[A6] Defunct voices and support

[Ioannis Kazlaris]

Hi,
 
when I got my A6 it played just fine for about 45 days. Then, one day, I saw a dot <.> above voice 4. I thought that this was due to me pressing autotune shortly after powering on the A6. So I switched it off, waited a couple of minutes, then back on, then wait some 15 minutes before hitting Autotune. This time voice 4 was OK. When I started playing the instrument I could hear some wild detuning in a voice. I put on my trusty Senheiser phones to make sure that this has nothing to do with my ears and realized that voice 6 was defunct. There was some wild intermodulation between VCO 1 and VCO 2. It didn't get any better after switching the A6, then back on, wait, do the Autotune....
 
So, your A6 might have a defunct voice and you don't know it. My guess is that it will show sometime. I emailed Alesis and they told me to have the unit repaired. Called Alesis dealer in Athens, and they in turn called an Alesis technician from Germany (and thank God he didn't call Japan or China LOL) who said that he will be shipping a chip for replacement. In fact, my A6 is now in Athens to perform the deed.
 
Which is to say that just because you pressed Autotune doesn't mean that the voices are tuned properly. Use your ears. And, just because the A6 disables a voice (like mine did for voice 4) doesn't mean that this voice is problematic. Voice 4 in my A6 never had a problem. But even in its current OS (which is a little buggy) the A6 is one galaxy ahead from other synthesizers. Call me a perfectionist then...
 
This is quite frustrating and it's a shame that they don't do anything about it. I was reading the AH topics on the A6, and wondering what would they say if someone mentioned this prior to the shipment of the A6. Before the A6 was released, it was all "it will do this and that and the other" and afterwards "it doesn't exactly do this, and this is for a future OS and the other well... we're working on it". This happens, not only with Alesis but with all manufacturers. As soon as users complain about bugs, they start fixing things one at a time. If they do. But then again, a new product comes along and users hold their breaths only to find the same thing. Over and over again. Same with hardware, same with software.
 
This is criticism towards the absence of support afterwards and not to anyone in Alesis in particular. I know that nothing will happen and that this topic has been discussed over and over again. I am sure that if Alesis supported their instruments properly none of these would have happened. People who invested their money would be more happy than they are now, people would continue buy (more) Alesis products (see? reputation!) spread the word that indeed Alesis is not interested in only making a quick profit. They are bought by Numark now, but so what? Does Numark have financial problems as well? Mike Peake from Alesis did a fine job, promoting the A6, was very kind in helping people, answering questions...but where is he now? I thought that this is a very nice thing to do, on behalf of Alesis, to have one of their stuff spreading the word...but where is he now? Does he still work for Alesis? If not, did anyone take his place? Please understand that this is not critisism towards Mike
 IN ANY way. It's highly unlikely that A6 owners have learned the A6 inside so we could use a little help!
 
Sorry, for the length email. I am waiting for my A6 to come back...
 
Yannis

>>>Then I noticed that on my A6, VCO2, on voice 4 and 12 gets a weird growling sound, >>>with hard sync turned on that gets louder as the sub-oscillator volume is turned up >>>Like maybe the suboscillator pitch can't quite lock on or something strange.
>>>When I turn temptune off, it's nowhere near as bad soft-sync is fine though.
...
>>>The Andromeda will automatically disable a defective voice. A retune or system reset >>>can restore the voice. You can manually enable a disabled voice from the autotune >>>menu.

>>>MC

Yannis

		
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