I'd never dreamt I would say this about any recent Alesis products given thier disasters on a few products,but holy s**t--the Alesis Ion is quite a miracle and a hugely overlooked & hugely under-estimated synth on my part.
If you love unlimited creation & analogue warmth at a insane price then please read on.....
I have spent the better part of this afternoon researching the Ion,because I became so consumed by what I was reading & listening, & nothing could pry me away from my computer because of this beautiful machine.
The Ion is a analogue & fm synthesis modeling keyboard with 49 keys.
It has 2 modulation wheels & a pitch bend wheel with 30 real-time knobs & 69 buttons.
Specifications:
-512 preset programs(all user programmable)
-8 voice polyphony with 3 oscillators per voice
-4 insert effects,as well as master effects-including;
phaser,flanger,overdrive,distortion,tube amp,compressor,chorus & fuzz pedal.
-external audio inputs & a 40 band vocoder
My sales rep at Sweetwater had spent quite a bit of time with it,delving deep into the Ion's creative abilities & gave it a excellent review,& customer reviews on this product were very good as well.In fact,no matter where I looked on the internet,I could not find a bad review of this product!
My sales rep said that they've been out of stock for this item for about a year & they recently got a batch of them in-I know this to be true,because I looked all over the internet & the Ion is either on special order,or it's out of stock at most retailers.
SoundOnSound magazine gave it a good review and it seems to sell out quickly,because the availabilty is few & far between.
Some people are raving about how well the Ion emulates analogue warmth & it's innate ability to accurately replicate 70's & 80's synth sounds.
I certainly believe this,because I was actually blown away by the audio demos of this magnificent keyboard.
One person referred to this board as being under-priced,because of everything that you get for just $599.00(USD) & it's even been compared to the Nord Lead-because of the level of quality for this price.
In consideration of the availability of this board & it's price,I just may postpone my purchase of the Nord & get the Ion first!
I can't believe I am saying this,but it's true & here's why...
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Ion/media/#anchorMany people also stated that it's built like a tank,as the build quality is very sturdy for such a small board.
Have fun purusing this keyboard....as I certainly have!
Thom