Fusion price drop

[Liquid Shadow]

61 key now at $945 and 88 now at $1500.


You know, it wasn't the big daddy of all workstations when I tried it out awhile ago but it was decent. It had it's strengths and weaknesses but it seemed like it could be wonderful in the right hands. With that price drop, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's probably the best buy you can make right now (on the new market), except maybe the old Motif6 (not the ES)...not sure what that's going for right now.



I'm going to go off on an opiniated tangent now, so disagree if you want. I think that Alesis is really where it's at in the synth world right now. You've got Roland repackaging their products more or less (Juno-G = dumbed down Fantom, SH-201 = JP-8000) . Korg doing obvious rehashes, what with the "new" TR. It's a black Triton LE with a few bonuses that 5% of the userbase will take advantage of, woohoo! It's still tehcnology that's roughly 7 years old. And just the fact that they have the nerve to set the OASYS at that price makes me want to write them off altogether. What a scam. Yamaha hasn't been doing much, at least right now, they just released a more economic version of the Motif and that seems to be it.

I don't think Alesis did anything new at NAMM, but they aren't selling their old workstations (under a new name) for more than they're worth either. Looking at all the big name companies, I think they are the ones that are putting forth the most effort to give their customers (and future potential customers) what they want. I've heard of problems with the Ion, from various people, but these people also say that tech support is very helpful...so that helps a little bit at least. But look at the Micron...$400 and what a bunch of power in that little thing! They're also one of the few companies to have a CURRENT polyphonic analog on the market, and certainly the biggest name to be offering such a thing.

Then you've got the Fusion. It was probably released too early it seems, and they didn't make it what they thought it could be. So what do they do? Offer continual updates on it, and now look at what it's going for! It's the cheapest workstation on the market. Where you have Roland, Korg, and Yamaha offering workstations that are just powerful ROMplers, the fusion has that, plus VA, FM, and PM synthesis. And it's the cheapest of the whole lot.



I tell you what, I might wind up being the owner of one of these soon enough. All synth companies have their disappointments but at least Alesis seems to be making an effort. Everybody else is just rehashing old shit and overpricing everything. I hope Alesis puts a major dent in sales for all of them (especially Korg...ugh).



Fin.

[Omega Monkey]

While some of what you are saying about repackaging is probably true, the most important aspect of a keyboard is still quality, bottom line. Price and newness dont really add up to much when you are trying to make music and cant get the best possible sounds on the best quality equipment. Aside from the A6, which is hands down one of the best keyboard/synth products to come out in the last 10 or 15 years (if not more, although it;d be nice if they could bring the price down a bit), I've never really felt that Alesis had that across the board quality like Roland and Yamaha. Certainly some of their products have their strengths. The ADAT was brilliant. The Nanapiano has a bunch of great sounds too (and a bunch of worthless ones, and some unfortunate limitations). I do like the idea of the Fusion as sort of a semi-pro all in one, never buy anything else workstation/keyboard/recorder. Alesis seems in some ways to be trying to fill teh void left by Ensoniq's demise a few years ago, providing inexpensive but fairly capable gear. But I think overall they are inconsistent with their quality.

Roland and Yamaha, on the other hand, have been industry leaders for decades, and both companies have a truckload of innovative and influential synths in their stables. And really, at this point, Im not sure how much more there is that they could really do. The workstation has pretty much been an established formula for like 15 or 20 years at this point. The main thing that changes is the spec sheet. Whereas 15 years ago you might have had an 8mb ROM, now you might have 180. Instead of a measely 1mb of sample ram, you have 512. And instead of a tiny 16 character calculator LED, you have a 5x5" colour touch screen. So the key now isnt so much to make "new" things, as much as it is culling ALL of the synth making knowledge of the past 40 years, including as much of the best stuff as possible, and leaving out as much of the worthless stuff as possible, and keep it at a reasonable price for what its capabilities are. And I think these 2 companies especially and to a lesser extent Korg have done a great job with this the past 5 years or so.

Also, aside from FM and recording, the EX5 could do basically everything the Fusion can do (with somewhat lower specs of course), and it came out 8 years ago. And in a lot of ways, the Motif and S series arecontinuing with that legacy in the form of PLG cards.

The only "new" thing I would really like to see come out, is I would like to see Yamaha (or maybe Roland with their COSM background) come out with a REAL and powerful physical modeling synth, with actual usable polyphony.. As far as I know, the most you can do currently is like 4 by ganging together a bunch of PLG cards (maybe you can use MIDI to do more than that, but I dont know of any single device that can hold more than 4 PLG cards).

[jeebustrain]

where did you hear that prices were coming down? All the online sites I checked still list the old prices

[losmusicanos]

The last time I bought a new workstation was my XP-80 in March 1997 and I still use it extensively. I never had any problem with it (just an OS crash while playing song chains from the floppy, but I never use song chains anymore anyway). The wheel near the display needs some fixing but that's it. I've gigged with it a lot between 2000 and 2003. It's really reliable.

I don't need to buy a new workstation every 3 year, so I don't care too much about new models. But if someday I need to buy a good new workstation that will last at least a few years without having to buy newer stuff in 2008, I certainly wouldn't buy a Fusion. I'd go for a Fantom X (personal taste here).

The SH-201 may just be like a JP-8000 but they don't make the JP-8000 anymore so that makes sense to sell another VA now. The Juno-G makes sense as well for a singer-songwriter who just needs something simple in which he can record midi arrangements and audio tracks for vocals and guitar for example.

[hephiroth]

where did you hear that prices were coming down? All the online sites I checked still list the old prices

musician's friend still lists their "guaranteed lowest price" of $1,999.99, BUT samash.com has it for $1,499.99. I guess you could really make musician's friend give it to you for cheaper by showing them sam ash's price.

-jeff-

[stealth]

I spent a good hour playing with a fusion and I think it's got some beautiful sounds and a lot of potential, but it feels like it was built by Casio and I think I'd probably break it if I bought one.

[Liquid Shadow]

http://www.zzounds.com/item--ALEFUSION6HD


Actually it's another 50 bucks if you don't want a warehouse resealed model. Anyways...

[The J-Man]

You may have seen me post a few comments about the Fusion in the past. I'm a proud owner of a 8HD and it is well worth the $1,999 price I paid for it back in November. Now it's $1,499!!??? That's just crazy! I bought a brand new Karma last year for that price.

Look, I'll be honest with you. Stock piano sounds on the Fusion kinda blow. Guess what? You have 40 Gigs of hard drive space...so if you don't use the sequencer to record at all, you can use all of that to store piano samples that you do like...or any other samples that suit your fancy.

If you look at all you're getting with the Fusion...especially at it's new price point...it's going to be hard to deny that it is THE "bang-for-your-buck" keyboard on the market. Hell, the 6HD's are $999 and some online vendors offer free shipping!

Now, it's obvious to me that Alesis is trying to move these monsters because they haven't done well to date. Yes, it WAS a bit buggy at launch...but NOW, I can assure you that those bugs have been squashed. Alesis has been phenomonal with releasing updates and new patches nearly every month, and I feel that more and more people are going to discover Fusion for themselves with the price drop.

On a side note, it's a dream to play live.

</rant>

-Joel

[jeebustrain]

hey, J-Man... I was asking this on the Fusion forum and wanted to get another account... How well do you think it would function as a Master Controller? How easy is it to set up splits and layers, setting up some of those to transmit to the internal tone generator, and some to the midi out (to control other modules)?

With this price drop for the 88, I've honestly thought about replacing my Keystation Pro 88 with it...

[Liquid Shadow]

The only beef I have with the 88 is that it does not feel like a piano.

[whitelightening]

Aww, crap! Now I'm really torn between my two ideas. I am definitely going to get the MacBook Pro (someday). I was planning on getting that and the CME-UF88 as a controller, but now I'm definitely up in the air with the Fusion price-drop.

So, MacBook Pro and Controller or the Fusion 8HD?

They always say that good things come to those who wait, but in this crazy world of constantly upgrading and bigger, badder and faster, the longer I wait on this decision, the harder it becomes. Anyone...suggestions?

[Saku M]

Aww, crap! Now I'm really torn between my two ideas. I am definitely going to get the MacBook Pro (someday). I was planning on getting that and the CME-UF88 as a controller, but now I'm definitely up in the air with the Fusion price-drop.

So, MacBook Pro and Controller or the Fusion 8HD?

They always say that good things come to those who wait, but in this crazy world of constantly upgrading and bigger, badder and faster, the longer I wait on this decision, the harder it becomes. Anyone...suggestions?

I haven't really got to known the Fusion nor it's fully weighted keyboard (tried the 6HD briefly) but if you're trying to find a keyboard with a good piano like touch I really wouldn't recommend the UF88. I don't know if you have played one yourself but if you haven't, you should really try before buying. I was deeply disapointed...

[The J-Man]

The Fusion does have a weighted keyboard, but it's not hammer action. To answer midi-controller questions, I say move along. The Fusion doesn't have a lot of knobs/sliders for on-the-fly control, and the action isn't very realistic.

You can have up to 8 zones on the Fusion and you can have each zone control either an internal or external source...and it's really pretty easy to assign zones and such. Layering is pretty simple as well.

I would rather pick up a Fusion than get a computer and a controller any day...but that's just me.

-Joel

[gusjdt]

I haven't really got to known the Fusion nor it's fully weighted keyboard (tried the 6HD briefly) but if you're trying to find a keyboard with a good piano like touch I really wouldn't recommend the UF88. I don't know if you have played one yourself but if you haven't, you should really try before buying. I was deeply disapointed...

??? When I was in Australia, I tried out the UF88 and it had one of the best actions I've ever felt! I tried the Yamaha S90 ES the same day, and I liked the action on the CME MUCH more than the Yamaha. And the S90 ES's action is _very_ good.

Even the smaller versions of the CME controllers have great action. I think the action of the UF6 and 7 are the best semi-weighted action so far.




Now that I re-read this post... the word action appears a lot...

[Saku M]

??? When I was in Australia, I tried out the UF88 and it had one of the best actions I've ever felt! I tried the Yamaha S90 ES the same day, and I liked the action on the CME MUCH more than the Yamaha. And the S90 ES's action is _very_ good.

Even the smaller versions of the CME controllers have great action. I think the action of the UF6 and 7 are the best semi-weighted action so far.




Now that I re-read this post... the word action appears a lot...

Well considering the subject it's not really that strange :wink:

I guess it's about personal tastes. The UF's are really gorgeus keyboards and the prices on them are more than reasonable, but I just found the action to be something far away from a touch on a real piano but I would absolutely give it another, longer try.

[jeebustrain]

You can have up to 8 zones on the Fusion and you can have each zone control either an internal or external source...and it's really pretty easy to assign zones and such. Layering is pretty simple as well.


I was told on the Fusion forum that it actually supports up to 16 simultaneous layers/splits, each either being an internal voice or external. Is that incorrect?