> Looks like a nice board, which I might consider with (a) more
polyphony
> and (b) a better keyboard. Or, alternatively, a rack mount, but
also with
> more polyphony.
I'm looking forward to reading these reviews. I don't want to give
the wrong impression. I loved Ion for many things. I found it to be:
Cute, Spunky, Competent. Charming.
I love the smoothness of the controls. Interface was cool. I love the
wheels (and I don't even use wheels much). The knobs are cool. I saw
a lot of Andromeda in the screen interface. That's becoming an Alesis
signature and a good thing in my book. Certainly beyond any VA or A
out there, including our beloved An1X.
The sound appeared to be from the brighter/cleaner side of the VA
house rather than the muddier/warmer side. This observation was
significantly influenced by the factory presets, and I am pretty sure
there are some warming-up tricks like amp feedback. I just didn't
have time to find some of them. Still (everybody's taste is
different) I have to trust my ears as they are my most important tool.
As a result, I saw Ion more as a lead instrument than a pad
instrument for me. Yet, some of this was clearly the sound-design
choices for as I lowered the resonance and cutoff on various pads,
they began to acquire that mellow character I'm personally drawn to.
Also, I believe a number of sounds were programmed to show off Ion
more unusual (especially filter routing) abilities, and by definition
these were not your typical LPF routing. (I'm a simple guy. Give me a
couple of strong drifting saw waves through a warm low pass filter
and I'll spend the next few hours with a smile on my face.) I also
played with the oscillator morphing capability and this provides a
near infinite range of mellow if that is what one is looking for. I
am not sure what happens to the warmth when you do that though.
Despite the brighter nature of the factory sounds, they certainly had
lots of character. As I said before, I was using some Event speakers
as monitors and these are toward the brighter/clearer side of things
as far as amplification systems go. However I was also referencing
the sounds against the V-synth and occasionally a K2600 that were in
the same station. I would put up raw waves from the V-synth against
raw waves from the Ion, etc. It was harder to A/B the kurz so I did
less of that. But there are some classic analog lead sounds in the
100-150 range of the kurz that I played just to compare lead tones.
There was no racket going on! The classic sounds on the Ion were
strong sounding though bright. Ion's filters can bite! The Mini bass
and leads, the sync stuff, were all very usable. I wanted to use them
very badly. So then I obtained headphones from the store and got
silly.
The mod matrix is very competent. I spotted a number of factory
sounds with very cool routings. I was able to change a couple of
things easily with this interface. The ability to use control sources
(envelopes, lfos) in creative ways is great. Ion is certainly going
to appeal to people who want to "play" the tonality live.
Ion raises the VA bar for me. The smoothness in the controls, the
open ended mod matrix and the graphic interface address a number of
issues I have often had with VA's. I want one. It's just that I would
compare Ion to more the Waldorf side of the VA market than the
Novation side.
But I'll keep my An1X for the warmer, mellower stuff. At least till I
get my hands on a Matrix 12. Or find a way to get mellow warmth out
of the Ion.
Jerry