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alesis up again?


coren

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Originally posted by Jeff, TASCAM Guy:

Just FYI...and Dave Bryce knows this to be true...Alesis marketed (i.e. advertised, promoted via PR and so on) the keyboards with more financial resources during the three most successful years of their sales than they did ADAT.

 

I beg to differ.

 

I'm inclined to agree with many of Mike's observations. I do not think that the old Alesis ever really got comfortable with being a keyboard company, despite the meteoric success of the QS series. I think that there were a great many errors made by Alesis marketing, and that they cost the company dearly. What's more, you should know that I feel that way.

 

Maybe a public forum isn't the best place to discuss this...

 

dB

:snax:

 

:keys:==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <==:rawk:

 

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Originally posted by Dave Bryce:

Maybe a public forum isn't the best place to discuss this...

 

I hear ya...though I'm surprised to hear that you think that about the lack of marketing. I'm basing my thoughts on the $$$ numbers, not the positioning and so on, but as you say, there's a time and a place, and this probably ain't it.

 

Hey, how 'bout those stomp boxes! :)

 

- Jeff

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Good job Jeff, on all counts.

 

 

Originally posted by Dave Bryce:

I'm inclined to agree with many of Mike's observations. What's more, you should know that I feel that way.

dB

 

 

See what happens when you don't post the football pool results in a timely manner???

 

[ 01-22-2002: Message edited by: steadyb ]

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Originally posted by steadyb:

Good job Jeff, on all counts.

 

Yes, indeed, I am responsible for all that is evil in the world. The demise of Alesis, the WTC attacks, the Enron debacle, the lack of timely tallies in the football pool, et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseum. Much like Kevin Bacon, you can route them directly to me in six steps or less. ;)

 

That's why I don't wear my hair short...I don't want anyone to see the "666" on my skull.

 

- Jeff

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Well, Alesis tashing is surely tired by now. I've done my fair share, and now it's time to repent. Personally, they've been an important copmpany for me, opening the doors to pro-like equipment for the dabbler I once was (I've dabbled to such financial extremes now that I can no longer consider myself a dabbler). I've owned

 

HR-16 (had it's day, for sure)

 

MMT-8: (hooray for this one)

 

Midiverb II (again, had its day. Unfortunately, I was so impressed by its halls and cathedrals that this box has left an indelible and ugly scar on virtually all of my early mixes. What I wouldn't give for the anti-midiverb box--the one that *removes* its print from finished mixes)

 

Quadraverb GT (Okay, this one's a yuch in my book. My bad. I was looking for the guitar tone panacea that certainly didn't exist back in those days. POD et al come a lot closer)

 

QS 8 -- after a long road, I've really grown to appreciate this one, though as I've doumented numerous times here, the action kills me.)

 

So cheers to Alesis. They're good to have around.

Check out the Sweet Clementines CD at bandcamp
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Another testimonial to Alesis: being in the industry, I can get pretty much any gear I want at low, low prices. But my main synth remains the original QS8, which I still manage to coax excellent sounds for all applications from all the time. The reverb processor I turn to the most is the Wedge, an underrated product if there ever was one. The QCard expansions for the QS Series are incredibly good -- if you're a QS owner, I highly recommend you look into these as a way to completely rejuvenate your sound.

 

From the HR-16 to the ADAT to the Monitor One to the QS Series, they've always had some cool tools, especially for the price. I wish them a long life and a happy future.

 

- Jeff

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Originally posted by Fletch:

Will Alesis Be producing/shipping the DG8??

 

Peace,

 

Fletch

 

Ahh, Fletch - no, unfortunately, that was one of the products that they discontinued when Numark took over.

 

No matter what happens for Alesis in the future, my main regrets are that so many of my friends lost their jobs in a tough job market, and that the wonderful DG8 was discontinued.

 

The DG8 remains my main source of piano sounds, both in my live shows and on my albums, not because I was the product specialist, but because it ROCKS.

 

Maybe you can find one in the used market - just be careful about shipping them...they don't ship well unless packaged extremely well.

 

lz

www.lauriez.com

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Originally posted by Jeff, TASCAM Guy:

 

Yes, indeed, I am responsible for all that is evil in the world. The demise of Alesis, the WTC attacks, the Enron debacle, the lack of timely tallies in the football pool, et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseum. Much like Kevin Bacon, you can route them directly to me in six steps or less. ;)

 

That's why I don't wear my hair short...I don't want anyone to see the "666" on my skull.

 

- Jeff

 

Also, don't forget: YOU personally caused K-Mart to go belly up. I think it was those personal attacks on Martha Stewart!

Setup: Korg Kronos 61, Roland XV-88, Korg Triton-Rack, Motif-Rack, Korg N1r, Alesis QSR, Roland M-GS64 Yamaha KX-88, KX76, Roland Super-JX, E-Mu Longboard 61, Kawai K1II, Kawai K4.
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Originally posted by joegerardi:

 

Also, don't forget: YOU personally caused K-Mart to go belly up. I think it was those personal attacks on Martha Stewart!

 

i also blame him for my bass strings, they keep breaking!

 

and the fact that cars still need more gas than i do...

and the fact i dont have a 4 million dollar studio in my house..

 

i think you owe us all a keyboard jeff :D

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Originally posted by Dave Bryce:

I think the 8.2 is $1499 with a $999 MAP. I didn't hear anything about the 6.2...

 

I think Yamaha\'s new S08 is also gonna have an MSRP of $1499.

 

dB

 

Thanks Dave!

:) Michael

Q:What do you call a truck with nothing in the bed,nothing on the hitch, and room for more than three people in the cab? A:"A car"....
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Originally posted by coren5555:

 

i also blame him for my bass strings, they keep breaking!

 

and the fact that cars still need more gas than i do...

and the fact i dont have a 4 million dollar studio in my house..

 

i think you owe us all a keyboard jeff :D

 

I say: free Tascam gear to all forum members!

 

/Mats

http://www.lexam.net/peter/carnut/man.gif

What do we want? Procrastination!

When do we want it? Later!

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I remember when Alesis first announced their keyboards. My first thought was, hope they are as good as the drum machines. My second thought was, hope they drive the keyboard prices down like their drum machines did. Both thoughts materialized and every keyboardist benefited. I just wish they continued the development. I never bought the keyboard because of filters.

 

Robert

This post edited for speling.

My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page

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Originally posted by Dave Bryce:

As I also understand it, Alesis ships products every month, and is actually in the process of making more Andromedas.

 

I was told by a guy at the Alesis booth at the NAMM Show that production is about to begin on the new Andromedas. However, he said that Alesis will be using a different manufacturing plant than they did the last time. They are currently waiting to see if the new plant does a good job with the first of the new Andys before they churn a bunch of them out.

 

[ 01-23-2002: Message edited by: soapbox ]

Enthusiasm powers the world.

 

Craig Anderton's Archiving Article

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Originally posted by Rabid:

I never bought the keyboard because of filters.

Robert

 

The Korg Wavestation had a filter wich was sound wise similar to the QS series filter; the Yamaha DX7 had no filters at all.

Yet everyone considers them as pure synths.

Strange...

 

Sound matters; user interface matters.

The QS range has a great advantage just because of the filter: they sound very powerful in multi-timbral mode. Try to mix 5 (or more) different programs in a Roland JV1080. Great chance you will loose a great deal of the dynamics. Why? Because of the filter.

 

The filter doesn't sound bad in single mode. But the Roland filters are demanding too much processor power when you are working multi-timbral. Consequences: bad timing and no power in the sound.

 

The QS filters are just like the Wavestation not the most sofisticated - but the advantage is so clear, the sound in multi timbral mode is always where it should be: in your face.

:keys: My Music:thx: I always wondered what happened after the fade out?
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The QS 6.2 will list for $899.00. Andromeda will ship again in a few months barring any issues. We're examining the first-build A6 from the new line at this time. Thanks Soapbox.
Give me the ANALOG and no one gets HURT
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Originally posted by peake@pacificnet.net:

The QS 6.2 will list for $899.00. Andromeda will ship again in a few months barring any issues. We're examining the first-build A6 from the new line at this time. Thanks Soapbox.

 

 

Hey Mike,

Are there any new sound banks (since the 1.40 banks) for Andy out there???

steadyb

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LauriZ,

 

I was one of the lucky ones who actually got the DG8 on the blow out 1000.00 cash (and yes that counts the stand, and yes I felt like a thief)no tax from ZZsounds (and mine even shipped perfectly Thank God).

 

I'm with you, it is an amazing machine and the piano sounds rock. I can't believe it didn't get better reviews from people wanting a killer piano sound. I like it over all of the others I've tried and I've tried everything except the sampled piano's.

 

By the way, your music is wonderful!!!

 

Peace,

 

Fletch

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Originally posted by Fletch:

LauriZ,

 

I was one of the lucky ones who actually got the DG8 on the blow out 1000.00 cash (and yes that counts the stand, and yes I felt like a thief)no tax from ZZsounds (and mine even shipped perfectly Thank God).

 

 

You should have gone to the Alesis moving sale a few months back (May, I think) a DG8 in perfect condition went for $85.00. My friend bought an X-2 board for $250, and I picked up a QSR, S4+, and a Q2 for $32.00 each.

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The Alesis "moving sale" wasn't open to the public, just to employees and past employees. It was also only for beta items, quality control items, etc., all of which had been in heavy use.

 

B, there is another bank from Klaus Rausch due to be posted on the Alesis site soon. Also, there is a set of sounds by the people on the A6 user's group as well:

 

http://www.code404.com/a6/patches/

 

Look for SummaryDec_2001_A and _B.syx.

Give me the ANALOG and no one gets HURT
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Originally posted by steadyb:

 

 

Funny, I was able to get amazing sounds out of it about 5 seconds after playing one for the first time.

 

Was that your first time "fiddling" with a real analog synth???

 

Perhaps a JV1080 is more your speed.

 

I just played with the presets. I expected the factory would have preloaded a bunch of stuff that showed it off to advantage better than I could expect to produce without sitting down with it for a few hours. If I had just played with settings myself and walked away unimpressed, I would have simply put it down to not properly understanding the architecture.

 

I must admit though that the last real analog synth I played with was a VCS 3. The interface on that was much more intuitive!

 

I don't count the minimoog - it was pre-routed. That is, there is a set of predefined signal paths that you cannot vary by plugging in to the individual modules in arbitrary order. A prerouted synth is not a "real" analog synth.

 

On the surface, it looked like the Andromeda was prerouted - am I wrong about that? If so, I need to go take another look.

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Originally posted by Dave Bryce:

 

I'm here to tell you, brother Byrd - it may seem simple to you; however, as someone who saw what happened to Alesis go down from the inside, I can assure you that there was a bit more to it than that. Believe me, we discussed everything that you brought up, and a whole lot more. Not a pretty story - definitely not appropriate for a public forum, either...

 

dB

 

I can well believe you. And as a computer person, I understand how difficult "just upgrade the current product" can be if, for example, you happened to rely on chips that are not being kept up to the speed curve, so that you have to reprogram everything to go forward, rather than simply taking advantage of extra head-room, or if the original development is so heavilly tweeked for a particular chip so as to be unmaintainable.

 

And believe me, as a loyal QS8 user, I really hope they do come back and start leading the market like they have in the past. Nothing would make me happier than seeing Andromedas everywhere, even though I would probably not use one myself.

 

As for the not owned by Numark thing, I know that is technically true, but if they don't end up sharing manufacturing capability I will be both surprised and disappointed. Disappointed because it should be possible for them to get some efficiencies of scale by doing that.

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Originally posted by Byrdman:

A prerouted synth is not a "real" analog synth.

 

I disagree.

 

I would say that a pre-routed synth is not a modular synth. That does not mean that it is not analog. Pretty much every aspect of a Minimoog is dependant on continuously variable voltage control; and, as I understand things, that certainly entitles it to being classified as a "real" analog synthesizer.

 

Now, if you start talking about subtractive synths with things like DCOs and presets, some people will begin to say that those are not "true" analog because they are under some digital control...however, I've never heard anyone claim that the pre-routed configurations of a Mini or a Juno 6 or any variety of other non-preset VCO/VCF/VCA synths cost these instruments their analog status.

 

On the surface, it looked like the Andromeda was prerouted - am I wrong about that? If so, I need to go take another look.

 

You should go take another look. Andy does default to a certain set of routes, however almost anything can be patched to almost anything else. In a few different ways and combinations.

 

Please believe me when I tell you that some of the best synth people in the world have left their mark on Andy. It is an extroadinarily powerful machine, and is certainly worthy of an extended evaluation - not just playing with the presets.

 

As an avid synth lover, I find that I use Andy more than almost any of my other analog synths - mainly because of it's sound and it's flexibility. Spend some time checking it out - I promise you'll find a bunch more there than you thought.

 

dB

:snax:

 

:keys:==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <==:rawk:

 

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I did some factory presets on Andy. I think that most Andromeda owners don't like my/the factory presets - a very good thing. Those knobs are made to be used!

 

My personal intentions with the programs was to show the public what's possible with Andromeda. I tried to use all parameters in my sound bank. Consider my programs as an example to explore the synth yourself.

 

Download and read the manual from Alesis' website before you go to a store to try it. Don't forget to listen some Mix programs. T.m.o. Andy's true power is hidden in Mix mode.

:keys: My Music:thx: I always wondered what happened after the fade out?
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I have no argument with the sound quality of Alesis products. I, too, am one of those people who remembers fondly the effect the company had on the prices of music gear in general. But their service policy is insane. Why would anyone buy a keyboard from a company that requires you to ship the thing to one of the coasts for service?
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Originally posted by Fletch:

LauriZ,

 

I was one of the lucky ones who actually got the DG8 on the blow out 1000.00 cash (and yes that counts the stand, and yes I felt like a thief)no tax from ZZsounds (and mine even shipped perfectly Thank God).

 

I'm with you, it is an amazing machine and the piano sounds rock. I can't believe it didn't get better reviews from people wanting a killer piano sound. I like it over all of the others I've tried and I've tried everything except the sampled piano's.

 

By the way, your music is wonderful!!!

 

Peace,

 

Fletch

 

 

Hey, Fletch! Thanks for the compliment... :D

 

You got the killer deal - and now you're part of the DG8 fraternity (sorority???????) who gets to play this cool instrument. Wish there were more of us...it's my primary axe, even with a roomful of synths.

 

Do you have any of the QS8 sound cards? They're very cool and work with the DG8 - but truth be told, we're mostly going to use the piano, right? :)

 

lz

www.lauriez.com

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Hey guys,

 

I've been saying on a couple of posts that I want a Triton

le. Plus, I think silver keyboards rock! But that was

before I found out that somebody is letting QS 7.1s go at

600.00. I figure that buying the QS may quickly get me into

the world of computer-based music since it comes with so

much software. Then again the le is so light and it looks

great. . .but I'm not sure it looks or sounds 900 dollars

better. Somebody, quick, give me your opinion before the

qs 7.1s all sell out! :eek:

 

a-sharp

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The Triton can wait go get the Alesis. Let's say you got the Triton and later wanted to add the Alesis sounds, the Qsr module will run you about $500.00. So think for a hundred more you are getting 76 keys and and controller wheels.

If you get the Alesis now you could always pick up a Triton rack later. Point to all of this is nothing can touch the deal on the Alesis while they last. If you can afford to go right to the Triton LE I don't think you would regret it.

Let your budget be your guide. Sound wise you win no matter which way you go.

Michael

Q:What do you call a truck with nothing in the bed,nothing on the hitch, and room for more than three people in the cab? A:"A car"....
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