Alesis Micron

This thing is extremely easy to use(i just picked it up and figured it out), however it can be a little slow (programming basically can be all done through one knob) The presets are great, i use mine for ebm/industrial/rock, it does a great job...anything that you cannot figure out can be easily cleared up by the manual

i think it has 8 voice polyphony?...the keyboard action i good, however im kinda accustomed to my dx7s light action...the effects are great, nice delays and some good choices of flanger, phaser, and a 40 band vocoder (which is pretty good, not the greatest but it is sufficient)...

it cant be expanded, however i dont think there is any need for expansion in this type of synth...

it has pressure sensitive keys, accepts the aftertouch of my dx, has 6 realtime controls at the top...

and it has a really easy to use drum and synth sequencer in it

i have no idea how they packed so much into a synth like that...its amazing

this synth is fat, warm, analog sounding, equal to the sounds of synths way more expensive then itself, id say its good for techno, trance, ebm, if you program it right it can do industrial...the fx kick ass...you can edit the velocity curve too, however the keys dont have aftertouch

ok my one and only complaint about the synth is the main control know...thats it...the rest is built nice and strong, and i really dont see a problem with the control knob unless your like really knocking it around

never dealt with them

this thing kicks the microkorgs ass...im sorry but this synths fat sounds are much better then the microkorgs cold cellphone-ish noises...if it got lost i would definately gen another(when i get the money)...i love the sounds of it probably the most, without even trying, patches come out fat as hell...this thing kicks ass

Pretty easy to use one you learn how to map parameters onto the knobs.
2 points off for not having very many real-time knobs on the front panel.

Great features on this thing. The variety of features are probably it's strongest point.

You can tweak the presets to an acceptible level but it still doesn't sound as fat as some other synths do right out of the box...

It may work well for rock or pop music but as far as using the Micron for Hip Hop, the sounds aren't high enough quality.

Seems pretty solid. I didn't have any problems.

Didn't try dealing with customer support.

"If it were lost or stolen, would you buy it again or get something else?"

After testing it side by side with a Microkorg I ended up trading in the Micron even though the features on the Micron are much more in depth the basic sound isn't as high quality as the Microkorg.

As you should know, this is the Alesis Micron. I didn't do any upgrades, so its stock. The presets, for the most part, sound pretty good. Editing is pretty easy, although it takes some getting used too. If you've seen the micron, you're probably well aware that most of the editing is done within the menus and whatnot. The manual is great. Like i said, pretty easy to use once you get used to it. I do prefer MicroKorg's layout much better since its much easier and quicker to manipulate sounds.

The action is very good. The effects are good. As I said, pretty easy to work this thing once you've done a fair share of reading the manual and/or tinkering around on it. Pressure sensitive keys are nice. If memory serves me correctly, it has 8 poly. For $400, this has a ton of great features. Can't beat it for the price. This is one of the few reasons I chose it over the MicroKorg.

I give it a 10, not because it has the most features in the world, but just because it has a LOT of features and its so inexpensive, comparatively speaking.

Sounds are great. I'm sure its great for techno and the like, but I actually use it for bass and drums a lot. I also put synth lines into rock songs too. sounds aren't realistic, but its a synth, so they really shouldn't be. very quality sounds, to my ears.

If it were lost or stolen, i'd probably by another sooner or later. I actually traded in an amp and paid $150, and it was definitely worth what i "paid." I love the sounds, and all the features. its even really fun to just mess around with in my room. As I stated before, i compared it to the microkorg. both are really nice. i like the onboard layout of the microkorg MUCH more, but the micron has A LOT more features and i didnt care for the mini-keys on the microkorg. both sound amazing though.

it should be known that I am a guitarist and really am not that experienced with synths. but i can say that this thing sounds great, has great features and is relatively easy to get used to. I may not know all that much about synths, but I know what I like and I really like this.

its a great synth and its cheap. i give it a ten. if it were more expensive, i'd probably knock a few points off. for the price, and even some things a little more expensive, you simply can't beat it.

Version 1.02 This machine is incredibly powerful and musical. Very well thought out design. A lot has to be adjusted through one knob, but it works well.

The polyphony and effects are excellent for a $399. machine (even for a $699. machine). Nice keyboard feel, good MIDI send unit. Great ability to save favorites and recent sounds. But you can't relaod factory presets from within the machine.

Love the sounds. Except the vocoder. I've used 5 different vocoders and the Micron's. The Micron's is awful -- if intelligibility is important. The Micron demo on the Alesis site has vocoder in it, and that demo is as good as the Micron vocoder seems to get. To say it's 40 bands implies something that's just not there. The MicroKorg 8-band vocoder blows the Micron's away. If sound mangling is what you're after, then the vocoder is OK. I'll give an 8 for everything except the vocoder.

Seems great, but watch the main control knob.

Nice, live people at Alesis.

Great, instant classic. Would be PERFECT with even a decent vocoder.

Version 1.02 software as shipped.
Presets are pretty "synth" standard, it would have been nice to have a list of the
original tones, rhythms,patterns and programs. I find that the many days of scrolling
through and listening and trying to dissect how the sounds are made is a lengthy
process, yes an editor would be nice, but a simple list would do.
The manual is brief but succinct. The quick view is very brief but the illustrations
are very useful.

8 voices/4 channels effects are basicly filters, delays, compression, overdrive.
You have to program them in. Your sounds can be changed and applied to same
effects you had on the previous sound. That's pretty neat.
No expansion except for other midi devices synched or as a controller.
I think the keys are a little cheesy, my other keyboard is an ancient DX7, so
that's my standard. I use this box however with a midi-guitar so i don't need
the keys so much.
The phrase/patterns sequencing is awesome.You can sequence a riff, or appegiate it
and switch these for the same pattern of notes.

I used a Prophet 600 for many years, and my other synths are a DX7, and two Octave Cat srmII's . I gave the Prophet back to my brother so i needed something to replace it.
After about 3 months of mulling it over, I ordered the Micron. THis is posssibly the best
suitable replacement for the Prophet that I could have obtained. I get close to same
sounds-some are dead on!! Obviously a Prophet does have more knobs, but
I need to say that this synth is amazing!..
Reaction to my playing is fine though I'm not a technical keyboard player.Through a midi
guitar it reacts just as expected -perfectly.

Will know more about this over time, lugging it to practice and back home.
It's pretty light compared to a Prophet or a DX7. and it's small.

Not needed, hopefully never needed, I did send a suggestion about the placement of the
M1 and M2 and the pitch wheel which are in a different direction(horizontal rathe than vertical) The former could have been replaed with knobs like the volume
knob which i find very usuable than I'm used to. The pitch wheel should be moved though.
A modest suggestion. Just a user preference, not a problem function wise.

As I said I play Guitar. My other "box" is an Adrenalinn which is possibly the best thing
since sliced tofu. So More drums, more filters and more patterns in my sound is
always welcome as long as I feel I can control the whole thing while tryng to
play a song. So I've gone from a masssive guitar sound to a massive guitar synth
sound with automatic rhythmic control and LOTS of ways to get complex assemblies
of drums ,pads,more drums, strings, filters , etc and killer noises on the fly.
The risk of too many layers is great not a bad problem to have. The Micron is a lot of fun, -i've never been much of a drummer and the control i have on triggering drums and patterns is a welcome addition (something I didn't expect either). It will likely take
about 6 months to really get a hold of all the features (I haven't even mentioned the
separate vocoder section) .
Consider this a glowing review .

When I first got the Micron, it came with version 1.01 but I've since updated it to version 1.02 and not had any crashes or bugs. The supplied presets are amazing and have been voiced to really show off that this synth maybe little on the outside, but when it comes to sound, it's massive! Editing isn't as difficult as you may imagine, as Alesis have a very smart system of bringing up different sections of the synth by holding down the main control dial and hitting a key. You could always by an external MIDI controller if you wanted more physical controls. I haven't really needed the manual as yet, but it seems okay if a little skimpy.

Features? This thing is stacked with them! 8 voices is good enough as far as polyphony goes and the keyboard has a nice feel to it. The built in effects score over the more expensive Ion and sound great. There are no expansion capabilities but then they are not really needed on a synth of this kind. Including the sequencer was a great idea, as are the rhythms - they make a big difference - and make it a very attractive product for the price.

This synth can sound like just about any real analogue you care to mention (and I'm speaking from experience of some of the vintage synths I've owned since 1987). To me, it's greatest moments are when it sounds like a SCI Pro-One. It has a killer sound, the closest thing I've heard to a real analogue. Thanks to the great presets (and the editing power to make your own), it's not limited to just one style of music. It's not just a dance synth, as it can sound very retro, for doing electro 80's stuff as well. All in all, an excellent sounding synth, one of the best I've ever used!

I can see what some people mean by the "wonky" main control dail. I'm hoping mine holds up! The rest of the machine seems very solid, but time will tell...

This is an amazing synth and I don't know what I'd do without it. Alongside my Roland SH-32 and Korg MicroKORG, it has become one of my most loved synths, ever. It's ability to process external sounds through it's vocoder and effects has made an amazing difference to the sound of my SH-32 and when you mix drum sounds from the 32 with the Micron, they are speaker-blowingly big! Mixing sounds from the microKORG with the Micron (being controlled by the Microns Sequencer) si fantastic. I am so happy with this synth! I never dreamed that my most loved synth would have been made by Alesis, who's QS-range of keyborads held no interest for me at all!

It's really helped me in my songwriting too, providing idea after idea after idea...if you haven't heard it yet, get to your local music store and have a play with it...the MP3 demos on the Alesis website really don't show it off fully. The best synth I've ever bought, no question.

i gave it an 8 because ive only had it for like a day but its pretty easy to use. its my first real synth so i like it and it seems easier to edit and use than most other synths

the sequencer is ok the arrpegiator is good and its has midi(thru out in) the effects are ok delay and reverb good reverb.

its great in this depratment. i persoonally dont like velocity sensitive keys so this is actually a draw back for me but for velocity sensitivty its not that great

im pretty sure you could gig with it it seems very dependable. but i gave it a nine casue you never know

never dealt with alesis

This is a "first impression" review -- I just spent 45 minutes testing out the keyboard I got for my son for christmas to make sure it survived shipping (not to worry it was packed very well).

I thought I'd report a few impressions based on this short hands-on, regarding things which I had been concerned about. I didn't open the owner's manual (though the pdf I looked at online looked pretty detailed and also good for an introduction to synthesis). I also didn't dig into the programmability, which is the reason I picked out this analog modelling synth for my son.

First of all, WOW! I'm an amateur guitar player and took a few piano lessons as a teenager, but this instrument sucked me in and I was playing stuff which begged to be recorded (I listen to 8 hours of eclectic music a day from the BBC, and what I was playing was not crap). This is a cool, compact performance instrument, with the ability to record phrases, arpeggios, rhythms, and layer these with bass and pads via keyboard splits.

The keyboard itself is responsive, with full-size keys. The unit is very compact, barely larger than the 3-octave keyboard itself. It seems to be solid and engineered to last, but of course I can't be sure. It definitely is built like a professional instrument, not a toy.

I compared this to the MicroKorg, and the only thing the MicroKorg had going for it was the option for battery operation. But this is said to last only 3-4 hours so I don't know how useful it would be in practice. Also the MicroKorg comes with a built-in mic.

The Micron bested the MicroKorg features in many ways: better polyphony, (8 voice vs 4 voice), balanced audio I/O, sequencer, full-size keys, huge assortment of filters including vocal formant ones, 40-band (vs 8-band) vocoder.

I'd like to know whether the sequencer is powerful enough to use this instrument for composition as well as performance.

Based on going through some of the presets, there is a huge variety of pads, basses, leads, and drum sounds available, suitable for all kinds of music. Of course this is an analog modelling synth so you won't get sampled simulations of acoustic instruments.

Many of the sounds were lovely and the fidelity was very good (using good quality headphones). I can't comment on the expressiveness, not being much of a keyboard player. I think you can vary the velocity curves to taste.

The preset electronica rhythms are a great way to draw you and get the creative juices flowing, much better than the canned latin/rock/rhumba beats you get in cheap keyboards and drum machines. I didn't get into programming any myself yet.

Like I said, based on first impressions it is solid. The front panel is minimalistic with few protrusions to break. Can't speak on absolute reliability yet.

At this early stage, I'm certainly glad I chose this product.

OS 1.02
a little fiddly to get around on at first, but fairly quick when you get the hang of it. this thing could use an editing program.
take stoo many turns of the main knob when using the mod matrix.
manual is pretty skimpy and some things such as the vocoder aren't covered at all.

lots of features for the price - excellent bang for the buck.
nice touches, such as release velocity (no aftertouch), tracking generator, real sample and hold, very nice mod matrix and great sounding oscillators and many good sounding filter types. pre and post filter mix and nice panning options.

this is a synth - don't come looking for realistic samples and such.
keys feel pretty good for such an inexpensive instrument. fx are decent. capable of a wide range of sounds.

no real trouble so far, but the main knob feels pretty wobbly and it gets a lot of use. i'm a little nervous of how well it will hold up in the long run - i hope they make an editor for it.

i had to contact customer support once for a previous ion i had and they responded pretty quickly - no real complaints.

for the price, i don't think anything else comes close to it.

It's quite easy to get around in spite of the fact that it only has a few knobs. Great thing that you can hold down the program-knob and push a key to get to a specific parametre, very smart thinkin' Alesis!

I'm gonna give you the full list of features here, they are as follows: 8 voices, 18 diff. filtertypes (both 2 & 4-pole w/ 2 filter envelopes!)that each has a special characteristic sound - some replicating specific ol' analogs like arp 2600 minimoog jupiter etc.
Furthermore it has a step/phrase sequencer, a rhythm seq, 40 band vocoder, great fx incl reverb- delay + diff distortionfx (it's Alesis, alright!), Great arp-section, lots of routing capabilities, great MIDI features where you can set up a chosen send/recieve number for preferred parameters. This is the best VA made to this day, no question. It is even better than the Ion, because of the additional reverb, step- and rhythm seq.

What can you not do with this instrument? Ok, real instruments, obviously, but any synth sound you can imagine is attainable with this synth. The digital osc sound very good (this would be an awesome synth even without the FX section), and the converters are outstanding - Superb sound quality and no audible aliasing!
To all you analogue freaks (I'm one of them): this actually does sound convincingly analogue. Nuff said.

Haven't had it long enough to make a statement, but it's solidly built, especially compared to the Microkorg and the like. The keys are surprisinly good for such a little machine.

Haven't had the need to contact 'em yet.

The best sounding machine available on the market today, alongside the Yamaha Motif synths. No, I am not kidding: the best VA is available brand new at $399.