Alesis Ion

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Ion by Alesis
Synthesis type:		Virtual analog Subtractive
Polyphony:		8
Timbrality:		4
Oscillators:		3
Filter:		2
Attenuator:		1
LFO:		2
Keyboard:		49-key
Left hand control:		3x Wheel
Onboard effects:		4
Original price:		$1,295

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[edit] Introduction

The Alesis Ion is an analog modeling synthesizer. It was presented to the public on the Summer NAMM of 2002 [1]. Unlike another Alesis synthesizer, the Andromeda, it is not an analog synthesizer but uses DSP chips to mimic the sound of analog audio circuitry and components.

[edit] Features

The Ion has several features that make it stand apart from other analog modeling synthesizers. Most importantly, it features a selection of emulations of classic analog filter models of synthesizers such as the Moog Minimoog, Oberheim's SEM, the Roland TB-303, the ARP 2600 and the Roland Jupiter 8. Besides these emulations (which carry euphemistic names due to copyright issues), it has a series of filter models that are not commonly found on most synthesizers, such as formant and comb filters. This vastly increases the sonic range; most virtual analogs have only a single multimode filter (usually featuring low-pass, high-pass and band-pass modes) which was either designed from scratch or "inspired by" an existing "famous" filter model. The fact that two of these filters can be used in a parallel or serial configuration adds to the sound design possibilities.

Besides the selection of filters, it has an extensive modulation matrix. This allows the user to route a source (such as an LFO) to various targets with an adjustable intensity. The Ion's extensive "Mod Matrix" rivals the routing options of some voltage-controlled modular synthesizers.

While most virtual analog synthesizers are equipped with on-board effects, the Ion lacks two important ones; reverb and a long delay (the on-board delay only has 80ms of delay time). These are often used on synthesizers to add some atmosphere to what would otherwise be a "dry" sound.

The little brother of the Ion is the Alesis Micron, which is extremely compact and portable. It came out in 2004 with the same synthesis engine as the Ion, but only 37 keys and fewer knobs. It boasts reverb, long delay, and a pattern sequencer.

One feature that also sets it apart from other virtual analog synths is the high resolution of the knobs (12 bits encoding) yielding a more precise real-time tweaking experience. That extra resolution provides 8192 possible values (compared to the limited MIDI standard of 127) which eliminates all "stair stepping" or quantization of parameter value changes.

The Ion is used by:

Klaus Schulze http://www.klaus-schulze.com/misc/instr.htm#Keyboards
Pedro The Lion (exlusively for bass sounds on their Pedro The Lion's Achilles Heel LP)