Alesis Micron

not too bad as many people think

i do not know if it is possible, but the japanese alesis staff has told me that i cannot have many "parts" and "beats" (about 10 patterns and rhythms all together) in a setup because micron's DSP cannot handle it.

Almost all editing is done with one lone knob, which gets kind of irritating. The controlling knobs aren't the most responsive, frustrating when you want to just change the value of a parameter by just a couple of points. Other than that, it's really rather easy to use after you've got it set up.

The five controls will give you most of what you need as far as control go. See my previous qualm about the knobs, though. The effects are pretty general, delay, flanger, distortion, etc. They'll get you what you need. For a keyboard aimed at a budget-audience, it would have been nice to see the ability to use effects more extensively. It's possible to compose whole tracks, as tedious as it may be, on this thing. It gets the job done.

The sounds on this will be able to fulfill most needs, but it has its own sound that is hard to escape, and you'll end up sounding 'micron' rather than your own sound. I feel the sound is rather thin and digital. While producing an analog feel to the sound, it doesn't sound analog at all. Again, it ends up being a 'get it done' synth. I wouldn't use it on a synth-reliant genre, but it should work just fine when it's not going to be taking any major roles in the music.

It feels very sturdy. I'd take it gigging with no worries at all. The main control knob, after a year of ownership, is beginning to scare me however.

Haven't used it yet.

I probably wouldn't replace it if anything ever happens to it, but for its price it'll be hard to match. Perfect for the beginning synthesist or someone who wants to start out with hardware and is on a budget. For its price and audience, it's definitely a great synth. But unless you want an entry synth, look elsewhere. For those looking for an entry synth; if you want completeness: micron, if you want sound: Microkorg.

im still readinf the manual.im not sure what version it is.the presets make a change from my XP30 and are way ahead of my Korg NS5R ... although the editing on the Korg i think is a doddle by comparison. only had this micron 3 days so i cant really make big statements .. but so far most editing albeit small .. has gone smoothly.

the keyboard action could be better. the keys are ok but the feel is very springy compared to my XP30 .. which is still only a synth .. no digital piano.
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about the midi .. after deciding on the micron in the shop .. as it was either the Blofeld - Korg R3 - microkorg .. i was at least happy that the micron can respond to some basic comands from a external sequencer. my main use for this synth is to add it to the exisisting chain .. but so far ive had hanging notes a few times when ive played and changed midi ch in the sequencer !!! which only happened when i was running Music-x on the Amiga 10 years ago! something id forgotten all about till now !
this is a bit dissapointing .. as its time consuming .. as is trying to organise the midi. in my sequencer it seems that the micron bank numbers are 4 in front. ie say u want to use a bass .. #12 .. in the sequencer u have to use #16 to call it up! i have no other problems with my korg ns5r electribe - roland xp30 - akai mcp500 .. so thats another niggle. i can work round it .. but ive got to write it down to remember.
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i cant tell how the editing will be at this early stage .. as im still trapped in midi problems .. so i may comment later. for now a lower score only because of these issues.

my impression is that it covers most types of electronic music quite well. which is what i was after. im happy to have these alternative sounds and a better reso filter than on my XP30. again i cant comment about other fx as ive not delved into them yet .. but i have heard a few pre-sets that put me in mind of an old Cheetah tone module i had a while back.
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the keys velocity seems to work ok. ive no complaints about any tones either at this time. as its all very new. i will say the reverb and chorus is very tame. in fact sometimes adjusting it sounds like its just not there. by comparison .. my old E-mu has the wildest reverbs u could ever imagine.
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im happy with the sound set. i feel it makes a good drum and bass module with some thundering bass.

too soon.

too soon

1st let me highlight ..
i wasnt after a synth with a GM soundset .. so this suits me.
and i wasnt after a full size keyboard either. ( i need the space )
part of the reason i bought this was to add it into my set up .. not replace anything.

im still searching for a stand alone device that i can get some sounds down without having to set up all my midi. its good that the micron has enough keys to give some input in a normal manner. this is the nearest thing that can do that so far .. and in this price range.

i cant run it down as ive just bought it .. but i feel it still lacks a few things i need. i agree on previous comments about the layout.
its minimal and very enginious .. but the mod/pitch wheel would also suit me more on the left. but take a look at the synth .. it would also make the synth longer.
some extra FX controls external rather than in the menus would be great too. overall its very good.

oh did i mention the arpegiator .. again ive only used the pre-sets .. but ive found it to be very varied. some interesting combis. again .. for me .. more interesting than the one on my XP30. in fact i dont think i ever used them.

im still searching for the right synth to fill my needs .. then who isnt .. but for now the Alesis micron has found its place in my setup.

this is a follow up review I did a year and a half ago. I must say since then I have purchased almost a dozen vintage analog synths (Roland, korg, yamaha and oberhiem) and the micron holds up. I use it about 95% of the time and it is my main synth. It has the latest software which I downloaded from the alesis site. The factory presets were very good. Since I first got it I have modeled patches off the factory presets for Roland Juno 60, oberheim matrix 1000 and many others. The Roland and Oberheim filter emulation is really right on the money. I think the Alesis micron is really the best VA out there and I would own it any day of the week over Nord, Korg, Roland VAs. I've used just about every function of the unit now and I find it one of the easiest to edit and program synths I have ever owned. Sequencer very easy to use. I have found given the vast number of filter emulations and editing controls I can duplicate any synth ever made with the micron. Manual is very well written and I take it with me everywhere to read. There is a free downloadable PC editor for it but I just used the knob.

It's 8 voice. The effects are all good I use them sparingly. Most of the time if I add anything it's chorus or flanger. The reverbs and delays are both good. I tend to take it easy on those and only use it setups function. The sequencer is very easy to use. Very good TR 808 and CR analog drum sounds.

This is not for sample based sounds. I enjoy new wave, 80s stuff and my own originals this really satisfies me in everyway. As I said above-it really holds its ground with my Roland Juno 60, mks 50, jx 8p, Yamaha CS 5 and others. I found it did spot on copies of a oberheim matrix 1000. I've also did some patches based on Korg k700 which I really like. I've gotten to the point with my micron that I can duplicate any vintage analog. It's very easy to assign the knobs and sliders to whatever function I like The action is very good on the keyboard and I love the small size

works great

they have a web site

This is a definite 10. I've had it for over a year and a half. I would buy again and would like to keep at least one around for life. I own nearly a dozen vintage analog synths-I still want a micron around I use it the majority of the time. The only thing I wish it had-maybe the newer ones have is a usb out. No big deal. I connect using my oxygen 8 controller. But, a usb out built in would be more convenient

I thought it was pretty easy to use. The sounds and knobs are right in front of your face. You have to mess around with it a little to find effects. But, it's overall pretty easy.

I thought the features were very good. Though there are only 3 knobs in front of you the other effects are easy to get to.

I think this is the best synth I've ever heard for it's price. I've heard more expensive synths that don't sound comparable to this one. The sounds are all clear and can be used in multiple styles of music. I write ambient, techno, trance, IDM, ghettotech, hip hop, r&b, electronica, d&b, jungle, and some others. The sounds on this thing fit all these genres and some others.

I've only had it about a week but so far it is 100% reliable. No problems.

Never had to deal with costomer support.

I think it's excellent. The are some cons I think you should know though. The keys are full size, yet very flimsy and quite fragile. It is also pretty heavy for when you have to take it with you on the road. The knobs are also extremely fragile. Don't screw around with them. Everything else is perfect.

The menu editing is cumbersome and really kills inspiration. I have gotten better at it over time, but it just holds back my creativity in having to edit the synth this way. The presets are generally bad, so editing is a must. The manual is good overall, but I don't like reading manuals.

The keyboard action is good, but not great - I would rate it as "slightly above average". I'm a player, and don't just play around with this in the studio, so keyboard action is very important to me. There are plenty of other nice features about the synth, though, and Alesis (and by the way, I generally really love Alesis gear) has done their best to pack a lot into this unit.

Hmmm....well, this is the important stuff in my opinion. It sounds good, but, to be honest, not great (to me, at least). I have owned literally 100+ keyboards and synths since the early 1980's - no kidding - and I know what I like. Something has to really move me, emotionally, when I play a keyboard / synth for me to want to keep it and use it, and this one doesn't do it for me. This is actually the second Micron I have owned. I felt this way about the first one, but got a great deal on another that I couldn't pass up, and gave the little synth another chance. Again, it really didn't do it for me. Overall, I think the Micron exhibits a certain quality on ALL patches (no matter how much they are edited) that you just can't get rid of. I suppose all synths do this to a certain degree, though. Anyway, I would best describe the Micron's sound quality as slightly digital, thin, but "brassy" sounding. Approaching an FM synth, but not quite there. This isn't necessarily a BAD thing, but it just doesn't appeal to me, personally. Just a matter of opinion, and I know lots of people love this thing, but it's not for me. Believe me, I WANTED to like it....the size is perfect for gigs, especially the small venues I play! I also own a Korg MicroKorg, which is the main competitor of the Micron, and really prefer the Korg's sounds. The Korg is simpler, in many ways, and more straightforward (as compared to the deep complexity of the Micron), and has a more grainy, aggressive sound, which I really like. To me, the Korg is more raw and "analog" (and I have owned many, many analog synths over the years so I have an excellent basis for comparison).

The main control knob, as everyone knows, is very fragile. In fact, the first Micron I purchased had a broken control knob right out of the box! Otherwise, it appears very solid. Because of the knob, I must give it a lower than perfect reliability rating.

Alesis customer support, when I have had to deal with them in the past, is generally very responsive.

As I said above, I really wanted to like this synth. The idea behind it, and the overall design of the synth, suits my needs for a live instrument. But, it all comes down to 1) the sound, and 2) the difficulty in editing the parameters. These are deal-killers for me. I may keep this one around to play with for awhile, but will most likely be passing it along. Once again, though, this is my opinion, and I truly do think that Alesis has packed a lot of great stuff into this synth. It is very usable. It's just not for me.

Really good presets. Editing patches is simple once you read a few quick directions. The manual is VERY helpful. Whenever I have a question, it's answered in it.

The features of the Micron are great. The setup function (a mini-sequencer more or less) is great for coming up with ideas and writing new ones. Everything is editable with a few button pushes and a knob turn. 37 keys is a great size for the Micron. Easily transposable by octave (just one press per octave). Three knobs is definitely sufficient for a beginner/intermediate synth user and they can easily be mapped to different functions.

This board is geared towards the electronica crowd judging by the presets, but is fully capable of adapting to any environment. The effects included are great (I use the fuzz pedal effect a LOT). As close as I have heard to analog on a digital board. Sounds even better through tube preamps.

I have heard of the main knob breaking from overuse, but I have had no problem as I am VERY careful with my instruments. I think the Micron is very reliable.

Haven't had to talk with Alesis. So no opinion.

If I had to buy again, I would go with a Micron again. I love the ideas that Alesis put in it. Rhythms, step sequencer, vocoder, yeah, it's all great. It makes a great complement to the rest of my equipment for very little cost for the features it has. I honestly can't think of anything they could add to it that would make me happier.

Straight away, it is incredibly easy to dive in and start using the vast array of voices, rythyms and patterns. These are very diverse, from deep moog-like sounds to baba o'riley, to your typical dance club beats.

As for the patch editing.. well, you can't just create from scratch (as far as I'm aware!). You need to copy another patch and then edit and tweak that. Obviously a basic knowledge to Pulse, Sawtooth and Sine wave sounds are needed here, and the booklet doesn't make clear what the LFO filters exactly do, so if you're a bit of a novice (hands up on that), you do just have to play about but this works just as well..

Polyphony varies from voice to voice. I have to say, it would be nice to hear some chords with some of the bass voices but even on their own, its an incredibly irresistable sound.

Effects.. well, there's a basic vocoder. Unlike the MicroKorg, this doesn't come with a standard mic, so you have to supply your own. It's not fantastic but if you're looking for a vocoder, a microKorg might be a better bet.

You can split the keyboard. I'm not sure how many parts but I'm sure it's at least 4, which is incredibly useful. If you're looking to make some solo stuff, having a beat, rythym and still having almost the whole keyboard still to use the voices..

No expansion capabilities, as far as I know.. although I'm told you can transfer voices over a MIDI-to-USB cable.

Velocity sensitivity is assignable on each voice, and is very good. Some voices have it and some don't, but you can change that. No aftertouch though.

Sounds.. well, there's a vast range. Bass, Lead, Brass, String, Pads, Comp, Keys, SFX, even drums.. The organ sounds are good, strings are alright, as are brass (I don't want to comment on these too much because I tend not to use these!). The Bass and Leads are very varied, and have very nice sounding settings. One thing I did find myself needing though was a piano sound. Nothing even close... and I couldn't find anyway to model it! The thing to remember is, as much fun as the existant sounds are, you can always create new ones.. (although it does take a while!)

I play it for a pop/rock function, but I can see it working well for anything in a kind of electronic vein, so trance, dance, hip hop.. the settings and sounds seem just to be made for that.

Once a setting is saved, you can forever rely on it to be there.

I've not (yet) played a gig with it so I don't know how it goes, but I am lead to believe that The Automatic's keys player's top keys is the Alesis Micron. It can't be that unreliable..

Right, yeah.. this was a bit of a let down for me. I bought mine from America, and they obviously have a different voltage and power system to us. Well when mine got here, the keyboard wouldn't work. It would turn on (so I thought) but the screen as unreadable and it wouldn't produce a sound. Apparently, according to my eBay seller, this could be due to the power pack. You can't run an american power pack through a converter.

Getting in touch with alesis was slightly difficult, but I did find an email address and contacted them. After a few days, they referred me to a company which could sell me an English Power pack. It cost me ??40 for a new power pack. Not nice.

It's a very enjoyable synth to use. My family loved it even though they can't play and its controllable, assignable knobs make editing the sound easy. Worth the price.

I've only played Keyboards about a year now, self taught without books or any helpful material. I bought this keyboard as a synth that had a nice "synthy" sound, and it certainly does what I expected and a whole lot more!

The micron's user interface is crippled by design. Fortunately the shortcuts make it at least usable. The idea of managing programs by name and category instead of fixed banks is very cool. The setup mode lets you keep ideas together and adds much to the usability.

These features really rock:
+ setup mode ??? very powerful
+ built-in sequencer (only good for realtime-recording and I love it big time)
+ mod-matrix (+++)
+ 20 filter types ??? some of them sound great!
+ rhythms / very cool drum sounds
+ compact size, desktop-friendly


Missing features:
- no usb connectivity
- effects per program: there is only one global effects module - which means your programs lose their effects in a setup ??? which means most probably you wouldn???t want to rely on effects???

The micron ist the poor man???s substitute for Arp Odyssey + Mini Moog + Oberheim OB8 + Roland Jupiter ??? so this is basically what it sounds like: old style, 70- and 80-ish. Of course the real thing sounds different???
In theory 8 voices polyphony should be just okay. The trouble is that in reality you have less than 8 voices. In a setup with different parts playing simultaneously the micron sounds lo-fi beyond recognition, especially if you have it play more than 4 voices at the same time. Rhythms tend to consume a lot of dsp resources.
You can record slider movements in patterns. Unfortunately those high-res sliders often produce very ugly crackling noises in recorded patterns ??? especially when recording slow movements.
The filters sound good to superb and so do the raw oscillators. This does not mean that you can create very complex sonic textures. Somehow the micron sound always remains ???micron???, soft, silky, wannabe-analogue, old, a little bit warm and also friendly. When creating a new sound you will probably spend most of the time in the mod matrix which lets you do a lot of really interesting things. The more I play it the more I like it.

Dear KNOB, please don???t let me down! The knob story is a real design flaw???..BUT: No problems so far!

If it was lost or stolen I would maybe go for a Waldorf microQ or Blofeld this time but I have absolutely no regrets about the micron. For my purpose it???s much better than the ???synths??? that I owned before (Korg EA-1 MKII and Yamaha CS1x)
I am a bass player and the micron is my backing machine. It does a great job. The built-in sequencer makes sure that ever single tone and chord comes perfect - especially when things become a little complicated. It plays all the stuff which I would not be able to play myself too well ??? no creativity-killing pc required. The sound is good, funky and interesting enough for me.

OS 1.10 My first impression was "wow", my second one was "get f...". But after a few month of using it i??am quite fast editing the patches and make them wired or smooth or anything between it. Of course.. when you got this little silver-dart first and you spent a whole night on it, it maybe a little frustrating, but then when you learned the interface-concept it is easy as hell. The presets can give you a good intro in "how-to-create-this-and-that". But consider - you could make it better. Some presets like those in the string-section are at a good quality. And yes - ALESIS - when you ever again creat a synth like this, take a deep look inside yourself and programm an editor for those many people out there in the world which using software for editing! In some cases it would be realy useful!!! The manual itself contains enough info for understanding how this little engine works.

8 Voices, 3 OSC/Voice (SAW (TRI), SQUARE and SINE can be waveshaped), NOISE-Generator, 2 Multimodefilter and 3 ADSR, an INSERT per voice, 2 LFO??s, a SH-Generator, a Tracking-Generator, 12 Modulation-Options/Patch and 2 FX-Modules (i like the superphaser most with its 64stages) which are usefull but an outboard-fx would be definitly better. I am missing a second pair of audio-out. The Micron has also two Mod-Sliders which sadly don??t show their values and three endless-knobs (three more would be a hype)! You have some velocity-types for keyboard-action but i don??t use the keyboard very much because i sequence the Micron from my PC. Therefore i can??t tell you very much about its onboard-sequencer ... so far i??ve seen it is very basic and i only use the SetUp-Mode for external sequencing ... also no comments. MIDI on the Micron is a extra theme. You can??t controll it??s paramteres via NRPN as it seems that they are some sort of strange programmed (negative NRPN-values - never seen before). But you can assign CC??s from an external knob-box as modulation-sources operating on Mod-Targets you defined.

Well the Micron doesn??t sound like synths starting with 2000 Euros and above. But with patience you can get some very smooth sounds out of it. In the higher octave-range, but this is my personal opinion, he sounds realy great whereas at lower levels and specially for deep basslines this isn??t the right synth at all - use real analogue gear instead or another VA which is capable doing this stuff. I mainly using this synth for leads and pads or FX and other things. As i mentioned before - outboard-FX and a second pair outputs would do there job well ... the only FX which i like most is the superphaser. Overall i would say the MIcron is capable of many type of sounds ... but it also depends on the quality of your monitors you are using in your studio

The Main-Knob seems to be problem at extensive use. I hope this nightmare never came true - A BROKEN MAIN-KNOB

Nothing to do with Alesis since i bought it

I don??t know if i would by it again - maybe. Over the time i was getting into an interesting releationship with the MICRON ... Yes i would buy it again :-) Well i use Waldorf/Korg-Gear, and some exotic synths like the SoundArt Chameleon DSP (Monowave II). I am doing electronic music since 2002 rising fast from software to the hardware-universe. The Tracking-Generator is a cool addon ... none of my synths have it.
Overall: EDITOR for LOW-KNOB-AMOUNT-SYNTHS - ALESIS - EDITOR and improvements for a next OS (if it happens - you should do it - there are many customers in the world - consider that). The synth itself - well done ALESIS