New Andromedas are here

[Hossinfeffa]

When did you get your current one? what are the problems with it? do you think those faults will have been recitifed in the new version?
That's what I'm most curious about-if there's been any changes to these compared to the last batch.

I bought mine used on Ebay back in late June I think. A musician had to sell his gear to pay bills and sold an A6 and a V-Synth to a pawn shop. The pawn shop listed it online and I grabbed it. Now that I have it, I love it. The only two problems I have ran into are, when using the pitch bend wheel, it tends to edit random parameters and the LCD spazzes out. Also my internal digital effects never turn on. I doubt this is something batch related.. just the pitch wheel needs cleaning and something inside may be installed wrong for the digital effects. It looks like whoever had this before opened it up, so eventually I'll open it up and check things out. I think I am the 2nd or 3rd owner.

For a modern analog polysynth it does seem to have a fair few problems with different batches. I think this puts off a lot of people. But since it is so huge, that's probably why it has problems. It has so much in it. The problems I have heard about don't seem that bad though. The current batch being sold should be fine. I think it was some units made back in 2003 that had the problems.

Still debating on whether to get a new one or not.. :-k

[Bitexion]

I've never had any pitchwheel/LCD issues with mine. I've read that sometimes it can lock up if you use all the 16 MIDI channels at once, but hello, how many ppl do that very often?

My Ion however had pitchwheel issues, mostly because I had pushed it so hard it didn't reset back to "zero".
Just had to yank it up and down quite a bit before it settled in the zero position again.

There was a production batch before that had bad voices or voices not wanting to tune. But I assume that issue was fixed years ago in the production run. Been years since I've heard of any A6 with that issue in forums and A6 groups.

[RobotHeroes]

Thanks for all the info. It is tempting. So very tempting.

The Andromeda is so deep it'll make you nuts. It's really a big modular system built into a keyboard synth.
There are so many modulation routings it borders on ridiculous

Been years since I've heard of any A6 with that issue in forums and A6 groups.

Big modular in a keyboard? :shaking2: Temptation rising. If the new batch(es) are solid this might join the list. Glad to hear not many issues coming up.

[synth3tik]

I do think they need to work on pricing. The Andromeda is really cool, but it offers me little extra over what I have and for that price, ouch! A striped down version of it would be really nice. Personally the Andromeda is the only product by Numark/Alesis that holds any interest to me. The rest just seems to be cheap, limited, out dated, or otherwise lacking as real equipment.

[seamonkey]

I did some searching after reading Sir Ruff's comment and what I could gather from one of the forums is there was a bad batch which had tuning issues, this was most likely late in 2006 but I can't verify it. One retailer commeted the last batch before this one, they had 3, and all were fine but the one batch before that they had one with the tuning issues which had to be sent back.
The problem for me buying one used I was always afraid I'd get that "one" that had issues, plus you never know how old they are, could be 7 years if one of the early ones. I'm happy for anyone who can find a good used one, I just didn't want to take a chance, especially when it seemed last year they might be discontinuing the Andromeda.

I'm like a lot of you who have been on the fence on the Andromeda over the years but I figure getting one is the only way to once and for all see if it's for me. I'm really not all that interested whether it can sound like a JP8, an Obie or Moog. It's a 16 voice ANALOG monster with incredible potential to sound like anything you want to come out of it.

I've done a lot of research on the Andromeda and it seems there are a lot more playa's who love it than those who wish they hadn't gotten one, if anything folks get a bit intimidated when it comes to programming. but to me presets are just there to get you started.
Again, it's sound is subjective to what YOU want to hear coming out of your speakers or in your music, it's different for each one of us.

As far as pricing, you can get deals out there, some at $2699USD or even less. $2699 is only $300 more than a Prophet 08 and you get 8 more voices. Virus T1 Polars are running a bit higher price than the Andromeda so it's all relative.

I ordered mine from Shawn at Analoghaven because they have a good reputation and I know if I have any problems they will take care of me. He's been great answering any of my questions and doing follow up emails.

[stikygum]

I think they only do one production run per year.

It would be nice if they would keep making them. I'm sure every batch sells out.

An OS update would be nice too. But I'm not holding my breath.

I would love for Numark/Alesis to release an "Andromeda Lite", or at least a rack version.

A rack would be sweet! I'm not sure what Numark is really doing. They don't seem to know what they have their hands on. If they did, I'm sure they would have a lot more plans going on around the Andromeda.

[elmacaco]

Alesis has been inundated with requests for an Andromeda Rack, or mono, or cut down version. All of which they scrapped. it would be good if they did continue analog design, but the Ion and micron seem to show their direction, and een those were blown out IIRC.

It seems smart though, in order to recoup on the investment of the Andromeda, if you want it, you have to go whole hog and get the big one.

As for price, it seems ridiculous for anyone to complain about what you get for the price compared to a Voyager or even a Prophet 08. You can use the Andromeda as 16 incredibly flexible monosynths, for around the same price as a Voyager or a P-08, poly evolver or whatever. To get more for your money you need to leave analog completely and go digital emulation of analog.

[garranimal]

Alesis has been inundated with requests for an Andromeda Rack, or mono, or cut down version.

If they did this then they would be competing against the Little Phatty, Mopho, MonoEvolver, a host of others I'm sure. Nobody else is making a 16-voice analog beast....it is kind of genius to expand into a specialized market sector where everyone else is afraid to go. And appear to continue to do it so well.

[zobomix]

Man, I might pull the trigger this time. I miss not having an analog polysynth and the Andy could be the ticket. I don't like the tone of the prophet--be it 08 or 5--and the polyevolver is just 4 voices. Dave Smith is a nice guy but his synths don't float my boat. He's clever with marketing and such, though and Alesis/Numark could learn from him.

[Bitexion]

I view them as the Moog of the late 90's, in that when Alesis was moving away from synths, a small team went nuts and wanted to design a mega analog polysynth, just like Moog did with the Memorymoog. And they almost didn't make it either.

[garranimal]

Man, I might pull the trigger this time. I miss not having an analog polysynth and the Andy could be the ticket.

Do it. Do it now. It used to be the bastard step-child that sat in the corner for about three years now....always tempted to sell it but something told me not to. I took the time to learn how to program it, and learned some VERY important things like keep the oscillator amplitudes below 50% (more like 33%) - the amps are very hot and I was always trying to figure out where the unwanted distortion was coming from. Now that I figured THAT out and some other things, the A6 is becoming my GO-TO synth more and more: basses, pads, exciting sequenced patterns, huge soaring modular-sounding leads. It does everything well, you'll not be disappointed.

[3vcos]

Funny, I guess keeping the VCO levels down should be done to taste. I tend to keep levels below 10%. Anything getting close to 30-50% is way way too much for my ears. The waves distort so easily...

[zobomix]

You know, the thing I' ve always liked about the A6 is what Bitexion said, a few minds going nuts with the pure intent of making something outstanding.

I like my nord G2X but I just can't get the warmth I need.

[Naive Teen Idol]

I've been thinking about buying a Dotcom modular system for a while -- obsessed with tactile control and thinking about about getting away from keyboard control.

But this thread, some vids I've found online and Bitexion's enthusiasm for the Andromeda--specifically its modular capabilities--has got me thinking seriously about buying one. Yes, $2,500 is steep. And yes, there's something romantic about manual patching. But between the knobs, the ribbon controller, the step sequencer, the SIXTEEN voices and above all else the sound, it's clear the A6 is an absolute beast and makes me think it might give me everything I need.

[blitzdj86]

I'm surprised its not gunna be rereleased as an akaidromeda or something