I had my attention drawn to this at this ridculously low price by a fellow SOS Forumee.

I think its a steal and well worth a gander.

hehe. I noticed it in the turnkey leaflet that came with this months SOS too!


I've never been a fan of 'workstation' type keyboards, but for the money you cant really go wrong.

I have a 8HD that I use mainly as a keyboard controller and occasionally some sounds from it and at that price I'd say it's very good value for money. The VA and sample playback engine are pretty good and capable of some very good sounds. Well worth that price just for that and the keyboard.

Quote Nuno_:

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I have a 8HD that I use mainly as a keyboard controller and occasionally some sounds from it and at that price I'd say it's very good value for money. The VA and sample playback engine are pretty good and capable of some very good sounds. Well worth that price just for that and the keyboard.

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not to mention the 8track hdd recorder with 1/4 inputs

great price none in stock as of last week they told me 21st of december and wanted full deposit to secure one have done this in the past and basically told a week before that they could not do the deal im sure they do it so they can buy bulk to achieve this price but thats along as they hit thier target

That's a serious bargain and I can feel my credit cards burning in my pocket. But seeing as I just picked up a nice condition JD800 for only £300, my synth budget is all gone now. Maybe one day..

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Veni, Vidi, Aesculi
(I came, I saw, I conkered)

Quote p3t3:

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not to mention the 8track hdd recorder with 1/4 inputs

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In fairness (and IMO), that's probably the least interesting aspect of Fusion ... although I guess some/many would find it useful especially for taking out pre-recorded audio backing tracks live.

For me, the excitement comes in the form of the very fruity VA synth, its 'real' 6 operator FM synth (like DX but with multi-mode filters) and the sampler (that's falls somewhere between an Akai S3000XL and an S5000). The Physical Modelling (PM) section is a bit weak if I am being honest and you ain't gonna get the perfect flute but it's well good for whacked out pads and stuff. And it's the combination of all these in one box that makes the thing very interesting and intriguing, especially at that price

The styling is like Marmite - you love it or hate it - but there's no denying that £399 for a 6HD has to qualify as a bargain (the 88-note weighted 8HD seems to be going for around £750 BTW).

Disclaimer: I have worked on Fusion for Alesis and I am a well-known advocator of it so I am trying to avoid making this post look like an ad! But £399 for this? S'almost criminal!!!

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Website / Music Lab Machines / Blog

Is this just on Turnkey's flyer in the new SoS? 399 sounds like a great deal to me, but their site is showing it for 500-odd pounds, and so is SC's.

I don't really want to use Turnkey, like many forum users, my experience has not been good.

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"We hate all those who diss them, but shot all those who like them"

Aye if it is Trudkey, No matter how tempting the deal,
best way to buy from them is turn up in person and see the goods right in front.

If paying a deposit or full payment to Turdkey ... well you takes yer chances ... somewhere between Bob Hope and ....

That's a great price, but stock on these is very low. And you're familiar with Turnkey already...

The Fusions don't seem to be selling, which is a pity because it is a truly great synth, far better sounding than the Roland, Korg or Yamaha workstations. And the non weighted version has the best aftertouch I've ever played, loads of travel.

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madtheory creations
Synths and pianos for Kontakt

I think other dealers are doing them at this price - they've just not updated their sites.

Quote Tomás Mulcahy:

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The Fusions don't seem to be selling, which is a pity because it is a truly great synth, far better sounding than the Roland, Korg or Yamaha workstations. And the non weighted version has the best aftertouch I've ever played, loads of travel.

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Looks like Fusion's gonna go the way of the 303/808/909, Korg Z1, Yammie FS1R, et al....

Underrated - nay, derided - or ignored in their lifetime; highly sought after following their demise!

At least I can say "Told ya so" in tones of obscene smugness

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Website / Music Lab Machines / Blog

Probably add the K5000 to that list. I was lucky enough to get one for 205 quid a couple of years ago, apparently they're on the way up the scale now.

"Best aftertouch feel" makes me even more interested, I'll phone the local Sound Control in the morning.

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"We hate all those who diss them, but shot all those who like them"

Quote hollowsun:

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Quote p3t3:

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not to mention the 8track hdd recorder with 1/4 inputs

In fairness (and IMO), that's probably the least interesting aspect of Fusion ... although I guess some/many would find it useful especially for taking out pre-recorded audio backing tracks live.

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I read the review of this machine when it first came out and SOS said there were some issues with the HD recording, can't remember exactly what it said but then later I seem to remember that the OS update addressed a lot of issues. Is it unrealistic to use the Fusion as a HD Recorder, and of course sync it with MIDI. WHy is it th least interesting aspect of the Fusion.

I also read that the sounds are no where near as good as the Korg Triton for example, one of which I already have but the prospect of HD recording, sampling, MIDI in the same bos is really tempting

Quote table for two:

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I had my attention drawn to this at this ridculously low price by a fellow SOS Forumee.

I think its a steal and well worth a gander.

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Where are they advertised at 399?

turnkey

Quote Pashmina:

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Probably add the K5000 to that list.

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Yes

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Website / Music Lab Machines / Blog

Quote Michael B:

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I read the review of this machine when it first came out and SOS said there were some issues with the HD recording, can't remember exactly what it said but then later I seem to remember that the OS update addressed a lot of issues.

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Yes.

At the time of the review, there was a problem where audio could slip out of sync with MIDI but this was fixed in V1.24.

Quote Michael B:

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Is it unrealistic to use the Fusion as a HD Recorder, and of course sync it with MIDI. WHy is it th least interesting aspect of the Fusion.

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Maybe I was being uncharitable.

It's fairly basic, that's all, with simple and basic editing. That said, it is possible to do all the fancy work on your DAW and import them into audio tracks on Fusion. I haven't used it so can't vouch for it.

But for *basic* record/playback duties, I guess it could be useful to some.

Quote Michael B:

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I also read that the sounds are no where near as good as the Korg Triton

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"Nowhere near as good"? A bit subjective but I take your point. The factory ROM stuff is arguably not as 'polished' as 'the big 3' perhaps but as a result, Fusion has a different 'character' which can complement quite nicely. Many have only their Fusions and are quite happy with the sounds overall. Of course, there are some duffers in the factory ROM but 'the big 3' have their fair share of those as well

However, my involvement was to create new sound library for Fusion which is available for free download. I've also supplied a few freebies off my own back and a complete list of the stuff I've done can be seen here.

Some audio demos are here -- mostly done and donated by users BTW

Quote Michael B:

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but the prospect of HD recording, sampling, MIDI in the same bos is really tempting

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Indeed.

And apologies to the mods if this looks anything like a sales pitch - just trying to furnish people with info

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Website / Music Lab Machines / Blog

Quote p3t3:

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turnkey

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Where on Turnkey, have been on the site and can't find it, and interestingly enough, in typical Turnkey fashion, they have an ALesis QS6.1 at about 700 quid! (I got one for 80 off eBay!)

ANyway, I think I want a Fusion at that price, another synth to add to my personal obscure synth museum

Quote Michael B:

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Quote p3t3:

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turnkey

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Where on Turnkey

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In their latest product magazine thing - the one you get with Sound on Sound.

Sound Control had it at this price for a few days, as a Music Live promo, a couple of weeks ago.

Doh! I always throw that out before reading it, so as to avoid temptation!

Quote Michael B:

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Doh! I always throw that out before reading it, so as to avoid temptation!

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page 19

Quote hollowsun:

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derided

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Um ... I've been rather rude about the Fusion's appearance in the past. I think I even pushed one over in the playground once and stole it's dinner money.

However I saw one properly in a shop not long ago and I have to say it's actually a rather handsome beast. More so than photos of it suggest.

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Original artwork and unique devices inspired by vintage technology http://www.thisisobsolete.com

Quote jellyjim:

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I think I even pushed one over in the playground once and stole it's dinner money.

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I've said it before....

It is not photogenic and photos don't do it justice.

In subdued lighting, all those backlit buttons are very 'Star Ship Enterprise' ... if you like that sort of thing.

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Website / Music Lab Machines / Blog

Not looking too hopeful, this.

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"We hate all those who diss them, but shot all those who like them"

Quote Pashmina:

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Not looking too hopeful, this.

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What's not?

The likelyhood of actually getting one of these at this price, that's what!

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"We hate all those who diss them, but shot all those who like them"

I have a Yamaha Motif 6 (the 'classic' model, not the more recent ES and XS updates).

How does the Fusion 6HD fare when compared with the Motif?

The Motif's sampler is too convoluted to bother with (does anyone actually sample with it?), so that aspect of the 'head-to-head' comparison doesn't really matter to me, but I'm interested in how the two workstations compare for sounds, synthesis, sequencing, MIDI control, etc.

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Steve Cooke
http://soundcloud.com/stevecooke

Quote comradec:

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How does the Fusion 6HD fare when compared with the Motif?

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They are very different.

The Motif's on-board ROM samples are a lot slicker, smoother, polished, whatever. Fusion's are good in places, a bit 'retro' in others. However....

There is a bunch of stuff (like a coupla hundred MB) I did for Alesis which is a lot more detailed than most of the competition (inc/ Motif) which is loaded from Fusion's internal disk drive. Much of this is bundled with Fusions but can be downloaded from Alesis' website. This is ongoing too with more stuff to be released soon. There is some good 3rd-party material available now as well.

The VA synth is just that - a VA synth. 3 oscillators per voice with all the usual (PWM, osc sync, ring mod), multimode filters, up to 8 envs and LFOs, big mod matrix. Nice anti-aliased oscillators.

FM is like a DX without the algorithms - you can define the operators/carriers as you want. Uses the same multi-mode filters as the VA synth. Creating FM sounds from scratch is fiddly (when was FM ever easy?) but there are hundreds of FM patches you can use as a starting point.

Physical Modelling (PM) synth is ok for weirdness.

Sampler is probably somewhere between Akai S3000XL and S5000 and pretty respectable, Has the same filters, envs, LFOs and mod matrix as the VA synth so some serious sample manglage to be had. Alesis supply Fusion converter that allows you to convert wavs, aiffs, soundfonts, Akai S1/2/3/5/6000 and Z4/8 into Fusion format on your Mac/PC. These are transferred to Fusion's HD via USB.

MIX mode allows you to layer all these different synth/sampler types with up to 16 layers and/or keyboard splits.

Effects are basic but pretty good. 2 bus effects and 4 insert effects (shared in MIX and SEQUENCER).

Sequencer's a fiddly little f'cker (aren't they all?) but not unusable. 32 tracks. It is linear, not pattern based. You can import MIDI files created on your favourite sequencer/DAW.

8-track disk recorder - functional but not sophisticated. You can cut, paste, copy, move, fade in/out. Integrates quite nicely with the sequencer where the audio is just extra tracks (on top of the 32 sequencer tracks). You can import audio created on your favourite DAW.

UI is (IMO) pretty good overall, especially once you spend a bit of time with it (like everything).

Fusion's not without its quirks but it's quite a package, especially at the new prices.

Should you REPLACE your Motif with a Fusion? I don't know. It would certainly make a nice adjunct to it with its contrasting 'sound' and complementary features.

In the almost two years I've been working with mine, I have come to a conclusion....

Try any of the Big 3 and you will be blown away and reach for your credit card almost without hesitation. Then you get it home and over time, you start running up against limitations due to the closed sample set in ROM (unless you buy expansion boards).

Try Fusion and it can be thoroughly underwhelming. But over time, you discover more and more things it can do that you never thought of - it's something you can grow with and which can grow with you.

Perfect synth? No - not at all. There are better ROMplers, there are better samplers, there are better VA synths (maybe - subjective ... Fusion's is pretty pokey) and there are better FM and PM synths on eBay. But it's the sum of these parts in one package that makes it such an intriguing and beguiling little bugger.

IMO

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Website / Music Lab Machines / Blog

I've had my 6HD for a few months now. Got a good deal from Thomann in Germany. Can't find the receipt at the moment so couldn't tell you exactly how much or exactly when. I do remember that they were going for £599 in the UK at the time, I think I paid below £550.

Anyway, I've been very happy with it and this despite it developing a fault within the first month and having to be returned for repair (excellent customer service from Thomann who arranged shipping and had it back within 3 weeks in time for rehearsals).

I feel as though I haven't scratched the surface of what it can do. I've mainly been using pre-sets for live work but I hope to spend some time over Christmas getting to grips with it.

I've been using a Midiman Radium keyboard for a few years just using soft-synths. First thing I noticed about the Fusion was how nice the keyboard action was - it's really helped my playing (that along with fact that I've now actually done some practice!). I'm wondering whether I should have paid the extra for the 8HD with the weighted keys?

In short - if it got stolen I'd replace it with the same again. Excellent value at £800 let alone £400.

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http://www.random-thought.co.uk/

I'll just throw my 0.02 standard value units in...

I've had an 8HD for around 18 months now, and have used it in live and recording situations. I think it's an amazing keyboard, particularly for the money. And with Steve's hollowsun sounds its taken to a whole new level. (Take his "Tape Watcher" sound and play the opening bars of Watcher of the Skies and its hard not to believe you are playing a real tron)

This summer I got into programming stuff with the VA and have to say once you get the UI, it's rather powerful, I've still only scratched the surface of the modulation matrix!

Bu for me one of the highlights is creating a mix with multiple layers and zones freely mixing samples VA and FM, can create some really unique sounds.

As Steve says some of the stock sounds can be a little "also ran" but it takes very little synthesis knowledge to push it to a whole new level (and fortunately Steve is a samplist extrordinare and he and his merry band at Hollowsun has given the user community some fantastic goodies.)

And finally. If you own a Triton, or a Motif etc (which I will say right now are fabulous boards, soundwise - even if Korg's 5 octave synth action leaves something to be desired these days!) I reckon you are going to hear your sounds on lots of records, particularly if you just use the stock ROM samples.

The fusion is just rare enough, and different enough that you can be pretty sure you won't be sounding like someone else.

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New album 'Fantasy Bridge' available now!
Making of Fantasy Bridge Diary

But haven't Alesis pretty much abandoned the Fusion now?

I read somewhere that there wouldn't any more updates and some of the ones promised had been scrapped.

Alesis seem to have cocked up big-time in marketing this product. They appeared to have launched it without anybody noticing until they re-launched it later. The dedicated website was scrapped. We were encouraged to register our email addresses to receive news of when the Fusion would be available but no news ever arrived. And so on.

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Steve Cooke
http://soundcloud.com/stevecooke

They way I like to "programs" drums is by overdubbing
ie. play the whole track and play the drums realtime as if it was just another instument.

No programming, no looping, no 1,2,3,4 bar patterns to copy and paste (though these are useful tools to have)

Does the Fusion alloow this.

Thanx.

Quote comradec:

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But haven't Alesis pretty much abandoned the Fusion now?

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I think it is fair to say that, yes. It is 'supported' but unlikely to be developed further.

Quote comradec:

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I read somewhere that there wouldn't any more updates and some of the ones promised had been scrapped.

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There probably won't be any more OS updates and they originally announced that CD burning on external SATA drives would be implemented which never happened. ISTR that there was also talk of a vocoder which never happened either.

Quote comradec:

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Alesis seem to have cocked up big-time in marketing this product.

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That would be fair to say as well, at least originally. But they did go to extraordinary lengths to 'rescue' the thing with a raft of OS updates, loads of new sound library, promotional incentives and so on. But for whatever reason(s), Fusion couldn't break the stranglehold 'the big 3' have on the market.

The fact is, however, that that was then and this is now. The OS is now stable with no real bugs to speak of (mostly 'quirks' and some odd operational implementations or omissions) and for the prices currently being advertised, Fusion is a great piece of underrated kit that is at least worth investigating.

IMO of course

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Website / Music Lab Machines / Blog

Quote table for two:

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They way I like to "programs" drums is by overdubbing
ie. play the whole track and play the drums realtime as if it was just another instument.

No programming, no looping, no 1,2,3,4 bar patterns to copy and paste (though these are useful tools to have)

Does the Fusion alloow this.

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Yes.

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Website / Music Lab Machines / Blog

hollowsun, does the VA synth in the fusion share technology with the ion and micron? i've owned a micron, great synth, got sold tho to fund the purchase of my little phatty, can't have everything :-(

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Original artwork and unique devices inspired by vintage technology http://www.thisisobsolete.com

Quote jellyjim:

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hollowsun, does the VA synth in the fusion share technology with the ion and micron?

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Surprisingly, no (Fusion uses different processors or something) but it does sound good. Put it this way, I know a few people who have both and they use their Fusion's VA more (though that could just be convenience of having it one box with all the other bits and bobs).

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Website / Music Lab Machines / Blog

Is it posisble to use the 8 inputs to the HD recorder as "mixer channels" i.e. can I mix my other synths into the Fusion at the same time I'm using the Fusion?

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TritonExtrMOSS/EX800, NordRack2, ATC1, D550/XV5080/MKS70/MKS7/MKS50/MKS80/S550/JP8080/Ju60/JD990, Blofeld, Mopho, TG77/An1X, ESQM, Emax, Esynth, AkaiS5k/MPC1k, Indigo2, Rogue, Machinedrum, ProOne

Quote jellyjim:

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hollowsun, does the VA synth in the fusion share technology with the ion and micron? i've owned a micron, great synth, got sold tho to fund the purchase of my little phatty, can't have everything :-(

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I have both and they do have some stuff in common. The fusion has the edge on modulation possibilities because it has more envelopes and LFO's and on polyphony, but the micron has two filters and the fusion one only. I prefer the micron, but they both sound very good.

Quote DePulse:

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Is it posisble to use the 8 inputs to the HD recorder as "mixer channels" i.e. can I mix my other synths into the Fusion at the same time I'm using the Fusion?

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I believe so - in fact, I am almost certain.

i think you need to have the tracks permanently armed for record though.

I know some users do this. I imagine it would be a bit basic but could be useful I guess.

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Website / Music Lab Machines / Blog

Has anyone here used the Fusion as a MIDI controller with their software DAW?

I'd be interested to know if it's any good in that role.

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Steve Cooke
http://soundcloud.com/stevecooke