Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[Jon]

I see your clever pic Jones.... and I raise you this...

[Equinoxe]

Congrats...Suprised it get that Hot,does it not have an Internal Fan??One thing I will say for Alesis is that they certainly know How to pack a synth,looks like the Fusion has a Box within a box packing like the Andromeda did,no chance of it getting damaged whilst shipping!

Hope to hear some Sound demos soon!

Speaking of telephone directory manuals....The Oasys Manual Literally IS a telephone directory size,Infact its even bigger than Our Yellow Pages phone directory!!

Its the size of 4 Andromeda Manuals stacked on top of each other!!!

[Jon]

Ruddy nora, that's one BIG book. That looks like the Argos book in disguise

Yes, it did come in two lots of boxes.

Nope, no fan. The top panel (right) does get pretty warm. With no vents or fan, I can see this being a right bitch come the summer time. I'm very suprised that Alesis didn't adress this before the keyboards release. They must have thought it was OK.

The 'Hollow Sun' samples are very nice. Some are not exactly what they are said to be, such as the couple of Vangelis and Jarre sounds. One of which is named "JMJ Eminent". It's not too bad a pad, but it's now where near. Maybe a bit of playing around is needed. Some nice classic synths have been covered in the sound sets, PPG, Fairlight, Moog, Roland, Yammy DX7 and a nice Mellotron taped choir too. If your into 80s music, you'll be happy with this synth. It's full of 80s sounds.

The non 'Hollow Sun' sounds are also very nice. There is a ton of souns in this synth that will please. Warm strings, mellow pads, huge array of leads. Large sets of guitars too, from acoustic to electro. Infact, these are very nice and give some of the higher end synths out there a pretty good run for the money. Instruments such as flutes, violins, cellos and such are very good, sounding like those you would expect to find in Rolands, Korgs and Yamaha's currently on the market. The Alesis manual does say that you can add extra charactor to these typre instruments to make them sound more realistic.

No vocoder, but you can plug a mic in and pass it through the Fusions internal effects processor.

The synths mix songs catagory is a nice touch. Some nice dance songs, but this mostly consists of R&B, Hip Hop and groove material. I do think there is far too much of this in the Fusion which is a shame. Another nice touch is the onboard equalizer where you can +/- bass, treble , etc to each of the tracks.

There are also some very nice drum sets in this with the option to turn the Fusion into a drum machine.

This weekend I'm going to try out the synths sampler and start putting something together just using the Fusion. I was hoping to get some sounds up this weekend, but I am busy with other things, so it will have to be during the week now

[jeremy]

Image

I thought it was the box!!! LOL

[Jakob BC]

Can you give us some sounddemos? I'd like to hear what this loads of 80's sounds mean. I have heard other people talk about, so now Im curious

[Jon]

Yeah, no problem. I will get something done and posted up during this week.

[plate of chips]

Speaking of telephone directory manuals....
The Oasys Manual Literally IS a telephone directory size,Infact its even bigger than Our Yellow Pages phone directory!!

Its the size of 4 Andromeda Manuals stacked on top of each other!!!

Image

Don't tell me you bought the Oasys ... Equinoxe … sorry i meant Ronan

[plate of chips]

Don't tell me you bought the Oasys ... Equinoxe

Yes I did ....Where have you been hiding For the Past 12 Months...

[Equinoxe]

Sometimes old issues reappear...

Did you also notice the name of Marc Caro, co-director for years with Jean-Pierre "Amélie" Jeunet (also on the Zooloook videoclip)?

I think this is only a pityful mess in the Amazon database (also for the Megadeth issue): if you search the same DVD in the English www.amazon.com, you can read 215 reviews... I stopped after 20 reviews without finding their names.

BTW, can you imagine Jarre & Caro in pijama filmed on DVD doing yoga in their living room?!?!

Ciao!

[Dr. Who]

So.... can the Fusion owners out there vouch for the synth? Is this a workhorse type of workstation similar to the Triton or Fantom? I realize the sounds won't be the typical Korg or Roland that you would get in their mainstay workstations but really, could you use this as your main workstation and have some supporting boards around it to make some good trax?

I've heard two sides to this board. Some say it sounds very childish and 80's but others rave about the Hollow Sun sounds. Kinda nice it has FM (which I don't understand) and VA on board as well. How does the VA hold up to the Ion? Is there only one filter type (Arp) as opposed to the Ion that gave plenty of filter chioces (i.e Moog, ARP, Oberheim etc.). Very curious about this synth since it is so dirt cheap. You can find them used in the US for a little over $500! Hard to pass that up, especially if Hollow Sun is supporting.

Bottom line, could you get rid of your Fantom and use this board instead, or is this more a supporting board to a main workhorse? They are practically giving these away. Curiouser and curiouser......

[Jon]

So.... can the Fusion owners out there vouch for the synth? Is this a workhorse type of workstation similar to the Triton or Fantom? I realize the sounds won't be the typical Korg or Roland that you would get in their mainstay workstations but really, could you use this as your main workstation and have some supporting boards around it to make some good trax?

I've heard two sides to this board. Some say it sounds very childish and 80's but others rave about the Hollow Sun sounds. Kinda nice it has FM (which I don't understand) and VA on board as well. How does the VA hold up to the Ion? Is there only one filter type (Arp) as opposed to the Ion that gave plenty of filter chioces (i.e Moog, ARP, Oberheim etc.). Very curious about this synth since it is so dirt cheap. You can find them used in the US for a little over $500! Hard to pass that up, especially if Hollow Sun is supporting.

Bottom line, could you get rid of your Fantom and use this board instead, or is this more a supporting board to a main workhorse? They are practically giving these away. Curiouser and curiouser......

You will find most of your answers already given in most of the posts in this thread

[Dr. Who]

You will find most of your answers already given in most of the posts in this thread

Point taken!

I can tell that the new owners are happy with their "bang for their buck." No doubt it's a great deal, but are any of the Fusion owners people that ditched their Fantoms/Tritons for a Fusion because their workstation has been replaced??? Or is the Fusion the first workstation for some of the people here? It has to make an impression if it's your first workstation for such a cheap price. Plus, I didn't read anything about the VA engine and filters compared to the Ion. The only thing I read was that the filter was based off the ARP filter. The Ion has tons of filters and a decent modulation matrix. I guess there's no reason to ask so many questions... if it's this cheap and I'm this interested I should just go buy the thing already!

[Equinoxe]

, but are any of the Fusion owners people that ditched their Fantoms/Tritons for a Fusion because their workstation has been replaced??? Or is the Fusion the first workstation for some of the people here? .. if it's this cheap and I'm this interested I should just go buy the thing already!

I think its pretty much a first workstation for those that have them,(Plate of chips has always been a Laptop man,)Mr Tung I presume is using it as a first workstation,as he hasn't Mentioned what he's used in the past
The only people already using workstations are Myself(Oasys/Tritons) and Jeremy(Fantom X)I'm not about to ditch mine as the Oasys covers all the same ground and more Plus so long as Korg support it,It will be the last W/S I buy,I've never used a Workstation as the sole writing tool anyway its used in combination with other synths controlled from an external Sequencer

Although the Fusion is a nice buy it doesn't offer anything of benefit to me,and I won't buy one just because its a giveaway price,I'm curious to hear its Soundchips, and from what we've read Jeremy is certainly more than happy with his Fantom.Although it may offer him something the Fantom doesn't although the newer Fantom may appeal more ...

Given its features and price tag it most certainly would appeal to more of the type of people who want to get into the W/S environment without the high price tag or are fairly new to the concept of a workstation.Even with the features it has it was a good price at its original RRP.now they are virtually giving them away.

It certainly matches up as a heavy weight W/S with its audio capabilities and various sound engines it offers,Infact in terms of what if offers at the moment there would possibly only be the Oasys which trumps its in terms of features and sound Quality,but you'd expect that with a massive Price margin to the fusion,the Latest Roland incarnation of the fantoms is very tantalising,but if you don't mind paying a larger price tag..

I think the rave reviews its been given(Fusion) by those in here and various other site forums says it all really.

[jeremy]

I'd be tempted to buy a Fusion for the FM, 80's synth sounds (I love them), but not as a main workstation.

I'm very happy with my Fantom X, considered the Fantom G but recently decided to spend my money in a good recording interface + computer instead (if everything goes well: macbook pro + yamaha n12 + Cubase 4 for this summer).

As someone told me on another website, the Fantom G is not really a great upgrade from the Fantom X if the synth is just part of a bigger system. That's what I'm going for.

The Fusion remains something interesting though, but I'm selling synths at the moment. Too many synths distract me from actually composing and recording my music. Just sold my Juno 106, the next on the list is the Yamaha SY99.

I don't think the Fusion could give me the same inspiration the Fantom X gives me with its great sounds and user interface.

[Dr. Who]

Many thanks Jeremy and Equinoxe, that was the vibe that I kind of got. That it had interesting sounds and plenty of options; nice to have several synth engines ala OASYS... but it could be used more as a supporting board and not the main source of inspiration etc. I've got a Triton Extreme it's loaded w/sounds and the MOSS addition opens up plenty more sonic possiblities, but I have been thinking about making a switch to another workstation. I think I'll stick with my main workhorse, but the Fusion may lend itself as a good supporting board for pads, retro 80's FM sounds etc.



Speaking of FM... doesn't the latest OASYS mod allow FM and you can even import DX7 patches via sys???? I guess I could always upgrade from a Triton to an OASYS??? Ok maybe I'll just get one of the free Fusions out there instead. OK... back On topic.