Calumet Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 Hey all. Other than the # of keys and knobs...what are the differences between the two boards? From what I have read, it sounds like they have the same brains and capabilities, true? Thanks! Mitch My band Thousand Houses: www.thousandhouses.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeronyne Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 Yes, identical. "For instance" is not proof. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r33k Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 Yes! r33k Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calumet Posted November 25, 2004 Author Share Posted November 25, 2004 I did some searching on here (probably should have done that before posting - sorry) and it looks like the Micron has reverb and the Ion doesn't. True? How does one use the Vocoder? My band Thousand Houses: www.thousandhouses.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r33k Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 double post r33k Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeebus Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 Originally posted by Calumet: I did some searching on here (probably should have done that before posting - sorry) and it looks like the Micron has reverb and the Ion doesn't. True?This is true. The Micron also has some sequencing abilities that the Ion doesn't have. From the Alesis site: Sequencing _Programmable pattern sequencer and arpeggiator _Programmable drum rhythm sequencer _Realtime or step recording, with controller motion _Live realtime phrase capture -- one-button record and loop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sven Golly Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 ...and the multi-timbral differences (Ion = 4, Micron = 32). (I'm assuming most people are getting this info straight from the Alesis website like I am, as opposed to having this info first-hand... but this is a fun game... "one of these things is not like the other..." ) SG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Bryce Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 Originally posted by Sven Golly: ...and the multi-timbral differences (Ion = 4, Micron = 32).32 channel multitimbral capacity? With eight voices? Also, I thnk there is a way to give the Ion reverb capabilities as well (I seem to remember someone from Alesis telling me that a software update would do that), so I'm not sure if there's a hardware difference...? Michael, you were talking about going to work for Alesis at one point - did you end up there? If so, you probably have access to the definitive answer... dB ==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <== Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyJimJim Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 My $0.02: don't underestimate the importance of all those knobs and buttons! i've been stuffing around with the micron and... man i just find the interface a pain in the ass! i guess it's cool if you're 100% set up pre-gig but i couldn't handle manipulating the little guy live, while the ion has a fantastic layout IMO. although at the micron's price... is anyone running a micron as a sort of module from a big controller? Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sven Golly Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 Originally posted by Dave Bryce: 32 channel multitimbral capacity? With eight voices? I had the same reaction, Dave... but that's what it says on the Alesis website From http://www.alesis.com/products/micron/index.html The Micron has 8-voice polyphony with 3 oscillators per voice, and is 32-part multitimbral. SG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthoid Posted November 25, 2004 Share Posted November 25, 2004 don't underestimate the importance of all those knobs and buttons! I agree....give me an ION any day. When an eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moray. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Bryce Posted November 26, 2004 Share Posted November 26, 2004 Originally posted by Sven Golly: Originally posted by Dave Bryce: 32 channel multitimbral capacity? With eight voices? I had the same reaction, Dave... but that's what it says on the Alesis website From http://www.alesis.com/products/micron/index.html The Micron has 8-voice polyphony with 3 oscillators per voice, and is 32-part multitimbral. SGHmmmm... Even if you could give each oscillator it's own part, that'd still be 24 parts... I mean, I remember when the K2000 could do 32 layers and it only had 24 voices, but those programs were velocity crosses, and/or splits/drum maps with different EQs for each drum. I'd love to know what this is about. dB ==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <== Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pim Posted November 26, 2004 Share Posted November 26, 2004 It's almost a year ago since I worked on Micron, so my memory is not fresh about it, but there is a lot you can stack in Micron's Setups. I never counted all parts, but it could be true. My Music I always wondered what happened after the fade out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruv Posted November 26, 2004 Share Posted November 26, 2004 Could be a typo. I remember when a major mail order store had priced Waldorf Qs for $1099, free shipping I could not believe it and e-mailed them to be sure. Sure enough, they e-mailed me back saying that they're $2399, no explanations given. The webpage had been edited within a matter of 2 hours I know there's a difference between manufacturer specs and retailer listings but the fact remains that all of us are susceptible to human error. V. ******************************* Waldorf MicroQ Keyboard Roland JX-8P M-Audio Firewire 410 BBE MaxCom Propellerheads Reason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r33k Posted November 26, 2004 Share Posted November 26, 2004 Originally posted by Dave Bryce: Michael, you were talking about going to work for Alesis at one point - did you end up there? If so, you probably have access to the definitive answer... Hi, Dave. No, unfortunately, that didn't work out. So I'm as clueless as the rest of you. ;-) Let's assume that 32 parts is not a typo. Then it can only mean that you could take advantage of dynamic voice allocation to instantly access up to 32 different musical parts. Why that's easier or preferrable to just using patch change commands within parts is beyond me, but there you go. I also heard (I believe from you , Dave) that a FW update would give the ION the Micron's 'verb. I would hope the extra sequencing capabilities would make it back to the ION too. r33k Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre Lower Posted November 26, 2004 Share Posted November 26, 2004 Originally posted by Sven Golly: I'm assuming most people are getting this info straight from the Alesis website like I am, as opposed to having this info first-hand... SGHuh, I am one of those who were yearning for a Micron a month ago. Then I bought it. The weird part is I came back from the US to home in Brazil and my professional life is so screwed up I did not even have time to unpack my Micron!! I promise to share my discoveries with you guys, as soon as I am able to sort things up, find some leisure time, unpack the Micron and give it a real shot... P.S. = I must confess I actually did have some hours to spend on the equipment I brought home, but chose to tackle first my TC Helicon VoiceLive and my IEM system. Easier to get a hand on and (considering the Micron is replacing a Nord Modular in my setup, which right now is actually working just fine) much more necessary as far as my band is concerned ... "I'm ready to sing to the world. If you back me up". (Lennon to his bandmates, in an inspired definition of what it's all about). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeronyne Posted November 26, 2004 Share Posted November 26, 2004 Originally posted by zeronyne: Yes, identical.Sorry, I thought you were referring to the synth generation engine itself, not the other features. My bad. "For instance" is not proof. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calumet Posted November 26, 2004 Author Share Posted November 26, 2004 Well...I'm gonna buy one! Thanks for your help! My band Thousand Houses: www.thousandhouses.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeT156 Posted November 26, 2004 Share Posted November 26, 2004 Calumet: The features on the Micron have been laid out pretty well on this thread, and you can always check Alesis's website for further details. I don't think you can go wrong with a Micron for what it does and what it costs. Enjoy the music! Hartman: I'd like to get your thoughts on the TC Helicon VoiceLive when you've used it a few weeks. I've looked at the NAMM demo and gave a listen. Sound quality is very good. I don't want a floor model unit, I use a Digitech Vocalist desktop model, but the features of the VL are impressive. Mike T. Yamaha Motif ES8, Alesis Ion, Prophet 5 Rev 3.2, 1979 Rhodes Mark 1 Suitcase 73 Piano, Arp Odyssey Md III, Roland R-70 Drum Machine, Digitech Vocalist Live Pro. Roland Boss Chorus Ensemble CE-1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre Lower Posted November 27, 2004 Share Posted November 27, 2004 Originally posted by MikeT156: Calumet: Hartman: I'd like to get your thoughts on the TC Helicon VoiceLive when you've used it a few weeks. I've looked at the NAMM demo and gave a listen. Sound quality is very good. I don't want a floor model unit, I use a Digitech Vocalist desktop model, but the features of the VL are impressive. Mike T.Hi Mike! I was going to PM you, but on a second thought someone else might be interested as well, so let me be mean and hijack this thread. The VoiceLive is as good as it seems to be. I've been learning to use it for the past week or so, and what people say on the web holds true, both the goodies and the baddies. First of all, it is very versatile. And deep, very deep in settings. Like there is more than a way to get vocal thickening: The Thickening algorithm itself (rate of detuning, level in the mix, spatial spread...) or else simply adding anything from one to four unison harmony voices (gender/formant, vibrato style and intensity, pan, level,...) which yields a completely different thickening effect. Just as the saying goes, overuse can kill your end results, and furthermore highlights the inevitably artificial result of some harmony voice settings, specially the extreme ones. However, make no mistake: Used judiciously, the harmony voices are a wonderful asset. I did not have the time to inspect the Pitch Correction yet, and frankly am not very interested in using it (sounds a bit sinful in my book). The Dynamic processing algorithms are all TC quality stuff (no comments needed there). I am still in the process of constructing and saving user presets and will assemble my first song (song mode, another goodie) very soon. By the way, there is also a very good MIDI implementation, so you can choose not to step on the unit and instead map whatever you wanna do on your keyboard and control it from there "I'm ready to sing to the world. If you back me up". (Lennon to his bandmates, in an inspired definition of what it's all about). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Florin Andrei Posted November 27, 2004 Share Posted November 27, 2004 I own an Ion, but i'm not too familiar with the Microns. I think the engines per se are identical. There are some weird differences w.r.t. the software which are supposed to be levelled out by Alesis in future revs. It is perhaps best to ask such questions in the Ion/Micron user forum: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alesis-ion/ Florin Andrei http://florin.myip.org/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeT156 Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 Thanks Hartman. I listened to the VL Winter NAMM demo and was very impressed with the sound quality. Being that its a floor model, its better suited for guitar player from what I can see. If it had different kinds of controls (knobs instead of push switches) it might be suitable as a desktop model. I have a Digitech Vocalist and it fits nicely on my Motif ES. I think the sound of the Voice Live is of better quality and an up to date piece. I'd like to hear more about it when you get more time to work on it. Being that we hijacked this thread, you might want to give us your impressions of the Micron once you've got a chance to work with it too. Thanks for your comments, Mike T. Yamaha Motif ES8, Alesis Ion, Prophet 5 Rev 3.2, 1979 Rhodes Mark 1 Suitcase 73 Piano, Arp Odyssey Md III, Roland R-70 Drum Machine, Digitech Vocalist Live Pro. Roland Boss Chorus Ensemble CE-1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre Lower Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 Originally posted by MikeT156: Thanks Hartman...Being that its a floor model, its better suited for guitar player from what I can see. If it had different kinds of controls (knobs instead of push switches) it might be suitable as a desktop model. I have a Digitech Vocalist and it fits nicely on my Motif ES. I think the sound of the Voice Live is of better quality and an up to date piece... T.Sorry Mike, I did not realize that the floor-model design did not suit your purposes. If that is the problem, I remember having read on SOS or elsewhere that the VoiceLive "brains" are identical to those on the VoiceOne or some other current desktop model marketed by TC Helicon. Check their website and you'll know more about it. Originally posted by MikeT156: Being that we hijacked this thread, you might want to give us your impressions of the Micron once you've got a chance to work with it too. T.OK Mike, will do. "I'm ready to sing to the world. If you back me up". (Lennon to his bandmates, in an inspired definition of what it's all about). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeT156 Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 Hey Hartman: There was a thread I contributed too on Harmony Central about Harmonizers. I believe what you have to say about the VoiceLive would be a great contribution to this site. Seems there's enough of us that use harmonizers that getting your review of the piece would be valuable. Someone mentioned that the VoiceLive unit only allows you to move up and down one patch style at a time, there's no keypad to punch in large jumps in styles on the new VoiceLive. There is a 3rd party keypad that can be attached and plugged into a midi port. My Digitech Vocalist doesn't have a keypad either, its 12 years old. However, my unit comes with 256 style patches. Basically two sets of the 128 factory patches. The first 128 patches can be overwritten and saved as user patches. I got around the lack of a keypad by just copying the patch styles I use most often to user locations where I can place them in sequential order. That way when I want to switch patches, I just have to advance the patch one number to go to the next patch in a song. I operate it with a foot switch so I can keep both hands on the piano (most of the time). I don't think that TC Helicon has a desktop type unit. I believe everything they have other than the VoiceLive is a rack. The reason a desktop is best for me is I can control the mix of the harmony and lead voices on the fly during a song. Feeback can be a problem with a harmonizer, so having a unit with volume controls right on my KB is imperative. I realize you can set it up using midi, but to me that was too time consuming for every song. There's also song mode on my Digitech so I can set up a song and put steps to progress through each patch into the Digitech and store it. But I effectively do the same thing using a sequential order of most often used patches and saving them. I use my keyboard to trigger the chord changes live, and that has always been the best way for me to do it. I'm sure you can copy your patches to different locations as I do with my Digitech, if that's the route you go to operate it live. It will be interesting to hear how you use yours after you have it awhile. Later, Mike T. Yamaha Motif ES8, Alesis Ion, Prophet 5 Rev 3.2, 1979 Rhodes Mark 1 Suitcase 73 Piano, Arp Odyssey Md III, Roland R-70 Drum Machine, Digitech Vocalist Live Pro. Roland Boss Chorus Ensemble CE-1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wooden Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 Hello. I wanted to ask. ok the synth engine in both synths is the same, the micron eve plays ion programs, and the differences features have been mentioned. But every single parameter, os osc's, envelopes and that things is tweakable in the micron just the same as in the ion? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wooden Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 One more thing... does the micron have programs that are drum kits? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daBowsa Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 Originally posted by Wooden: Hello. I wanted to ask. ok the synth engine in both synths is the same, the micron eve plays ion programs, and the differences features have been mentioned. But every single parameter, os osc's, envelopes and that things is tweakable in the micron just the same as in the ion? That's my understanding, yes. Originally posted by Wooden: One more thing... does the micron have programs that are drum kits? Yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wooden Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 Thank you. So it have a little more features regarding to sound than the ION? arrgghhh i would buy a micron right away if it have just 5 more knobs, but the programming should be a pain in the ass, isnt it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Pierce Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 Originally posted by Wooden: Thank you. So it have a little more features regarding to sound than the ION? arrgghhh i would buy a micron right away if it have just 5 more knobs, but the programming should be a pain in the ass, isnt it? The interface is remarkably usable given the small number of controls. However, the short answer to your question is, "yes". --Dave Make my funk the P-funk. I wants to get funked up. My Funk/Jam originals project: http://www.thefunkery.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wooden Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 Is the delay midi syncable? The rest of the effects? I read, in HC i think that the micron does not have envelope for the amp... that is not tru right? So we all wish it have more knobs and sliders... but the programming isnt impossible neither right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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