Excellent Andromeda review

[Dave Bryce]

 

😎🙌🏼

 

I’ll never stop being proud of having helped bring Andy to market.  ☺️

 

There were more than a few folks there who thought we were out of our minds.  One of the execs actually told me we’d be lucky to sell 50.  

 

Boy, was he wrong. 🥳 😁

 

dB

[David Emm]

That's an excellent review. "Polyphonic modular in a box." Ow, my GAS! Those proprietary chips are scary, though. How about a software emulation? Its analog, so no sample clearance needed. There are 16 voices/zones, analog FM, ring mod and more. Minus the tactile experience, you could have everything but the ribbon controller and the contents of Mr. Bryce's catch-all closet of old gear.   

 

Just say NO to a Behromeda.

[The Real MC]

Still the king for feature set.  It really set a high bar for an analog polysynth.

Happy owner since 2001, I gig the Andromeda and leave the vintage gear in the studio.  The Andromeda doesn't do everything, but it does a HELL of a lot.  One trick I use in MIX mode it when I have multiple polysynths to cover over MIDI, I can route them to either AUX output to external FX, when the onboard FX aren't enough.

[miden]

haha they'd NEED to be good at the prices being charged!

[Jim Alfredson]

You should be proud of helping to bring the Andromeda to market (as well as coming up with the perfect name), Dave. I absolutely love mine but haven't turned it on since I finished and released the second THEO album last year. So I remedied that today. It's such a beast!

 

[AUSSIEKEYS]

10 hours ago, Jim Alfredson said:

You should be proud of helping to bring the Andromeda to market (as well as coming up with the perfect name), Dave. 

 

 

 Hear Hear.

 

Always wanted one but just out of reach in the early days always expecting one day prices would come down with age then the analogue renaissance happened and it was all over red rover.

 

A friend recently got one so who knows one day i might get to play one.

 

Im still a big fan and an owner (of many) of Mr Bryces other triumph the Quadrasynth range. 

[Jim Alfredson]

This is a nice video as well. Some great sounds in here.
 

 

[zxcvbnm098]

Damn, those are some inspiring sounds!

[Dave Bryce]

Our goal was no less than making the single most powerful and flexible real analog synth ever.  If nothing else, I believe it was the first (mass-produced) 16-voice real analog synth.  E-mu-s Audity preceded it and had 16 voices, but I think they only made one.

 

I’ll tell you this much - it sure took a bunch of folks by surprise. 😎😁

 

This is the first one we showed publicly, at NAMM 2000.  Note the white knob caps.

 

 

dB

[Justin Havu]

Another review.  This one is in a black finish.  Wonder if that was a custom job.

 

 

[The Real MC]

6 minutes ago, justin_havu said:

This one is in a black finish.  Wonder if that was a custom job.

 

 Not custom.  A few years ago there were third party overlays available like that.  You just applied it over the existing front panel.

[The Real MC]

I made this demo of the A6 back in 2003 when someone wanted to know how good the A6 was at bass sounds.  Drums are Alesis DM5, lead synth is Moog Voyager, everything else is Andromeda.

[johnchop]

Could something like this beast live again?

 

Or are the Summits and Prophets and Polybrutes creating a crowded space?

 

I'm sure you'd have to shave costs everywhere, but I could see keeping the voice architecture but slimming down the overall size and controls, e.g. collapsing envelope controls into a single row with a toggle between them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dave Bryce]

15 minutes ago, johnchop said:

I could see keeping the voice architecture but slimming down the overall size and controls, e.g. collapsing envelope controls into a single row with a toggle between them.

 

That's exactly what the tabletop version was going to do.  Same thing with the oscillator and filter sections.

 

dB

[Jim Alfredson]

1 hour ago, johnchop said:

Could something like this beast live again?

 

Or are the Summits and Prophets and Polybrutes creating a crowded space?

 

I'm sure you'd have to shave costs everywhere, but I could see keeping the voice architecture but slimming down the overall size and controls, e.g. collapsing envelope controls into a single row with a toggle between them.

 

There are a lot of great options on the marketplace, but in terms of sheer flexibility and programmability, nothing comes close. The MIX mode is the coolest feature, imo. Up to 16 different sounds can be layered / split across the keyboard. Polyphony of course is limited to 16 voices (2 oscillators per voice) but it's real simple to put a kick on channel 1, snare on channel 2, hi-hats on channel 3, etc and then put an arpeggiated bassline, pad, and lead and still have polyphony.

There was a guy on Twitter who was attempting to reverse engineer the OS in order to fix some bugs and add features but his last post was in 2018. It appears he has dropped the project. I really wish someone could get ahold of the OS and make some very slight tweaks to it.

[The Real MC]

5 hours ago, David Bryce said:

 

That's exactly what the tabletop version was going to do.  Same thing with the oscillator and filter sections.

 

dB

 

It did not go unnoticed that the digital and analog boards could fit in a rack enclosure.

[Dave Bryce]

2 hours ago, The Real MC said:

 

It did not go unnoticed that the digital and analog boards could fit in a rack enclosure.

 

The tabletop was supposed to have rack ears under the end caps and fit in a rack.  I do also remember that we were talking about a few simpler versions with 8 voices, both keyboard and rack.  Seems to me that someone even suggested a chassis configurable with individual voice cards (two voices per card), a la the OB-Mx.

 

If only…

 

dB

[felis]

Alesis used to be one of my favorite companies, and I had tons of stuff from them, including an A6.

 

It's pretty sad what they're putting out today.

[Justin Havu]

After filing chapter 11 bankruptcy, then being acquired by Jack O'Donnell, they're definitely not the company they used to be.

[Mike Martin]

Dave,

The Andromeda was so far ahead of its time. It was and is simply brilliant. Looking back it is clear, but at the time my vision was clouded by samplers and more polyphony. I'm so upset at myself or not buying one when I had the chance. Imagine if it was released today (with better effects). 

[Doerfler]

19 minutes ago, Mike Martin said:

Looking back it is clear, but at the time my vision was clouded by samplers and more polyphony.

Mike,

At that time you and I were both Kurzweil reps. We were busy trying to sell  K2600's into stores where the salespeople on the floor were programming the Andromedia.

20 plus years ago and I remember it like yesterday. 

[Jim Alfredson]

1 hour ago, Mike Martin said:

Dave,

The Andromeda was so far ahead of its time. It was and is simply brilliant. Looking back it is clear, but at the time my vision was clouded by samplers and more polyphony. I'm so upset at myself or not buying one when I had the chance. Imagine if it was released today (with better effects). 

The great thing is you can use the multiple outputs to route it through outboard FX. I use an Eventide SPACE and TimeFactor on mine all the time. Oh and my MoogerFooger phase pedal. Soooooo good.

[ProfD]

11 hours ago, Mike Martin said:

The Andromeda was so far ahead of its time. It was and is simply brilliant. Looking back it is clear, but at the time my vision was clouded by samplers and more polyphony. I'm so upset at myself or not buying one when I had the chance. Imagine if it was released today (with better effects). 

Your recollection is correct.  Hindsight is always 20/10. 😁

 

20 years ago, the Andromeda A6 was "slept on" as mostly diehard synth enthusiasts showed any love to it.   

 

Otherwise,  ROMplers, workstations and samplers from Yamaha, Roland, Korg and Akai were getting the most attention back in those days.

 

The Prophet 08 started the analog synth resurgence.  Had the Andromeda been released about 7 years later, Alesis would have given Dave Smith a run for the money. 

 

Better late than never.  A used Andromeda A6 costs 2X more than it did new.😁😎

[Jim Alfredson]

I grabbed my Andromeda for under $3k about 10 years ago. The prices haven't gone up as much as I expected they would.

On another note, I'm surprised at how affordable the Studio Electronics SE-1 still is on the used market. IMHO it's the best Minimoog clone out there.

[AUSSIEKEYS]

2 hours ago, Jim Alfredson said:

I grabbed my Andromeda for under $3k about 10 years ago. The prices haven't gone up as much as I expected they would.

 

In Aussie they always held their value well. So never reached the affordability level i usually picked up a used keyboard for in the old days.

 

So I kept putting it off hopefully waiting for it to drop to about half what they were asking. It never did drop to affordable prices. The price always made you think well someone could buy a new XYZdigitalmebob mark 2 for that money so was far too much for an "old" keyboard.

 

A friend just bought one for a reasonable price (compared to asked prices but still not cheap) but only because he has wanted adverts out for all types of synths dead or alive not found from a normal used advert find.

 

Ironically i did see that very synth advertised much higher weeks earlier but no one pulled the trigger so i guess the guy just wanted it gone even at a reduction to someone whod pull the trigger quickly. These high prices arent always reached so the market keeps chasing higher dream prices that dont always represent what things actually sell for.  

 

It would have been still beyond affordability for me anyway even if it had been advertised atvthe reduced price as im not able buy/afford toys anymore only do swapping.

 

Foolishly for sellers sometimes their high prices scare people off and they cant sell em and they get desperate then you may be lucky.

 

Hence non reverb buying is always best bet. Reverb creates an artificial market that will crash when the economy does.

 

Sure there'll always be rich people who can pay high prices but there'll be less of them and a huge amount of broke musos / collectors offerening these supposed rare items. The market will be swamped with rare items and sellers will get competitive so dropping prices

 

I had expected in those early days that Alesis in the future would have been alongside the big 3 or 4 brands. I had such huge respect for that company.

[Dave Bryce]

56 minutes ago, AUSSIEKEYS said:

I had expected in those early days that Alesis in the future would have been alongside the big 3 or 4 brands. I had such huge respect for that company.

 

We were well on our way to being a serious player in the keyboard/synth market.  Unfortunately, the folks managing Alesis at the time had other ideas.

 

dB

[AUSSIEKEYS]

Just now, David Bryce said:

 

We were well on our way to being a serious player in the keyboard/synth market.  Unfortunately, the folks managing Alesis at the time had other ideas.

 

dB

 

Yep definately had the momentum and the product at the time. I started with the drum machines then keyboards and sound modules. Still have many of them. 

 

The thing that made me sit up and pay attention was the very first Quadrasynth. Exactly what i was looking for. Things looked bright when Andy came out.

 

Unfortunately it always come down to what "corporate" envisages. Nothing can change that easily.