BlahBlahCafe - Jean-Michel Jarre forum

Equinoxe5 wrote:The new issue of "Future Music" has a 4 page article about the A6.

Reading some of it yesterday while in the shop, FM do say that Alesis after commenting on the "rumours" of the synths end, saying that Alesis will continue making the A6 as long as people want them.

They'd probably sell a whole lot more if they pulled they're fingers out and sorted out the Bugs with an Operating system update,they're more than fully aware of the list of issues,but have done sweet FA to fix them,I'm sure people would be far more inclined to take on this beast if it's OS was revised,if they've not stopped production why not keep its OS primed it would certainly keep many owners happy..

Its a gracious machine and powerful at that but these Bugs need sorting like yesterday!!!

If has a powerful sequencer yet no latch ability!!!Its a joke,you can't play the sequencer parts in a 16 part Multi unless you hold down the notes or trigger them from an external device but even so you cna't play things practically
In Multimode it has no ability for much live playing on the fly and its impossible to play everything by holding down the respective notes due to the way parts are allocated they usually have drum parts running on the lowest octave and an arpeggio next to that and then a lead,because you have to keep the keys down to keep the sequencer tracks/Parts running your limited to what intervals you can play on the arps etc

It's fine triggered from an external sequencer,but it sort of defeats the object of having onboard sequencers running if you can't latch them and run them as they should be!!

Another issue that pisses me off,if you have the Midi in and out hooked up to an external sequencer,then boot the A6 it crashes and freezes,due to an active sensing bug so you have to boot up you gear in a sequentical way as to not cause the A6 to crash

They also need to look at the Output level from the A/D/D/A convertors its far too high,and on certain sounds is pushing into distortion,and clipping,eve nwithout additional fx or modulation this is on some raw waveforms too I know many others have this problem you shouldn't have to keep turning down the global volume Knob

This is only a couple of issues,that I want sorting the Bug list is as long as your arm.

Fingers crossed its been a reliable machine so far,and thankfully mine is one of the new breed of ASIC chips that doesn't have tuning issues,I love it to death apart from its bug bears!!its changed my whole aspect on synthesizers and the a6 sort of sets all standards of what a modern analog synth should be,infact its the only synth I've been able to coax a convincing Eminent string sound out of

I know what you mean about Alesis and bugs. There's a few on the Ion. OS updates are all very well but when they don't sort out bugs there's not much point in the first place...

Guys, what are the keys like on the A6?. Are they a better feel than those on the ION.

Equinoxe5 wrote:Are they a better feel than those on the ION.

Yes. I haven't played the A6 but any keyboard feels better than the Ion.

jeremy wrote:

Equinoxe5 wrote:Are they a better feel than those on the ION.

Yes. I haven't played the A6 but any keyboard feels better than the Ion.

This is what I don't like about the ION, the keys. They feel too 'spongy', too thin a plastic as if they would snap if you hit them too hard.

A rack version would have been useful for that one, I really duno why they didn't make one...

Not enough room for that much knobs...

Speak about the ION, right ?
The Novation KS4 made it, why not the ION...

Oh, I thought you were talking about the Andromeda. There was a rumour about a racked ION, but it never went into production or either the rumours were fake...
Personally I'd like to get a Micron with a decent software programmer one day... I like that little thingy, it's cute. And I have to disagree about the keys though - from what I remember they have a kind of sturdiness to them that I really like... at least, that's about the Micron. I never played an ION...

And the Micron and ION keys are said to be different... better on the Micron, but this is off-topic

Yes there it is. I still don't like the woodwork. The colour should be less massive and more transparant. It just doesn't look like the wood usually does on synths. Perhaps it would be easier to judge if there had been some more pics and more closeups.

I'm wondering if Jarre used the A6 for the AERO album. The small 'Equinoxe 5' musical box that you hear on that album is very close to the A6 patch: "user - 025 Board, Eh!" which is a musical chime.

Mr. Tung wrote:I'm wondering if Jarre used the A6 for the AERO album. The small 'Equinoxe 5' musical box that you hear on that album is very close to the A6 patch: "user - 025 Board, Eh!" which is a musical chime.

Mind you that the transitions of the AERO album were made by Joachim Garraud and that JM didn't own an Andromeda before AFAIK 2006.