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JDBlackhawk « Swiss Army Knife of Sound Design and workstations »
Published on 03/06/21 at 07:02
Best value:
Excellent
Audience:
Advanced Users
Specific application-primarily for practicing classical, jazz compositions for piano-also for composing and arranging works for myself and others. Have also used for creating samples and original sound design. Due to pandemic, basically using this in my home studios at present-I have 2 8HDs I fully restored. Will use for live gigs, jam sessions.
Am an experienced keyboard player-have worked in professional bands, educational settings for live performances and shows as a music director, long-time user of music technology professionally and for my own enjoyment. Have owned many musical instruments-going back to pre-synth days playing electric pianos and Hammond organs. Keet up with most advances in music technology/computing and equipment-have several other classic workstations-I prefer keyboards that tend to be different but advanced. I own the Generalmusic Equinox, Ensoniq TS-12, yamaha SY77, several classic "beat-boxes"-the MC505 Roland and RM1X Yamaha, plus Yamaha QY's, a Roland PMA-5, have experimented with many auto-arrangers (not really my style) and now have several of the newest Casio Privia 88-key stage pianos. Have pretty good musical "ears" due to my training on various musical instruments, arranging and composition. So have tested many instruments-acoustic and electronic-prior to purchasing my used Fusions, and also research and listen to many instruments on Youtube, other user groups, I belong to several.
Pros and cons
This workstation has one of most well-supported, well documented user groups I've ever come across. www.alesismusic.com is moderated by 2 of the most knowledgable professionals I've had the privilege to seek information from. Big, big plus for something as complex and powerful as this workstation. Alesis abandoned this many years ago although InMusic in the US and UK still carry some parts and assisted me in restoring my Fusions. Another plus.
Polyphony-unbelievable how this allocates voices and resources-I have yet to come across another workstation that can support this many voices, for songs, multis (called mixes in fusion speak) and programs. This is a monster of polyphony.
Sequencer/recorder-32 tracks-only Generalmusic had such a thing-why I kept my Equinox. A little tricky to work at first-but can record like a DAW-audio tracks using the 8-input HD recorder, and 32 tracks of midi. Inputs/outputs are solid construction and TRS. The large monochrome screen-only the newest color screens surpass this-but this one is still very clear and easy to read. if it fails, it can be replaced or modded with LEDS, nice! I can do anything i need pretty easily from the screen and sequencer.
Sounds-called "programs" in the Fusion-I learned piano on Steinways-and have owned several digitals as these progressed through the years. This is so comfortable to play with the 8-key Fatar action (its a TP40-same as in the newest Doepfers, Nords, Studiologics and some Korgs-but the fusion had it in 2005). i can practive serious classical for hours-finally can work on Chopin, Debussy, Schumann and others which I could not get through happily on other digitals-the weight was either wrong-or too noisy-or not enough dynamics-this feels fantastic to me. All other sounds-this has audiophile specs in the sound dept.-and it sounds it-very quiet throughout the signal chain. Factory sounds were OK, on par with Tritons, Roland RD's others I tried over the years. But the amount of work programmers put into this over time-astounding. It is a chameleon-I have only begun to program this-and it already has sounds I've only heard in my SY77 for FM, the Hollow Sun programs-listen to the Novachord samples-I've never heard anything like this anywhere. and others have created literally-a history of classic synths in this thing. Stuff I've only heard on Peter Gabriel recordings-i have played many older machines including Moogs, the original sequential Pro-One for analog, heard the first Memorymoog before it came to market-my god-this thing-its made everything else I have obsolete. I knew it-I watched this one for years-read about the problems-the more I studied the Montages, Fantoms, etc. the more I was pulled to this-I didn't care about the cost-i wanted something really different-and this is. And it is a full-on stereo sampler-and the sampler inputs can be re-routed to the HD recorder with simple patch cords! Geez!
Now the bad stuff-it is heavy-but then the Kurzweil/ Fantoms/etc. with weighted actions are not lightweights either. it is very solidly constructed-all steel and aluminium plus Fatar TP40 thus the weight. Th pushbuttons might not be to everyone's tastes-but everything is back-lit, real nice for dark venues. This is an unorthodox design-but with 4 knobs-in a matrix can act like 16-takes a little getting used to. But then, even organ drawbar settings can be designed to work with the knobs, several organ programs include this function. The bottom curved shape is weird-won't sit flat on a keyboard stand unless you make some adjustments to how you fit it. Big complaint-Alesis abandoned the SATA outboard interface-frustrating because the electronics are all in there, but they did not create the firmware to activate it! it even recognizes my SATA drive in diagnostic mode-but you cannot access any info in the drive-but it has a CF card reader which works, but only up to 4GBs. Other big problem-if you don't upgrade to OS 1.24-which is readily available from the user groups-this was plagued with bugs-which is partially why it failed-maddening because the subsequent OS upgrades fixed almost everything except the SATA outboard connector-different loop lengths for individual tracks are there-syncing audio and midi now works-new DSP includes formant vocal effects and several others. another big complaint-which many users did not understand at first-I do!
Since many sounds are sample-based (equally many are not-FM, VA and PM sounds for example) it initially takes a few seconds to load the larger sample-based sounds-taking these off the hard drive-but then you can load any sample-based sound directly from the hard drive when you first power up-store it in a "mix", "song" or 'favorites" folder-now sounds will be immediately accessible until you reboot. When you reboot-these samples load all at once and are instantly accessible. If a sound is not sample-based such as the VA or FM sounds-these load instantly. And 384MBs sample RAM with expansion cards installed-maybe not as much as the newest boards with sampling-but not shabby. I've played 1GB soundfont acoustic pianos that sound no better than the HG Fusion piano-which uses alot less sample memory than this.
This thing is a monster-if you are looking for a very deep, perhaps too complex but very original sounding workstation-and are not too much in love with virtual software machines for music production-you might want to try one of these. If you are willing to put in some time, and have a good ear for music and sound design, I think you will be pretty amazed at what this thing can sound like. Join the user groups-you might need to, to learn your way around this-its not for a beginner certainly unless as a beginner you want to advance to becoming a sound designer and composer. Thank you.
Am an experienced keyboard player-have worked in professional bands, educational settings for live performances and shows as a music director, long-time user of music technology professionally and for my own enjoyment. Have owned many musical instruments-going back to pre-synth days playing electric pianos and Hammond organs. Keet up with most advances in music technology/computing and equipment-have several other classic workstations-I prefer keyboards that tend to be different but advanced. I own the Generalmusic Equinox, Ensoniq TS-12, yamaha SY77, several classic "beat-boxes"-the MC505 Roland and RM1X Yamaha, plus Yamaha QY's, a Roland PMA-5, have experimented with many auto-arrangers (not really my style) and now have several of the newest Casio Privia 88-key stage pianos. Have pretty good musical "ears" due to my training on various musical instruments, arranging and composition. So have tested many instruments-acoustic and electronic-prior to purchasing my used Fusions, and also research and listen to many instruments on Youtube, other user groups, I belong to several.
Pros and cons
This workstation has one of most well-supported, well documented user groups I've ever come across. www.alesismusic.com is moderated by 2 of the most knowledgable professionals I've had the privilege to seek information from. Big, big plus for something as complex and powerful as this workstation. Alesis abandoned this many years ago although InMusic in the US and UK still carry some parts and assisted me in restoring my Fusions. Another plus.
Polyphony-unbelievable how this allocates voices and resources-I have yet to come across another workstation that can support this many voices, for songs, multis (called mixes in fusion speak) and programs. This is a monster of polyphony.
Sequencer/recorder-32 tracks-only Generalmusic had such a thing-why I kept my Equinox. A little tricky to work at first-but can record like a DAW-audio tracks using the 8-input HD recorder, and 32 tracks of midi. Inputs/outputs are solid construction and TRS. The large monochrome screen-only the newest color screens surpass this-but this one is still very clear and easy to read. if it fails, it can be replaced or modded with LEDS, nice! I can do anything i need pretty easily from the screen and sequencer.
Sounds-called "programs" in the Fusion-I learned piano on Steinways-and have owned several digitals as these progressed through the years. This is so comfortable to play with the 8-key Fatar action (its a TP40-same as in the newest Doepfers, Nords, Studiologics and some Korgs-but the fusion had it in 2005). i can practive serious classical for hours-finally can work on Chopin, Debussy, Schumann and others which I could not get through happily on other digitals-the weight was either wrong-or too noisy-or not enough dynamics-this feels fantastic to me. All other sounds-this has audiophile specs in the sound dept.-and it sounds it-very quiet throughout the signal chain. Factory sounds were OK, on par with Tritons, Roland RD's others I tried over the years. But the amount of work programmers put into this over time-astounding. It is a chameleon-I have only begun to program this-and it already has sounds I've only heard in my SY77 for FM, the Hollow Sun programs-listen to the Novachord samples-I've never heard anything like this anywhere. and others have created literally-a history of classic synths in this thing. Stuff I've only heard on Peter Gabriel recordings-i have played many older machines including Moogs, the original sequential Pro-One for analog, heard the first Memorymoog before it came to market-my god-this thing-its made everything else I have obsolete. I knew it-I watched this one for years-read about the problems-the more I studied the Montages, Fantoms, etc. the more I was pulled to this-I didn't care about the cost-i wanted something really different-and this is. And it is a full-on stereo sampler-and the sampler inputs can be re-routed to the HD recorder with simple patch cords! Geez!
Now the bad stuff-it is heavy-but then the Kurzweil/ Fantoms/etc. with weighted actions are not lightweights either. it is very solidly constructed-all steel and aluminium plus Fatar TP40 thus the weight. Th pushbuttons might not be to everyone's tastes-but everything is back-lit, real nice for dark venues. This is an unorthodox design-but with 4 knobs-in a matrix can act like 16-takes a little getting used to. But then, even organ drawbar settings can be designed to work with the knobs, several organ programs include this function. The bottom curved shape is weird-won't sit flat on a keyboard stand unless you make some adjustments to how you fit it. Big complaint-Alesis abandoned the SATA outboard interface-frustrating because the electronics are all in there, but they did not create the firmware to activate it! it even recognizes my SATA drive in diagnostic mode-but you cannot access any info in the drive-but it has a CF card reader which works, but only up to 4GBs. Other big problem-if you don't upgrade to OS 1.24-which is readily available from the user groups-this was plagued with bugs-which is partially why it failed-maddening because the subsequent OS upgrades fixed almost everything except the SATA outboard connector-different loop lengths for individual tracks are there-syncing audio and midi now works-new DSP includes formant vocal effects and several others. another big complaint-which many users did not understand at first-I do!
Since many sounds are sample-based (equally many are not-FM, VA and PM sounds for example) it initially takes a few seconds to load the larger sample-based sounds-taking these off the hard drive-but then you can load any sample-based sound directly from the hard drive when you first power up-store it in a "mix", "song" or 'favorites" folder-now sounds will be immediately accessible until you reboot. When you reboot-these samples load all at once and are instantly accessible. If a sound is not sample-based such as the VA or FM sounds-these load instantly. And 384MBs sample RAM with expansion cards installed-maybe not as much as the newest boards with sampling-but not shabby. I've played 1GB soundfont acoustic pianos that sound no better than the HG Fusion piano-which uses alot less sample memory than this.
This thing is a monster-if you are looking for a very deep, perhaps too complex but very original sounding workstation-and are not too much in love with virtual software machines for music production-you might want to try one of these. If you are willing to put in some time, and have a good ear for music and sound design, I think you will be pretty amazed at what this thing can sound like. Join the user groups-you might need to, to learn your way around this-its not for a beginner certainly unless as a beginner you want to advance to becoming a sound designer and composer. Thank you.
