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<
OBJECTIVE REVIEW >
(contains
Facts with a capital F)
Holy shit! This is
the heaviest and most powerful analog synth. It has
silver-blue panel and runs on MPU P87C52UBBB 33MHz OTP QFP-44 circuits
and some gasoline. It's been used by superstar musicians (who have
shitload of money and rarely get out of their deep-in-the-woods cabins
filled with every synth that is in existence, and when one of them
craps out, they just replace it with a new unit). It can do long evolving
Vangelis drones and phazy Numan leads (actually, it's so powerful that
it will enable you to become the second Vangelis). Also, it has 16 voices
and can run 16 arpeggios and 16 sequencers at once.
Last but not least - it is what it is. Grasp all these facts
or else die. Have a nice day.
< SUBJECTIVE
REVIEW >
(warning: might contain
opinions)
A HISTORY OF FAILURE
Incredulous & dismayed by the
low rating? You expected that the price & size would at least be a guarantee
of perfection? It may be. It might have been. However, in the history of my
life which I'm about to tell you, there are priorities other than searching
for perfection.
I have devoted what is in my view a more-than-reasonable
amount of time and a more-than-usual amount of tricks to make this synth
tick for me. It was the most tedious and joyless chore in my synth life.
Most probably all of this was not enough. If so, then the conclusion is
simple - I lost the battle. But I want to report other insights from my
story, even if the story itself was too short to reach the "true" or
"objective" conclusions. Besides, I'm Polish, which means that if something
is on a high pedestal, I need to throw some shit on it.
TOO
AWRY...
Even if you have never played this
synth, you've probably heard one big grievance against it: that the
Andromeda is too deep. Too deep to program effectively, or to learn, or
whatever. I'll say a different thing. Synth being deep is not
a downside and no synth is "too
deep" to program - it's just the user interface and / or the architecture (or the idea, if you will) that is too incongruous for the John Doe and
his creative flow. As far as depth
itself is concerned, I can't say that the Andromeda is exceptionally deep in terms of
number of
modules, or that it's deeper than, say, the Virus TI or the Waldorf Q.
Yet what I do see and hate about it is that it has the worst user experience of all the
aforementioned synths. And I think this is the ultimate reason for the
Andromeda venture being too deep,
thus making it too slow to show its strengths. The Waldorf Q is
also deep, but it doesn't make it unpopular or constantly resold on ebay. If the
A6 is deep, it's deep in the sense of being a mosaic picture of high
resolution (where the final product needs hundreds of little bits and
pieces to be put in place), and not in the sense of a vibrant colorful painting of
various
themes (I hope that one is self-explanatory). I'll
try to do a quick list of what you might not like about this synth,
first design-wise (leaving aside the atomized / convoluted
architecture which demands more tricks & hours than any other synth out
there):
1. The knobs response in a
specific, sort of "lazy" way (knock-knock - because of their large
resolution?:P)
- they should be encoders and not potentiometers. A lot of folks love the finite scope & feel of potentiometers, but this vision
just begs for encoders - especially in the section below the LCD. In normal
mode, each time you touch a knob, it will jump suddenly to top-end or bottom-end of
the values and destroy them. In pass-through mode, twist the knob a bit too
forcefully (after you first meet the stupid thru-point), and it will also swerve too far away from the initial value,
which basically results in both ways being equally attention-consuming and
frustrating... Encoders would raise the cost? Oh fuck,
what does it matter if it's $3300 or $3600, let's go all the way! Does
anybody think people who spend $3000 on a synth give a damn about a $300
difference? The luxury segment should not cut corners, those two approaches
are mutually (and suicidally) exclusive.
2. The design of the overpacked LCD is poorly
executed and the font is bad. It really strains the eyes (or the mind)
trying to figure out where exactly you're operating or what you're exactly
looking at. Tiny text, abbreviations, double rows with unsymmetrical
text-to-button patterns all add to the mind-boggling experience. If the A6
was meant to be the deepest synth out there, I think it deserves a lot
better and larger res LCD for all those deep settings to shine through and
actually get used.
3. May have a number of quirks
/
requirements / pitfalls /
bugs rendering your process of purchase arduous or your playing infuriating ("When buying one watch out for everything" - and read this:
http://electro-music.com/forum/forum-90.html) I'm not going to list all
the funny shit like midi notes hanging, ugly seq retriggerring, etc; this
review is already long.
4. This might be irrelevant,
nonetheless I'll throw it in, just for the fuck of it:
The concept of a mod-matrix
is reversed; you access a small mod-matrix at the destination (Alesis call
it a target-based matrix). It
means that you have to go to, say, Filter 1, then click the button for its individual
mod-matrix, and there you can assign some source to the
Filter 1 options. And bear in mind how many more modules and corresponding
buttons there are aside from Filter 1. For the brain that I carry inside my
head it's like reading
some exotic (like Asian) script which goes from right to left, or from
bottom to top, or whichever other funny way (actually I think that
the Alesis team decided to follow that route in order to superfluously
multiply the amount of buttons on the panel so that it looks more complex
and can give a more intense orgasm to pot-bellied synth wankers! You know,
big men and their boy-dreams about flying an airplane or launching an a-bomb
kind of thing.
5. It's just one big simple
analog synth. Yes, don't rub your eyes - simple. Despite being so complicated
& rich in
one sense, it's also simple & inert in another. When people say it's deep &
complicated, they probably mean that it has things like ample room for gain
/ level
manipulation, sophisticated envelopes with thousands of settings, that it can add or subtract the effects of modulation sources
creating an infinite network of interdependent ties between them, etc (the
mosaic part) and can thus for example recreate the exact behavior of a
certain model of vintage envelope chip - nerd stuff. The
reason I call it simple is because it does not have the fun stuff or that
other something ("je ne sais quoi") that I care for, which other synths like DSIs, Blofelds, MS-2000s
or vintage analogs have and which makes them alive & special & effective (the
vibrant
painting part).
TOO
EXPENSIVE...
Hey, that's what it's supposed to be, isn't it?
Biiiig & reeeeal analog synth. I'm aware of that technical aspect and
I don't want to diss a synth just because it's
not the exact present that I wanted from Santa. But let's separate
intentions from consequences and passion from madness. Every human effort - and the Alesis team is no
different - deserves
appreciation, and each synth is an individual instrument with
its individual flavors and purposes. And you can really, really hear
this real
analogueness in Andromeda's timbre (synths like MS-2000 are a joke in
comparison). But I personally don't quite understand the appeal of, nor condone the
idea of analog for analog's sake (or power for power's sake, etc). I
don't love the Juno-60 because it's analog - I love it because it gives me
goosebumps. And I don't love the AN1x because it emulates analog so well - I
love it because it sounds sublime (and finally, I don't love the Waldorf Q just
because it has 1000 "powerful" options - I love it because it shines like a star and speaks to me almost like another human being). So, as a matter of fact, the analogueness is
in my view just
a theme into which other themes are built, but it's not the defining theme
and purpose of an instrument
per se. The A6 is the heaviest, real analog amongst the digital crowd of today...
Really?? That may be extraordinary, but what does it eventually amount to? I pay
around
Є2500 for the
spectacuralry-analog Moog-clone
wolf-kabob-Roth-vantage
A6 Andromeda and I feel that what
I get in return is a JX-3p on caterpillars...
Don't laugh!:D At the end of the day, having the receipt in front of my eyes, the most apt three adjectives to describe the
Andromeda (this time sound-wise) are:
1. monoaural - it mimics the CS80, Moogs, Matrixs and what not, but
performs pretty badly outside the raw vintage aura (but that's understandable);
2. sharp / sombre - taking a Roland Juno as a reference point, the A6 sounds almost
abrasive / obtrusive (that's less tolerable);
3. "meh" / indecisive - because it falls short of the sonic
efficacy or
potency of other modern
or vintage synths (that quite kills it in my ears).
There's no point fighting the force of the market
and we all know that price is the result of various
forces; cost of production, discontinuation of production, number of units
produced, usability, cult-status, dying parts, etc. And I respect it. I just don't give a fuck about
it.
If this is the outcome of going (power)fully analog in the 21st century, then
I'd say - to hell with analogueness. Let it die. Don't exhume it lest we have another
zombie. 3,5 grand is too much for this sort of entertainment. If you and me
share the same kind of approach to synths and look at it all as more of
a controlled musical passion than passionate analog madness, we will appreciate
Ions for their various filters, Junos for their chorus, Viruses because they
go granular, Waldorfs because of their
digiwaves, Moogs for their directness, Nords for their handmade craftsmanship,
DX7 for its unreal potential & plasticity, Polysiks and the '80s for
their easy serviceability, but not so much the "powerful" Andromeda, which, apparently
having fulfilled its epic-yet-simple-analog vision, has... standard waves
and standard filters with its absurdly huge knobs - plus all
the architectural & technical hassle. But let's not rely on
entertainment / comfort value solely. Trying to look from a rationally-vintage
point of view,
Andy is...
...NOT THAT
EXPENSIVE
Let's set a perspective: When buying the Virus
TI you pay for the of bread & butter that trickles down into
your songs - you buy a Toyota SUV; when buying the Nord Lead or
the JP-8000 you pay for the interface / live performance design - a Porsche
could be a good analogy. And should you decide to buy the Andromeda, the
largest part of the money will cover the potential of emulation that resides
under the silver panel with all its neverending nuances - you buy yourself a
moon rocket. I guess the A6 ends up being one big mix of several
vintage synths giving you their individual flavor samples. In some
basses I might hear the murky and unstable Korg Mono-Poly / Polysix,
cohesive Moogs and chorus-less Junos / Jupiters; in leads the raw Prophet-5
and the punchy Roland SH-line (with its feedback loop) as well as cocky
Oberheims; and in filter-whistling I might hear timbres as distant and
elusive as vintage Akais. So I think we've just found a first thumbs-up for
this synth, and a huge one at that: the A6 is as much vintage history and
versatility as possible encapsulated in one entity, in one silver pill. You
don't have to spend a large fortune on furnishing your studio with every
vintage-and-absurdly-expensive synth (including the Yamaha CS-80) one-by-one;
just invest in the A6 space technology - swallow the silver pill for a
relatively tiny fortune - and ride the cosmic vintage sound trip of your
life. Here, in this area, might lie your guarantee of perfection. Just bear
in mind that after entering this Matrix the pill can get stuck in your
throat and make you cough reeeeal fucking long... be prepared to quit your
day job and / or abandon your hapless family.
WARNING: HIGH-YIELD + HIGH-RISK
INVESTMENT / INVOLVEMENT
However, since a jack
of all trades is master of none, and having this amount of money to burn, I would opt
for a different route: a couple of genuine vintage synths (make it a Prophet
600 instead of the Prophet 5 and Juno-6 instead of Jupiter-8, you nerd;P) and something
modern, a Virus let's say. Being a moderate freak I believe it necessary to
have 3-to-5 genuine vintage synths, simply because I value individuality and
I really believe that each model is irreplacable and no synth will emulate
any other synth perfectly (plus you'll do your sounds a lot quicker
on the original vintage models, and their chip replacements actually
exist). And when you add a thing like Virus, you have a lot of
versatility and fun.
Sorry Andy. Andy-not-Handy - you
remind me of the Landkreuzer P-1500 Monster. You need to be taken
care of by a very special and rare person (most preferably one with
long gray hair and an
oscilloscope - just joking ;P). Otherwise you don't warm blood in the
veins, don't inspire and end
up not being used. Having loyally in mind that
wonderful, early-70's, spacey sound trait that permeates some of your patches,
it's still not quite sensible to shell out all the money just for you, because it
would amount to putting all one's eggs into one bulky basket = stupid behavior. You give me headache and you stress me with the
possibility of breaking down with one of your chips or whatever, in the case
of which it would be a horrendously horrible horror, especially in my
geopolitical location. And I don't feel like fixing a space shuttle nor
replacing half of it to make it fully functional again. Especially if I have
devoted x years to master it. That's bullshit.
"I actually sold my A6 a
little while ago because I couldn't get along with it and one of the voices
died on it."
This sentence coming from a
friend's e-mail one day sealed my Andy's fate and I sold it before it was
too late. And I'm happy to have reaped the profits (got 140% of my initial price,
holy cow! are they dying that fast?) from someone who's courageous
enough to make his own foray into this endless galaxy, or shrewd and patient enough to treat it as an investment.
I wish him all the best. I myself spent the cash on bitches & booze; now the
Earth may explode.
Who says too much adrenaline
is a bad thing? I do - hit me. Too much of anything is a bad thing. TROLOLO. Cheers. |
