I miss the desert
Sep. 6th, 2007 10:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spacebugWork is still a flat run, but it's...uhm... well, at a water stop right now, I guess, to keep going with a dumb metaphor. I will feel much better once this event tomorrow is behind me. I'm honestly not looking forward to playing tomorrow (actually, that's not true, I'm happy to play, what I'm not looking forward to is hauling and setting up my gear and being social) but hopefully it will go well and wash out some of the ick of my show on the playa, which was kinda craptastic. Even though a lot of it was tech issues and not really my fault, it's hard not to be disappointed. At any rate, I'm really looking forward to a few days without worky stuff or music stuff and sleeping in as long as I want.
Related to my recent string of musical tech woes, right before I left I got the call from the repair shop. *sigh*
First they called to say they couldn't fix it, and asked my permission to have them send it to the factory for repairs, which I granted. Then, right before I left for the desert, they called and said that they finally got in touch with the factory and they don't *do* repairs, and that they found another shop in New Jersey that can (probably) fix it, but there's a $150 minimum. I already paid the $30 to EMI to give me an estimate, and with the $150 plus that plus shipping, I'm facing paying over half the price of what a new Ion would cost and I still don't have an estimate for what the actual repair cost will be. I didn't call them back before I left, and still don't know what I want to do. If it's not more than the $150, it's still cheaper than buying a new one. But if Alesis won't do factory repairs, it may be more worthwhile to just pick it up from EMI and try to part it out. I like the Ion, but I don't like it enough to have a costly once a year repair when it's supposed to be the reliable replacement for my vintage synth. I'm thinking about replacing it with a nice controller and investing in some VST synths instead, but I don't know. I do miss having more than 64 keys. Or I might just pick it up from EMI and research somewhere to send it on my own instead of parting it out- I'd be out my $30 but I could sit on it and decide after I recover financially from my trip. I don't know.
Thoughts, synth heads? Any of you know how to fix the A to D conversion in an Alesis Ion? Apparently that's where the problem is. thhhppppt.
Related to my recent string of musical tech woes, right before I left I got the call from the repair shop. *sigh*
First they called to say they couldn't fix it, and asked my permission to have them send it to the factory for repairs, which I granted. Then, right before I left for the desert, they called and said that they finally got in touch with the factory and they don't *do* repairs, and that they found another shop in New Jersey that can (probably) fix it, but there's a $150 minimum. I already paid the $30 to EMI to give me an estimate, and with the $150 plus that plus shipping, I'm facing paying over half the price of what a new Ion would cost and I still don't have an estimate for what the actual repair cost will be. I didn't call them back before I left, and still don't know what I want to do. If it's not more than the $150, it's still cheaper than buying a new one. But if Alesis won't do factory repairs, it may be more worthwhile to just pick it up from EMI and try to part it out. I like the Ion, but I don't like it enough to have a costly once a year repair when it's supposed to be the reliable replacement for my vintage synth. I'm thinking about replacing it with a nice controller and investing in some VST synths instead, but I don't know. I do miss having more than 64 keys. Or I might just pick it up from EMI and research somewhere to send it on my own instead of parting it out- I'd be out my $30 but I could sit on it and decide after I recover financially from my trip. I don't know.
Thoughts, synth heads? Any of you know how to fix the A to D conversion in an Alesis Ion? Apparently that's where the problem is. thhhppppt.
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-06 06:00 pm (UTC)Is there a controller out there that has knobs that will allow manual control of LFOs and such? I'm curious...
Me, personally, I'm starting to think that, for a number of musical reasons, a laptop is in my future...
By the way, as I said to you before, it was really cool playing with you on the playa; I hope, even though it wasn't a perfect, that our little jam gave some respite to the tech woes...
no subject
Date: 2007-09-06 06:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-07 02:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-06 11:48 pm (UTC)do we get to know what it's for?
no subject
Date: 2007-09-07 12:42 am (UTC)software seems easier to me, and it's getting better all the time. so a cheap controller gives you access to constantly updated synth-abilities while hardware is static.
sadly though i do feel like the interfaces aren't quite up to the task yet - like the controller doesn't let you play with the software in a completely natural way whereas hardware synths are out of necessity built to play with in a better way.
for example - drum machines -> hardware - way more fun and intuitive. software - lots of potential but a pain to play with especially life
no subject
Date: 2007-09-07 12:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-07 12:50 am (UTC)You should get in touch with Alesis directly. They were really nice to me when my Ion was broken out of warranty. Its worth a try, anyhow.
I've had bunk keys with mine, but I just had the keybed cleaned and good as new. I think they had some fabrication problems with some of the runs.
Go software if you need to, but keep an analog filter on hand. I mean it. Its just better that way.
I'm swinging back the other way. I'm kinda thinking that I may be bringing... at least two keyboards, and possibly as much as three or four, plus a mixer to a couple of my gigs in the next week. We'll see.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-07 02:29 pm (UTC)