Here is what my 3 Alesis monsters look like together, on an old Deltex stand I've had since gigging with it in the 90's. Magical what these 3 sound like together-midi'ed and sync'd clocks-I will at some point post some audio demos with all 3 of these playing loops, arpeggios and layers. The link below demonstrates some of the most extreme sounds that can come out of the Ion.
I thought the Fusion was genius, the Ion is right up there-in the right hands, this thing can sound human-the formant filters, plus modulation routings are unreal-closest I've heard to a Yamaha FS1R for synthesized vocal sounds. I'd gotten permission from this Youtube poster to post his link here-because his demo shows some of the extreme and remarkable things the Ion can do-features that were included in this that most new machines don't even have. For example-the LFO goes to infinity, it becomes an effect within itself! And there are 3 distinct FM "algorithm" routings which can be used in a variety of ways. 4 distinct patches can have their own independent arpeggios, layers/splits and although these arps can't be edited-fooling around with just the factory arps, I've been able to get this to sound like the Miniak/Micron with its rhythm programs, it does have analog type drum sounds built in, just have to know how to use each distinct analog drum. Like the Miniak/Micron, this can be used as a 4-track monster.
One technical problem which was perplexing, although I've repaired it.
After realizing the master volume pot was not right-could not cut the volume completely-and also realizing this is a stereo pot-and a very solidly made one-all these pots are steel-clad, not cheap plastic-I stressed how to repair it as the only available replacements are-yes cheap plastic ones. I decided to de-oxit it which helped-then realized there was an intermittent problem-and discovered inside-the 6 very tiny solder points for this were almost microscopically cracked-from movement I guess-this is 20 years old. I deduced this not by sight-by feel, one of a technician's tricks I learned years ago. With one finger on the solder joints, I moved the volume pot with my other hand, and I could feel the solder pins moving-by the tiniest margin, and testing the other pots like this, all were very solid, so I knew I was onto something.
V..e...r..y carefully with the finest point solder pencil I own-I resoldered these connections, all 6 of them. Tested it-and discovered I somehow had now completely disabled the volume pot, even though my re-soldering looked perfect. trash! Ready to get my claw-hammer-I remembered something very critical when troubleshooting fine components like this.
Soldering gives off vapors-not much but can contaminate neighboring components. There is a 6-prong plug connector/ribbon cable right above the volume pot-the main connection point from the volume control board to the mainboard. I took a guess-and thought possibly-that the soldering fumes had gotten into this plug/socket-I had been futzing with it before this. I pulled the cable, noticed there was some residue around the socket and pins, which I probably had caused-I had to re-solder all 6 pins after all, made alot of fumes. I re-inserted the pins. It was such a tight fit I feared I'd break the pins-and amazingly enough the volume control now worked perfectly, probably for the first time in a long time. So happy!
I also discovered a prior owner had replaced the master control knob with-unfortunately-a cheaper plastic copy which works, but is not the same quality as the rest of the rotary controls. A shame that whoever originally manufactured these metal-clad pots-I cannot find an identical part anywhere if I ever need to replace any others. Sobrought this back to full working order. And it was worth it!
What a joy-to be able to edit sounds in real time with full control-I have been studying how these machines talk to each other with NRPNs-I am experimenting to see what happens for example when I try to control one Alesis with another using the various knob controls on each, but that is another topic altogether. Why NRPN's? Because these are capable of much finer control/resolution than standard CC's which only can work through 127 digital steps while NRPN's contain over 16,000 digital steps-why the knob controls on the Ion work so well. and the Miniak-and possibly-the Fusion! No audible steps through the filters for one thing.
One last mention-I purchased the Hypersynth editor-I almost never use software control for hardware but it works perfectly with-both the Ion and Miniak....the Fusion??? Hmmmm.......I wonder. The Fusion may have no sysex commands built in as far as we've deduced and researched-but I'm wondering if anyone has tried to control it with NRPN's? I will try.
PS-the wall covering-is a present from a dear friend who brought it back from Columbia years ago-its been in 4 different music rooms at this point, 3 different homes.