Dave Smith Instruments SYNTHESIZERS

On Thu, Jan 15, 2004 at 01:16:56AM -0500, Ugo wrote:
> so when i went to the store, i was looking around to see if anything
> else had a sound that inspired me. as soon as the sales guy plugged in
> the evolver i knew i had found one.

Yeah, the Evolver definitely has that property ... despite no keyboard, it's
damn hard to keep your hands off it!

One thing that's cool about it, is the many voice elements that are simply
_different_ than other synths (notably the feedback/delay-related ones, but
also odd things like filter-split), while still being very musical.

It also definitely lives up to its name -- with most synths I'm usually a
bit lazy about programming dynamic elements (lfos, extra envs, mod
routings, etc), but with the Evolver it's different, I end up using tons of
that sort of thing; maybe it's the lack of a keyboard...

[Well also, oddly enough, it's that I _love_ the Evolver's programming
interface -- having _all_ the parameters laid out explicitly, right before
my eyes in that little space with fairly quick and easy access seems to
make it easier to actually _use_ them all.  In fact I think I like it even
better than traditional knob-per-function synths like old analogues or nord
leads or whatever!  My one wish is that DS had used softer buttons; don't
like those clicks.]

> but as soon as alesis solves the ion's problems, i'll be back in the store
> with cash in hand.

FWIW, the reports from NAMM are that Alesis say they have found the problem
(a batch of out-of-spec pots from their supplier) and fixed it in new units.
They are also trying to aggressively deal with any existing bad ones.

In my case the distributor is going to give me a brand new ion from a new
production run, which I should get this weekend; we'll see how that goes ...
:-|

-Miles
-- 
Occam's razor split hairs so well, I bought the whole argument!