Alesis Micron

Probably the least attractive feature of this synth is it's ease of use. That said it's a relative thing. You have this very impressive synth available to you and can only use a knob with some combination keystrokes. My version was purchased in November 2005 and as such, whatever problems there might have been have been resolved. That includes programming.

A patch editor should be made for this synth. It probably won't to promote the purchase of the slightly more expensive ION which does the same things as the Micron.

Even with the improvements to the OS the worst aspect of the Micron is it's programability. It's not horrible, and if you bought the Micron without considering challenges to editing then you didn't try it first or you decided you'd live with a ton-of-presets type synth.

The manual is not as clear as it could be but is still useful to learn with.

Because you know what you are getting going into it I give this catagory a "8".

The Micron is 8 note polyphonic with 4 channels of polyphony. One nice feature is creating large scale, groove patches, melodies, arpeggiations, drum beats and the ability to make a patch using all these elements.

The action is quite good for this 37 note keyboard. The size of the synth it minimal yet feels like a good controller, which I wouldn't recommend it for. It is well suited for making dynamic sounds with. With a pitch wheel and two sliders set up for modulation purposes (assignable by the user) along with the x/y/z controllers there's enough to work with as a performance synth.

The synthesis system is quite complete. 3 oscillators, FM, many oscillator waveforms along with two resonant filters, again with many types of waveforms, a modest but capable modulation matrx and substantial LFO capabilities.

The Micron has step sequencing along with arpeggiation. The sequencing can be played or step entered and as said, they can be combined in performances and/or midi.

Though not aftertouch enabled it's easy to assign such data to one of the controllers. The key situation is how well you grasp the classic synth system with some very nice additions not found on sub $1000 synths.

As nearly everyone mentions, it's a synth, not a sample playback device. Hopefully you can read, and if you can't figure it out by the time you play this unit....sorry, I'm not all that sympathetic.

If you put the time in you can make peace with the synth engine. You have to learn and get used to using menus. In you don't like this, seriously consider spending $200 more and getting the ION which is much more knob and button enabled along with an additional octave of keys on the keyboard.

For $399 there is no hardware even close to the Micron. Even the Korg MS2000 engine isn't as powerful, and with its ability to sequence, the Micron can do a lot of things you'd expect from the MS2000. And as for the microKorg; it's a toy that isn't a fully programmable synth as the Micron is.

With PWM, FM, arp and/or step sequencing capabilities I can't imagine how anyone couldn't get great sound out of the Micron. I base this on studio and live use of vastly more expensive synths that do not sound better, perhaps different, but not "better".

All things are relative and while you may hate the sounds of the Micron, I'd hope you'd figure that it's a programmable synth and that any single person will find the presets to be so horrible as to be terrible or junk. They aren't, and if they are, you have a powerful synth engine that could easily change sound quality with a few changes. To those who don't like the presets, I'm willing to bet you don't program much, or if you do, it's in a very specific type of music which years from now you will come to realize is the problem, not the synth in front of you.

The effects are good, nothing spectacular, but I'm very happy to have it that way. Turn off the effects on the Micron and you have good quality sound. Do this with a Novation synth - and I like Novations - but fact is the synths really benefit from the effects engine.

If I sound like I'm a bit of a fanatic, I'm not. I like things for what they are and often like synths that are very specific and far from the general analog sounds found in Micron. In fact, I like synths that combine 6 Operator FM and samples with analog-style filters. I like soft synths, especially for their value and inspired design.

So when I say buy this $399 synth that doesn't have lots of obvious features there's a reason for it.

I don't think the Novation K/A/V-Station stacks up. I think the Nova did, but that was a $1200 minimum synth. Even in the world of virtual synths the Micron stacks up well. It sounds as good as lots of synths close to it's price range. It has a good system of limited controls and reasonably easy to learn synthesis.

If you can't get a good sound check out what you consider a "good" synth. I suspect it's going to be a groove box. Ironically, the drums, which are great for electronic and some kinds of modern pop/rock, are complex and capable of doing useful things all the way down to making more patch space for percussive sounds. They are of good quality although possibly not to some people's cup of tea.

I'm amazed at the lack of creativity users can have. Just because it says "drums" doesn't mean they have to be the presets! If I'd wanted the larger ION and it's easier to use GUI I'd have bought it. I wanted the Micron because it was small and got the job done using good quality parts.

I've had reliability problems with Alesis problems before. I liked the sound and concept of the Micron to take a chance. I note prior problems as they seemed endemic of the company before they were bought by Numark.

I have no history with this edition of Alesis although they still seem to be a bit of a problem for some. It's too soon to tell but I want to be honest in case a history of reliability issues on another product matter.

See above.

One thing I can say is that support initially stunk but when the right people were found they'd get things taken care of.

I don't know if the same personnel are around, but that could be positive as well. Some of the support staff were horrible in the late '90s. Things may well have changed for the better, but I can't honestly comment.

Fantastic value, good, solid synth engine and reasonable programming execution on the Micron...much better with the $200 more ION.

It is the best product of it's type at it's price point, and I suspect gigging artists will like being able to slip one or two of them around various musicians.

With it's ability to build complex patterns it can be triggered by people who aren't keyboardists. Although no longer gigging, it's what I'd do. This is an easy to use synth with the ability to do complex, high quality sound.

Don't get caught up on the Micron being your one stop synth solution. It might do the trick for you. In a pinch it would be acceptable as mine and as mentioned earlier, I'm picky.

Don't take my or any other person's thoughts as a replacement for trying the synth. You may be into a style of music that isn't represented in the presets and might seem less useful to you. I don't see things that way. I see synths as things to learn and make my own but that may not be what you want.

There are many presets, but they've been made to write over.

If $399 is your budget this is a great buy. If you can stretch it to $599 and want a more responsive engine I'd suggest the ION. If you wanted a small synth, I'd still suggest the Micron as it's synth engine isn't that hard to learn using it's menu based system.

You'll have to spend a lot more to get anything remotely better. And do keep in mind, this is a $399 fully functional, well built synth. That makes it worth investigation for serious users along with new users.

I'm not sure what software version mine has, although I purchased it in August of 2005, if that helps.

The presets sound okay, I'm sure that with some time and effort, any use could make sounds that are better than the presets.

Editing patches is the reason I'm trading this in and paying the extra for an ion. It sounds great, but I just can't deal with the one knob.

The manual is very helpful.

Polyphony - 8. Absolutely fine for anything I'll be doing.

It has built in effects, but no reverb and the delay is a joke. The distortion isn't bad, and the compressor isn't either, I had trouble with the phaser. The effects are easy to route through, but i had trouble setting them the way I liked, again this was all due to the one knob, had I not had to use that one knob to scroll through all the screen, back and forth, I probably could have acheieved some nice sounding effects.

The keyboard can recieve software updates, but as far as hardware upgrades, I don't really know.

Midi implementation is good, but I don't use midi, so I'm not the best person to be talking about it.

The sequencer is alright, it's okay for very simple things, but there are probably hundreds of sequencers that are better than the micron's.

The sounds on this are absolutely incredible. You won't get terrific sounding piano models, since this wasn't made for that, but for synths, with a little time and effort, anyone can have this thing sounding great.

The Micron is probably best for dance / electronica, and maybe for ambient. It could be used for rock, but definitely not for blues.

Again, the effects can sound great, it was just too much effort with the one knob.

The keyboard definitely reacts to the player, it will do anything you want it to.

The velocity sensitivity is good, and there's no aftertouch.

In the 2 months I've had it, it's frozen twice. Turning it off and turning it back on fixed the problem, but had I been working on a sound, it would have been lost.

I would gig without a backup, but I'd make sure that almost everything was set up pre-gig.

I have no experience with alesis.

If it were lost or stolen, I'd get an ion, well, actually I'm trading this in and getting an ion when i get my next paycheck.

I've been playing for a few years.

I own:

- Nord Lead 2
- Novation X station 49.
- Korg Electribe ESX-1
- Korg Kaoss pad kp-2

and a variety of guitar effects that i run all of my synths through.

I love the sounds on this synth, it definitely has a place with the nord and the novation. I hate how anti-intuitive this synth is, if you plan on just using the presets, then buy the micron. If you want to edit the sounds and fully appreciate this synth, get the ion.

I compared it to the microKORG and i chose this for sound quality alone.

The sound helps me to create music, but the oone knob, again, gets in the way.

OS 1.1 which was released just recently, has improved the ease of use considerably now that the phrase record mode is hands free, and the main data entry knob responds much better than it did before. Some people say it's difficult to use, but I found that once you're used to its system of shortcuts using keys on the keyboard it becomes quite easy to navigate through the vast array of parameters. Also you can easily assign the 3 black knobs to basically any parameters you want while editing, and then just tweak those parameters through the knobs instead of finding the particular menu again. It also has a great 'drag and drop' method for locating and assigning patches, phrases, and beats. Also has categories for your patches, including a 'Faves' category.

8 voices polyphony is usually enough to get a really nice pad or sweep out of this thing, and easily enough when you just want a rhythm, bass, and lead playing together, and the voices themselves are spectacular if you program them to be so. Effects are of good quality, but a bit limited in selection and there is only 1 effects bus, coupled with only one stereo output it can limit multitimbral work. Keyboard responds to velocity and release velocity which is interesting. Onboard sequencer is designed for looped phrases and drum sequences, which has vastly improved in the new OS update. The phrases can be converted into arpeggiators which is cool, and they can be played out through midi. The drum sequencer is quite powerful, especially since the OS update!

Instruments are not realistic, more your synth kind of stuff. With its 3 continuously waveshaped oscillators, sync modes, FM modes, ring mod, noise, dual resonant filters per voice (each selectable from twenty different and quite crisp modes of operation), modifiable send amount from filter 1 to filter 2, drive section per voice, loopable envelopes with exponential and linear segments, tempo syncable LFO's, smooth portamento or rough glissando, and various other treats topped by the mod-matrix to connect it all together, it is capable of being very expressive indeed. With programming and tweaking around for what you want, I would venture that it is superb for electronica of any variety.

I have never gigged before, but I imagine that I could not rely 100% on it for such a purpose. I'm more of a home sequencer kind of guy, at least for now, and it actually starts to freeze up after a while of playing certain patches I've made (maybe I'm pushing that mod-matrix just a little too hard :-). Watch out for the main controller knob whatever you do, it's a bit rickety. The assignable knobs have poor response, but apparently there is a new revision which improves this, and with a solid data-entry knob too.

Support was very, very bad but then in the end, was acceptable. Many micron enthusiasts were waiting for around a year for some serious bugs to be fixed in the OS, with no meaningful response from alesis. But in the end, there was an OS update, and it seems to have fixed almost everything that was badly broken with it. There are still a couple of things which some people are probably disappointed weren't fixed, and that will most likely never be fixed. It is a much better machine after the OS update anyway, it just took them an absolute ice-age to get around to it.

If stolen, I would definitely buy it again, partly because I already have many sounds backed up as sysex dumps and I do not want to have to recreate them on another synth, and partly because I don't think I actually could recreate some of these sounds on another synth, and partly because it just kicks butt. It's a fantastic musical notepad, and I annoy my friends every week with it when they come around, playing it on my lap. Then I can use the sounds I create sequenced through midi, and use it as my midi controller at the same time! My greatest wish-list items for it are: double the polyphony, quadruple the effects processing, and aftertouch. I would pay handsomely for a device like that. At the price though, it's an absolute steal!

I got a micron v1.2 keyboard on the 27 of july.
I make my presets by song name.
editing is pretty easy tho it takes a while, software would be helpful but not really needed, the manual is very clear and thorough.

Not the best action in the world but it's good!
yer great built in effects. no expansion capabilities as i am aware.
Though you can save your patches/songs etc to pc by midi cable!

great on-board sequencer!

instruments not at all realistic... it's not ment to be!
good for experimental music!
velocity is configeable

it gets abit warm, but i use it all the time!

it's a hard unit to get in brisbane, australia!
never needed support

Over all it's a great keyboard that works very hard!

First of all the about 70% of the presets suck. Mostly dumb ass sounds. I cant stand them. Very easy to use and simple enought to edit if you worked with synths before.

Its 8 polyphony just like the days of old. The effects can get you by, but they could have been better. Now here is where the good stuff begins. The phrase catcher as I call it is just so damm good, edit a bass or a keyboard pad and create your own sounds. Great feature bar none. Sequencer. arpeggiator, and layering is where this little box begins to shine.

If you bought this and use the presets only then I pity you. Dig in edit, edit, edit, and edit some more untill you hear the real sounds and possabilities that the Micron is capeable of giving. Beneith those circut boards is a vast dark world that needs to be released.I bought it because I needed a good sounding bass synth. I use cubase SE and the bass patches that I have edited gave me the great sounds that I was looking for.

It seems well built.

I heard they had there problems.

Built small but with alot of heart. Has tons of features but only if you use them. The trick here is to edit and I do mean edit. If you cant see yourself doing that then this synth is not for you. The guys who gave this synth low scores are the guys who what instint gradafication and thats not what the Micron is about. Take the time and you will find.

the micron is confusing at first. especially if you have no experience with synthesis.
the presets can seem corny but all you gotta do is mess with it. just like any synthesizer.
all the tweeking and stuff is done thruough the lcd screen. which may scare some people, but after messing with it, it becomes clearer.

its got drum sounds and accompaniment (sp?)
they kinda suck but sound ok when you mess with them.
you can make your own patterns and add them to what you're playing.
for a small keyboard it offers a lot

i like it for what im using it for
80's/dance.
depends on the style you're going for i guess.
probably wouldnt be any good for hip hop.

very durable. very well made. compared to a microkorg, its like 10x better.

dont know.

overall its a great keyboard. i only gave it a nine because of the limitedness of it through out genres of music.
its great for dance, all the vintage synths is models sound great.
arp, korg classics, and etc.
the drums kinda suck, but you can get a decent sound out of them if you mess with em.
definitely better than a microkorg.
way better.

OS 1.02
The preset's are very cheesy, and typicle of all the current VA synths, exceptions being some of the SFX sounds.
This machine is time comsuming and laborious to edit, no software editor currently available.
The manual is well written and pretty clear on the whole, but let down by blank pages and a misleading index that doesnt match up with the pages, this really is inexscusable.

The Micron is 8 note poly. The keyboaord is OK, very spongy, not the worst I have played but it's getting there.
It has two built in effects processors, one for mod effects and another for reverb/delay, both are adequate, but not great.
No expansion capabilities.
The sequencer and arpeggiators are quite good, and useful, the real-time phrase capture is very good and easy to use, just press the phrase button and start recording. I don't know if I will ever use this, but its fun to play around with.

This is not an imitative synth, if you are into making your own sounds then the Micron won't dissapoint you. I can't comment on what type of music this would be suitable for, any application where you may want some original sounds I guess.
The onboard effects are OK, but I find myself disabling them most of the time in favour of my own outboard. It really doesn't need a lot of effects, its one of the few VA's that can stand up without them.
It reacts very well to keyboard velocity and is very expressive, the GO! EP preset shows it off well in this respect.

My first Micron was faulty and had to be exchanged, a sub-standard keyboard, software problems, and the case was scratched when it arrived. What worries me most is that program knob, it has to do a lot of work, and how relaible is it going to be ?
This one seems OK now, though time will tell.

Havn't had to deal with them.

I would definatly get another if it was stolen. I think it was well worth the asking price, it's a lot of synth for the money.
Iv'e been laying for a long time and I own a few other synthesisers by the likes of Yamaha Novation and E-MU. The Micron has enough individuallity to make it a worthwhile additon to my studio.
You may think I have been a bit negative about the Micron, but it does a lot of things very well, and the things it doesn't I won't be using anyway. It's very good for producing abstract original sounds with a lot of movement, things that I can't get on my other synth's. The formant filters are wonderful, so are the continuously variable oscilator waveshapes, and the looping envelopes (gorgeous!!) The filter types do actually sound like what they are supposed to (Moog Arp Roland etc) unlike some other VA's whose filters can be quite samey.
I won't be using the sequencer or patterns and rhythms, the synth engine is the reason why I bought the Micron, plus, it's size, this is what makes this a really powerfull machine for me, I can now go to a gig with my handbag instead of my car ! or on holiday, or anywhere !

version 1.02. very gradual learning curve. owned it just 2 days and i've mastered using and editing setups, patterns and rhythms (leaving programs for last considering all the parameters available).

like most synth manuals this one leaves something to be desired. the index items are off by 7 pages. but, thankfully this machine is rather easy to use. that's incredible considering there are so few knobs/slides/buttons on the top panel. very deceiving!

i wish it had more polyphony and i don't entirely like the way the effects are setup, that needs a little more flexibility. but, at this price and with all the other features i won't complain.

the sounds are awesome!!! this wasn't designed to capture acoustic instrument sounds, just analog synth.

of course i would gig w/o backup, i'm not wealthy.

i would buy another If it were lost or stolen.

i like the way it saves everything alphabetically rather than banks for this and banks for that, but i wish it had a shift button to speed up scrolling (turning the knob abruptly sort of does the same thing).

i'm amazed at this little box. the sounds are great and it's so easy to use. most of the gear/software i've owned gets in the way of writing, this will not. and it didn't cost me an arm and a leg.

Generally very easy to use. Uses all the lingo that one would expect so I pretty much was able to edit and create my own sounds without the manual. Had to read the manual to learn to use the sequencer, but still pretty easy.

It has polyphony, and one thing that the alesis site did not make clear is that you can layer sounds. In other words, you can make one synth sound and combine it with (i'm not sure how many I have done up to 4) other synth sounds so they all play with one key. You can mix and pan them too so the possibilities for analogue synth sounds are limitless. IF YOU ARE NEW TO SYNTH TERMINOLOGY ETC. DON'T GET THIS SYNTH IF YOU WANT TO MAKE REALISTIC SOUNDS. I saw some comments in forums that made me think some people got thrown off by the term "modeling" synth. Well what this is modeling is an analogue synth not real sounds, (experienced people will be saying duhhh right now) But for me the sounds are great i don;t need a synth to make realistic sounds cause i can play a dozen instruments.

the presets are kinda typical but span inductrial, pop, classic analogue synth sounds so there are probably some to make anyone happy. The amp modeling is particularly good on this unit. The effects are good quality. Remind me of the Waves Gold bundle sound.

seems solid. don;t know,

don't know

I'd buy it again.
Been play one instrument or the other for 15 years. I have no idea how much gear I own. I guess about 10 cubic feet.
It makes huge sounds for a tiny little baby sized synth.

Preset sound are no joke.
Editing patches are not hard but gives you step by step clear info.
Manual very helpful.

The built in effects are very very easy to use.

The heavy drums sound and the sfx etc. are once again GREAT.
It works well for dance, hip hop, nrg, techno, trance, ambeint, house, gothic, trip hop.
Onboard effects are excellent no question.
Reacts 100% to my palying.
Velocity and aftertouch are way out there (on time)

It'a a depedable equipment yes indeed.
I will use straight on with no backup.

Never dealt with the company. This is my first equipment from alesis.

NOOO way stolen I dont think so, it's worth every penny. I've been playing keyboards for 15 years but nothing like the Micron it's has a funky approach towards sounds which is way out there. I had a Casio WK3500 which was diffcult to lay music down dont get me wrong it's casio top brand but the functions were to much to handle. The alesis has a classic 80's sound but one hell of a kick to all its patterns and setup's Plus the programs are of the chanin. I can tell you this the micron can really make some music by itself with some mix down it hold its own on a cd.