I was quite flabbergasted about this news flash. First & foremost, Alesis ceased production of the ION more than a year ago.So, that's hardly a news item.
Abandoning production of the Andromeda A6 is both a surprise and a shame. I found out about it's disappearance a few days before the above; No Andromeda in sight anymore on the pages of the biggest European Online stores. Not even a 'showroom' or a 'B' stock model. This leads me to believe that the dealers were duly informed by Alesis.
I own both an ION and an Andromeda A6. Both from a competitive and a 'sound' point of view they were and are certainly NOT out of date. Even better: Alesis brought us two timeless designs with plenty of scope. The ION perhaps suffered
from it's design. It doesn't look like a very powerful synth, and Most of it's special features are 'hidden under the hood'. With the A6, Alesis succeeded where many other companies failed. That is: to offer a hybrid analog/digital monster synth in the pure tradition of the 'big' polysynths from yesteryear (Oberheims, Prophets,
Jupiter-8, etc, etc...), adding a massive amount of features in the process. Dave Smith's (DSI) massive success with his 'new' line of Prophets (including the Mopho and Tetra modules), makes it hard to believe that there was no more interest for the Andromeda. Especially since the DSI instruments aren't exactly cheap. And what to think about the (monophonic) Moog Voyager, with a much higher price-tag compared to the A6. We can only hope that Alesis is actually working on 'MKII' versions of both the ION and the A6. If not, one might be certain that the 'hunt' for second-hand models will soon be on.
Ivory2
