Choice between Alesis Ion and Nord Lead 2x

[Bitex]

Hi,

I'm relatively new to VA synths, I only own some softsynths (Moog modular, minimoog, yamaha cs-80, all by Arturia) so I'm not overly experienced in turning knobs to make great sounds. I will learn though.
I've played various eletronic organs since I was a child, and have owned a Roland RS-5 for a couple years that I'm happy with, but missing the cool analogue sounds and opportunities.


I've been obsessing over the Ion or Lead2x for quite some time now, I really can't figure out which one I want the most. They are pretty much the same price at the store I*m going to tomorrow.

I've read every review there is on the web about both synths, and the Ion seems to get very high marks in the sound/filter section (emulates a slew of vintage synth filters like Moog, Arp, Jupiter, Prophet, Oberheim), and I'm a big fan of oldschool synth music like J-M Jarre, Vangelis, Jan Hammer.
I.e the review from Keyboard Magazine, he points out that it sounds so fat it can shake dust off the ceiling with a single oscillator going at a pure sine wave!

The Lead2x on the other hand seems more sturdy, but has NO display or menus whatsoever, except for a tiny 3-digit display to show what program you're using. BUt the Lead is supposedly amazingly easy to program great sounds from. So is the Ion. Ion is also said to have incredibly good analog emulation, which is a big thing for me. But it only has 8 voice polyphony, while Lead 2x has 20. Is that really a big deal? You rarely play more than 8 notes at the same time anyways. The problem comes when you start to layer sounds, then they use up voices in polyphony.

I*m seriously going nuts wondering which one I should run away with tomorrow, to the point where I couldn't sleep last night

Any experiences with either Alesis Ion or Nord Lead 2x (not the old Lead2) here?

I really don't need responses like "it sucks!" or "it rules!"..please be more specific.

 

[toorglick]

I don't own either, but I'm a long-time synth player. All of my synths are older analogs, although I do use some softsynths (Moog Modular, Novation V-station and some freebies). I never really liked the sound of the VAs until recently, and that was after I played the Novation KS-4 and the Ion.

The Nords and Waldorfs never impressed me and neither did the Korg MSs. The Roland V-Synth sounds awful. These are my personal reactions to demoing them in the stores (substantially because I was in the market not too long ago for a new "toy").

The KS-4 is a really nice sounding, polite synth with a great arpeggiator. Although I have V-Station, I could definitely stand to buy one of these...but not until I first buy an Ion. The KSs from Novation apparently suffer from some clicking and popping, although to be honest I did not run across that problem while I was demoing them. I don't have one so I really can't say any more about that issue.

The Ion is probably the best sounding VA I've heard, and that goes for software and hardware VAs. It's a nice, compact unit for what it is that feels pretty solid to me. I can't say it any better because it's all so subjective, but the Ion really sounds good. So good, to me, that I want one in a bad way (I wound up buying a new guitar instead at the time, but I somewhat regret not getting an Ion when I had the loot). I think with the scope it has programming-wise, and just the sheer raw, thick, complex, sound it has, it would fit in with my analogs nicely.

The real test of any VA is to listen to the tone without effects. The Ion has few effects anyway. That's one of the first things I listen for, the raw tone. None of the others sound as "real" as the Ion.

Sorry to gush on the Ion, but, frankly, it impresses the hell out of me. I would advise you to really take some time with both, though, since they're right there. If you can get them both running out of the same sound system and noodle with them at the same time, that would be a perfect set-up to help you decide.

Regarding polyphony: IMHO, 8 is plenty. 6 was fine for a lot of synths back in the day. With analog synth sounds, while 20 voices would be cool, you're really not emulating anything so there's no need to worry too much about a note stepping on another like you would with a sampled piano patch a or a drum kit or the like. If you do step on another note, it's more part of the feel or character of an analog synth, or rather the stepping-on is part of the instrument's sound in general, when it happens, which really isn't all too often since it's a synthesized tone and is not usually played in a traditional manner (you know, runs up and down the keyboard) or expected to sound traditional (like a 40-piece orchestra).

Good luck!

 

[ssscientist]

So? Clavia or Alesis?

The suspense is killing me!

Did you go with the Svedish or the good ol' USA?

And how do you like it?

 

[Bitex]

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, I had turned on email subscription to my topic, and didn't get any, so I didn't know someone had replied in here

The Ion became my new housemate I did play with both of them for a couple of hours in the store (the owner was so kind to set them up next to eachother). I haven't played real analogs before, so I can't say how good the sound is really. But it's an amazing machine, no doubt about it. Keyboard action is a little on the light side though, but it makes up for it in spades just wading through the presets and tweaking them until they're not recognizable anymore. I'm a big fan of fat sounds with filter sweeps running through, y'know the "peeeeeeeeeooooooowwwwwww" sound. It's probably a jiffy to program on any synth, but it was new to me and how easy it is. Just to adjust to filter envelope's decay and sustain until you get the desired sweep. Rocks! There are some really SICK sound effects too, but I haven't even tried to figure out how they work. The modulation matrix features heavily in those.
It's like a grid where you can make your own signal paths all over the synth.
Set the mod2 wheel to control LFO or envelopes, or maybe use an LFO on the resonance level, limitless possibilities. Sort of like the Moog Modular, only you don't see the cables

I'm no expert on the synthesis bit (I've ordered a few books from Amazon on the subject), so the Nord felt a little umm..overwhelming in a way.
No graphical display so it felt more like twisting knobs blindly. On the Ion there's a 120x120 LCD display that is big enough to show graphics like the shape of waveforms, and they morph in realtime as you turn the knobs.
The shopowner wasn't overly positive about Lead 2x either, said it was mostly designed for making heavy basses, and has a much colder, harsher sound. If you want warm analogue, you go for the Ion. The LCD display hops straight to the related menu when you twist knobs, so it's really easy to remain on top of things. You twist the filter 1 knob, and the screen showing the levels pop up. Twist on resonance, and it changes to envelopes screen, where you see a full view of the waveform and how it changes when you turn the different envelopes in realtime.

There are some gorgeous Jupiter-6/8 presets in there too, that, with a little overdrive can punch through the wall. I'm not really quite "there" yet with programming my own sounds from nothing, but there is a Preset called "Default Init" that strips away everything down to one VCO and you can add stuff from there. Didn't get great results yet, but it's coming my way soon I'm sure
I wish I knew some good "tricks" though. I also wish I could play lightning fast all over the board, I stumble in the ring finger when I try to do really fast runs up and down. I manage well when using thumb, middle finger and ring finger to do fast runs in major scale. But stumble when the notes are closer together. The monophonic leads with portamento are made for fast playing.
Figured out I could mask away the spacing by holding the sustain pedal all the time.
Listen to the sound demo Metamorphosis here:
http://alesis.com/products/Ion/Demos/
and you see what I'm on about. I wanna be able to do that.


Ah well..Running off to spend a couple more hours with my new friendnow
And thanks for Toorgclick's good advice, I asked what you said, and got both synths set up next to eachother through the same (huge) speakers. I was in favour of Alesis from the beginning but wanted to give Lead2x a shot aswell.

I'm not even done surfing through the presets (512 of'em).