Thoughts on the Alesis Andromeda A6
 

Hey folks,

I'm looking at getting a Alesis Andromeda A6 to compliment my Virus. Anyone out there got one? If you do, share with us how it compliments your productions etc..! Would love to know if it is worth all that money :)

My mate has one, and he loves it! Meant to be a bugger to program, though, and really comes alive with good external effects processing.

Lucky bugger! (^_^)

Anyone else got one?

i have no idea what they are like, but if they are great i might think about buying one :-)

I had one. There was something about the inherent sound character that I didn't enjoy that much. Powerful machine but I think the classic analogues generally sound better. It was a little flaky too if I recall with the occasional crash. I never got into it. I think you trade a little of the sound for the vast features with an Andromeda.

Looked quite heavily into this and when first released thought it was worth the price tag of £2500 and out of my reach at that time. Couldve grabbed one a year aho for half that price new £1300, however, got a DSI prophet 08 instead, whilst it is different beast to the A6 the Pro*08 has a lovely smooth sound that I can't take myself away from.
The A6 is complex and as described a friend in a music store used the same term 'flaky' and I wasn;t overly impressed by the sound.
I like the warms and tweaks I can get from the Pro 08. The one i am really waiting for is the Wardolf Stromberg if it ever gets of a production line. Otherwise jsut bite the bullet and go for a Moog.
My personal vibe right now...of course it#s down to what you want, need and like.

Another option of course if you want n anologue soun is take you Virus and by a/some moog pedals filters or route it through a shermann filterbank.

Many more options than jsut a synth

hope this helps ;)

I to bought a Prophet 08 instead of the andromeda and I like the prophet but I will definantly have to change the encoders out to pots.

..............oops

Personally speaking, the Virus TI is the only analog (or -more properly- analog modeling) synth I felt it was justified for me to spend over a grand on. Mind you, I don't do dance/trance/hip-hop etc., but I think I can get the whole array of "analog" sounds with the TI and my cheapy trio (Korg R3, Waldorf MicroQ, Alesis Micron.) I'd rather spend big bucks on digital hardware synths (I have quite a collection gathered in my 30 years of studio work...) and software (I could probably buy at least five Andromedas only with what I've given to Natural Instruments, Vienna Symphony Library and EastWest... :) )

Your mileage may vary, of course.

Dont get me wrong The Virus is my favorate synth digital or analog but there is certain points where true analog does shine. I didnt believe it so much my self but I tried the same recipe's with all my synths as an experiment and though the sound was similer and might not be noticable in a mix it is audible by itself especially stripped down no fx basses. But believe me there is way more sounds you can get out of the virus that you will never get out of an analog. And again if you can only have one synth make it the virus but the next one should be an analog if your going for that sound.

Yea, considering I already own a Virus, I was considering my next purchase. I had experience using an old school set of roland modular synths from the late 70's - early 80's for my university project (just finished my honours degree in Music majoring in Sonic Arts (Avant Garde electronic music composition)).

I found a very stark uniqueness to these synths, something that I haven't recreated on my Virus; admittedly though I've only had my Virus for less than a year.

So was just putting the suggestion out there, for info on good (modern analoge) synths.

I create breaks, downbeat and general electronic inspired tunes.

Thoughts?

Thanks for the input folks :D

Maybe I need my hearing testing, but these days the analogue emulations from the likes of GForce software sound so convincing that I have decided to give up on lusting after expensive analogue gear. The virus plus a few softsynths covers all sonic bases for me, production-wise.

If I played live though that would be different, I would be selling my granny to get hold of a minimoog voyager in a flash :)

Might check out the Dave Smith Instruments Tetra for an entry into analog, and assuming you're like me and couldn't live with the monophonic version (Mopho). I haven't heard one other than the demos but the price is nice, and I think its essentially a baby Prophet.

Totally agree. About a year ago I got this wonderful OB-X emulation called OP-X:

http://www.sonicprojects.ch/obx/description.html

$79 on EBay but I see now that they increased the price to $99. Still very little for what you get.

A friend of mine while working in my studio used it and couldn't believe his ears. He ended up buying the VST and selling his high-maintenance OB-Xa. He sold it for a lot of $$$, there are still people paying premium prices for that stuff, but unless you're a collector, IMHO it's not worth the trouble. Apparently my friend agrees too.

Get the P'08 Pot Edition....it sounds better - warmer, smoother...

The Andromeda is overly complex, the OS is incomplete and they had to rush the manufacturing towards the end as the company was GOING DOWN. If you buy one in the UK and something goes wrong, you may have to ship back to the US to get fixed....to me that would be a nightmare.

Virus TI and Prophet 08 are a perfect match.

DS

I've tried the demo - but honestly....a 6 voice softsynth feels abit crappy and uninteresting to me. Maybe I've missed something...

DS

Yeah I tried that one once and thought same.. But try the MiniMonsta by GForce, I thought it sounded pretty realistically analog. Also like analog not the best beast to program but you stumble across some great "nowhere else" sounds partially by accident. But be sure to run it through high quality compressors, reverb etc before judging it... some soft synths dont have top notch built in effects.

I briefly owned a Tetra - I was a little underwhelmed by its sound, and given you need to use software to program it I could not see the advantage of using it over a good quality analogue emulation

a prophet 08 is a different beast though with all those lovely knobs to twiddle