18 thoughts on “Alesis Andromeda A6 Vintage Synth Review”

1. Cherry Audio, please make one of these for $127. Okay, $139. Otherwise, its just one of those magic UFO synths very few people will ever encounter. That’d be a shame, because its a monster, like a Matrix-12 with a somewhat friendlier GUI. If an 8-Voice is possible, this one should be, too.

   1. +1
      Would love a CA version of this awesome synth.

   2. IK Multimedia actually have a virtual version of this for far less than 139…
      One of the guys behind the A6 works for IK so it is a good version…

   3. There is already a vst version of it from one of the current companies, Google Syntronik

2. Wish it was a desktop or a rack. Keyboards yak

   1. Alesis really went for it with this one

      iirc they lost their ass on it too since it was sold at a near loss

      its definitely in its own category

3. This is a hardware synth that I would like to see back in production, with the bugs fixed.

4. Uli please

   1. There are a few synths that deserve a modern/improved treatment. This seems like a top contender.

      But it would be super cool if it was “Alesis and Behringer Partner to Create Andromeda Reboot”

      I’d love to see a modern EPS.

5. Alesis really went for it with this one

   iirc they lost their ass on it too since it was sold at a near loss

   its definitely in its own category

   1. 2000: Alesis releases the Andromeda
      2001: Alesis purchased by Numark/inMusic Brands

6. I hate reading stories like this but I’ll tell it anyway! 🙂 I bought an Andromeda from a studio in Edinburgh for £750 around 2007. Was like new. No other bids on eBay. Sounds great but it its not without its faults – eg those pots are so sensitive its tricky to control the envelope shape. But overall it sounds great and I always loved that alien-esque interface!

7. I had one back in the day. It sounded good – WHEN it worked. There are some that are good but there are a LOT of potential problems with these. They have a lot of custom chips in them and when they fail, the only way to fix the unit is to cannibalize another Andromeda. I’d heard some of the early ones were good but in my experience, I’ve never played one that wasn’t buggy and I’ve played several.

   The one I owned was great for the first month and then because increasingly unstable to the point of being unusable. No amount of factory resets, recalibration, etc. was bringing it back. Eventually it became a paperweight so the store took it back and I got a V-Synth XT which was obviously quite different but amazing. I still have that to this day.

   I consider the A6 to be a VERY risky purchase – more than even a vintage Memorymoog. I know some people have good ones. The OS is a bit buggy to begin with but in my experience, I’ve never played one that didn’t have some kind of flakiness or QC issues. I think this was too ambitious a project for Alesis. I’d heard of their sale to a parent company during the A6 and I suspect that didn’t do them any favours.

   If you’re looking for a great polyphonic analog synth with very deep programming, I suggest looking at the Arturia Polybrute. I have one and it’s incredible – it can do fat, classic tones as well as beautiful delicate stuff and everything in between. It’s superior in nearly every way except polyphony and keybed feel. Mine has been rock solid in the time I’ve had it, the computer integration is incredible, and it has that “time travelling Delorean” quality that the A6 had but without any of its drawbacks.

   1. I hear story like these about the A6 and I’m just mystified. I absolutely believe you (and others), but mine is just rock solid and I’ve never had a single problem with it. Guess I got one of the good ones? I think it’s the greatest synth ever made.

      1. I think the Yamaha SC-80 is at least as good.

8. had one, so buggy. sold it and bought a bunch of Moog’s best synth to sell ever.

9. Look at the (understandable) asking prices for the OB-X8 and Moog One. If re-imagined in hardware, you could expect a similar tag for one of these. It’d really rise to its name if recreated minus the in-house chips. Its a pretty big thing to reach for, so it calls for the softsynth treatment. Its more modular inside than most of its kin, like a Kurzweil. I smell a couple of years of coding, minimum.

10. It was a great synth, had alot of negative reviews when it first came out…. I still have mine that I brought new in 2001. But since 2020 one of the main boards inside has gone and alesis don’t support or have parts for it anymore. So it’s a shame as I created over the years some great bass parts and cool pad effects in music and recording songs in Pro tools with this thing. If I could find someone in the UK to get it fixed I’d be over the moon