[A6] Brand New andromeda, Brand new problems....

[cgould11 at tampabay.rr.com]

> Alesis always had serious problems with quality 
> control. It just deteriorated to gigantic 
> proportions lately. It's like a "White Elephant"
> out here - everyone knows it's so but pretend 
> its ok - in silent prayer their A6 doesn't go 
> bezeerk..

Honestly, I would disagree with the "always"
statement. I've owned several Alesis products 
(Q6, MMT-8, Wedge, A6). Alesis does have a 
few "special" problems that other synth 
manufacturers don't have (their case screws fall apart for instance). However, I've never had 
problems with Alesis internals, and most of the
things like the mod wheel / pitch wheel work ok.

Each synth I've had has *some* QC weak spot. My
Roland D-50 has keys that can go out (due to dirty
contact strips). My Waldorf Pulse+ has pots that 
can go notoriously loose. I've owned some Yamaha
samplers -- quirky at best (A3000) and only worth 
a damn with some Swede hacker's OS (TX16W). 
Etc. etc.

So far, the A6's weak point for me (aside from
the screws) has been some software issues and
an occasional issue with the pitch bend. Eh.
I've seen worse. Far, far, far worse. Had Alesis
lasted, I'm sure it would've been improved. :P

Now, having said that, I don't know how Numark, 
a DJ company who treats the A6 as a cash cow, 
is handling QC. 

Oh, and yeah I bet there are small variations from
synth to synth. This is an analogue after all. :)