Nite-Brite ION

No title link.

TC Electronic Quintet - Elhardt Sings

From the man who brought us The Bahn Sage and some of the most amazing samples from the Alesis ION and MOTM & Andromeda A6, a demo of the TC Helicon Quintet vocal processor. Click here for small 1.4M demo. Trust me, it's worth listening to. Enjoy. : )

Anadigm in the Andromeda?

Update: Someone in the comments section called out that the Andromeda uses an ASIC not "the ASIC" as I originally posted. Good catch. I checked the Alesis site to see if they gave it an official name and I found this nice FAQ. Take a looksie for an intersting assumption at the time. : ) And for the record I love what Alesis is doing with the Andromeda, Ion, and Fusion. Who would have thought they'd be leading the way with new and innovative synths. Post updated.

Retro Thing recently posted on the possibility of a new Poly Moog using Anadigm chips, and I followed. I did a little poking around on the Anadigm site and I found this shot. Note the Andromeda in the image. The Andromeda uses it's own custom ASICs (Application Specific integrated Circuits)chipset. But does it use any Anadigm chips? If anyone knows feel free to comment. Title link takes you to the Anadigm page.

Alesis ION - New Flickr Shots

More after the hop including one with a Waldorf XTk

Elhardt on Synthesis

Elhardt. Some of you may recognize the name. For those of you that do, it might conjure up a number of reactions, some good some bad. : ) He has been the source of a number of controversies and one grand spectacle in the synth world - the Bahn Sage. The Bahn Sage was probably the biggest synth spoof ever. I remember spending weeks with others trying to find more on this mystery synth. A photo showed up on the net and it quickly spread, followed by more, and finally a brochure that had people whipping out their Photoshop skills to analyze in detail. In the end it was a fake; a brilliant hoax.

Now Elhardt has be showcasing his amazing programming skills by conjuring up some of the most realistic acoustic examples of real life instruments with an Alesis ION, Andromeda A6, and MOTM modular. Is it real or is it another hoax like the Sage? Who knows. I'm inclined to believe these samples are real given the attention to detail with the Bahn Sage, and replications of real world instruments by synthesists such as Wendy Carlos in the past, but you never know, do you. His samples are pretty awe inspiring (check out the links to some of my previous posts below for some examples, specifically the realistic drum set).

Another controversial perspective on synthesis from Elhardt? Knobs are not performance controllers. They are used to edit and create sounds. That's it. If you want to control sounds while playing, use the dedicated performance controllers on the synth like the mod wheels and keyboard. : ) I like to play outside of the box myself. Regardless I am impressed by Elhardt, and I do appreciate his dedication to synthesis.

Recently Elhardt sent an email to AH on his perspective on synthesis. I asked him if it would be ok for me to post it and he said yes. Enjoy. Or not. : )

Elhardt on Synthesis:

"Following are all the reasons I like to do realistic emulations of reality.

1) There is nothing interesting about playing samples. Everbody is doing that. Buy a $200 Casio and it does it. The skill of synthesis is completely missing. An artist paints a landscape, he doesn't just snap a photo of it. Sample libraries make everybody sound the same. If everybody synthesized their own acoustic sounds, everybody would have a different style.

2) Sample libraries are so insanely huge and can't even be fully used in real-time. I'd have to spend weeks sifting through 35 Gig of string samples and articulations and go through days of intense sequencer/midi programming to get them to play in a realistic manner. I'd have to use them from a computer with bug-ridden software. Major sample libraries are never complete, and constant updates suck money from you for the rest of your life. It's all going in the wrong direction.

3) I want instruments that play like physically modeled instruments. I just call up one patch and play it expressively in real-time. Simple. I also want to do instruments I can't buy samples of, or create brandnew instruments never heard before.

4) BTW, I have a lot of sample libraries, and some of the instruments suck, sometimes it's just a few notes that suck, sometimes the attacks are too slow and they can't be played fast, there are mistakes made (like clicking noises in garritans trombones, or a mono sample within stereo samples and so on), there's the repetative nature of hearing the sample recording played everytime the note is played, and so on.

5) Synthesis died in the 80's, before anybody ever pushed it to its limits. That is unsatisfying to me. When I first heard Tomita, I thought he was synthesizing virtually everything. Through the years, I found out he was using real instruments, mellotrons, and other acoustic methods in places. I want to do what he didn't. When I do a CD, I want to say I created all those sounds. As synthesists, aren't we supposed to show those snobby acoustic musicians we don't need them or their sounds?

6) Acoustic sounds are complex and hard to synthesize. It demonstrates extreme skill, knowledge of sound, and totoal control over a synthesizer to accomplish the advanced and difficult programming to acheive some of those sounds. It requires coming up with new techniques and tricks which are challenging and have never been done before. We've been hearing awful string patches, corny brass patches, cheesy drum patches for decades now. I want to push subtractive synthesis to its limits to see what it can really do, even if it were for no other reason than to say, "see", it really can be done.

7) Doing spacey synth pads and sequenced bass lines and that stuff is all nice and good, and I create many patches like those myself. But those things are relatively easy to accomplish. They don't force you into extreme patches of a 100 modules or into using a 42 band filter bank and spending weeks to acheive something nobody else can seem to do. You can't do this stuff on a Minimoog or OB-8. So as Matthew pointed out, it's mostly unexplored terrain. And doing something for the first time is more motivating to me than doing things already done.

BTW, my latest Nord violin I believe sounds better than the Synful one over certain ranges of notes. After I make two more passes through the 42 band filter bank refining it, I think I may have a better sounding violin over the entire range. Though it still won't play as smoothy. I'm also back to working on my additive string synth for the winter. The one I started working on before Synful hit the market and took some of the wind out of my sail."

Some previous posts on Elhardt:

http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/08/bahn-sage.html
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/12/alesis-ion-ralistic-drum-kit.html
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/11/alesis-ion-demos-by-kenneth-elhardt.html
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/11/alesis-andromeda-a6-and-motm-demos-by.html
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/11/alesis-andromeda-a6-samples-by-kenneth.html

Alesis Ion - Ralistic Drum Kit

Right click title link and save. Via programming wizard Kenneth Elhardt on AH. Amazing.

" It's a full drum kit I spent days on. Since it's a pain in the neck to play drum sounds on a keyboard monophonically and multitrack them to create the end result,
it is rather short (52 seconds). This demo shows, tight snappy toms, huge heavy toms, metalic snare, snare with attached tambourine, snare with emphasized head sound and reduced "snappy", hi-hats (should have played at higher pitch), cymbal crashes / splashes / taps, and more. I used some of the techniques from my MOTM renaissance demos in programming them."

Alesis Fusion 1.2 OS Update

Via Harmony-Central News. Title link takes you there.



New Synthesis:
"With four types of synthesis, the Fusion’s sound capabilities have always been stellar, and now V1.20 up’s the ante once again with the addition of several new synthesis functions. The Fusion’s filter capabilities get a boost with the addition of the RP low pass filter derived from Alesis’ popular Ion synthesizer and three formant filters. The Fusion now facilitates up to four sample oscillator layers per Program as well as up to four insert effects per Program. There is also a new parameter that has been added to the oscillator to have it reset its sample in monophonic legato mode.

Also part of the V1.20 update, two new process functions have been added to Sampler Mode: “Quantize Region” and “Reverse Region”. These functions enable programmers to change the bit rates of samples from 1 to 15 bit (Quantize Region) and reverse samples (Reverse Region)."

Microns & Ion - New Flickr Shot

Title link takes you to a bigger shot.

Alesis ION Demos by Kenneth Elhardt

Demos have moved here.

Via Kenneth Elhardt on AH. Enjoy.

"In a recent catalog I recieved, I noticed that the Alesis Ion was now
selling for $600. I had a 10% coupon for 8th Street, so at $540 it was just
too good of a deal to pass up. I bought one at the end of october. 2 weeks
later I had created a bunch of sounds on it and then recorded the demos
below. Since I like the music of Ennio Morricone, I decided to use that as a
vehicle to demo some realistic accoustic imitations. I don't have any
printed music scores, so I did it by ear, improvised stuff, and threw
together elements from different movies just to create a eclectic mix.

The only equipment used was an Ion + expression pedal, + sustain pedal + EQ,
+ reverb. I also played the whole thing on that little tiny keyboard because
the Ion wouldn't work properly with my 88 note RD-1000 piano. That's just
one of the many limits, cut corners, disappointments, and just outright
unacceptable behaviors on this lowcost synth. However there are many great
things about it, and physical construction is surprising good. A list of
sounds modeled is listed after, plus some other short demos follow.

Note that I have only heard these on clear detailed headphones and have no
idea what it sounds like on crappy computer speakers or dull sounding
monitors. There is some background noise in places, especially the acoustic
guitar parts. Please try to ignore that. I've found that a second listen
through makes it less noticable."

(3:33) Running time.
http://home.att.net/~synth6/Alesis_Ion_Western.mp3

Instruments in order of when they make their first appearence.

01) Kettle Drum

02) Bass Drum

03) Tenor Recorder

04) Mellotron Choir (filters modified with envelope to make it say "Wah",
and NO, the lame and useless Ion vocal filters were not used)

05) Alto Recorder

06) Acoustic Guitar (nylon string rythm guitar)

07) Whistling

08) Telecaster Electric Guitar

09) Acoustic Guitar (brighter sound, somewhere between a nylon and steel
string rythm guitar)

10) Trumpet

11) Trombones

12) French Horn

13) Snare Drum

14) Mellotron Male/Female Choir (sacrificed vocal clarity for density of
sound)

-------------

(2:20) Here is an attempt to model Tomita's mellotron choir sounds. He seems
to have two types, a typical "aah" sound and also a murky and sometimes non
distinct one consisting of "ooh" sounds on some notes, humming on others,
and almost synthetic vocal throat sounds with no vowels on others. The first
Ravel part shows four subtle patch variations ranging from delicate vocal
sounds to forceful "aah" sounds. The second part is trying to sound like his
murky type, though it's still a work in progress. That's followed by a
typical Tomita effect.
http://home.att.net/~synth6/Ion_Tomitas_Mellotron.mp3

(1:11) You only need to listen to this if you want to hear two snippets from
the above demo inserted into a real Tomita recording. He does the "ooh" and
"hmm" parts, I do the "aah" parts.
http://home.att.net/~synth6/Ion_Real_Fake_Real_Fake.mp3

(0:18) Here is an Ion recorder modeled with such realism and detail in
timbre and breathy attack, that it is indistiguishable from the real thing.
It can play side-by-side or replace recordings of real instruments without
anybody having a clue. Assuming your wires aren't crossed, my recorder is
playing in the left channel and the real one is in the right. I'll do a full
recorder demo later.
http://home.att.net/~synth6/Ion_Recorder_Compare.mp3

(1:37) This is orchestral power brass. It provides rather realistic and huge
brass sounds ranging from ppp to fff. This demo shows the trombone range,
followed by the high trombone/trumpet range, then the tuba section, then
octave brass - sounding large with just 4 notes, then french horn, then G.S.
Patton.
http://home.att.net/~synth6/Ion_Brass.mp3

Alesis Ion Demo

10 minute demo of what the Alesis ION can sound like. Pure demo of sounds rather than a musical track, so this is great if you just want to hear it raw. From ex_action_figure, Matt Moniz, via Vintage Synth Explorer.

Alesis Ion Prototype

Check out this Alesis Ion Prototype with yellow/green side panels and logo. These were the first shots of the Ion when introduced. Later they updated it with the red side panels that stuck with production. I wondered if there would be an option, but unfortunately there wasn't. Would have been cool if they came with a set of colored side panels you could swap out like skins for the synth. : ) No title link as this comes from my private collection of pics - not sure if there is a site out there with more on this. If you know of one, please feel free to share.

Vermona Performer change in design

Music Thing has a good post on how much the design of a synth can change the desirability of a synth. Aesthetically I like the design of the old Performer with those classy chrome knobs, but functionally I think the new Performer will be easier to use. It also looks inspiring in a more colorful way (pun not intended but I'll take it).

Picture from Music Thing:

It's amazing how much the design of a synth can influence your perception and quite possibly the sounds you create. The Korg MS2000 and MicroKorg for example have essentially the same synth engine, minus a few deltas like being able to capture formant samples via the vocoder on the MicroKorg, yet the interfaces will pull you in different directions. I have an Alesis Ion, but every time I walk into the local Guitar Center, I play with the Micron and I walk away really, really wanting one. It's not just the fun factor, but for some reason the design inspires different sounds from me; it's as if it has a different synth engine. Heck if interface didn't matter, why not get a Yamaha AN1X rather than a Roland JP8000?

A6 Wiki for Alesis Andromeda bugs and feature requests

Word on the A6 list is that someone from Alesis asked a member for a list of the top pet peeves of the Andromeda. Someone set up a Wiki to gather bugs and feature requests. Feel free to add to the lists and let's hope Alesis comes through. Crossing fingers...

P.S. Plug for Alesis. The Andromeda can easily be considered one of the most promising and powerful analog pollies past and present. It's an absolutely beautiful synth and I personally hope Alesis keeps it going. Years from now I garuntee people will be looking back at the Andromeda with the same awe as the best of the best polysynths. Alesis took a big risk with the Andromeda and went overboard implimenting user requests. Not many synth companies do that. Moog did it with the Voyager. With the Ion and Micron, Alesis is on fire.