FW: [A6] A6 sine osc

[cgould11 at tampabay.rr.com]

> I agree that it's power and unpredictability 
> are what makes it attractive for creativity, 
> but what surprises me is that so many 
> peoplejump to defend a piece of equipment that 
> has some serious reliabilityissues and noticeable
> flaws. It provides lots of bang, but the buck 
> part is a bit steep for the quality. 

Eh... I'd love it if the quality of the instrument
was something higher than "typical Alesis" and the
OS was actively being worked on. (Actually I've
heard this comment before: Alesis took on far more
than, as a prosumer company, they should've. 
Peavey's another company that's fallen afoul 
when they've attempted pro products, largely due
to their own paradigm.)

Sad to say, this more or less reflects the 
sad state of the synth market today, so I think 
most of us just accept it and ignore the flaws as
best we can. (Older equipment often has greater
flaws anyways.) The 
fact is, true pro-quality gear with custom 
analog circuitry tends to cost a heck a lot more
than even Alesis's high synth price. Browse the 
prices on professional studio products for a good 
comparison, as well as the high-end boutiques 
like Moog, SE, etc. 

Now, in some ways you wonder if the synth still
is overpriced -- especially post-bankruptcy. But
hey. Part of the reason that Alesis probably can
continue to price the synth at $2400-$2900 is that
it literally is the only game in town when it comes
to analog. The only competition that Alesis has 
is boutique: the  Studio Electronics Omega 8 
($5000), the Jomox Sunsyn ($3500 - 8 voice),
and the Dave Smith Polyevolver ($2400 - 4 voice).
No one else wants to design a similar synth, and
given the A6 Alesis experience, who could blame 
them?

Now, I think that Alesis could've done more
marketing this synth in lower cost formats, 
given its design and the fact that much of the 
cost (especially now) is probably in the 
hardware: all those knobs. (The fact that 
Dave Smith Instruments is coming out with a 
$1400 PolyEvolver 1U rack shows the potential
cost savings there.) An 8-voice $1400 2U Andromeda
might have quelled some of the cost-birds.

However, to me, Alesis saw what every other synth 
manufacturer sees: prosumer makers can't justify 
the cost when it is much cheaper to make 
v-analogs for the masses. Who will buy a $2300 
analog when there are $400 virtual analogs? 
(Me, for one, but who's counting me?)