Alesis Fusion 8HD

OS 1.24.

The first banks of factory presets generally sound average, but the latest ones have some good sounds. The ones by hollow sun are good. My main problem with them is the huge varation in level. If you're scrolling through the presets while playing a MIDI sequence you may jump from your chair when you suddenly select a preset with higher level. Editing is painless. The user interface is good. Nop editor since alesis didn't bother to implement SysEx.

The manual is the tipical parameter description alesis uses in synths. You can read it beggining to end and still not know how to do anything with the synth.

Polyphony is generous. No complaints there. Keyboard action seems nice to me, but it's the only weighted keyboard I tried. The effects are nice. I use them for monitoring but don't record them. No delay MIDI synch. In this day and age..... Aftertouch is very responsive. The sequencer is basicaly a load of crap. Usefull as a note pad but even then it get's on your nerves. For some reason someone in alesis decided to insert volume control and a few other messages with a value of 127 in the beggining of each track, so every time you start playback any level adjustments you made are gone. When you start wondering why everything sounds like a clipped mess, that's why. That was some very good thinking alesis.

You also can't select programs on any other bank besides number one from cubase. Very nice....

Velocity and aftertouch seem fine. The sampler seems quite functional and I guess the realism depends on how well you program your sample patches. The sound generation of this thing is good. There are a few glitches to it but nothign too serious.

You can't depend on it. Sometimes it will give you a error message and no sound whatsoever will come off it. You have to restart it and sometimes even leave it off for a while for it to comeback to normal. It doesn't happen often but it's frequent enough to prevent me from using this live.

Alesis is not a thrustworthy company. They haven't implemented all the advertised features and they havn't fixed the bugs in a reasonable time frame.

Wouldn't buy it again. For the price you do get a good keyboard and a good sound module with four synthesis types and a 80 Gb hard drive to store all your patches. Those things make it worth it. I have been playing for 15 years. I really wished I could select patches on it with a sequencer and that it had delay synch. It helps and get's in the way of making music in requal amounts. Overall this is product was a great idea that Alesis managed to screw completely. When you take in consideration that up to recently thsi thing couldn't even synch MIDI and audio I think Alesis deserve all the bad rep they got from it.

I'm using OS 1.24. It came with OS 1.23 but that changed this morning. I bought this new last night from Guitar Center in Ridgeland MS.
I think that the presets sounds fine as long as you're in program mode. The presets sound okay in song mode but alot of the character is lost. Sometimes this is good like during a mix and sometimes this leaves me wishing it didn't happen. It just mainly depends on what you're looking for and what kind of music you make. I would not recommend the presets for hip-hop only because of the drums. They're not weak or anything they're just different and kind of old school to me. But I still like them for the songs I make but I wish there were more drum presets.
It's not hard at all to edit the patches but I'm not a programmer. So I really can't be specific about how easy it is to edit patches. But the few times I have edited patches it's been really easy.
The manual is very easy to read and to understand but that about it. I don't like it because there are no hints and tips or tutorials or anything like that and it hard for me to find something specific when I need to find it. Thankfully there's a DVD tutorial out now.

The polyphony is out of this world. I dont recall that making a note cutoff or disappear because of it running out of polyphony. The Fusion has plenty of built in effects, they sounds really good and the very easy to use. It doesn't have expansion capabilities as far as plug-in boards or anything like that. I know the RAM can be expanded and that may be all.
I haven't tried syncing this thing up for MIDI playback but from what I've read Alesis is still working on this feature. I've only synced up the timing to my other keyboards and digital recorder and it's synced in time perfectly.
It has an onboard sequencer but it does not have a pattern sequencer like many are used too. It's only in linear form which I dont really like but that's one of the cons and there is a work around for it. You are able to cut and paste your songs in the order you like them but I'd still prefer a pattern based sequencer. Hopefully this will be on the way soon, too. The sequencer is very easy to use though so I'm very greatful for that.

Velocity snd after touch are great. I have no complaints there.
Many of the instruments are very realistic. Especially the sounds I've recieved for free from Hollow Sun and KPR created specifically for the Fusion. There are some plain sounds but those are the GM sounds which I never use anyway. Plus if you don't like the preset sounds its easy to just fix them to your liking or create your own.
The Fusion will work with all types of music just don't expect immediate gratification right out of the box. I was not pleased with the Guitars and the Drums when I first got my 6HD. But after learning a little something on how to tweak the drums to my liking, all is cool now. I make all kinds of music.
Like I said earlier the onboard effects are very good and very easy to change.
The Fusion reacts to the way I play very well. I have no complaints.

I feel as though I can depend on my Fusion but it's not perfectly bug free. The 8HD I brought home yesterday hasn't shown me any problems yet and hopefully it never will. But my 6HD does get an occasional error screen when I first turn it on. But it only does this once is a blue moon. So I just turn it off for about ten seconds and turn it back. After that I don't have any more problems with the error screen. Sometimes in song mode notes will sustain as if you're holding down the sustain pedal. It only does this when I making edits to a certain sound while a song is playing or when browsing past the different sounds in a song. It's no biggie for me but it does get annoying sometimes. I have a nine lower black keys touch the body of the Fusion and when the keys are depressed they make noise louder than any of the other keys because they're hitting the top of the Fusion. I heard that this is a common problem but an easy fix whether you're willing to loosen a few screws or not.
I would not use it on a gig without a back for one reason and one reason only. It has a hard drive on it and I just don't trust anything with a hard drive not to crash freeze/lock-up or do something wierd. My PCs in the past have crashed, I read reviews about the Boss digital recorders that have hard drives crash as well as the Tascam 2488 having problems with crashing and among other things. So it's nothing personal against the Fusion and I've read reviews about how great it is using it live but I'm not willing to take that chance just yet.

Alesis was very helpful and friendly when I called for assistance. They appeared to be very concerned about thier customers satifaction.
I got an from them when I order a Fusion 8HD from Guitar Center because they were blowing them out at $499 for the 6HD and $999 for the 8HD. I already had the 6HD and I wanted wieghted keys. My local GC didn't have any in stock so they called around and found a few for me but they were all floor models. Only one store they talked to had a box for it and they said it was in great shape. Well, I UPS changed all that and I glad they did because it was pretty dirty, scratched up and it didn't come with a manual(which I knew about) or a power cord. Well, the box they decided to ship it in was too small for the Fusion and they didn't write FRAGILE or THIS SIDE UP or anything like that so it arrived in pretty bad shape with to keys stuck down. Well, I call the next day after recieving it and GC said they'll locate another one for me but this time they were getting it straight from Alesis. That's the one I picked up yesterday. So in a way I did get an upgrade from the old beat-up one thanks to Alesis and my local GC.

If this were lost or stolen I probably would replace it but I have always been curious about the Motif ES and now the Triton Extreme. I do like the Fantom X Series but there's just nothing special to me about the preset sounds. The Yamaha sounds just blew me away. I'm also curious about the Kurzweil k2661 and the Roland Juno-G. I've played the Juno-G and it seems like a pretty cool board. But for the price for my 8HD $999, I don't think I could have done any better because like I said, I wanted weighted keys anyway and this things is always getting better updates to the OS and to the sound banks thanks to Hollow Sun and KPR and BITR. To me it's definately worth what I paid. Oh I forgot to mention since I bought this while the promotion was going on I should be recieving free Alesis M1 Active MKII monitors pretty soon as well.
I've been playing most of my life. I have an alto sax, a recorder, Yamaha DJX and DJX-II, a Boss BR-532, a Fusion 6HD, a Yamaha YPG-625(my wifes), Yamaha VSS-200, and Yamaha PS-02(my first). I'm sure I'm forgetting something.
I love the possiblities and the bang for the buck. I like the all in one-ness of it. I like the design because it doesn't like anything out there. I like the build quality because it's built likt a tank. Very solid and heavy. I don't like the fact that there is no pattern sequencer right now but there isn't one in the Juno G either. I don't like the bugs whenever they do pop up.
I didn't really compare it to too many other boards out there because for $999 brand new there arent many to compare this to. I know there a the Korg TR61 which looks very nice to me but had no onboard sampling as standard. The Juno-G which only had 4 tracks of audio recording versus the 8 audio tracks on the fusion. The build quality was not the same as the Fusion but I still think its a very cool board. As far as comparisons at the price for brand new that was all there was to compare.
I wish it had a pattern sequencer and a was to keep all of the sounds exactly the way they sounds in PROGRAM mode. I wish there was a way to switch audio tracks I'm recording to without having to plug and unplug for each track. I wish I could darken up the screen just a little bit. I know I can in diagnostic mode but I wish there was another way. I wish the undo buttons would undo your last movements and not just eh setting you've made. I wish the cd-r that was promised when this first came out was already here.
The Fusion helps me make music especially with the free sounds available. But the fact that there's no pattern sequecner that I have gotten used to with my Yamaha QY70 slows me down because I have to cut and paste my songs together and I'm used to working like that. I don't like working like that but I can live with it.
This is my second Fusion and if I didn't need the money, I wouldn't be selling my first one.

I'm at OS version 1.24. This fixed a number of MIDI time issues but they still ahve a ways to go. The manual is factually correct but don't expect to learn how to do anything from it. The online Fusion forums are a better source.

The sequencer is almost useless. If oyu have already created your sequences elsewhere and import them into the device you'll be fine. But don't expect to build a profesional sequnce on this unit alone.

sounds are acceptable for studio use. I don't know how it would be in a live situation yet.

Ask me again in five years.

I got what I paid for - Jack of all trades. master of none.

While not near as hard to edit as say an old D50, M1 or the likes its not exactly a breeze. The manual is well thought out but could use some more screen snap shots to follow. The viewing screen is nice and big and very bright which is nice for a darkly lit stage!

Loaded with features to the hilt! One of the best keyboard actions around for all types of music. The stroke is not as deep as a really piano but that actually makes it much faster to play on sweeping arpeggios. Loads of built in effets at your finger tips! A great sound library is available FREE from the Alesis web site. Just plug your stick memory in to your computer and download until your heart is content and transfer it to your Fusion. I bought this board not only if its great sounds but its HUGE sequencer for my Who tribute band. Its a little hard to get used to but the capabilities are endless!

Whom ever the retard was that said it sounded like shit must be deaf dumb and blind! Didnt you play it in the store before you bought it? This beast sounds HUGE!! I use it in my Who tribute band and have no problems making Love Rain O'er Me, Baba O', Eminence Front, or Wont get Fooled again sounding as good as the origional! I also love the VA sounds for prog music. Tons of organs, strings, Mellotrons, woodwinds, bass, brass, and like I said a fantastic VA selection!!! To me the pianos are a little weak but totally tweakable!! just layer them until your hearts content

So far 100% reliable- seems to be rock steady with a solid metal housing

Fantastic!!!!!Alesis is comming around after a few rocky years. Sooooooo easy to upgrade the sounds!!

If it were lost or stolen I would get another one ASAP!!I have tons of gear, Moog Voyager, Moog Taurus, Roland U20, JD-800, Juno 106, Korg M1 and I could almost get away with just this one board!! Yup its that good. I tested the MO8 and it didnt have the expandabliity of the Fusion(hope you yamaha guys like the sounds your stuck with) and it was a fraction of the cost of a Roland Fantom. I gave this synth a 9 because I wish alesis would have made the sequencer a little easer to use but then again ive only had it a few weeks. The arpeggiator is a breeze to edit and has endless combinations. Try one you love it

I traded my Yamaha Motif 7 classic because the sounds were stale and it was very difficult/impossible to program and had a small abbreviated screen. I am programming with the larger screen on the Fusion without having to read the manual. Very intuitive. The modulation matrix in the VA synth is like adding lines to a spreadsheet. I have the lastest OS 1.22 and all Hollowsun wav upgrades as of Aug 2006. Id say as of July the Fusion is finally ready. An external control surface for the VA synth would be nice.

The effects are pretty good, Im still trying to get it to be a better hammond b3 emulator. To me the main feature is the hard disk. Its the core of the instrument and not an afterthought. You are in controll of the wav rom and no longer have to rely on what Yamaha Roland and Korg think you should have. You no longer have to buy a new Korg M1 every 2 years to stay current. (I own a Korg t-2, great board). The dedicated keyboard has no latency delay like a PC based sampletank or VST system would introduce.

The wav rom is 24bit and compressed with no data loss(like pkzip and not like mp3). Its very crisp all thru the range. Many sounds are sampled at multiple velocity levels. You can adjust the velocity curves to suit your touch. I own these Akai cdroms and plan to convert and add to my hard disk: Geytsounds best of, xxlarge string machines, Steve Stevens Guitar, Quantum Leap Guitars, Ultimate Strings, Acoustic Choirs. Those libraries deserve their own reviews.
the winows/mac conversion program is free.

Ive had it 3 weeks I bought it July 15th 2006. It still works.
The best part of the reliabillity is the wav rom won't go stale as you can replace it or add to it. I rate this board very high. I wouldn't have bought it if I didn't. I rated the Yamaha Motif very high back in 2002 when it came out and I bought it also. It might be possible to damage the harddrive by dropping it repeatedly.

I emailed alesis a question asking if the VA synth had pulse width modulation and never received a response.(yes it does, OSC shape)
They upgraded the OS and invited HollowSun to ongoingly release a Free (180MB so far) rom block of sounds (like a free Triton Extreem). Nice. This alone is the reason to get one.
http://www.promusicproducts.com/forum/phpBB2/index.php has a bbs with over 500 users that post issues questions demos and free sample/presets.

Roland Korg and Yamaha better get their act together as the Fusion makes the other workstations obsolite. Hollowsun releases new wav rom every month like a magazine subscription but for free. Just drop them on the harddisk. If you don't like the factory wav rom you can delete it and just have what u want. The VA synth is crisp and doesn't alias in the high end. It gives my Prophet600 and Moog Prodigy a run for the money. Ive been playing 26 years. I give it 2 thums up, listen to it with good headphones and ignore ignorant salesman. If it were lost I'd buy 2 more.

ver 1.22 is the only version to bother with - the "new" alesis factory sounds are pure junk. pianos on any of my older modules are better and there are no usable horn patches whatsoever. one of my bands is a top forty - heavy on horns. i had to continue using my qsr in conjunction.

third party "hollow sun" is the only apparent hope for a functional fusion and still not yet. i specifically asked those at "new" alesis when we might have some functional, gigable horns and they had no idea... i might want to check with hollow sun!

it has amazing features - in theory. four different types of interactive sythesis, an eight channel hard disc recorder, sample, sequence, wav, midi, mp3(if i recall correctly)player and i believe a dvd player and margarita blender interface are in the works.... this is the perfect physical example of "jack of all trades, master of none"

if only they had followed in the real alesis footsteps and offered a killer keyboard with some cool extra features instead of killer extra features and no base - much like getting a great stereo/dvd, leather power seats, $4,000 rims and a talking gps in a new car with only three cylinders and four donuts for tires.

i have owned everything from a polymoog, prphet 5, yamaha tx816, synergy, d50, d70, akai mx80, kawai k4, korg wavestation, kurzweil pc88,x and 2500r roland jv/xv racks and more. everyone had better sounds for their time that this.

it reacts fine to velocity and aftertouch
some cool sounds, not much on realistic - easy to use

what types of music does it work well for? most likely any, in the studio if you are a programming wizard or have a friend who hangs out behind the curtain

if you like down time between songs and are basically playing cheezy piano and organ songs sure, you can gig it. i had to use it as a controller for my rack to have the sounds and speed needed to play for real. just a note - do not take for granted that a sustain pedal will work with it straight out of the box, mine (the same one i have used with my last two and current qs8's) didn't.

customer support is the only thing really worth raving about here. while the board itself has its pluses and minuses, customer support busts their humps for you.

this was my seventh (and eighth) alesis - and by far the worst. let me start by saying this is your fathers alesis - its not even your older brothers alesis. the great minds that brought us the qs series and other such toys is no longer. as a matter of fact, i was told by the new alesis (think george clooney as the new batman) that they are offering no further updates, etc for the qs - even though they have been selling them up until the past few months.

i have had a qs 7.1, 8, 8.1 and three r's - all wonderful pieces. the first fusion they sent me was a physically broken board that was sent accidentally. a week later the real fusion arrived. first complaint - you have to go to an office supply store and buy a flash memory card before you can update the os.

you cannot use the board live as it takes much too long to change between patches - and if you happen to pass a particularly beefy patch on the way to the one you want, you have to let it load first. very cumbersome.

had i kept it, i would have preferred it stolen so i could buy a real board with the insurance. i would never own one again. i sent mine back for a full refund and went out and bought another qs 8.1 and roland xv-88, and four roland cards for have the price and am infinitely more happy.

they are very proud in discussing the genesis of this project and how they kept adding features and getting giddy about. if only they were working musicians and had a discernable clue.

OS version 1.22. Finding the interface very intuitive when I can actually stop playing through the sounds and mixes.

Unbelievable polyphony, lovely keyboard action-prefer it to my Yamaha P-150. Usual excellent Alesis effects quality. I am considering the RAM upgrade for #79 but I don't really need it yet.
Feature list is very impressive for the price-hell, it is unbelievable for this price.

Great range of sounds as of latest Hollow Sun update. I have ben playing with soundfonts just lately-loads them no problem. A synth with real potential.

Very reliable so far but not considering gigging it as it is 'fitted' into my studio.

Emailed Alesies-got response same day. Got a number for an Alesis guy in UK. The Fusion forum is an amazing treasure trove of goodies and advice.

I used to have racks of gear to put Rick Wakeman to shame, slowly it was shrunk to a stage piano and a workstation. I now have a Fusion and nothing else and don't miss a thing-enough said methinks. I would not be without it and the open architecture of the OS means it has a real future.

Software Version 1.01

This is tough keyboard because everyone thought it would be tweeked out on the presets. Well it was shipped way early and it is up to you and I to carry that out. Editing is easy some functions that should be on the same page are split on multiple pages?
The manual is a 300 page manual with a quick reference 36 page.
They might have tried to make it too easy and I wish it was more granular. The architecture is pretty deep and supports the abilities pretty much. Not to mention anything can be added or changed with the updates.

Polyphony? Who really knows over 200 I guess. The variables are the synth engines you choose and any layering done. One thing is for sure from my tests ...It is high and has horsepower. Effects are unique and not just "Bread and Butter" types. Some have complained of limited effects but I want the synthesizer to be great without relying on effects and I think so far it shows that. 32 track sequencer with analog inputs for external audio. Limited only by hard drive space 40 gig.
Easy to use from my experience with Korg and Roland.

This is subjective to me some are and some are not realistic. I have certainly heard WORSE piano's than these I can say. And with the MEGA adjustments you can trim the patches. This is NOT a board to buy just for preset playing, what a waste that would be. Effects are good and some are really unique with the use of the Matrix patch bay. Keyboard is not the clunky wooden keyboard Keys but a mix of full/medium weighted action I like and does not slow me down. Great velocity abilities and aftertouch.

This is a software synth that can be anything as the updates roll out.
And as such need agressive updating to show the unique attributes of a software machine. Would I buy again having this just a week and owning a lot of huge machines? Yes, people are premature because Alesis was forced to push out too early and the thing was more "Raw" than expected on it's presets. The future updates are the key and I personally can tell how powerful the synth is by the programming I have doe so far.
This is a programmers synth and you have to want to get under the hood of it. Rewards will be heard for those who do this. I took it apart due to a B-Flat key making a mechanical noise. I was happy to see that this was just a wire and mylar that was bent touching the top of the key. The rest of the synth looked very tough on construction compared to my other instruments.

Well they had a "Ask Alesis" e-mail and I sent three and none came back? I did send to the official support@alesis.com and withing 24hrs they responded. It is not the "Original Hollywood" Alesis i used to work with but hopefully this big corporate entity will be good on support for all.

It is too early to give it a major rating due to being out just a week and only one software update so far. But the ability to grow with no limits on so many areas from polyphony to program storage to features not yet released I vote that it will be a major win for any buyers of it. I would replace it, it is made really great on the outside as well as the inside. They streamlined a lot of the programming so you can compose faster and program less but still get the sounds you want. I looked and played the yamaha motif and it was too cheesy on the construction even with a great pallet of sounds. My triton is way better made and Fantom also. Yamaha has to improve on this in my view. I own a Triton with a 5gig drive I added, a fantom, P-2500, P-2000, Original Quadrasynth, TG-55, U-110, FB-01, Alesis Drum Machine, Kurzweil K2000v.
They need documentation on the Samples on-board? That I think is lame.
Only the outside of the box said 120 meg of all new samples? whatever.