Absolutely outstanding synth... The filters are as close as anything I've heard to real analog. they don't "go cheap" when played beside the real analog. I pair this up with a Waldof Pulse analog for solo work. It can certainly stand on its own, but put the real analog with it and the two combine to be a wonderful, warm monster.
I've owned it twice, and also a Micron. I'm very likely to buy one again if the price is right. My only complaint ever about the ion/micron is the cheesy keybed. There are very few since that I've ever enjoyed noodling so much on and I've had Virus B, Korg Ms2000R and DW8000, Roland SH32 and JP8080, and Kawai K3 for analogish stuff.
I have owned and do own many synths. The ION is the only one I have 2 of. Despite its many, many shortcomings and physical component shortcuts, it's still the single-best sounding VA. And that's saying something going up against a Virus Ti2, Nord Lead 4, Cobalt8, etc. There are things this synth can do that even now, nearly two decades later, VA synths (and obviously no analog synths) can do. It's layout is intuitive (relatively. Why have the numbers flipped from the standard top-to-bottom arrangement??) and highly ergonomic so that learning and teaching synthesis is pleasant and grasped at deeply intuitive levels. Really just need for Alesis to rise again from the ashes and give us a $2500 update to this beast of a synth. That and bring back the A6 :)
It is a great synth, even, as you say, despite its shortcomings. And, yeah, it would be cool to see a new super synth from Alesis, thanks for the insightful comment😊
I absolutely love my ION. It is a beast of a synth and I got mine with the gig bag for right around $300 a year or so ago because it had a broken key. Fixed it and I'm having a blast. These boards are becoming very rare any more so I'm glad I got mine when I did!
The Alesis Ion in my opinion, which may not mean much, is the BEST analog modeler out there.. by far. The Yamaha AN1x was good but this is even better. It has great phatt moog type lead sounds and really nice OBXa/Juno 60 type synth sounds. If I could not afford an analog synth this would be the first synth I would go to. These are finicky sometimes and have a well documented problem of low volume output due to bad FETs. You can replace those but the problem will eventually come back. Been there done that several times. The ultimate solution is to remove the FETs and do not replace.
hello, even I have an Alesis ion that besides having the usual problems related to the output volume also has the problem of some screens of the settings that appear without me touching anything ... especially the FM settings screen or prefilter mix ... what could be to cause this? ... this problem is also related to the audio output transistors?
Update: I decided I was foolish to sell my first one, so on March 31, 2022, I ordered another! Just waiting for it to arrive now. I can't wait to relearn my old friend.
I had a Micron a while back, really great-sounding synth. It sounds every bit as good as the Ion (I believe the hardware is largely the same, it's been a while so I don't recall) but it's a bit held back by its minimal interface. The Micron forces you to go into menus to use a few knobs to adjust everything, while the Ion allows you to tweak right from the surface. I absolutely loved the keys on the Micron though, the whole thing felt very quality. I've been considering looking for an Ion, but they seem pretty hard to find. I remember Microns being sold all over the place so I'm guessing it'll be easier to find one of those. I'd appreciate the larger keyboard of the Ion, though, in addition to all those knobs.
They should make a synth that has every preset on a single touch screen with seamless transition, and multiple track layers. A touchscreen that can slide, and sampling.
Looking at buying one secondhand for my band. Sounds like it should be a hit. The microkorg is too tiny to be usable for gigs and the Fantom doesn't really have a synth engine, it's just a bunch of samples.
Hello, sorry to jump on an old video. This is a great synth! I am really enjoying the sounds you have presented. Dumb question, does this have a supersaw?
No just single waveforms with variable shaping, detune, & drift. You can stack oscillators and use matrix mod. But no Roland or Novation style Supersaw settings
This was my first synth -- wish I had held onto it but you know how that goes. It really sounds great but the build quality was a little wonky. It had a "ghosting" problem with the knobs where parameter values would start changing even if you didn't touch the knob. As I recall you could press gently on the surface of the synth and parameters would start shifting around. I read of others having the same problem at the time. Nevertheless if I ever run into one in good working order I will buy it again because it has a mad scientist quality to it that I dig.
I still have mine. I think the ghosting problem is perhaps bad or dirty encoders. Many people recommend Deoxit (if I spelled that correctly) for cleaning encoders. Perhaps if you find another one try cleaning the encoders if that problem occurs.
the keyboard itself hasn't got aftertouch - you can't press down on the keys to apply modulation if you have both hands busy - but the engine will respond to external aftertouch and one of the wheels will also send it
hey every time i knock my ion i loose the edit user program patches and have to do them all again, this synth seems very prone to the slightest knock, best post 80s synth i have
@@squishmusic Go with Yes ;) .. its the excact same synth. Well the micron has more effects but otherwise same. You can use the same software editor for both.
Oh wait a minute! .. i think i misunderstood the question. It can exchange patches but i do not think it had the same build in presets. So no i dont think they have the same factory sounds.
@@djmouglie I actually meant can one load micron custom patches to ion and miniak and visa versa from ion to micron, etc. I read yes and no. Downloaded some and in the ReadMe it said dont load into micron/ion :D oh well I guess worse case one just does a factory reset if something goes awry..
Agree. Sounds like complete trash, glad I didn't buy it 13 years ago. I wanted better sound quality than that of my PSS I bought in 1998 from my hard saved kids money.
well no reviews did not say that.. but yes it can easily sound horrible.. all the presets are very "maxed out" trying to sound very BIG.. and then it sounds flat as hell..
I don't think this synth has built-in speakers like the Korg miniKorg S has. And I believe the MiniKorg S is the only synth that has built-in speakers. I can't seem to find other ones that are like it.
Great video! This was my first synth, shortly followed by an ESQ-1. It was an extremely deep synthesiser that was easy to program which made it capable of a variety of classic analogue sounds as well as more complex evolving soundscapes. However I just didn't gel with it so eventually sold it off in the end. It had this sort of fizzy tone that didn't sit well in a mix. Also the keybed is absolutely dreadful, I found screen hard to read as the panel isn't angled and I remember the patterns in the arpeggiator were really weird (no simple up, down or up/down). Coupled with some rather lackluster effects (not a deal breaker as you don't need to use them) meant it wasn't for me. It also paled in comparison to the ESQ-1 for pads and strings, which I just vastly prefered the sound of. However there's no denying it's a great bit of kit. It's probably more down to my lack of my programming ability to make it shine more than anything else.
Nope, you are totally correct about your observations. Compared to the ESQ-1 its a vastly different beast. The arpeggiator is downright odd. The screen is not good. Its fissy/saturated/distorted at every setting as a part of its nature. The effects are best left unused. But the ESQ-1 is lacking in high frequency, not very versitile, was never fun to program. For the ESQ-1 itch i found the Korg EX-8000 to be so much better at everything, and there is a great free software editor. As for the Ion, i have learned to not try and max it out as it will sound flat. Forgot about half the filters also. But just use it for what its good at and not try and make it a VA of everything. So no jp-8000 detuned saws, no virus shimmer, no an1x cleanness, or clavia punchiness. Just odd strange stuff. So in that way it does share DNA with the ESQ-1. If you can ever get your hands on a Crumar Bit99 or Bit 01 rack (not the bit one as it lacks sysex and has horrible editing) you will find a perfect combination of analogue and digital :)
Nice demo ! This synth sounds so good ! I sold mine for 100 euros on e.bee...shame on me... I needed money It was urgent, 4 years ago, time goes fast..sniff...snuff..snouff (cry in three languages) !!
Eric Parisot yeah I sometimes think about selling mine but I don't because I know I'll never be able to get one back if I do. They are rarer then hens teeth now
With all the respects, but I think this demo doesn´t do justice to this synth. I think it can make much better, interesting and usefull sounds than these ones.
@@legosteveb I only heard the king korg in a store but jeeez it sounds super nice. I was hoping they would make a "micro korg" version if it as i thought it was the best sounding VA i had heard, well considered i only heard it in a store.
Apples and oranges. Ion is way weirder. Not many of these patches show it off, but you can do a lot of twisted cross-mod fm/sync stuff on this, and somehow it still sounds smooth, even when it’s making twisted waves.
I hear elements of digital in it all :-). especially things with a lot of high frequency component. irritates my ears. Still like all va some useful things you can do with it musically but the continuity of real circuits can't be matched still
Right and unlike an analog, you can really go crazy with the mod matrix. They all have their place. Being someone who uses both Analog and Digital....unless you're running a massive modular, you won't get the control or sonic depth that you'll get with this. Analog is good for that 70's and 80's sound. Honestly. But it's also severely limited (again unless you're using a modular). Have to love all synths man, this "analog purist" attitude has always been toxic to our community. Being able to organize how the filters work is quite amazing too. Nothing like running a filter then having another filter come in later, etc. You're really limitless on what you can do. The only synth I've seen with more depth was the Roland V-Synth and that's only because you can literally make any sound one of the oscillators...so you can create literally anything you could ever imagine and then some.
DJ KillPoP Nothing 'toxic' about saying I like sound quality that has all the nuances of real CONNECTED physical interactions of unlimited depth. Like I say va has been used in some good productions. All instruments have limitations and it's the 'nature of the beast' basically that as you begin to challenge those limitations in the real analog realm you begin to discover nuances that become expressive content in the music...whereas you challenge them in the digital realm and it sounds shitty and disconnected because it is. It's kind of like why there had to be a creator to have genetic code that can spawn productive mutations. Normally if you just randomly tweak complex code you get something horribly broken and useless. There has to be a plan AHEAD of the potential changes that could randomly happen or the odds are way way way in favor of the outcome not being good *ever* :-). In other words the software synth only let's you go where the designer allows you to go. THere are no 'good accidents' in digital realm. Whereas they are abundant in the analog realm because a creator already pre-designed the wonderful surprises in there for us. We have a very comparatively limited ability to create that kind of depth.
