What's so special about the Alesis Micron?

Here's a closer look at what makes the #Alesis #Micron #synthesizer tick.
Table of contents:

00:09 Hello
00:31 overview
01:06 patch editor
07:55 drum patterns
08:49 setups
10:00 pattern sequencer
11:20 important considerations
11:50 demo track (incl. vocoder demo)
13:25 bye bye

Here's what I have in my setup at the moment. Want to have that, too? Please use the followings links and support me:

MPC One, Novation PEAK, Reface DX, Strymon Nightsky, Strymon Volante, Strymon Iridium, Zoom MS 70 CDR, Korg NanoKontrol 2, Korg NanoKey, Akai EWI USB, Zoom R24, Zoom H5, Yamaha MT7:

Some bands / artists I've been following for a long time are (among others) Massive Attack, Pink Floyd, Pet Shop Boys, Archive, A-Ha, Yes, Porcupine Tree, John Mellencamp, Jean-Michel Jarre, Metallica, Peter Gabriel and Perturbator. So my music will kind of sound like those (without ever reaching the greatness of those artists, of course). :-)

[-_-MARANTZ]

The micron is such a blast from the past! Floyd, thank you so much for continuing the journey and sharing with us 🙏❤️....I watched your earlier videos, and was so pleasantly surprised to see this one !

[darwiniandude]

I used to sell these in a music store years ago. It was easy to sell, just an amazing synth for the money when new vs others, like the Microkorg. I do regret not buying one myself back then. Many manufacturer's would've taken most of the features away when dumping the flagship ION engine into the entry level Micron, but Alesis kept everything intact for the most part, it's just hidden with menu diving - having said that it has a great and capable UI which isn't a nightmare to work with once familiar.

[joenicholas]

I would love more in depth tutorials on creating set ups, editing sounds, navigating the micron, assigning different features to different knobs/sliders etc

[IrregularShed]

I was expecting you to start with "at the first glance, the Alesis Micron is ticking all the boxes" - Friday is Bad Gear day after all!

[JulianToler]

Neat synthesiser - all in all a great package. It looks like a lot of fun from one device.

[michelvondenhoff]

What a powerhouse! I liked the looks but never looked much further.

Great video as always.

[rogualradiante]

Excelente, adquirí uno hace poco tiempo y lo estoy descubriendo, por lo que este video es muy valioso y sería genial tener más del Micrón en profundidad en próximos videos. Muchas Gracias Floyd.

[heavysystemsinc.]

Thanks for showing how editing works. Lots of people have slept on this machine because they claim the editing is too hard despite there being PC editors and the fact it's not difficult, just tedious in some ways to use the single knob. It's better than hiding features, I think, such as how Roland hid 75% of the Zencore engine in MC101 despite it having an interface that would actually work pretty well for editing.

[PaulvanEgmond]

Nice to see this synth get some extra love. Feature set is quite competitive even today, if you can buy it used for a fair price.

[sh]

my first one and even though ti has been boxed for years at a time I'm ALWAYS happy to play this synth. all the music I did that people seem to really like was played on this. I never got round to actually programming my own new sounds, but now I've nearly 20 years of experience messing about with daws and synths maybe its time to dive really into this synth engine and modulation matrix.
I would love to see you more in depth things on this one!

[mmachinibarra]

Great playability for its multitimbric feature and lots of patterns and rhythms.

[ryanbmd]

You’re the best Floyd!!! Keep making amazing and fun content my friend

[ifaber]

I missed this video of yours with the legendary Alesis Micron. He was my companion for a long time. ...I regret selling it. Nice final demonstration 🙂

[DawlessHouseMusic]

OMG. If I could have found one when I first started, I would have bought it for sure.

[nabooka]

The Micron shines when you run the filters in parallel and pan out the is oscillators for binaural sounds with the classic filter emulations ;)

[valley_robot]

Powerful little thing isn’t it, to think people lusted over the microkorg and the mini nova over this way more powerful synth

[alexwestconsulting]

awesome video as always Floyd. I've got the Akai Miniak. Got it a few months ago. When i first started playing it I was turned off by its sound. But once I dialed in the first phrase sequence patch I was blown away.

[Gainn]

I'll never sell my MiniAK. Such a great engine for just making angry.

[doctorc-ton]

I had no idea that the Micron is considered "vintage gear". I've had mine since it was marketed as the "mini-ion" and I tried playing the Ion at Sam Ash Music store once and it didn't seem as intuitive as a Synth should be, but I really didn't have loads of time on it. I bought the Micron for the sole purpose of having greater polyphony than the MicroKorg. I liked the feel of the Micron better, but I found the sounds to be not nearly as striking as the MicroKorg. I had a MicroKorg too and loved how intuitive that was, and it was fun to play. I lent it to my cousin who has kept it going and it has made him love music, really!

I must admit that after all of these years, I haven't spent the thousands of hours needed to master the menu system, but what I have found was a way to create a patch with the help of a software tool, which I believe is 20 years too late, but much welcome because that is the tool I can use to actually figure out what this synth can actually do!

The real second life of this Synth is it's MIDI keyboard function as it feeds my software synth engines and that is what it does well.

I think the build quality is pretty good. I like the design overall, It has a lot of sound capabilities, has a few quirks, and honestly this thing may need to be connected to an effect box that can soundshape it's output for either added punch, or more quality after effects that are better than the built in ones.

Would I buy this unit again? I don't know! I think I'd get it fixed if it broke, or find a midi keyboard that is superior to this Micron. I'd love to own a Moog of some kind, or I feel like I would love a Roland Juno that resembles their old school Juno keyboards. I remember playing the Juno-6 when my friend had one and it was dope in every way. So many sliders to get a sound out of it, and all the hands on every control to dial in something special. I know the Micron can make something cool, so I will keep tinkering with it. I think the weirdest thing it does is feeding sound through it. This thing is a special piece.

[Dubdroid]

One of the best videos on Youtube that opens up the potential of this machine for sculpting incredible sounds👍👍 … thanks for showing areas of this beast I haven’t yet explored … after almost a year of tinkering about … Maybe I need the computer Micron editor to get the best out of this?🤔
Pity you sold your Micron … I was hoping you would do more instructional pieces … sequencing and layering sounds … set ups for the best controller mayhem etc! …
Have the manual on my iPad … which is well-written and clear … just have to dive in daily and get into it deeper.