted to give people a heads up about a few things.
Product: Alesis Fusion 6HD
Price Paid: US $1699
Submitted
09/07/2005
at
08:15am
by
Brian
Email: mymusic42<at>yahoo dot com
Ease of Use
:
7
Software Version 1.00 (Alesis released 1.01 to correct bugs) was the version I used. The presets were not earth shattering. The manual was well laid out. This keyboard really could have used a touch screen (but I guess lack of a screen is part ofwhat kept the price low). Navigating through sounds and banks was a little quirky.
Features
:
5
Alesis says this is the polyphony: Dynamic processor allocation varies depending on the complexity of your program: Sample playback: 272 voices, FM: 240 voices,,Virtual Analog: 140 voices,Physical Model - Reed: 60 voices,Physical Model - Wind: 48 voices... I didn't keep it long enough to max out the polyphony.
The onboard sequencer (32 tracks) and 8 track audio recorder were big selling point, but i didn't keep it long enough to try these
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
3
The Holy Grail Piano was touted as being a big deal. It was one of the worst grand pianos I ever heard. There is a Holy Grail Jazz Piano patch that is a bit better. Piano/strings and piano/pad programs are horrible (though there is a MIX Symphonic Piano--or something like that which is a better combo of piano and strings). The Electric Pianos were decent. The FM pianos were nice, but didn't blow me away. The organs were a big disappointment. There were VERY few parameters to edit the leslie effect (ramp up/down speed was not there) and it just wasn't believeable. The organ sounds themselves weren't so bad, but lack of a good leslie was and is a big limitation. The physical modelling wasn't too spectacular either. The sampled wind and brass in the fusion are better than the modeled sounds. Strings were nice, but not as full as a MOTIF or Triton. Brass was nice, but still not as full. Leads (especially the analog ones) were very nice.
Compared to a Triton, the effects are very limited. Only 1 insert effect for Program. and in MIX mode, an insert effect could only used for 1 part. That was a big letdown for me. Plus there were not enough parameters for the effects.
Reliability
:
3
Lots of bugs in the 1st version, not reliable enough to use live(sometimes it would play a different sound than what what displayed)--but i'm sure alesis will correct this in coming months.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
5
I have a Motif 8 and a Triton Extreme 88, but i'm tired of carrying around these 60 pound beasts. So the fusion 6hd was going to be my alternative. But the presets didn't stack up. I decided that since i loved my Triton so much and i already had all the sounds/layers I needed in it, that i would return my fusion and get a triton 61 key.
I had planned on using the fusion to design my own sounds, but i really didn't see the potential once i started playing the fusion
