Alesi Ion pic and demo

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Jokeyman123 United States of America
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Alesi Ion pic and demo

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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.

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Jesse United States of America
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Re: Alesi Ion pic and demo

Post by Jesse »

Nice, sounds like you are having fun and learning as you repair and learn about all the possibilities :)
Tempus Drums, Roto Toms, Djembe, Bongo's, Ibanez Bass,(3) Fusion8HD, (2) SUMO300 Amps, Alesis16 Firewire Mixer, AKG D112, Behringer B2, Shure Beta 58a Microphones, Windows 10, Audigy Soundcard, Audition 3, Sony MDR-7506 Headphones, Kontakt 6 & East West Goliath Sound Banks and a small fridge full of cold drinks :)
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