Alesis ION

this is a follow up to my previous review here.
enjoyed the knobs, but disliked the menu design for modulation matrix.

very flexible design, but keyboard feels a bit cheap to play. real-time MIDI tweaking is great. arpeggiator is very limited.

creates good classical synth sounds, with the exception of emulating Roland JP-8 filter resonance.

well, mine broke down after a few months. I got it repaired and traded it in when I bought an Akai MPC5k. The MPC5k has a slimmed down version of the Alesis ION, but the modulation matrix is removed.

I got it repaired through the music shop. apparently some production series had bad amplifiers on output, or faulty knobs. It took 4 weeks to get it back...

I'm currently planning to buy a Waldorf Blofeld as a replacement.I enjoyed all the knobs and the analog sound of my earliest synth's. that's why I bought the ION in the first place
If you buy a second hand ION, make sure that all knobs, LED's and outputs are working, before you cash up ;-)
Akai has their new Miniak, that contains the full ION/Micron WITH the matrix modulation.

I had no manual when I got mine. The presets were 90% no very useful for "normal" music. When I say normal I mean music which could theoretically be produced with more conventional instruments, or at least more conventional old-school synthesizer sounds. Alesis seems to have focused (like most VA manufacturers) on wowing those of us are into industrial, trance and dance genres. But this is funny, see, because when they say the Ion is capable of emulating old analog synths verbatim, well...it's mostly true. Nothing else comes quite as close in the VA world. I guess they just figured that IF you were an old-school synth enthusiast you'd be creating your own patches and most trance and dance people like to tweak existing sounds but not spend so much time programming. SO the presets favor such people. Polyphony is not much. I don't remember what it is and I sold my Ion several years agao (SO-O-O F'ING STUPID!). It's not much more than it needs to be for normal hands on playing. That's fine with me. I don't use sequencers, I record direct. Maybe occasionally use the arpeggiator when I just feel like playing lead with another synth and let the Ion do the work. Editing patches is very straightforward for anyone who has programmed the older real analogs. Same thing with a few more modern tricks which are easy to learn. It can get a little involved when sifting through the mod-matrix...which is AWESOME, duuuudes! Once you start doing that you'll find that. It's one thing that really makes the Ion a modern synth even though its other architecture is modeled on the classic synths a bit.

I found the keyboard to be quite servicable and fun to play. No, it's not set up to be your main keyboard or controller. 49 keys is just enough to be able to really get into it with other musicians in some kind of gig (if this was your only synth). Any less and both hands start fighting with each other for notes. 49 is just enough to enjoy it. I have actually composed the core of several songs on the Ion (filling in around it with guitars, drums and adlibs on a Korg N5ex). Since my style is admittedly pretty damned unique, I might refer to it as "Softwave" in some cases. That is, a different take on semi-psychedelic New Wave music with more traditional beats and highly acoustic sounds supporting the Ion (or any VA, really) which is used as a strong bass/rhythm or lead intrument which is used to lay the first tracks of a song. Music conceived through a synthesizer, but which eventually invites much more acoustic elements into the mix once the synth lays down the foundation. My Ion was perfect for this. The only other synth I owned which allowed me to continue to develop this musical style was the Novation K-Station. I think perhaps Novation comes the closest of any other VA synth to what the Ion does.
As far as I know the Ion has no normal expansion capabilities (i.e. cards or boards, etc), but you can download new patches easily I am told. The arpeggiator works nicely with quite a few creative possibilities. No sequencer though. Not enough polyphony anyway.

There is absolutely nothing realistic about it, nor is there supposed to be. There are a few nice organs and EP's. These are ION sounds, and not at all supposed to represent classic sounds at all. However, they sound pretty good and unique! Alesis invented something new with these classically inspired patches, basically. The Ion EP is very soft and warm, like a firm pillow. Maybe even a cross between an EP and a mellow organ. The rest of the memory is taken up by mostly very wierd and unique sounds. It sounds very truly analog (although it's not) but it can do things with that basic sound that no real analog synth could do! The distortion is really cool when used in conjunction with the mod wheel. My GOD! You can almost get a funky guitar strumming modulated envelope sound. The tone is NOT the same as an electric guitar, but the ACTION is. Something Lenny Kravitz might get into. Seriously! Chunka-chunka-chunka br-a-aap! Something that really makes you want to hump something! :-)
As I was saying earlier, I enojoyed composing with the Ion. It's great in my case for laying down a few inspired tracks and then eventually embellishing them with other parts and sounds. But the Ion sets the pace and tone. You can really build off the sounds produced by this synth. Alot of synthesizers create dead ends when you lay down tracks with them because then you have to find the perfect complimentary patches for what you created. With the Ion a few inititial tracks sound full and juicy without creating any limitations, wheras a sharper VA would immediately set a limited humber of directions you could go with your composition. I have only found the same use for a Novation K-Station played via a larger controller keyboard with mod-wheels. Novation's sound is kind of soft and juicy too. Like bubble gum! And not hard rainbow candy like a Waldorf or a Virus. My rating for this catagory is based on how the Ion compared to real analog synths.

Buuilt like a Volvo! Tough. Boxey. Metallic. Good Euro-style controls and not Japanese techno anime spaceship buttons with multilayered display. Just good clean simplicity, as simple yet unsparing as you could get. Great. But one gripe I DID have about my Ion is that it often produced a slight hum which didn't bother you if you had it cranked and were jamming, but ease back a little and then you hear it and smirk. So maybe that flunks it right out of the live scene for some. If not for that I'd LOVE to have an Ion along on a gig.

Never dealt with them.

I WANT ANOTHER ONE! Or a Micron at least. I'm even considering selling my Micro Q to afford one. Ion was my first VA synth and my third synth period. I have also owned Novation K-Station, Alesis QS6.2, Roland JV-1080, Kurzweil K2000R, Kawai K3M, Yamaha TG77 + SY77 + SY22, Korg DW8000, Korg Wavestation, Waldorf Micro Q, E-mu's Morpheus + B3 + ESI32, Korg N5ex, Casio CZ3000. Alot of stuff. My best recordings feature Ion, N5ex, QS6.2, and JV1080.
If the Ion had 61 keys like its "big" brother Andromeda it would be a plus. I think to have the Ion positioned right above an Alesis QS7 or similar would be my ultimate setup.

Best user interface I've ever used, uncluttered spaciously laid out silky smooth continuous controllers that are fixed to the panel (so no wobble)with an edit button for each section if you need to get deeper. The envelope buttons can feel a little awkward at first being over the level/rate controls but you soon get use to it.
The decent large LCD automatically jumps to whatever parameter your editing and gives a nice graphic of waveforms, envelopes ect and also has a small sub menu at the bottom for more in depth parameters which is a simple back and forth affair to get to whatever you need.
I'm not a newcomer to synths but I pretty much had this synth licked inside and out in just over an hour.
Some people moan about the LCD being flat however I have my Ion mounted quite lower down so it's not an issue.

Only 8 voice 4 part but not a major issue as I use one 5 voice poly part and three mono parts and there's no need to layer sounds as it sounds pretty phat already. It also keeps the cost down as with say a Virus your paying more for polyphony and mutiFX.

The overdrive FX are excellent for giving this synth the grunge of a real analogue at it treats each voice separately so chords don't sound a mess. The other regular FX are a little disappointing but you do get four outputs so external processing is easy enough.

Sadly isn't now discontinued giving the Micron a few extra features like reverb and a simple sequencer.

Keyboard feels a little cheaper than some synths but I've had no trouble with it although I'm not really a player as such. The three mod wheels are nice to use and glow red when moved which looks really cool.

The synth engine is pretty comprehensive and gives you everything you need this side of a modular; X3 VCO with continuous wavform shaping, FM, ringmod, twin multimode filters with various routing options, 16 path mod matrix, X4 banks of 127 memories, 3 very comprehensive envelope generators with various looping and level stages which can be as simple or as complex as you like and is another virtue that puts this synth ahead of most.

First thing is NO STEPPING thanks to the high resolution 12 bit encoders that is soooo much better than the naff old 127 MIDI standard and gives the synth a quality feel and fine tuning ability of programming a real vintage analogue.

The waveforms are decent enough with a slightly nasally vintage 'US' sound about them, not bright as say a Q or Nord but this adds to the synths warm analogue factor.

The filters are the best sounding I've encountered on any VA and do some very convincing emulations of the real analogues they're named after. Ok they are not a 100% substitute than the real thing (no digital synth is) but they sound good (especially the Moog and TB)and as most synths are judged on the quality of their filters you certainly get your moneys worth with the variety on offer here which you'd be hard pressed to get on any other VA. The comb and other 'none analogue' filters are also a bonus to the synths sonic pallet.

Alesis have tried really hard to get rid the harsh side effects of digital sound and the overall tone has an attenuated (similar to the earlier Nords) quality too it in an attempt to keep the sound as warm as possible but I find a little external high end eq boost brings back a little sparkle and when, as previously mentioned, you use the drive FX wisely you can get some very rich analogue sounds that sound very convincing and whilst purists will always nit pick that it doesn't sound totally analogue it really doesn't sound a typical digital synth either.

In short a very rich sounding polysynth that comes closer to the analogue sound (especially with resonant filter sounds) than any other VA I've tried. Not an ideal synth for bright airy pads but it certainly has a warm individual character of its own and would compliment any setup.

Imho the presets are pretty lame and don't really show off the synths sonic pallet but this is a programmers synth so it's not a biggie.

Solid with no software glitches that I've encountered, very solid build quality with, decent (if a little small) buttons and silky smooth knobs that are attached to the front panel.

Discontinued a couple of years back but I guess parts will still be about for a while yet.

Great value easy to use polysynth that does a great impression of the vintage classics of the past and a lot more in a modern reliable digital package.
An ideal synth for those wanting to learn analogue style synthesis on hardware thanks to the excellent UI whilst enough depth for sound experimentation for the more experienced synth user.

The presets sound okay, standard VA stuff. Best to ditch and create something on your own.

Editing patches is a breeze. No patch editor necessary, as this may be one of the single most intuitive keyboards I have ever played.

Did not even need to bother to look into the manual, and I was already messing around with the more complex functions of this synth.

It is an 8-voice VA. It has some built in effects. I wish I can go through the features in all of its glory, but it is rather cut and dry, 3 osc., 2 filters (16 filter choices), and mod-matrix, and lots of knobs. It is how a VA should be...an analog, but some perks of being digital. Oh it has a really nice display too.

This is where I love this unit. Honestly, I don't know about aftertouch, but it does have velocity. I am not really going to concern about that and get to the nitty gritty.

This thing is a beatiful VA. Still. The very fact Alesis discontinued this keyboard and kept the micron around is kind of surprising. Yes, they both sound the same.

I have owned nearly 24 vintage synths. Ensoniq sq-80, Korg Polysix, Roland JX-8p, JX-10, Several Sequential Circuits keyboards ( Including a Prophet VS), a Moog Memorymoog (which died on me, RIP).

I have also owned numerous VA's all that I found disappointing. I will note, I never did get a waldorf, or Virus...but save for those...very few companies were left untouched. Roland, Korg, a Darkstar, a Nord Lead, and on and on.

When it gets down to it, when I compare in my head...the Alesis is as close to the weighty analog monsters as you can get. It has the certian it there with regards to how it sounds. I am going to say, it sounds closer to the roland and Oberheim side of things sometimes, but I have delved into Yamaha's analog polysynths with this keyboard, just accidentally. The reason why...this thing actually paid attention to the subtle differences in filters between the machines. It is one thing to have a low pass, bandpass, and hi pass filter with 2/4 pole system, its another to offer 16 different types. Oh the modulation matrix helps as well. Yeah, not something I found on my old rolands so much, but routing is a huge feature to some synths. My SQ-80 for example depends on it.

I could go on and on, but there is so much this synth does right, and the payoff is in how it sounds. I would say its not purebread analog, but it certianly competes with the best hybrids out there (SQ80, Juno 106, JX-8p/10, etc), if not hands down beats them. While its no waldorf or virus, its worth the price of admission. One to keep the long time synth player like me very happy.

Great sounds come with very little effort, and this is the mark of a great VA. Emulation is important, but ease of use, and ease to get what you want is key as well. And the fact I could get a great sounding Oberheim pad in the matter of minutes that was nearly identical to one I created on an OB-8 that took me nearly an hour to create, speaks volumes of how versatile this synth is.

By the way, this is a synth, and I am judging it as such. Beautiful pads, leads, basses, complex randomness...oh can this synth do complex synthesis brilliantly. I am not looking for realism, I am looking for an instrument that can sound unique and synthy.

I heard it can be glitchy, but this thing is good enough to gig.

never used it.

I rate this a 10, because it is a fantastic value. While it only has 8 voices of poly, so did my jx-8p, and it was my favorite that I ever owned. The poly does not hold this keyboard back. Its a VA, that kind of shares the limitations of analogs...who cares.
The fact that these are going for around $400 used is a bargain. Nothing in its price range is as brilliant, and as intuitive, and in fact it kind of beats stuff out of its price range.

What made Alesis cancel this is beyond me. Yes, the micron is nice, and has some additional features, but it is not comparable to this affordable master piece, that brings real time control synthesis at a budget price. I am hoping Alesis only retired it because it was planning Ion 2. The truth is, while it is a great machine, it can use improvements like anything else. It will be a mistake for Alesis to stay out of the full control market too. This is the one thing they do MUCH better on a great budget than the Japanese rivals. The fusion was a mistake, the Japanese just do workstations to damn well. Alesis refocus! You make a better budget competitor to Clavia, Access and Waldorf on the VA front than you do making dime a dozen romplers.

I would replace this in a heartbeat, I am honestly wondering why I took so long getting one, as they were always inexpensive.

Again this is a fantastic synth for the money. So it deserves a ten here, if only because it is worth every penny plus some. Please Alesis, the discontinuation of the Ion was a mistake, bring it back, and if possible, bring it back better (yet still affordable, keep it under $700).

OS v106
presets are fair, but not top notch
great with all the knobs, but the modulation matrix takes time to master. manual is not much help to understand the synth structure.
all my older synths had a graphic structure to explain the sound flow.

8 voices is OK. Keyboard is mediocre. FX are OK, but I miss reverb for live performance.Midi realtime tveaking is great.

great VA synth sound. no acoustic sounds and no sample sounds, so it's not a workstation all-in-one machine. sounds are very dynamic and respond to velocity, mod-wheels and knobs like a analogue machine.
the Roland Jupiter filters are lame and have no resonance feedback. other filters emulations are very realistic.

I do miss my old Jupiter-6. Why did I sell that beauty 5 years ago?!
I wouldn't take that machine on tour, but I see no reason not to to bring my Ion in a gigbag.

If I was to buy a new machine again, I would try to get me an Andromeda or the new Prophet 8.

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.