Dave Smith Instruments SYNTHESIZERS

> "I am really considering purchasing a tabletop evolver or an 
alesis 
> micron for live use with a drum machine (ya I know they are very 
> different) and I was wondering if anyone could share their 
> experiences with using the mono-tabletop unit or the micron live.
> 
> Basically, I am hesitant to buy the evolver for only a couple 
> reasons.  I like to write music with a lot of layers, so the 
> polyphony issue comes to mind."

If you were just doing synth leads and/or basses in a band then I 
think the Evolver with a controller keyboard would be great.  
However, since you like layering and/or play chords (as I do!) then 
I know you'll agonize over the Evolver's monophony (if you make the 
Evolver your only synth); because of that, I'd go with the Micron in 
your situation.

I have both the desktop Evolver and the Micron (and Ion) and both 
the Evolver and Micron/Ion are a similar in the sense that, 
surprisingly, there's a large number of the factory patches that 
show the digital and unusual-sounding sides of the synths compared 
to showing typical/classic analog tones.  (The Micron has a lot of 
patches that show off its vocal format filters.)  If you don't want 
experimental sounds then you will probably have to do some 
programming on either the Micron or Evolver although by virtue of 
its huge number of presets the Micron would have more good starting 
points.  The Micron does have several good Moog-ish basses and leads 
included in its presets as well as "Movie Pad" a classic analogesque 
pad that you can play with a glorious 8 notes of polyphony if 
desired...something that just isn't an option with the desktop 
Evolver.