Alesis ION

This is an addendum to my previous review of the Ion. I've played with it for 5 months now. A couple of things to add; the keyboard scanning circuit as a major flaw when it comes to velocity, as the black keys are twice as sensitive as the white ones. So it's near impossible to have a consistent control over it when using it as a control parameter.

Second, the mod wheels are glitchy, especially when moving them slowly.

Third, a bug in the noise generator software produces a short looping-type sound from time to time when using the white noise source. (a known bug on the part of Alesis but no other software update is planned yet to correct it and other bugs too, since the synth has been discontinued)

Other than that everything else is as delightful as when I first bought it; the analog sounding oscillators and filters, the full control via the knobs, the reasonable price, the (almost all) metal casing sturdiness, the display...

Using OS 1.06
Presets are not as good as they could have been. But they're a great way to start by tweaking them! Anyone who has ever used or played with an analog synth will feel right at home. The high resolution of the pots (knobs) was a huge selling point for me. When creating sounds, I don't feel at all limited by the lack of resolution of the front panel controls like on soooo many other VA synths out there, with their 127 or so values! This baby has 8192 possible values!! And a bonus is that this eliminates ALL undesirable stair-stepping or quantization artifact when tweaking in real-time in live situation.

Editing patches on the Ion is a breeze, thanks to a well designed layout. Although some parameters could benefit from having their own knob like portamento, or glide rate. That can be solved by assigning the second mod wheel to that parameter though.

The manual that came with my unit was outdated. I bought the Ion brand new and it had the latest OS already installed at the factory, but the manual was for OS 1.0 . Not a big deal, since there wasn't any major changes, except a lot of corrected bugs. I seldom needed to consult it anyway.

The 160x160 LCD display is great for the graphical info it provides, and is such a relief from the usual 2 lines display found on other VA synths! Although the angle of view is a problem. No matter what the contrast level you set, you have to lean a bit over it to have a better view. They should have provided a way of tilting it. But it's still readable sitting down.

The gradually lit mod wheels are eye candy and are sure to make a good visual impression. One curious thing; there is only one LED displaying the LFO speed, even though there are TWO lfos. Would it have cost so much more to put a second LED for visual speed reference on LFO 2? And also that same flashing LED doesn't speed-up or slow down the flashing rate when the LFO speed is changed by a modulation source. Only if you tweak the LFO speed knob on the front panel. Maybe in a future OS revision? (I'm dreaming I know)

8 voices polyphony. For a synth well under $1000 is okay. I'd rather have a great sound with a somewhat limited polyphony, than a lot of awful sounding voices. Although this limit can greatly reduce the benefit of the synth being 4 parts multi-timbral.

Keyboard action. Well this has been a subject of a lot of criticism, but frankly it is exactly the same as my trusty old Roland MKII MIDI controller. AND is still better than my Moog Rogue which has no velocity and needs frequent maintenance for bad electrical contacts. The feel is the same as almost all the vintage synths it emulates. I would have liked another octave on it though.

No expansion capability, and only MIDI SysEx way of loading and saving patches or set-ups. Knobs will send either NRPN or CC values (menu option in OS 1.06).

Arpeggiator on-board with only presets patterns, not programmable (a shame). It's okay, but the Micron (smaller brother of the Ion) has a much improved one and a step sequencer much more useful.

This thing was designed as a cheaper alternative to the very expensive Andromeda A6. And a great job it does too! I've owned and played with a few real analog synths in my years, and I owned (and still own) some other VA synths too (Moog Rogue, Moog Opus 3, Korg MS20, Korg EX8000, Roland JX8P, Novation Nova, Korg MS2000, Roland JP8080, Roland SH32 etc etc... you get the idea) so I kind of know what I'm comparing it with.

I'll say this; it displays one of the best (if not THE best) analog emulated sound of all the VA synths I've heard so far. The fact that there are many filter types emulated (from Moog to ARP and Oberheim and more) contributes greatly to the diversity of the timbres you can create. The Moog filter isn't EXACTLY IDENTICAL to the Moog ladder filter it emulates, but unless you can directly compare it to a real Moog standing next to it, you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference! Great work by the Ion team of engineers, who had such vintage instruments available as a reference.

Onboard effects? Pretty useless, except for some chorus and flanger, but not much else. Oh yeah, there's a distortion effect too, with a few emulated styles like Tube Amp and Fuzz, but nothing to write home about. Being digital in nature they're very quiet (no noise). They're okay I guess.

No aftertouch, only velocity and release velocity (controllable modulation source on key release) with adjustable curve and sensitivity.

The early units (remember this synth came out in early 2003) had some build quality issues, like bad pots, and poor quality output transistors, and some defective memory chips (the content of which could become corrupted). But according to Alesis, all those things are supposed to have been corrected. This model has been discontinued, although at the time of writing this review, there are still some brand new units left in stores around the world.
I had mine about a month now, so I can't really tell if it will last. Although the casing is all metal and feels very sturdy, as do all the knobs on it (they also have a very nice smooth quality feel to them, no wobbly pots here!)
Because of early units being of poor quality, I'll give it only a 7. If you want to buy one used, ask how old is the unit and test it thoroughly.

None needed so far...

For that price and all the features and the great sound, it is certainly worth every penny. If it were stolen, I'd buy another (new) one.

What I love:
the sound quality, the precision of the knobs, the mod matrix, the display (not the angle though), the casing (rock solid, all metal), the versatility of the filters, the extra mod wheel, the looks (reminds me a bit of the Waldorf color scheme) and the low price.

What I don't like:
the arpeggiator (non-programmable pretty much useless to me), the effects (too limited), the viewing angle of the display, the multi-timbral feature being limited by only 8 voices polyphony (this is no workstation).

When I decided for a virtual analog, there were 2 things to be considered: sound and sound access. There are a lot of knobs, but a lot of hidden things under sub-menus too.

Audio input is very interesting and usable. Eight voice polyphony is acceptable for an analog clone. FX section is poor - and this is not was you can expect from such FX specialists as the guys at Alesis! Good arpeggiator. No card or slot nor any sort of external memory location.

For a rock keyboardist like me, it's simply disappointing. Good low ends and monophonic sounds, but what about the warm pads? Forget about them! Those from my SR-JV ???Vintage??? board are much, much better. There are a lot of unuseful presets too. Looking for JP brasses or nice Oberheim polisynths? No way! This thing supposes to emulate 3 oscillators, and in fact it has a lot of sound modulation in its sound architecture, but whatever you may try, chords sounds always slim. The keyboard is unacceptable: ship plastic, bad quality synth action. Outrageous. My old QS6 had a decent synth action keyboard and I simply don???t understand why Alesis made such a bad choice for this thing. Even if you find a good lead sound (this the ION can do), the keyboard action keeps you shy and fright ??? no enthusiasm allowed. But even if you insist to play fast, some notes can be??? MISSED! Especially in fast repetitions of the same note. Shame.

It can NOT be my main source of analog sounds, even accepting a virtual clone to do the job. I prefer the Roland SH-201. The ION has a great look and feels solid because of the metal construction, until you touch the keyboard??? Bizarre blend???

Alesis has a reasonable service in Brazil, but the maintenance cost of parts and services is the same of higher priced brands like Roland and Korg.

This could be my 4th or 5th analog emulator. It can be fine for dance or electro stuff, but not for rock and roll.

There are some presets I like but I'm sure everyone who buys this will find sounds for their music production.

Everytime I use this synth I feel like Vince Clarke from Depeche Mode. It's a huge synth board and most of the time I am twisting knobs. It's easy to program to create new sounds however the Mod Matrix is another step up hard core programming that takes your sound production to the next level. I"m still learning that feature. I don't use a patch editor because I don't think the ION has one.. YOu don't need it because all the knobs are there.

PLus this keyboard is a good soft synth controller too as I use it as my controller.

The manual is straight forward.

I"m a mono type guy.. I don't use chords so the ION is perfect for my personality.

I don't use the effects because I use the WAVES plug ins. You would want to use the internal effects either because it doesn't sound cool to my ears.

Arpreggio doesn't sound cool either.

Ok, this is my main source for BASS sounds and Kraftwerk type leads and that's it. It's sounds really good on the low end.

The bass has a lot of attitude and grit.. I also have the VIrus synth but the bass on the ION is much cooler to my ears.

Perfect bass sounds aka Nitzer EBB and Depeche Modes A broken Frame.

IF you only use this synth as your main gear, it's possible to create all the sounds on the ION, Snares, Kicks, bass, hh, leads,etc.

Yes. I use a different keyboard to gig.

not yet.

I'd give it an 8. I will never ever trade this as I think I'm set with my set up.

The Alesis Ion, wow what a synth, ive owned a few synths in my time ( around 20) from the likes of Rolands Jp8000 & Xp80, Korgs Trinity, Triton and Prophecy, Waldorf Pulse, Novations Supernova, to name a few, and ive got to say, although many other synths may excell in the effects department the Ion wins hands down on pure quality of sound.
Many of the other mentioned synths "bury" the pure sound in effects which is cool to listen to on its own but dont mix to well when putting a track together, and this is where you really can tell a good synth from a lesser synth in my opinion.
Editing the presets is really a breeze and i love not having to dive through loads of menus just to change a waveform for instance.

The polyphony on this synth is 8 notes which i think for a VA is all you really need to keep things as near to analogue as possible and even the effects reflect the analogue thing, ie basic and mostly chorus/flange and delay types.

The keyboard on this beast is ok for a synth, its responsive and expressive what more do you want? i mean if you want a real piano feel keyboard then buy a real piano.

Would i feel confident using this keyboard on stage doing a gig? well ive never gigged but yes i would, ive had no problem with reliability in my stuio with it.

I have never contacted Alesis so i dont know.

To sum up this synth in a few words: its probably the most authentic VA synth ive ever owned and seen, its build quality is good, the sounds are excellent, the effects could be better.

Very easy. There are functions that can only be accessed by menus, but they're minimal and easy to get to. There will always be people for whom no VA will be good enough, and this synth may not be good enough for them. Its presets sound COMPLETELY analog to me, though, and I'd bet a lot of money that just about nobody would be able to pick it out in a blind listening test. (Those tests exist online, and true analog die-hard fans never seem to score very well in them.) The manual is OK. I've seen better, but it's not nearly as bad as a Roland manual.

8-voice polyphony is fine for what it does, although more would always be better for layering and long-release pads. The internal power supply is great, the synthesis features are amoung the most advanced ever for a non-modular synth, the knobs feel great and generate no zipper noise, etc. The big drawbacks are the pathetic arpeggiator and the terrible keyboard. The arp has only preset patterns, so it helps you make your music sound like it was made with a department store Casio. Don't be fooled by the "Random" pattern--it's not random as in playing random notes (e.g. Duran Duran's Rio), it's random as in selecting one of the other preset patterns at random. This synth basically doesn't have an arpeggiator. The keys are cheap and small, and they're not pressure sensitive.

Analog heaven. Fat fat fat, with punch and drive to spare. Plus, the comb and vocal filters, FM, etc. let you make all kinds of fantastic sounds that no real analog could ever make. The only synths more flexible than this one would be a Kurzweil VAST synth or some other high-end sampling synth, but they would give you a much different, and much less analog, sound. Expressiveness is great, except for the lack of pressure. The extra mod wheel is great, but does not at all make up for the lack of pressure sensitivity since it ties up one of your hands.

Too soon to say, but the build quality is top-notch.

I've never used them.

The terrible arpeggiator, lack of reverb/delay, cheap keyboard, and lack of pressure sensitivity are difficult to tolerate, but the sound engine is one of the best out there. And yes, that includes the Virus TI which costs four or five times as much. The Virus has wavetables and reverb, which really are great, but it aliases LIKE MAD. The Ion does not. This essentially IS an analog synth, but reliable and with much more power, for a fraction of the price of anything else.

Using the latest v1.06. This thing is a breeze to use. Just about every parameter has a real live knob associated with it at all times. Hunting through menus is sometimes needed for more obscure settings, but not a problem by any means. Indeed, just about every feature is at most 2 or 3 button presses away.
I don't believe there is a patch editor for this machine, but Unix geeks will be pleased to know that Alesis has a Perl script available for download at their website that will convert between SysEx dumps of patches and plain text files ripe for editing with your favourite editor.
The manual is excellent, even if I don't have a hard copy of it. I plan on calling and asking for one.
My only gripes in this area are very minor, like I wish each envelope generator had its own set of knobs, and that the envelope velocity sensitivity had its own knob as well. Barring this, I wish there was another high-resolution knob like the others in addition to the data knob that could perform the same function, since it can be fairly slow to adjust some parameters without their own knob. These are very minor points.

8 voices. A big step up from my old microKORG (which had 4), but still not as much as a workstation. I don't see this to be a problem at all; I got by with 4 on the MK and now being able to play organ on this thing with melody and more than just triads is very nice. Admittedly I don't do too too much in the way of layering voices or using unison every chance I get, but on the off chance that I have the 8 hasn't stood in the way significantly. The keyboard action is cheap and synth-like: exactly how I like it. I don't play piano or clav or anything so it's not an issue. A lot of my patches don't even use the velocity sensitivity, and I find I like an expression pedal better than aftertouch anyway (I started out on organ...sue me).
As far as MIDI goes, this thing is awesome. I use it with bars&pipes on my amiga. The built-in arpeggiator blows goats but I just use my microKORG's arp (or the amiga) and all is well. A lot of people liked to bitch about the fact that the knobs only send NPRNs and not CCs but the latest OS rev allows it to send and receive either. As for expansion capabilities, there are none sans MIDI, sustain and expression pedal inputs.

Velocity seems clunky at times but it's not too bad. There is no aftertouch (though the second mod wheel can be told to send channel pressure) and I'm currently looking for a cheap, durable expression pedal (the roland EV-5 is overpriced crap...I'm currently looking at a nice Alesis F2). I've actually found quite a few good (and some downright cool ones that made me laugh...like Baba O'Riley and Jump) usable presets on this machine. I have taken a particular liking to the "E.P? OK!" electric piano and "Stops on MW2" Hammond patches. The former sounds very nice, and the latter, while not really close to a real drawbar organ, is fairly usable. Some are tripe, but this comes with the territory. Any can be overwritten (not just the user bank, contrary to what some may tell you) and after all, this is a VA synth...it's meant to be screwed around with.
As for sounds though, this thing sounds very nice. It doesn't have that digital feel to it like my microKORG (not that that's bad...indeed I still use my MK on some stuff), and the filter emulations are awesome.
The onboard effects are fairly limited; the ones that it does have sound quite nice, though. The vocoder is fairly nice. I wish there was delay like most but you can't have it all...I'll just get a stomp box or something for this. I also wish the effects weren't shared between all parts but this is fairly minor since I don't do too much multitimbral stuff.
I find I can be very expressive on this thing...it reacts very nicely.

Well it weighs a bloody ton, at least compared to other stuff I've used of this calibre. Chassis is basically solid metal. Obviously if you treat anything like crap it won't last. I haven't gigged with it yet but I plan on it as soon as I get myself a nice flight case. I would use it without a backup, but more for the reason that I can't afford to keep multiple units around. I haven't experienced any software bugs, even before I went to v1.06 (was using v1.05). Seems like a very dependable piece of equipment.

Well, I did send alesis an email before about aforementioned hardcopy of the manual about two weeks ago and got no reply. I plan on giving them a call (plus we're both in RI so this isn't a big deal =]). We'll see how it pans out.

This machine is absolutely amazing. It would still be awesome if I had to pay twice as much. The sounds are amazing. I used to bash the micron (primarily because it had piss-poor realtime control) but since discovering this beast I'm glad that I have one. I've been playing synths for about a year and a half now, so I'm by no means an expert, but I do know what I like. My microKORG complements this unit very nicely. My main niggles with the ion are very minor in nature and by no means detract from the overall playing experience, though I do wish alesis had tilted the display just a bit since tweaking this thing while sitting down can be a pain in the arse. But this is, again, fairly minor. Not to mention that those light-up performance wheels look sexy as hell in the dark. I guess my last complaint is I wish alesis had used more blue LEDs on the front panel than just the blue bank select.
Lastly, I will admit that this was somewhat of an impulse purchase; I saw mine for fairly cheap on ebay and figured "I have to have that." Needless to say, I have zero buyer's regret. It certainly helps me to be very creative.

I'm using the latest software. Presets sound good for bass and leads, but that's it. Editing patches is very easy. I haven't really read the manual.

polyphony is 8, which is fine a lot of the time if you're not using patches with long decays or unison(this decreases voices). The effects suck pretty bad. The phaser is okay. Don't even bother with the delay, and the drive sounds cheap, but can be okay on some sounds. No aftertouch but I don't care about that. No onboard sequencer. Despite is missing a lot of features that other guys really want, i don't mind. it has what I personally need.

The keyboard action is horrible, it's very cheap feeling and there seems to be some sort of disconnect from when I hit a key to when a sound is emitted. You can adjust the velocity curve but it doesn't seem to help much. It's not a huge problem by any means, a few milliseconds maybe? It just feels like you have to press the key down a little further than most synths for it to sound, which you can compensate for by playing a tad early, but it just feels a tad unresponsive to me.

The actual patches/sound quality of this thing is a mixed bag. Monophonic basses and leads are pretty good, but pads and poly patches suffer. This thing just can't seem to do chords very well, and I'm guessing it either has to do with the filter models or the digital to analog conversion. When you put it into the JP8 filter mode, chords sound better in how the notes interact with each other, but it lacks punch and fullness. There is a kind of awful 2D quality to the sound, it's not very rich sounding overall, and I think that could be the cheap digital to analog converters. With good converters or a digital output, and better filter models, I think I'd like this synth a lot more.

If you have some sweet outboard chorus, delay, reverb, etc you could probably get this thing to sound 100% better. The leads especially sound WAY better with some delay. Get a virus if you've got the money, you'll be much happier unless you've got horrible ears. If you want something cheap this or an MS2000 are both good bets.

I've gigged with it plenty of times. never a problem.

sent it back to customer support because i thought something was wrong with it because the sound coming out of the synth didn't sound anywhere near as good as the demos on their site. I don't know if the demos are still up but they are either not this synth, or they were extremely processed. I got it back and it sounded the same, but there were some broken lights. I was gonna send it back again but then decided that i didn't want to wait for it to be sent to and from the factory again. Customer service was friendly and good but I have to take off points for the broken led lights.

if it were lost i'd save up more for a virus. It is definitely worth the 600 though. I've been playing about 5 years and own or have owned a juno 6, juno 106, nord lead 3, nord lead 2 rack, kurzweill k2000, yamaha psr540.

Super easy to use...if you don't know how a VA works than you'll be stuck playing with the presets, but once you get to know this thing, then it's all uphill from there.

All you got to do it turn knobs and you'll see a different world.

I like that it can be multi timbral, but it froze on me once when trying to do 4 parts.

This is where this thing shines. I think Alesis is trying to make a statement. They definitly got a good thing going with this thing.

The Presets are OK, but once you start playing around, you open yourself up to a world of synth sounds that rival the boys that cost 4 times as much. Even iffy presets will sound good once you start messing with the knobs.

I don't think Alesis knew what they had when they put this thing out. I wish it had reverb...which is what a lot of synth sounds rely on (other compeditors), but I guess that's what a really good reverb unit is for.

I love the sounds that come out of this thing once I start messing around with it. I love the filters!

I've got a couple other VA synths, and this thing is up there with the most expensive one.

I wouldn't be writing this if I didn't praise it.

I've got the DX7 which is a great compliment to this, they sound so different but they get along so well(once you program the '7, which isn't that bad, but way harder than the Ion..

When plugged into my mixer I can't hear any fuzz even at full level, but some of my ---newer synths--- make noise when I turn them up and jack them into my mixer.

Besides the freeze when I tried to do 4 parts, It's been super good to me.

I've been doing three parts just because I don't want it to freeze, even though it was probably a software issue(which I havn't upgraded yet)

I'm sure it was a freak freeze when I was doing 4 parts.

They seems to be on their stuff when it comes to upgrades. Havn't upgraded yet, but don't see no reason to if I'm using 3 parts at maximum.

I love this thing.

It rivals other synths costing 4 times as much. It can be deep and rich, if you program it right, and it can be thin also.

I love the ability to program in real time, which the little baby sister doesn't have...although I wish it had the reverb the little baby sister has.

I would advise this to anyone...it sounds great. I also have a bunch of softsynths and this thing is great if you love to play with knobs(computers will never be real synths...VA synths that is...nothing will ever take "real" analog synths over). If you think that softsynths sound great...this thing sounds better.

I'm not sure if this synth can be programed from the ground up, but if you start programing from preset one...I'm sure you'll love the results.

Why do European Synth Makers have 2k price tags, and American Synths sound better? I may be a hypocrite because I have European synths...but this is on the top of my synth list.

I think Alesis needs credit where credit is due!

Presets are very flashy, non-traditional. You're going to have to dig a little to get anything like a modern sound. The sound designers definitely were in their own world, closer to 1960's science fiction than modern synths (which isn't totally a bad thing; today's sci fi sucks). Editing is fine, once you read through the manual and understand how much the routing affects your results. If you don't, you'll be convinced that all you can get are vintage 70's leads. See my comment below for an important tip.

Polyphony is 8, I believe. That's fine for me. Voices will drop on orchestral type strings and pads if your release rate is extensively long. The effects are gorgeous and will do what you expect, plus a lot more. The drive, which provides your distortions, is more internal, but if you use the Tube Amp setting, you get a really nice warmth that comes closer to what the staunchest Analog Snob wants.

I did have a lot of trouble editing until I realized its "Default" patch was set to parallel routing, not serial. This is a great option but can confuse intermediate level synthists very, very easily. So, if you want to start editing from scratch, this will make it much easier to learn the capacity of the filters and waveforms:

1. Find "Default" in User bank, patch # 127.

2. Twist Osc knob 1 under the Pre Filter Mix section. This opens up the sound routing matrix (NOT the modulation matrix).

3. Go to page 3 where the diagram shows a line spliting through the two filters. Use the buttons and "soft knob" to put the ratios for the oscillators at 100%-0%, all of them. Once you do this, you'll note a radical change in the sound immediately.

4. Got to page 5 and find the category that says F1-F2. Put that at 100%-0%. Note the sound change again.

5. Hit the store button.

Now the patch will be at a conventional routing, and the sound will seem much more editable. And also you can change the ratios for all those routing junctions, and get a lot more out of your sounds. Now you can get much closer to those wonderful leads, basses and pads you hear on all those car commercials and trance tracks.

Enjoy!

This is purely for electro. House, Drum and Bass, 2 step, Industrial, Goth, 'electroclash' (a label I hate as much as Ladytron), and so forth. You can make wonderful electric pianos, wurlitzers, organs, Moogs and rhodes, but that's it for realistic emulation. This is analog, baby.

Again, the distortion is internal, not a suffixed layering agent, as with most synths. To get that kind of feel, you'll need an external effects unit. I'm currently running mine through a Korg Kaoss Pad 2, an Alesis Ineko, an Alesis Ampliton and a Korg AX10G (not always in that order), and that covers the bases. Starting with a cheap multieffects unit such as a Zoom G2, a Boss GT-3 (or 5 or 6 or 8), or a Korg AX series will take care of most of your needs. (Synthesizers are much less demanding of sound quality on guitar pedals than guitars are; just watch the sampling rate- 24 bit is the standard these days.)

Now, the sound engine sounds better than the Korg Z1, Yamaha AN1X, Roland SH-32, or even the Access Virus Indigo, all of which I have owned and tested. Less nasal than the Nord Leads, too. It just has more 'glimmer', more color to the sound. So, in spite of the limited effects options, I'm going to give it a 10.

Very reliable, and until I get that huge contract, I'll not need a backup.

They're twonks.

Yeah, this is going to be my main synth for quite some time. I've been playing for 6 years now and have owned about 13 other synthesizers. It's quite comparable to the Access Virus; in fact it blows it away. The only thing that might be better would be an Alesis Andromeda A6.

The Alesis Micron has exactly the same sound engine and with more effects, plus the perfect arpeggiator/sequence and drum pattern programming. If you know your way around the Alesis Ion matrix, then I'd highly recommend the Micron as well.