Alesis Andromeda A6

Good day all, 

My name is Bob I am a new member to A6-ION. I have had my A6 for
nearly a year and use if live and in the studio, in fact it gets a
right hammering, pressures of playing live etc... so I invested in a
nice flight case and that's helped keep it looking ship-shape. So I
have some general observations about the A6 and was wondering if
anyone else found the same. 

To start with the sound I want is a Rick Wakeman Moog sound, the fat
one of Journey to the centre to the earth! A few years ago I bought a
Novation Supernova II and found it a right bugger to get the sound
right especially if you came back to it. So many menu layers. It was
nearly there but I was constantly fighting with distortion and
although it had a 24db filter it just couldn't cut the mustard! I was
going to buy a Omega 8 then by chance I caught some chap playing on a
Yes DVD and after probing about (as he taped the Andromeda Logo out) I
found it was the A6 so I bought one.

What I have found is the filters are a bit weak (well on mine they
are) There are some fantastic sounds but my 24db filter is very hard
to get a decent variation. I examined the manual until it's almost
worn out and tried various permeations but the second filter is not as
strong as the 12db. 

If I use the "Init Prog" feature and set Env2 to Little Delay and 50%
Positive sustain, with the res turned to self oscillate and Env2 know
set I should get a nice fat moog sound. Nope. It's very quiet. Is this
the Init Prog routing the signal away from Filter2 ? I have taken a
few of the inbuilt patches and changed them and found the 24db filter
works a treat with a nice cut-off and I would say I'm nearly (95% there). 

The routing through Filter 2 is much quieter then Filter 1. I even
found a F1 Mix knob on a menu which is not mentioned in the manual.
Normally it's 50% scale Setting this to 0 there is very little sound
setting it to fully scale routes it to F1 only. 

The only other thing I don't like about the A6 is the saw wave is
weedy, my 25 Year old Korg MS20 is much better. In fact I would say if
I could have a Poly MS20 I would be in heaven. However, the ability to
combine all the waves and route the sine to post filter is wonderful. 

Please don't get me wrong with all this negative feelings I love my A6
it's very playable and the keyboard action is as good as a DX7 which I
vote as the best ever. I just have a problem with the 24db filter,
poor Saw wave and The knobs are loose and wobble from side to side
Looks like they are going to fall off! Arrgh

I do tend to go through kit but the A6 will stay for as long as I can
play. It's a wonderful beast. 


Bob