Alesis ION

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.

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.

Last OS came installed. V 1.06. The instrument works perfectly, no bugs at all. The presets are 30% usable, 70% rewritable. Of course, you're a synthesist and you love programmimg synths(at least, I really enjoy sound shaping). This is one of the easiest synths I had played for a long time. Despite the possibilities(it's almost a semi-modular synth)is very intuitive and fast to create your own custom sounds in minutes, sometimes in seconds! There's plenty of knobs and buttons on the front panel and the display is always showing you the required information as long as you're editing. Manual is very clear and precise.

8-voice polyphony. Light synth action, not as bad as I expected. I like dry synth sounds so i don't care 'bout the FX, but you have some usable distortions and flangers. I think that this machine is for playing live and sound shaping so 8 voices are quite good, if you're looking for a studio synth with tons of poliphony and parts, buy a Virus! MIDI seems well implemented, Ion sends and receive NRPN's, not the traditional CC'S, but I use it within a Cubase-based system without problems.No on-board sequencer(you can make a few tricks with the tracking generator but it's not a sequencer by itself). Arpeggiator could be better(i don't like the built-in patterns)but using it the traditional way works as expected.

Now I arrive to the most interesting part. I'm not the first, but i gotta say it, this instrument sounds UNBELIEBEAVLE!!!!I was a few minutes playing it, travelling through presets, tweaking parameters and I said: Can I pay with credit card? I'm totally in love with this machine. It sounds incredibly analog! No one with a couple of ears can doubt it! The warmth, fat and organic sound of god-synths like Minimoog or Jupiter 8 are in this board. I'm not joking, it's true! It seems alive with a slight touch on the "analog feel" parameter. I'd like to personally thanks the team of designers for this new god-synth, you're genius!

I had heard a lot of things about it. I was, in fact, scared about buying it for that reason. But I took the risk because it's the best VA of the history for me. And now, what do you want me to say? My unit is solid and perfectly constructed, seems hard as a rock. The only thing I would improve should be the keys, that seem a little more fragile than usual.

Yet no need for deal, knock on wood.

It's clear. If you're looking for a cutting edge wavetable synth with tons of poliphony and parts to use it as sound module in a studio setup, this one is not for you. If you belong to the analog community and since you were 12 you dreamed about playing Minimoogs, Jupiter 8's, Junos and all the legendary stuff, you can't afford the price of this beasts, and you always thought that Virtual Analog synths sucked as long as you're listening "Wish you were here" and "The man-machine", then your time has come. Alesis made it, all you have to do is buy it. Sincerely, for the price i bought it, i feel it like a synth heaven gift. Thanks Alesis.
Greetings from Barcelona, Spain.

I'm a guitarist and long-time reason user but wanted to get a hard synth to use for the stage. I used the Micron briefly last year and was interested in moving up to something with more features. Except for my Ensoniq EPS, I'm a newbie essentially so there's been a bit of a learning curve.

The ION has more preset banks than the Micron. Call it lack of experience, but I've found more than a couple presets that I like. That said, the billion knobs and buttons on this synth are an open invitation to tweak and the large lcd screen makes it easy to see what values are being changed. Once you get familiar with the placement of the knobs and their functions, the ION is pretty easy to use in low-light conditions, which is a definite plus.

The manual is written in plain english and describes every feature in detail. I've only had to use it when I can't figure out a function on my own. In other words, the synth is designed logically and has a very intuitive interface.

Features for the ION have been well-documented. It's unbelievably well-equiped for a synth of this price range.

Cons:
The action is pretty lousy
The latch feature isn't useable, especially compared to the Micron, and the arpeggiator is just lame

What stands out for me:
30 (count 'em!) knobs
Multi filters
3 mod & pitch wheels
Giant LCD screen
Looks cool as shit!

I've found about a dozen usable preset patches that I was able to use on recordings, right out of the box. There are some good frameworks for others that I was pleased with after some tweaking. Creating new sounds is easy-- select User patch 127 and hop to it.

To my ears, the sounds are extremely organic. Bass patches shake the floor, leads are very sharp and punchy, pads can be just as intense as with the excellent Yamaha AN1x.

The vocoder IS useable if you are sending it a decent signal. I recorded a vocal track using a MXL990 condenser and a Presonus preamp onto my digirecorder and then played it into the ION. I don't doubt that vocals would sound muddy using a RadioShack mic.

The effects section is alright, but nothing to write home about. I have a Roland SRV-3030d for reverb which is the only glaring omission in the ION's architecture. I'm pretty sure this synth would sound SICK through a Sherman Filterbank.

The ION is easily the least tempermental keyboard I've ever used. It seems better constructed than the Korg MS2000. I can only afford to have one at a time, so there's no sense worrying about carrying a backup.

Alesis stopped production of the ION but are continuing to offer support. Although we're not likely to see further OS updates the engineers do return emails.

Even better, there are great user groups on Yahoo and Google to support Ion/Micron users. If you post a question you'll often get a response within a day, if not within hours.

I'm not sure why Alesis pulled the plug on the ION because it seems like an unmitigated hit. I'd definitely replace it if it were to vanish unexpectedly. I've played guitar for many years and have started using synthesizers only recently. I've had experience with Korg and Ensoniq samplers. The last synths I had used were an M1 and a Casio CZ1000 from back in the day.

I bought the synth to get a little closer to the sound of bands like Air, M83, Interpol, My Bloody Valentine and it's been a good match for this style of music. Having it around has made me want to sit at the keys and experiment with different sounds, so it's worth its weight in inspiration.

Very easy to edit patches. The manual is perfect. It explains how the synth must be operated. It doesn't learn you how to be a musician or a synthesist. So be careful when you read reviews from beginners who don't understand what they do.

The keyboard IS VELOCITY SENSITIVE but DOESN'T HAVE AFTERTOUCH. The previous review is not accurate on the features. If you want to know the exact features, go to Alesis website, don't trust the reviews for that. Midi works like any modern synth (ie all you expect from a modern midi synth).

Knobs are great, but you can't change 2 parameters simultaneously with 2 knobs. You have to assign them to a mod wheel via the mod matrix. It sucks A LOT.

The sounds are excellent. You can use it for every kind of modern music. Pop, rock, dance, techno, etc. It's virtual analog synth so as usual no realistic sound, blablabla, you know that already, don't you.

The lack of aftertouch can be compensated by the 2 mod wheels and an expression pedal. Those who cry for aftertouch should learn to use their feet. I personally think an expression pedal is much more useful than aftertouch anyway.

The onboard effects are not good at all. External effects are necessary.

Not very reliable. Alesis wanted to offer a great sounding synth at a low price. The sound is great, so they had to sacrifice other parameters, ie the awful keyboard action and the overall reliability of the machine.

Connecting a jack in the rear panel gives the impression it will break inside.

Software problems are still happening even with the latest OS downloaded from their website.

I now have a high frequency noise in the left channel (both with headphones output or main line output).

Never dealt with them directly.

I would never buy it again. In any circumstance. I would go for a Clavia Nordlead 2X, much more reliable than Alesis keyboards. The Alesis ION is a low budget synth, with low budget quality. It's sad to say, but that's it. If your ION has none of the many problems mentionned by ION users, you are lucky.

I'll try to fix the problems in mine and sell it as soon as possible, before the problems reappear. It bought it in 2004, so there's no warranty anymore.

This Keyboard is SO EASY! Lots of endless knobs that update the main menu when they are moved. No more digging around through layers of menus to get what you want. Intuitive. This is probably the second strongest feature of this board (The first being the quality of sound).

You proabably already know the features so I won't bore you.

This board does analog. Period. It sounds analog. It is thick and very musical. I dialed up a patch in my Alesis QSR that had pitch-shifted downward and noted that a) it could only pitch-shift through two octaves and b) it sounded like ass. The ION handled the pitch shifting task with aplomb. It descended through a dozen octaves and sounded musical through its? whole range. I love the effects. I don't miss having a reverb with the ION because...why would you want to bury beautiful tone under reverb? I have found that the ION just plain sounds great. It compliments and augments rather than contrasts like digital boards do. It is hard to describe it as digital.

No issues here. I bought the store demo model 6 months ago and it still works fine.

No dealings with Alesis yet. The website is great.

I have read that this is a synth for analog users who hate analog. This is the most correct statement I can use for this board. The filters are amazing and the diversity of filter choices is excellent. Dozens of filters that model famous analog synths of old...all with resonance and performance-controllable parameters. I can dial up a patch in a few minutes with ease AND I can adjust sounds on the fly while at rehearsal - even while playing the song! Try doing that with any other digital board.

As for limitations, this keyboards greatest limit is the polyphony. It doesn't take too much to use all 8 virtual oscillators especially if the voices are layered themselves. This is yet another way how it mimics the synths of old...

I can?t survive without my ION. It is an indispensable tool to my sonic arsenal. If I had to perform without it I would cancel the show. The only other substitute would be a real analog board, but even then, I split this board four ways and midi control it during our show so it would be difficult to do THAT with an old analog board. Really the only thing better would be an Alesis Fusion or an Andromeda.

BTW ? if you are thinking about saving a few bucks by buying the Micron ? don?t! The controllability with the ION is well worth the extra few hundred.

Bought it used in November of '05, was looking for a less expensive alternative to a Nord Lead. I had previously played with the Micron, their slimmed-down, "performance" version of this synth, and although I felt the Micron was cumbersome to edit and the small keyboard was uncomfortable, it sounded good, so I figured I'd give its big brother a shot. Immediately I was impressed with the screen - not something you see every day on a $500 synth. This makes editing patches easier, although there are some key functions that are not in the main menus and are thus unnessesarily hard to get to. I was also impressed by the two performance wheels. They feel great, look awesome, and open up a lot of performance options. However, the knobs, while they feel nice, are small and easy to knock into, ruining carefully made patches. Also, the Arpeggio and Effects sections are underwhelming and hard to edit, which is a major bummer since I'm an Arp and FX guy. Rectifiable with external effects processors, but irritating nonetheless. All the problems are with the software however, so hopefully Alesis will update the software to rectify all this.

8-voice polyphony. "Ugh," is my immediate reaction, but I use it mostly for leads and monophonic basses, so it's not such a major bummer. If you're really bent on getting pads out of this thing (and you can get some great pads), get a MIDI controller keyboard. 49-note keyboard, which is small, but there is octave control, and again, if you're bent on using this as a pad machine, get a controller. Keyboard is not velocity sensetive, but it does sense aftertouch. This seems odd to me - if you're including aftertouch, why not just throw in the whole kit 'n kaboodle? Again, if you're determind, you can imitate velocity with the mod wheels. It's all fairly basic, but there are ways around the cut corners, and for the price, there's quite a lot of beef.

Very nice synth sounds, not-so-nice emulations of acoustic instruments. Characteristically, the sound of this synth is very spacey, surreal, and at times unpredictable. Three fat oscillators per voice, which is impressive for a synth in this price rance. It also includes many "analog" nuances, including a fantastic analog drift emulation, which are delightful and very welcome. Many comment that this synth doesn't sound as warm as a real analog synth - I tell them to stop being snobs and accept this machine for what it is. Immediately delete all the presets and make your own sounds, because this synth has a lot of potential and invites one to reach out and twist some knobs.

It's made of metal, and holds up as one would expect. The plastic sides have been denounced by many as looking "cheap." I don't agree, but some wood paneling or "vintage" touches would have been welcome. Freezes are rare, but they do happen occasionally. The keys feel slightly spongy and overly delicate, but I've gigged with it and it holds up quite well. I have and would gig without a backup, if simply because I have several other synths that could substitute. It's definitely sturdy enough to stand up to whatever light abuse it may encounter.

Never had to deal with them.

The bottom line on this synth is that it's cheap. It's bare-bones, it cuts corners. Deal with it. Many people expect this kind of synth to have absolutely everything that those more expensive synths have. If you want a MiniMoog, buy a MiniMoog. If you want a reliable, excellent-sounding synthesizer for as little as possible, look no further than Alesis's excellent Ion. It sounds excellent, and although it has shortcomings (especially with the software), there are ways around everything it doesn't have. Even if it doesn't have the bells and whistles as synths twice the price, it sounds better than pretty much anything on the DSP analog-modeling playing field.

Only the Supernova II, with its gazillion knobs, is easier. Or maybe some vintage Jupiter or Prophet that can't do half what this synth can. Presets are pretty good, but it would be a shame not to program your own sounds into this synth.

The keyboard sucks. I've been spoiled by the Supernova II, which uses the same keyboard as the E-mu E-synth and the Kawai K-5000. They actually feel like real instruments, while this one feels like a toy. Polyphony is 8, which is OK, but 16 would have been better. This isn't a workstation, but layering, long sustains, and fast arpeggios eat up polyphony. I don't use the sequencer. The synthesis features are GREAT. I won't go through everything I love about it, because that list would be too long. I wish it had a few things, though: 3 LFOs instead of 2, a "random" wave for the LFOs (like a sine wave of randomly fluctuating amplitude) instead of just S&H, and digital waveforms or even real wavetables As far as the hardware goes, I love the feel of the knobs and wheels, I love having 3 wheels, I love the internal power supply, I like the colored buttons, and I like the size of the screen. I wish it had sliders for envelopes instead of knobs, tiny buttons in front of large knobs (not behind them where they're hard to see), 76 semi-weighted pro-quality keys, and I wish the screen were angled like the one in the Yamaha Motif.

The sounds from this synth give me chills, and every now and then I hit on one that gets me grinning like a lottery winner. It sounds utterly analog. I used to think that the specific filters and choice of envelope slopes would turn out to be useless novelty, but I was wrong. Those features, or something else in there, turn this into a revival of every great analog synth of the 80s. I'm all for synths that have their own characteristic sound, but you just can't pass up a Jupiter, Solina, Prophet, Moog, ARP, Oberheim, and Juno all in one box for $600! Of course it's not identical to any of those, and if you're one of those people who has to have the real thing, more power to you. (There's a Prophet T8 on eBay as I write this for $2,600 and counting, with no guarantees that it's 22-year-old circuits are working properly.) I just wish Alesis would add wavetables, so I could add "PPG" to the list above. Or even four oscillators per voice and a joystick or trackpad, so I could add "Prophet VS." My wish-list doesn't detract from the score, though--they set out to make a no-compromise analog emulation, and they succeded perfectly.

Too soon to tell. Seems solid.

I've never had to deal with them. Can they possibly be as bad as Roland?

Pretty close to perfect. Certainly the closest you'll get to analog without shelling out much more for an unreliable relic of uncertain history. I actually considered trying to find a good, used Jupiter 6 (my first synth, sigh..) until I listened to this. This is all the analog I need. I'd replace it in a heartbeat, unless Alesis made a rack version or a 76-key version, or a version with wavetables. I'd buy one of those even if this one didn't get stolen.

Just bought the unit about a month or so ago--Firmware v1.05. I had played the Ion at Sam Ash before and was always impressed with the patches. I've read a few other reviews where people complain that the presets are just OK, but I think that "out of the box," this VA synth is great! Of course I love tweaking, and all those knobs are a plus. This is the first synth I ever owned with this many knobs. If Alesis would have slapped some wooden end cheeks on the ION and given it a raised front panel, it could become "the poor man's Minimoog." Editing is a breeze, once you get used to the "soft buttons." There are extra parameters that the knobs can edit, which requires some manual reading and experimentation--well worth it.

By the way, the manual that came with my Ion was outdated. I was looking for the parameter to adjust oscillator detuning, and the manual's explanation inaccurate. I finally called Alesis' tech support and received the correct info. Alesis could have easily included a manual addendum page for this and other OS updates, but....

The Ion allows you to play individual patches and "setups," which are combinations of patches. You can do splits and layers in setup mode, which allows for some interesting sounds, grooves, and noises. However, the manual is not clear on how to go back and forth between the two modes. I also own a Korg Triton, which has clearly marked buttons on the front panel to indicate combination and program modes. The Ion is not set up this way, and its manual is vague on how to go from setup mode back to playing basic patches.

Polyphony is only 8 voices--but for $600......let's not complain. The keyboard action is OK; the keys themselves are a bit smaller than the ones on the Triton and other workstations. I like the design of the Ion, although I wish the front panel wasn't completely flat. Every other synth I've played has an angled front panel to facilitate operation and view of the screen. The Ion's effects are good, but lack a reverb. No clue why Alesis left this most important effect out. I will say though, that the unit sounds great with minimal effects.

No expansion capabilities that I'm aware of, except firmware upgrades via MIDI. I haven't spent much time with MIDI capabilities by the way.....just been playing the unit by itself. No sequencer, but the Ion does have an arpeggiator (not-user programmable though, yuck.)

This is a real synth-players synth. No piano presets here, thank goodness. It's designed to be played and tweaked.....and tweaked some more--that's why I bought it. There are some factory patches that are named after famous synth players, bands, or songs of the past (like "jump," or "car's sync," for example) that sound pretty good, but require some tweaking and effects to really nail the original sounds. The onboard effects are good, and the extensive choice of filter types, modulation routings, plus so many patches to start with is enough to keep almost anyone busy for weeks. The Ion comes with three mod wheels, which is a plus. All three wheels are large, easy to manipulate, and they light up. The synth really looks cool at night! Most patches are pre-programmed to be extensively manipulated via the wheels--a great learning tool.

Like I said before, the Ion comes with loads of presets. Many are extremely FAT sounding and warm. It's a great lead instrument. The pads aren't all I expected, although some tweaking and external reverb should improve those. The blips, bleeps and ethereal sounds are fantastic, and this opens the door for even more tweaking. You won't easily tire of this synth!

I haven't been out of the house with the Ion yet. It came with a nice gig bag and I'm looking forward to seeing how it integrates live with my other keyboards (mainly the Triton).

I've had to call Alesis twice with questions. The first time I called, the service was great (in reference to the osc detuning manual error). However, when I later called with questions regarding playing patches and setups, the person I spoke with soun