Can the Alesis Micron handle this...

[ferociousj]

Hi. I just thought of a great Idea. I want to start a spazzy noise band, in the vein of the locust. I'm going to play drums and play along to pre programmed synth parts through my Alesis Micron. But I realize this is much more complicated than it sounds. I'm not going to get any more equipment for this, im going to use what I got. I was going to program the synth lines (Really heavily distorted, noisy, evil stuff) and play along to a click track from a metronome or something. Do you guys think the Micron can handle this? The programming interface is sort of tough to deal with. Is there a way to hook it up to a computer to program the synth lines and then upload them to the synth or something?

thanks, taylor.

[Yoozer]

. Is there a way to hook it up to a computer

Yes, using an USB MIDI interface.

to program the synth lines

If by that you mean programming the internal sequencer, the editor has to support this. http://www.bizune.com/ or http://midictrl.com/ make editors; download the demo version and see if it does this.

If by that you mean recording them into the computer and then using the computer to play 'm back, you'll need sequencing software for that.

[Stab Frenzy]

Hi. I just thought of a great Idea. I want to start a spazzy noise band, in the vein of the locust. I'm going to play drums and play along to pre programmed synth parts through my Alesis Micron. But I realize this is much more complicated than it sounds. I'm not going to get any more equipment for this, im going to use what I got. I was going to program the synth lines (Really heavily distorted, noisy, evil stuff) and play along to a click track from a metronome or something. Do you guys think the Micron can handle this? The programming interface is sort of tough to deal with. Is there a way to hook it up to a computer to program the synth lines and then upload them to the synth or something?

thanks, taylor.

I've got a better idea. Ditch the Micron and get either a desktop Evolver or Nord Modular, or any other synth that you can use external audio to step the sequencer with. That way instead of having to play along to a click (which the Micron can't put out so you'd need to add another piece to your setup for it anyway) your drumming would be triggering the sequence so it'd always be perfectly in time. You'd have to learn how to program whichever synth you decided to use but it'd be way more impressive to just playing along to a preprogrammed sequence.

This is the kind of result you get:

[ferociousj]

thats the thing. I don't have money to spend I have to work with what I got. Unfortunately it seems the longest a sequence can go in the micron is 4 bars before it loops. Unless anyone else knows something I don't. This thing obviously wasn't made for this.

[Stab Frenzy]

thats the thing. I don't have money to spend I have to work with what I got. Unfortunately it seems the longest a sequence can go in the micron is 4 bars before it loops. Unless anyone else knows something I don't. This thing obviously wasn't made for this.

No, it wasn't made for that at all. Could you afford $50 for something like a Kawai Q-80? They're pretty powerful sequencers even though they're a bit of a pain to edit with. Being in a band costs money for things like rehearsal space, petrol to get to gigs, 9V batteries times a million, drum sticks etc. $50 or so for something like this is nothing.

With a sequencer like that you can record the parts in and then play them back just by hitting the play button. You can even use multitimbral setups on the Micron to play back a couple of different sounds at the same time if you need to.

[Stab Frenzy]

Unfortunately it seems the longest a sequence can go in the micron is 4 bars before it loops. Unless anyone else knows something I don't.

Can't remember for sure if you can do this on the Micron, but I've gotten sequences that sound a lot longer than 16 steps out of the Evolver by using tempo-synced LFOs to rhythmically change parameters. By using a combination of multiples/fractions of 16 and others that aren't you can get heaps of variations before the sequence repeats. Could work for what you want.

[masstronaut]

thats the thing. I don't have money to spend I have to work with what I got. Unfortunately it seems the longest a sequence can go in the micron is 4 bars before it loops. Unless anyone else knows something I don't. This thing obviously wasn't made for this.

It can do up to 16 bar sequences as long as you have the 1.10 OS update (which came out several years ago btw) installed, fwiw. You can get that here : http://www.alesis.com/contentmgr/showde ... /1147/tt/5

You would do well to look at some of those other options as well though I think.

[ferociousj]

I appreciate everyone's help. I don't think my plan is going to work out though. I think I overestimated the micron's capabilities. For some reason I though it would be easy to trigger sequences from it, but its actually not possible. Now I realize that in order to do this Im gonna need to put a lot more money and time into it. I think at this point itd be easier (and cheaper) to find another human.

[Computer Controlled]

Or sell the Micron and buy an Evolver, or a Mopho.

[Stab Frenzy]

I appreciate everyone's help. I don't think my plan is going to work out though. I think I overestimated the micron's capabilities. For some reason I though it would be easy to trigger sequences from it, but its actually not possible. Now I realize that in order to do this Im gonna need to put a lot more money and time into it. I think at this point itd be easier (and cheaper) to find another human.

With the OS update that does 16 bar sequences you can do it can't you? to keep it triggered just push a key down and then stick a coin on top so it wedges underneath the two keys beside it. Or just put a lead under the key.

I'm glad this topic came up actually, because of it I just spent the last hour or so getting the Evolver playing sequences triggered from a mic. It's cool how with the delays you kind of get a particular rhythm naturally happening, like the programming of the sequence suggests to you how you should play to trigger it.

[Computer Controlled]

The Micron has a Latch feature so you can just hit that and the key will sustain until you hit the Latch button again.

[masstronaut]

You could get some pretty involved stuff going with the Micron. Like using multi-setups with a number of sequences running simultaneously at different clock rates, maybe with different step divisions but I'm not sure how well this works on the Micron. Also play around with clocked LFOs to add movement as Stab suggests, like slow square waves sending intervals to oscillator pitches, for instance.

But yeah, the triggering could be a bit of a sticking point, although maybe a simple MIDI drum pad of some kind with several pads for firing off sequences? Like a Yamaha DD-5 or something.

Duracell was actually the first thing that came to mind when I read your OP. When I saw him play he was just using a Nord Micro Modular triggering off his floor tom as far as I could tell and it worked really well.