This is part of my exploration of the Andromeda synth.
It's
a wonderful synthesizer, which even after owning it for over 5 years
I'm still just scratching the surface of what it can do.
The A6 is intimidating at first glance. 72 knobs, 144 buttons, 16 voices, 16 VCAs.
There are 2 oscillators and 2 filters per voice. (That's 32 VCOs & 32 filters)
The filters are a multimode 2-pole and a 4-pole lowpass.
The
official manual is really long (as you'd expect) from such a complex
synth, so this is my attempt to break things down, into smaller parts
for myself. If this helps someone else, that great too.
Let me know of course if I have made any mistakes. I'll correct them ASAP.
The overall signal path runs from left to right.
Each VCO has 5 waveforms (sine, triangle, square, up saw, down saw).
There are three LFOs, each with six waveforms and they can be synced to MIDI clock.
And there are three 7-stage envelopes.
There is a built-in
arpeggiator and 16 step sequencer with MIDI sync.
Effects -
Digital reverb, chorus, echo, analog distortion, quad pitch-shifting, flange, and more
Memory -
Program Memory: 256 preset and 128 user-defined
Mix Memory: 128 user-defined
Memory Card Slot: PCMCIA-format
Mix Memory: 128 user-defined
Memory Card Slot: PCMCIA-format
I think the best way to view this synth (and the same goes for any synthesizer) is to
break it up into it's parts. Imagine this as you would a modular synth.
The A6 is made up of VCO's, Filters, Mixers, VCAs and EGs.
In fact the Andromeda is very much like a modular synth.
You can “disconnect” some of these modules from the audio
and control paths by
setting their values to zero, in effect turning them off.
It's really easy to view the settings for each module and see how they are
connected to the other modules.
For such a complicated beast, it really is quite logical and not difficult to use
once you grasp the architecture.
-----------------------------
Setup.
Before we begin, lets make sure the synth is tuned. Press the auto-tune on the extreme left.
(you need to press this button twice)
The LED will flash and the display will show the status.. that the synth is tuning filters, VCOs etc.
This takes a few minutes.
The A6 operates in
one of two play modes: Program mode and Mix mode.
They are really just two types of presets
Program mode:
The
keyboard plays a single sound across the entire keyboard.
Program mode has 3
banks: User, Preset 1, and Preset 2.
There are two banks in Program mode (one User and one Preset)
Each bank has 128 different Programs, so you
have a total of 256 Programs to audition.
You can move among Banks by pressing the < BANK > button
To select a Program, make sure that the A6 is in Program mode: the LED next to
the PROGRAM button should be on. If not, press the PROGRAM button.
Program mode also contains a third function called MANUAL
This is used
when creating new Programs. It is only active in Program mode.
Pressing this
button causes the A6 to exit the current Program and create
a new Program based on
the current settings of all front panel controls.
It
provides a good starting point for a new program.
Mix mode:
The A6 may play different sounds
in different ranges (a split), a stack of sounds on top of each other,
or combination of
splits and stacks.
There are two banks in Mix mode (one User and one Preset) for a
total of 256 Mixes.
To select a Mix, make sure that the A6 is in Mix mode: the LED next to the
MIX button should be on. If not, press the MIX button.
Mix mode is also used when the A6 is connected to a MIDI sequencer for
multitimbral recording and playback. Each Mix channel can be assigned to a specific MIDI Channel
with unique MIDI controller assignments.
The row of rectangular buttons just below the display area are used to select the
Programs within a Mix. When a Mix Channel is ON, its associated LED will light.
When a Mix Channel is currently selected for editing in the display, its LED will
blink.
Presets
Called "programs" or "mix" here.
Press the program button (or mix) + ten's + ones
You can also use these left two knobs to scroll the programs, banks & DIRectories
and the two buttons on the right (see pic).
If you wish to write a new patch, press the red "store" button.
Compare - compares the edited patch.
Manual - resets all parameters according to the front panel settings.
In fact the A6 is littered with them on the LFOs, filters, VCOs, EGs Mixers, ARPs etc
This is what makes the A6 behave like a modular synth. You can view each module in isolation.
Pressing these buttons will display the settings of that module on the display.
Oscillators
We have 32 oscillators spread over 16 voices.
Two per voice.
These are the controls for a voice.
You have the two main oscillators, two sub oscillators, external input, noise, ring mod, filter feedback
Press the mixer view to get a overall idea of the various audio inputs
You can mix oscillator level, noise, external inputs,
The oscillator view button brings up a view of that VCO in question
yOU can play with PWM and levels, turn on /off the different wave shapes, etc
Filters
Filter 1 is a 12db multimode 2-pole.
Filter 2 is a 24db 4-pole lowpass.
When filter 2 input is set to mix, both filters are working in parallel.
That is, both filters are independent.
Thus the LP,BP, HP of filter 1 & the LP of filter 2 are all available
at the same time.
You can mix both filters plus the pre filter.
Pre filter includes Osc 1 sine, OSC 2 sine, & Ring mod
Envelopes
There are 3 with 7 stages per voice
When you touch any of these knobs or buttons, the associated envelope will be displayed on the screen.
They have delayed onset, attack, two decays, sustain & 2 releases.
You can loop selected stages.
There are 3 possible modulations for each envelope.
LFOs
There are 3 LFOs.
Each LFO can be sine, tri, saw, square
You can change the freq, polarity, phase
and of course the source & destination.
eFFECTS
tHIS has two parts:
Analog distortion & Digital effects
The digital effects include: chorus, delay, reverb
Clock
This sets the timing for the arp , sequencer, LFOs
------------------
I understand that the name 'Andromeda' comes from The Andromeda Strain.
It's a 1971 American science fiction thriller film produced and directed by Robert Wise. Based on Michael Crichton's 1969 novel of the same name.
It's about a deadly alien organism that when it infects, crystalizes the blood.
--------------------
I'll go into greater depth in future posts. J
+ Andromeda A6 - Alesis Part 4 - Filters, the post filter mixer
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