Alesis Ion Complex Synthesis - FM & Sync Feedback

[kushman40]

Should send this video to SETI cause I think your picking up some space noise

[Nal3s]

wow. im really sorry



[wax83]

Very nice!

I know it is an old upload but I'd like to ask a couples.

Which algorythm were u using and which one of the sync configurations?

Just for the sake of understanding..

[epilephserep]

this vid made me bought the micron and i recently lost it in a car robery

[VectronMusic]

Okay, any synthesizer that sounds like it's broken or circuit bent when it's working as it should, gets an A+ in my book.

[halogen8]

Is the Alesis Micron capable of this type of synthesis? I have the Micron and have gotten some wicked sounds out of it, but this is something I'd like to try and achieve.

[tsuihark]

@halogen8 Yes, the Micron has all of this and more!

[tsuihark]

@halogen8 Well, actually, it doesn't have all of those buttons, and that hurts :(

[therealKINDLE]

Excuse me, but... This synth sounds Mental! How much do they go for? I was looking at the SH-01 to replace my SH-201. But this? It's amazing! Whats the model of this coz the micro keeps comming up!

[stereodifference]

@therealKINDLE I bought mine new for £400... but that was a while ago while they were still in production. They should probably still be going second hand for around the same price so keep your eyes peeled and you could get a good price for one. There's also the Micron which is a smaller version of the Ion with almost the same sound engine which has been repackaged by Akai as the Miniak.

If possible, forget the SH-01 and/or SH-201 and get one of these, you won't regret it.

[therealKINDLE]

@stereodifference Thanks man! I have been reading up on this Synth & it's Dazzling how many Parameters it has! It doesn't have much in the way of effects, but that doesn't matter as I run everything through my Fantom X8 Workstation which has a Whopping 79 Effects! I Looked into the Akia Miniak, but it's FAR TOO small for me. And I Love Plenty of Knobs! God that sounds Gay! there's 30 of em on this one! But the Buttons look cheap :-( But for the Sound this has.. I Don't give a FERK! ....

[therealKINDLE]

@stereodifference.... And for £400 quid?!! Day light Robbery! I just wish it had more than an 8-Note Polyphony. I'm a Heavy Chord Person to be honest but that doesn't matter too Much I guess. It's better than the Moog© Mini or Phatty! Although I Dream of owning ANYTHING Moog!!!

But yeh, Thanks man. I'll Snoop around & try'n keep my Glaz Balls open for any good Deals on one of these Clandestine Monsters!!! Rahhhhhhhh!!!!!

[MachineGunBallad]

get a micron if the ion is out of your price range

[Compastral]

Sounds like the Metasonix Wretch Machine S1000 has a little half brother xD awesome strange sounds

[LemosAde]

Pretty good sound effects to say the least.

Is there a full duplex option? Can you eliminate semi-rectification or develop semi-baud ratings to rid any cross-channel interference?

Love the keyboard demo....Could do with one of these.

A great Video. Well worth watching!

[Microsloth]

Discontinued.....yes. Look on eBay.

[Compastral]

Why Discontiue this Behemoth? ;(

[Microsloth]

Alesis hasn't done very well in the synth market over the last few years--supplier problems, OS issues, (especially with the Fusion) and other things have caused them to gradually drop out of the keyboard market. Unimpressive...

[dreamomatic]

@Compastral Because humanity can't handle such awesomeness

[tionik06]

@Compastral because it sounds awful.

[Compastral]

@tionik06 speak for yourself !

[sacredgeometry]

@tionik06 All synths sound horrible in the hands of amateurs :P

[guiseppelives]

just got one... AWESOME!

[Kurukusu]

"sounds like whitehouse"

Well thats a great thing.

[chazum0]

that is really interesteing, one of my favorite things to do on my micron is control pitch with an lfo. its like crazy random pitch sounds and what not.

[stormshadow2100]

i had the ion but after upgrading i went for the korg radias ,aaahhh much better :)

[Envergure]

You can make some cool effects also by routing two LFOs' output to each others' rate.

[Envergure]

2:15 sounds like dial-up :)

i wish these hadn't gone out of production :( they're awesome and i want one. At least they're still making Microns.

[markarianman]

Now understanding because is care a synth. A pedal efect for guitar cost + 0 - 240 US (delay boss for expample). And into of a synth there are much "pedals effect". Is possible to create sounds. Fantastic

[ketaminebean]

sounds like whitehouse

[YungHoodz]

those are fucking awsome glitch sounds

[Noah1989]

well .. others call it frequency modulation ^^

[djsmithy]

not all fm sounds are glitchy though ;)

[YuzoTibi]

This is 100% wrong. The Micron is more a "Ion light". Both are great and underrated VA synths though!

[shaft9000]

That's not quite right, either.

The micron has the same synth engine, and adds an editable arpeggiator+sequencer and a digital delay that is actually useful - the Ion's delay maxes at something pitiful like 100ms. The only things the micron lacks are the extra keys, knobs and modwheels

[koiju123]

The delay on the Ion is not intended to be used as "echo" but for flanging, chorusing your sound. You can always get an external FX to have delay & reverb.

The micron has indeed a few more feature than the Ion. The Ion has something the micron doesn`t have : a real user interface.

[theau61]

I hear music !

[Fretkillr]

Great as a sound FX machine but I don't hear any music. Someone send a link to someone making music with this box.

[bigpun2g]

novation x-station vs. Alesis Ion, i need your opinion

[futureimage]

Well I can only speak for the Alesis Ion, but IMO it's probably the best VA out there for the price. Go and demo them both out somewhere and see which one fits your taste more.

[djfakt]

"novation x-station vs. Alesis Ion, i need your opinion"

....Not even close. Ion crushes that shit...Especially in the sound dept...NOT EVEN CLOSE...It's the closest you can get to real analog besides buying an actual analog synth.

Novation X-station isn't even in the same league. The only reason the Ion isn't bigger ( glad it isn't, actually) is because the Alesis name is junk. They are known for making shit products.

Go read the Sound on Sound review of the Ion. Or any review, really...

[Kinor7]

This is the coolest ever... Love when you squeeze sounds out of machines you can't imagine.

Big up!! :D

[speier]

doesn't the Yamaha DX7 have FM like this too?

[futureimage]

The DX7 doesn't have Sync or much variation on the waveforms used for each operator/oscillator.

[djcondra]

Dude you rock at that shit.

[fucinfulleffect]

another cool thing to do with that sort of patch is to use it as the carrier signal for the vocoder -run some drums through as the modulator or, better yet, another feedback synthesis patch running out of the aux output and into the ext. in. give those a try and you'll be quite surprised by the result

[fucinfulleffect]

I use this feature all the time - in fact its almost the only reason i use that synth at all! i like throwing the slapback effect on top of the feedback. you get some nice reverbarating crashes etc. which sound reminiscent of the synth effects used in a lot of broadcast songs

[thefunkycrew]

noice! thats what I call "nine inch nails noise". sweet.

[futureimage]

Haha yeah that's the camera. Snatch is a brilliant film.

[futureimage]

lol I am English! :P sorry about the sound quality if that's what you mean, it's awful. we really need a better camera.

[fuzzydeer]

awesome im going to try this as soon as my ion arrives (I found one yay!)

[d3p3ch3mod3]

the nord lead series can do something like this, which i really wish someone would post a demo of because it sounds incredible... not putting this one down because the only synth i own is a micron and am going to rush upstairs and try to get these sounds right after i finish watching this

[benjah0]

My favorite thing you did was with the feeding back high hat bit.

And it does seem that they've been discontinued (or so says all the online music dealing sites I've been to). The good news is that they go for pretty cheap on used auction sites still (where I bought mine)

[magnax23]

Great video, plz make some more and post here!

[acidchild]

This is far more ingenious programming than making bass sounds, or strings or pianos or any other bread and butter sounds. Any synth that can make malfunctioning electronic sounds is OK in my book =o]

[jamesbtex]

I've seen several cool videos on this Ion that I have found very helpful in showing the features. I'm not trying to hurt anyones feelings but this video was terrible. Nothing but noise, and annoying sounds and static.

You really should proof your video's before posting them.

[futureimage]

Yeah, but you're missing the point. I'm not demoing the Ion as a typical synth. Instead I'm showing how one little trick can make some sounds I wouldn't have expected from a VA synth before.

[benjah0]

I myself am glad to see this video...I'm reasonably aware of the "normal" stuff the ion and do...but I had no idea it could do this.

[DerClunk]

Excellent! A great machine for industrial and harshnoise.

[futureimage]

Are you still living in the 50s?

[framzoid]

Let me guess,your name is Cooder and you live in Mississippi? Just a hunch.....

[DerClunk]

Let me guess, your name is Ignorance and you've never been to Mississippi, otherwise you would know that synthesizers are sold and played in that state also.

[framzoid]

Never been to the South Pole either.What's your point? Do they play 'Dueling Banjo's' on those synths of which you speak?Lighten up,guy.

[ooooohpancakes]

synthesizers are instruments, dummy.

[robfisher1]

@ooooohpancakes But they're capable of so much more. Noise and texture making is a lot of fun.

[elektrovolt]

funny

[Hoodedfigure831]

I found you can get similar results on the micron if you make a program with saw waveforms. you have to map the fm level to one of the modulation knobs and turn it to 100%. if you you slowly move the pitch wheel up and down you can get very unsual feedback distortion effects.

[d3p3ch3mod3]

thanks for your advice about getting an ion.. I wound up getting a Micron which yeah the interface SUCKS but the built in sequencer is awesome since i couldn't really afford a workstation or laptop on top of the instrument.. I don't know if i think the nord lead is overpriced tho, and its def next on the list....

[Rayth69]

not a bad synth i guess (although couldn't really tell from the demo), but wouldn't trade in my virus ti for it. Like it's filters, though.

[dalasv]

Care to post the patch to the Micron/Ion yahoo group?

[futureimage]

Haha yeah sure if I can figure out how to do the Sysex stuff and I actually remember hehe. It's pretty simple anyways, just turn Sync on and boost the FM modulation level...

[dalasv]

Cool, I'll give it a try.

[mantacoup]

a ha, it is indeed as simple as you explained... cool!!

[Hoodedfigure831]

thank you!

[Hoodedfigure831]

I wish I could get these devastated sounds on my micron. the interface is too funky.

[MurderPuffin]

The Ion sounds great but i love my nord box because for my music i need all the polyphony i can get.

[hellspark]

lol at some points it sounded like a swarm of bees

[doubtomatic]

Awesome. Thanks for showing the nasty/crazy side of the Ion! Too many demos out there just showing off the presets and/or conventional sounds.

[futureimage]

Thanks! That's exactly why I made this, the Ion can do some great unique stuff that I've never seen anything else do (apart from maybe modular systems and software).

[JonasBridgous]

Wow some great sounds there. I'm looking to make my first synth purchase.. would you reccomend the ion over a Nord Lead 2x? I'm looking for something primairily with trancy-pads and some funky lead sounds?

[futureimage]

Well after trying out some Nord Leads, I'd definitely recommend the Ion over the NL. How much polyphony do you need is the question really? The Ion only has 8 voice polyphony, I thiiink the NL has quite a lot more...

[JonasBridgous]

Well I know was polyphony is but I don't understand what impact it would have on the sounds you get from the synth. I presume it means it can play multiple sounds all oat once? I understand the NL2x doesn't have any onboard reverb or delay as well, this would turn me off. Educate me more!

[futureimage]

Polyphony is more how many keys you can hold down at once for there to be a sound. It also to applies to sounds with a long release (for example, you'll need quite a large polyphony if you want to play a lot of string-type notes and for them to carry on after playing more notes).

[futureimage]

If you want to play multiple sounds/settings/patches at once, you'll need multi-timbrality, which the Alesis Ion does very well (4 part). I'm not so sure about the NL. Obviously polyphony decreases with the number of settings you use at once.

The Alesis Ion only has a small number of effects, including only a short slap-back delay, no reverb however. Most players would have an external effects unit, or use software plugins when recording to get these effects.

[JonasBridgous]

Oh I see what you mean. I was also looking at the Virus TI, I think that has some onboard effects. But it's generally better to get an effects box and run it through the synth right? Cool.

[futureimage]

Hmm, it depends. If you're going to have many synths, then yes, an external effects box is probably going to be more useful.

[MurderPuffin]

the 2X is 20 Voice

[mantacoup]

the amouth of voices is not holy (to me) what you can do with it seems much more importent. but the nordlead is a great sounding synth but with much less complexity. NL is great for funky sh*t and trance stuff.

[Eleton]

Pretty good