[A6] Faulty Andromeda Number 2 -- A6 substitute
kam6
kam6 at inregina.com
Tue Dec 5 22:33:07 PST 2006
Hello fellow A6'ers,
I attempted to find out the differences between the serial numbers of "old"
(Alesis original) A6's and the newer Numark faulty ones. It seems that the old
serial numbers may be smaller than the current ones.
My faulty A6 s/n was: (21) A6003040300107
I do not know of the whereabouts of that A6, after it was returned back to
Intellimix (the Canadian distributor). If you see it on eBay, DO NOT BUY IT.
I was told by my local music store here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada - Long &
McQuade - that the A6's production had ended. Thus they will not bring any
more A6's into Canada. This information may not be applicable to the US, and
may or may not be accurate.
This means, I will never get my A6 replacement.
And after reading the thread of recent posts here at the A6 mailing list, I'm
extremely shocked that Alesis keeps shipping faulty A6's!! This is outrageous!
I wholeheartedly suggest to stop buying A6's until Alesis straightens their
issues. By accepting A6's with voices that do not tune up we are letting
Alesis do whatever they want without remorse, because they are thinking that
people will buy Andromedas and keep them regardless of their condition.
I have done some research and I've just bought a vintage Roland Jupiter 6.
It's not an Andromeda, but it's solid, reliable, the 12 analog oscillators
tune up fantastically good, solid as a rock - and it's got enough modularity
with its multimode filter - the 24db ladder filter is there. And more than
anything, it sounds truly beautiful.
No sequencer, and a simple arpeggiator - but it's got MIDI, and although
rudimentary, the Europa upgrade from Synthcom gives the JP-6 enough power to
confront a LAMM Memorymoog for a fraction of the cost.
Once with the correct MIDI implementation, just add an Arturia atop, the Moog
Modular V sounds very, very nice for example. Then you can have not just 6, or
16, but 76 voices - 6 of them truly vintage analog and reliable. Plus you can
have the 16-step sequencer back.
Miss the A6 knobs? Get a Doepfer Drehbank to control the Arturia real-time,
with 64 knobs you can't go wrong.
The JP-6's keys are very nice, big, solid. This keyboard is very well built -
solid metal - not plasticky like the A6. No horrible fx either.
But the JP-6 is a topic for another mailing list...
Best regards, Merry Christmas and good luck,
Carlos
>===== Original Message From "matrix" <matrixsynth at hotmail.com> =====
>Carlos sent an email to the list earlier asking people to submit their serial
numbers if they had a faulty A6. The idea was to identify a fault batch. Has
anyone been tracking the faulty numbers? Carlos? I'm thinking of putting up
a post on Matrixsynth as well, however it would
>be useful to start with a general range.
>
>cheers,
>matrix
>http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com
>____________________________
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: stevie
> To: Moreno RENGA
> Cc: a6 at code404.com
> Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2006 12:52 AM
> Subject: Re: [A6] Faulty Andromeda Number 2
>
>
> Thanks to everyone for your help, there has been some really useful
information posted. I sat down for around 3 hours last night trying hardware
resets, software resets, velocity settings, voice modes etc. In the autotune
menu voice 14 in the autotune row is always marked with an
>F. On closer inspection its band 1 of osc 1 which displays as toolow and will
not go in tune regardless of the number autotunes I perform. When I stripped
the default program down to a single osc with a single waveform such as a saw,
the tuning seemed reasonable with only a little drift.
>Even with osc 2 activated with a saw wave form in combination with osc was
fine. It was only when tri and saw (or any two waveforms) were active on each
osc the tuning became noticable which I am presuming is due to the number of
voices being used. So it appears that there is only
>one bad voice in this andromeda, so unfortunately I'll need to join the queue
and wait till January for the next batch Digital Village receive.
>
> Thanks again,
> Stevie
>
>
> On 04/12/06, Moreno RENGA <digitale at pt.lu> wrote:
> Hello Stevie,
>
>
>
> 1) Check that BkTune & TmpTune are On in the Tune Page (Auto Tune
knob).
>
> 2) Test this to see if it's any better and suits you:
>
> - Load the default program.
>
> - Switch on the arpeggiator (without the sequencer) with no
octave steps.
>
> - Switch VcCurve to Max in the Global > Kbd page, this will
avoid that your keyboard is sensitive to velocity thus resulting in a
different filtering in each pressing (and you know that humans can't press
twice with the same force/speed, just like a drummer). Actually it
>still is, but it's always using the maximum Velocity. So each time you'll
press a new note it's always the max.
>
> - Go in the Kbd page (Poly/Mono knob) and try the 2 different
voice assignments (Assign parameter) that are "Lowest" & "Rotary". You should
know that each component of any analog synth. has its own character. If you
set it to "Lowest" the Andromeda will always
>first play the lowest voices and this will result in a more "uniform"
performance. OK this might not solve your problem in multi-mode if you use
many different voices, but even with all the sounds performing together, you
won't maybe even notice the differences. In "rotary" it
>will use all voices in rotation. Here with my A6, both suit me, there are
just very slight differences btw all voices but it's normal and it even sounds
nice, not flat. But I have my synth. now for ages. I know that because of law
regulation Alesis isn't allowed anymore to use
>certain metals for soldering. Might be a time adaptation difficulty…
>
>
>
> I hope that the earlier parameters I proposed you to check will solve
your tuning problem though.
>
> Don't despair, it's an outstanding great synth!
>
>
>
> Moreno
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: a6-bounces at code404.com [mailto:a6-bounces at code404.com] On Behalf Of
stevie
> Sent: lundi 4 d�cembre 2006 14:25
> To: A6 at code404.com
> Subject: [A6] Faulty Andromeda Number 2
>
>
>
> About a month back I posted about my new Andy having tuning issues and I
was not alone as I see from the other users on this list who had the same
issue with their new Andy's. I sent the faulty unit back to Digital Village
and got a replacement which again has the same issue.
>This is my first analogue synth and I've had no prior exprience with them so
I just want to double check with Andromeda owners that there is actually a
problem and its not me doing something stupid.
>
> Firstly, I turn on the Andromeda and leave it to warm up for 20 mins at
which point I run autotune. Once complete the Andromeda indicates all
voices/bands are in tune and OK. Then, I restore the default program and play
3 or more notes repeatidly and the pitch seems to be different
>every time. On some presses the sound is ok and sounds in tune, on others it
sounds like the osc's are completely out of tune. I noticed there are a few
mod routes setup on the default program such as LFOs to filter frequency so I
switch all these off. Ring mod is also active so I
>disable it too.
>
> I've tried running through each voice at a time with the others disabled
and on this Andromeda the beating between the osc's is different on each
keypress on almost every voice. If I turn sync on it takes away the beating
completely (as you would expect) however it still
>sounds out of tune to my ears. I would expect the osc beating to beat at the
same rate on each key press, however the speed of the beating (excuse my poor
terminology here) varies from slow to very fast on each consecutive press. Are
there any other steps I need to perform on the
>default program?
>
>
>
> I should also note I have tried hard and soft resets, and reflashing the
os with no joy on the first andromeda. I will try the same on Andy number 2
this evening when I get home from work. I'll also post the serial number to
prevent this unit from circulating else where.
>
>
> I know analogue synths 'drift' but my concept of osc's drifting slightly
and being out of tune are 2 different things. Can other andy owners please
confirm if i'm being stupid or there is in fact problems with the two
Andromedas i've received?
>
>
>
> thanks,
>
> stevie
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> A6 mailing list
> A6 at code404.com
> http://mailman.code404.com/mailman/listinfo/a6
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> A6 mailing list
> A6 at code404.com
> http://mailman.code404.com/mailman/listinfo/a6
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>A6 mailing list
>A6 at code404.com
>http://mailman.code404.com/mailman/listinfo/a6
__________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE web-based e-mail access at:
http://www.inregina.com
More information about the A6
mailing list