Category: Synthesizers

When synthesizers were still relatively new and, above all, had no sound memory, every keyboard player created their own sounds. Mainly synthetic instruments that were based on acoustic instruments as role model and some that could be described as new. This resulted in so-called lead sounds, synth basses and percussives. It was no coincidence that terms such as synthbrass and syncussion were used. Their characteristics were also similar to those of acoustic instruments. At least in principle, i.e. they consist of the elements of tone attack, sustain or decay phase and what happens after a key is released. Initially, only a few options were provided for dynamic control, in particular the pitch bend wheel for tone bending and the modulation wheel for vibrato and tremolo. In the 80s, a really serious dynamics tool was added in the form of keyboard velocity, which was particularly welcomed by keyboard players with piano training. Although special sound effects and noise effects have also been created since the early days, but this article is about synthetic instruments.

You first had to learn how the instrument works and what analog sound synthesis is. It didn’t hurt to have some basic knowledge about existing instruments and how their tones are created. That was the case in the 70s and the norm, so to speak. Some manufacturers included so-called patch charts with the instruction manual so that everyone could immediately set up a few sounds. That was a good help when learning to create synthetic instruments. If you wanted to create your own sounds with the parameters, for example for certain songs, you used a blank patch chart and marked the settings on the parameter knobs and switches with a ballpoint pen or felt-tip pen so that you could have the sound exactly the same later. This was then the template and the keyboard player had to set all the knobs, sliders and switches back to the previously noted settings and the desired sound was playable again. Some keyboard players were particularly talented in this discipline and created very unique and sometimes well constructed original results. Some with a specific character of their own or, and this was also almost the norm: sounds, very personal sounds that were so concise and unique that a listener would associate them with a specific keyboard player.

That was the beginning of the so-called signature sounds. Sometimes a song from this time with such a signature sound became famous, and also a synthesizer solo could became a classic. Back then, musicians also exchanged such patch charts with each other, but not all of them did that. Some regarded these self-created sounds as their trademark and did not pass them on to others. This changed when there were presets ROM/RAM memory and the manufacturers themselves brought people on board to equip a new synthesizer with as many sounds as possible. It was the beginning of sound design, first as a side job, then as a full-time profession. Over the years, a lot has happened in the keyboards market, especially with more and more instruments from more and more manufacturers. Other syntheses were also added, such as FM (frequency modulation), additive synthesis, phase distortion and, above all, samplers, which were often a combination of synthesizer and pure sample player.

So far, so good. But today there’s a catch. And that is not only an unmanageable amount of synthetic sounds, but also a lot of completely arbitrary, meaningless or even actually useless tones. Tones that lack everything we know from acoustic instruments: an unmistakable character and that certain something. Even a simple recorder delivers character that is instantly recognizable as soon as you have listened to it for a few seconds. In other words, much of today’s tone material in synthesizers lacks any of the dignity that the recorder has. What happened that allowed this to happen?

On a whim, I recently watched a few YouTube videos in the evening after work and suddenly had the impulse to listen to a Tangerine Dream album again. It was Rubycon, which is my favorite album by them. And while I was listening to it, I also remembered the two live concerts I saw. One at the time of their album Phaedra, the second around Tangram. Both gigs were sensational. The three Moog Modular cabinets let the sounds sweep through the concert hall with a breathtaking force, just like the Mellotron, the Solina String Ensemble, the Korg PE-2000, EMS VCS 3. The PA had power and transmitted the sounds perfectly. A real treat. And the sounds were partners to the music and offered exactly the aesthetics that the musical ambition wanted to portray. In other words, three elements: character, presence, song-oriented. And that’s no longer the case today? Yes, but far too rarely and sometimes not at all.

Youtube: Tangerine Dream: Rubycon, full album, click here

Do you want to leave it like this, this facelessness, the irrelevant paleness, the boring? This doesn’t mean that it necessarily has to come across as massive, as with Tangerine Dream. No, the finely drawn, delicate sound is also needed in a musical context if this certain fragile expression is to be reproduced. Or it has to sound funny, like the Casiotoone Frog preset, which plays an almost striking role in Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Or the famous Preset 11 electric piano of the DX7, which has been an integral part of songwriting for 40 years now with its slenderness and great dynamic possibilities. In other words, everything that is associated with the term Famous Sound. TR808 drums, Prophet 5 Sync sound, the widest brushstroke ever called Jump from the Oberheim OB-Xa. But all this doesn’t have to come across as wide-legged, it can be done differently. The glassy pad of a PPG Wave 2.2, the soft and warm fuzz of the Oberheim Matrix 12 Preset Horn Ensemble, where the singer calls for a pad sound that lays the sonic foundation for his performance. The bizarre, beastly lead sound, where you can hear the punk that it is supposed to represent. The dignity that a synthetic sound can have can be found in all these sounds. After all, such an instrument should be on a par with acoustic instruments. So it may be time to return to that, as described above. To dignify the synthetic instrument creations and to proceed according to the method less is more.

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It was 2005 when Alesis launched a keybaord workstation on the market. It was called Fusion and for good reason. Because under the hood, it really is a powerhouse with four engines. A virtual analog synthesizer, another section capable of FM synthesis, a sample player and physical modeling. And that’s not all, because the developers have added a kind of drum machine to the keyboard, as the built-in arpeggiator can read MIDI files and therefore also drum patterns

A workstation is only a workstation if it has a sequencer and that’s exactly what the Fision offers. So, that’s the feature list in a nutshell. Does it all sound pretty well thought out? Yes, Alesis already had experience in keyboards. The first model was called QuadraSynth and its successor QS. That should be enough to venture into the premium workstation class. Really? Well, it turned out to be more than a challenge. At the time of its market launch, the instrument was available in two versions for less than 2,000 euros, which was sensational. Its look is quite unconventional, the silver aluminum housing is curved to the front and back and is reminiscent of an airplane wing. Let me fly! And the design of the controls was probably inspired by American classic cars of the 50s and 60s. In any case, the look has character, is photogenic and shows its strengths in the everyday operation of the keyboard. The instrument came at a good time for musicians. Workstations had been popular for several years, starting with the Korg M1. Everything in, everything on. And the Fusion cut a good figure straight away with its features. You could only get something like this for a lot more money, such as the Korg Oasys, which came onto the market in the same year and was much more expensive. This earned the Fusion the nickname “Poor Man’s Oasys” among keyboardists, and rightly so.

However, the joy was initially dampened unexpectedly by some very annoying bugs. There weren’t too many of them, but they were pretty highly praised by musicians in the relevant forums. There were error messages that appeared on the display when loading samples and you didn’t know what they meant and, above all, how to fix them or at least work around them. Or master clock problems when synchronizing audio data with midi data in the sequencer. And many other things. That dampened the joy, at least temporarily. Alesis worked feverishly to eliminate all these problems and OS 1.24 put an end to most of them. The remaining desire for fusion was fueled by a flood of additional sounds. Which was logical, because the internal factory voices were criticized here and there as being a little pale. One of the reasons for this was that the great modulation options in the presets had not been used straight away in the way they turned out to be a little later. The modulation matrix on the Fusion is a blessing. Both in terms of the wide range of possibilities and the fact that it is quite uncomplicated to use.

Just like the Sampler Player Engine, which allows up to four layers. Plus lots of effects for polishing. And up to eight LFOs per voice. Separate envelopes that are displayed graphically, making it much easier to get an overview. Operation in general. The menu navigation via the display is exemplary, which certainly pleased the musicians. The same goes for the equipment with over a dozen real-time controllers. The four knobs, for example, are endless encoders, which makes them extremely convenient to use. In addition, their values and positions are shown graphically on the display. The effects are numerous, although perhaps not always quite so great in detail. The reverb effect, for example, has occasionally been criticized, although the plate model in particular is quite good.

The two keyboards are just as good. Once as semi-weighted plastic keys and once as weighted piano type keys. The latter are relatively smooth-running, which still allows pianistic playing. And the plastic key version of the 6HD is nicely staffed and therefore good for accentuated expression. Both Fusion versions, the 6HD and 8HD, are comparatively light, weighing just xx kg and yy kg respectively, which makes the instruments easy to transport.

And there are other pleasant features such as a CF card for additional data. Although the internal hard disk is already very convenient. A novelty in keyboards at the time anyway. This allows any number of sound banks directly on board. So no expensive extra cards required. This is very unusual for keyboards of this type, which often only offer a limited number of internal memory locations. Such a powerful keyboard is therefore ideally equipped.

It didn’t take long after the market launch of the Fusion for owners to get together in forums. And helped each other out with tips and solutions to problems. Not just because of the annoying bugs. Rather because of all the great possibilities of the Fusion. Sounds and samples were distributed, suggestions were made and it also became an advertising platform. For 3rd parties like me. I was one of the people hired by Alesis to program the factory presets long before the Fusion was launched. Since I had already realized during this work that there was much more to it than just the few song banks that were included, but that I could make further offers and inform the users in this forum about it, I simply did it. The forum owner had allowed this self-promotion. The first Program Presets Bank with 364 new sounds was literally snatched out of my hands. And not only presets were in demand, but also sample libraries.

To date, over 30 of them have been produced, by me alone. There are a number of other providers and the Fusion is probably one of the best supported instruments in the workstation sector. There are also tutorials, some via website texts, some in forums, on Youtube as videos. And also as a book “My Fusion Secrets”, which I published and which was available with a sample library plus two sound banks. It will be back soon as a new edition with more sounds. The Fusion is featured on many music productions and has earned itself the status of “keyboardist’s darling”. Despite all the difficulties at the beginning. The developers in particular deserve to be honored today. People who have a Fusion love it and never want to throw it out of the studio or the bedroom.

There are even pimp-my-synth options, such as replacing the internal hard disk with an SSD disk. Or upgrade the memory to up to 128 MB RAM. The used price is still surprisingly low today. So it’s still a good idea to get a used Fusion if you’ve listened to a few online demos and are considering buying one. Today, the Fusion is certainly one of the top digitals of the 2000s that has made it to the Olympus of the most popular.

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Copyright notice:

Sharing/reblogging is expressly desired. Reprinting, even in part, as well as any editing and commercial reuse are not permitted or require written permission from me.