Alesis Micron opinion

[Soundwave]

What your opinion on the Alesis Micron?

Is it more for preset tweaking or can you actually get deep into it if you know what your doing via the limited UI?

Does the sequencer's control resolution step badly or is it a very useful tool for live/jam scenario?

Does the sound suffer from bad aliasing like some other VA synths and how analogue can it sound?


I'm looking for a little synth for polyphonic sounds with a warmer edge than I get from my Elektrons but don't have the space for an Ion and I'm wondering if should just save up a bit more for a Blofeld which may be more than what I need.

[WDW]

BUYER'S GUIDE. Moved.

WD

[Summa]

It's completely editable, I found it easier than tweaking some 80s Synths like for instance the TX81z, more appealing than editing the mKorg directly, but more time consuming than for instance programming the Xiosynth...

[shaft9000]

What your opinion on the Alesis Micron?

Is it more for preset tweaking or can you actually get deep into it if you know what your doing via the limited UI?

the UI is like a pinhole, imho: hundreds of parameters have to be edited one at at time via the incremental knob (NOT good for wide sweeps or tweaks), except for what is already assigned to the patch.....which is usually/default vibrato, filter1 cutoff, FM amount, filter pan balance and noise level
to fully program the thing quickly the editing proggie is necessary. Microzune or micronizer and another one i can't remember the name of.

Does the sequencer's control resolution step badly or is it a very useful tool for live/jam scenario?

never used it as i don't gel 'live' w/ a sequencer that doesn't have individual step inputs on the UI.

Does the sound suffer from bad aliasing like some other VA synths and how analogue can it sound?

Aliasing is very low as the resolution is greater than the 'ole 90's 16-bit output standard.
How analog does it sound???
Well it's a digital synth so it sounds like one. Don't know what else to say to that - i mean it's night and day next to even a simple Juno. Don't buy it expecting it to substitute for a real analog, because it doesn't and it won't.
I mean, what are we doing at VSE after all, eh?

[logicalhippo]

Is it more for preset tweaking or can you actually get deep into it if you know what your doing via the limited UI?

I used the micron as my main "editting" synth for about 6 months. It's a pain in the neck, but like all synths, you learn how to get around the UI and make programs quickly, despite the limitations. I have a couple of "init" presets set up with most of the mod routings that I like to make, and then I tweak from there. It's really not very fun to create sounds from scratch, as the UI just doesn't have any nice way of doing the mod table, which is necessary for anything with any amount of motion. It's certainly something you have to edit deliberately, you aren't going to get the same happy accidents that arise on a one-knob-per-function interface.

Does the sequencer's control resolution step badly or is it a very useful tool for live/jam scenario?

I usually programmed the sequencer ahead of time in preparation for jam sessions, but when I wanted to make a quick tweak it was quite easy. The few times I did bust out the sequencer live it was a great creative tool. There's a dedicated control to "create a phrase" out of anything you play, and then from the phrase mode you can loop it or whatever. It's not like some sequencers where you have to stop the music for a minute to get something down.
Does the sound suffer from bad aliasing like some other VA synths and how analogue can it sound?

I would count on the Micron for sound - it has tons of flexibility, but it's not necessarily the most accurate of analog emulations. What I like about it is it's a very modern sounding synth. I'm a BIG fan of the filters - the high resonance doesn't sound very analog at all, but they have their own character, and there's a *lot* of them for a VA. Purists might be upset that the filter names reference vintage filters they have little in common with, but this doesn't bug me much. I especially like the JP filter (sounds neither like the Jupiter or JP80x0 series). The ability to morph from tri to saw is a nice touch.

[Soundwave]

Pretty much as I expected but at least I know now that there are no hidden pitfalls, cheers chaps.

[Summa]

A hidden pitfall could be that continous controller support ist limited to modwheel & Co everything else sends and receives NRPRNs. If end 90s VA typical aliasing/artefacts are an issue to you I'd check it in the store first...

[Huppo]

As I recall, there's a shortcut for editing on the Micron. You can use the keyboard keys + the prog button to jump from section to section and even within sections to go to env1, env2, etc., making for less knob twisting to get where you want. Takes a bit to learn it but it's very handy once you get used to it. There's labels over the keys to remind you, IIRC.

One thing Alesis did with the Fusion that would be handy on the Micron is implementing the entire keyboard like a giant data slider. If you have a parameter highlighted, the max and min adjustments available are mirrored across the keyboard. Press the lowest key for min and the highest one for max and so on across the entire keyboard. Beats the heck outta twirling a data wheel a million times to get to what you want.

I had one and it went away in a trade for a Little Phatty, I think. I liked it and may get another. Great little synth for the money and capable of some terrific sounds if you care to dig into it.

[Summa]

One thing Alesis did with the Fusion that would be handy on the Micron is implementing the entire keyboard like a giant data slider. If you have a parameter highlighted, the max and min adjustments available are mirrored across the keyboard. Press the lowest key for min and the highest one for max and so on across the entire keyboard. Beats the heck outta twirling a data wheel a million times to get to what you want.

I had this problem with the micron too, especially the filterparameter needs quite some twirling until it's set, I found a shortcut in using the direct assignment function with one of the knobs for initial coarse adjustments.