Alesis Micron

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What kind of sounds are you looking to get?

― jng (jng), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 06:46 (eighteen years ago) link

Well im starting a new music project, its going to be a noise/ambient band incorporating visuals into it and like tape destruction and circuit bending so i wanted something kinda that could make good gritty dark sounding but harmonic sounds. like sound good and pretty but still not be like poppy if that makes any sence. if you are familiar with Godspeed You Black Emporer its along the lines of that, id like some orchestral type things as well if i could find like a super synth taht would do all this, still wanting to stay absolutely under like 500, 400 would be best though.

― file13, Wednesday, 12 April 2006 16:59 (eighteen years ago) link

Update: I'm loving the Ion. After taking a few days to mess around with the various parameters I don't mind the UI so much, and I've gotten some cool sounds (though I should really start writing down settings or figure out how to save them). There are a couple things I'd like to do, though, and I don't know if they're possible:

1) Automate changes in envelope filter settings? It's hard to play and twiddle knobs at the same time.

2) Set a synth sound to decay (like hitting a piano or guitar string) rather than sustaining infinitely? It seems like this should be doable, but I haven't been able to accomplish it).

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 18:11 (eighteen years ago) link

xpost

I'd go for the Microkorg/MS2000 over the Micron from your description of what you want to do. The DWGS waveforms in the Korgs allow you to get dirtier than the basic analog-style oscillators in the Micron.

If you want really dark and gritty, look out for a second hand Ensoniq ESQ1 (or the SQ80, which is basically the same). It's an great sounding analog/digital hybrid synth from the late 80s, and I think it'd suit what you're doing really well. You can probably pick one up for less than the Micro or Microkorg (£100-£150 in the UK, less in the US).

― jng (jng), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 18:48 (eighteen years ago) link

well i dont want to be soley limited to the gritty style as i make other types of music as well, but i couldnt find a MS2000 or i guess the newer model MS2000B for 400, i like the microkorg and micron because of the price but from almost all the things i read they say the micron over the microkorg. ive messed around with both of them and the microkorg seems like its a bit easier to tweak (seeing as the micron has like 5 knobs and 4 buttons) I also wanted something up-to date and have alot of expandibility for later use, i know the micron is fairly new as to where the microkorg is like 4-5+ years old. Any other suggestions/comments?

― File13, Wednesday, 12 April 2006 19:10 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah, I didn't know your price ceiling when I suggested the MS2000. Sorry.
The only trouble you're going to find with an analog-modelling synth are the orchestral sounds. That is the only thing that romplers are good for.

― naus (Robert T), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 23:29 (eighteen years ago) link

If you're looking for something reasonably cheap, that will do reasonable pseudo analog synth sounds, check out one of the old E-mu P2000 ROMpler range. Best ones to look for would be the Vintage Pro (do not confuse with the earlier "vintage keys" model) or the, er, the orchestral one (googles) virtuoso 2000 - vintage pro comes w/32mb of decent synth/mellotron/organ/e-piano sounds, virtuoso comes with 64 mb of orchestral sounds. Each module has 4 spaces for 32mb rom sticks, and you could buy these seperately, so if you picked up the virtuoso, you could pick up the 32mb board from the vintage pro and drop that in the module, or vice versa. The whole range is discontinued, and can be picked up really, really cheaply. They sound good, and are very very, editable. there's not much you can't do w/one of these boxes. Add a little midi dumb keyboard and I bet you cd get the whole lot well under yr budget.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 13 April 2006 08:40 (eighteen years ago) link

1) Automate changes in envelope filter settings? It's hard to play and twiddle knobs at the same time.

press the mod matrix button to the left of the LCD, you can route various midi control ##s, footpedal, mod wheel 1 or 2 etc to any of the envelope parameters

2) Set a synth sound to decay (like hitting a piano or guitar string) rather than sustaining infinitely? It seems like this should be doable, but I haven't been able to accomplish it).

go to the envelope generator section, press the "amp" button, and turn the "sustain level" knob till it's at zero. The decay time knob then adjusts the time it takes for the sound to die away.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 13 April 2006 08:46 (eighteen years ago) link

Thanks Pash! I guessed you'd be to the go-to guy for this stuff.

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 13 April 2006 12:03 (eighteen years ago) link

as far as the ROMpler's go this one one called "Nostalgia" just came out and sampling some of the sounds it sounded like it could fit my needs, plus it had a nice range of instruments it sampled on it its 200 bucks though, if i got the micron and that itd be 600 which would be under the range of the MS2000B but that MS2000B looks/sounds soooo cool.

― file13, Thursday, 13 April 2006 17:55 (eighteen years ago) link

The VA synth that was great and I am a dork for selling off was a Yamaha AN1x. I wish I still had that synth.

― Earl Nash (earlnash), Sunday, 16 April 2006 04:17 (eighteen years ago) link

will the Micron make similar synth sounds to the ones heard on Tin Drum by Japan and Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence by Riuichi Sakamoto? is their any other budget polyphonic modelling-synths worth a look?

― rio natsume, Thursday, 20 April 2006 20:25 (eighteen years ago) link

three years pass...

revive ion/micron vs ms2000/microkorg debate

which sounds more analogue

― （　´_ゝ˙） (Dr. Phil), Thursday, 20 August 2009 18:17 (fourteen years ago) link

also are there others that have surpassed these? nord? novation?

― （　´_ゝ˙） (Dr. Phil), Thursday, 20 August 2009 18:28 (fourteen years ago) link

imo the microkorg has higher quality, crunchier sounds but the ion is more versatile (so many of the microkorg's presets are very lol '90s). also it seems easier to mess with the parameters on the ion, but i haven't gotten too deep with that on either one.

all that said, i don't regret trading in the ion for the microkorg, which feels more fun to mess around with.

― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Thursday, 20 August 2009 18:29 (fourteen years ago) link

yeah i've heard that they sound good but yeesh:

http://media.createdigitalmedia.net/cdmu/images/2008/12/genreselect.jpg

― （　´_ゝ˙） (Dr. Phil), Thursday, 20 August 2009 18:42 (fourteen years ago) link

honestly i stick to about four sounds (from the "hip-hop/vintage/retro" banks) and fuck around with those, a lot of the other stuff sounds corny to me.

i was thinking of asking IMM to recommend another keyboard to me that would complement the microkorg and not be too expensive...

― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Thursday, 20 August 2009 18:48 (fourteen years ago) link

you should look into loading the presets from the ms2000 onto it which are supposedly less cheesy

― （　´_ゝ˙） (Dr. Phil), Thursday, 20 August 2009 18:54 (fourteen years ago) link

Anyone wanna buy a Korg MicroPreset?

http://www.vintagesynth.com/korg/micropreset.php

― MaresNest, Saturday, 22 August 2009 12:52 (fourteen years ago) link

nine years pass...

I just got one of these! Only 12+ years late to the party, haha. Still sounds v.good, imo

― Dan I., Tuesday, 5 March 2019 20:19 (five years ago) link

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