Ion vs. Micron

  • Thread starter Thread starter Masters Of War
  • Start date Start date
M

Masters Of War

New member
I know it's a no brainer, the Ion wins. My question really is by how much does the ion win, 4 vs. 3 octaves, more tweakable, a better vocoder, and (?). Are there any real differences sound wise? I'm really tempted to keep saving for the Ion, but I would like to know what advantages it holds over the micron. I'm going to give these two synths a try today, if any of you wise men/women could could give me some more perspective on what the differences are that would be great. Thanks.
 
The Micron, if I recall correctly, has a better arpeggiator and a few different features that the Ion lacks.

The sound is identical. I thought the vocoder was identical as well, but I guess not. I still would take the Ion over it just for the knobs, though.
 
Ditto. The Micron is the superior synth engine-wise, but the Ion obviously spanks the Micron when it comes to realtime control, and obviously 61 keys is more flexible, but not neccasarily the most important part, depending on you requirements. (Very few of my patches are inrended for 5 octave use (or more)).
 
Atterion said:
Ditto. The Micron is the superior synth engine-wise, but the Ion obviously spanks the Micron when it comes to realtime control, and obviously 61 keys is more flexible, but not neccasarily the most important part, depending on you requirements. (Very few of my patches are inrended for 5 octave use (or more)).
Click to expand...
49 keys, not 61, I think?
 
Ok the Micron sounds like a better deal for me then. I don't have much experience with synths so I'm sure I would not put all those knobs on the ion to much effect.

I have one more question. The only other synth I have been looking at is a Juno 60, it's a real analog synth (right?) so I would assume it sound better than the micron. Is there a real diffrence in the sound between these two synths? Mainly I'm concerned with their organ and piano sound, I'm sure they both come packed with tons of tripy effects. Are there any other major differences?
 
The major differences are - the Roland is 20+ years old and has no midi capabilities whatsoever. The Micron won't necessarily sound worse than the Juno, just different and will be MUCH easier to work with. And to maintain.
 
Being the dissenter that I am, I would suggest the Ion over the Micron for a person without synth knowledge, because the Micron's setup is awful for a first-time synthist (lol) trying to figure out what all the settings do. Get something with knobs, you won't regret it. Knobs encourage experimentation, which is what'll eventually get you the knowledge you need to make the sounds you want.
 
I'd tell you neither the Micron, nor the Ion, nor the Juno-60 are good at piano and organ sounds. If that's what you're looking for don't waste time with analog or VA synths. Look for some digital sample-based ROMpler.

Oh, and the Juno doesn't come with any trippy effect, it just got a rather noisy chorus. What the Juno will spank some major butt is with it's gargantuan wallshaking bass!
 
Masters Of War said:
Could you suggest any models in the same price range as the ion or less?
Click to expand...
You've got a decent selection of romplers in that catagory. The Roland Juno-D and the Yamaha S03 are the best ones you'll find new for that; however, I'd suggest finding a used Roland XP-30, which despite being older has superior sounds to the Juno-D.
 
Couldn't you buy a Micron and a separate controller with lots of knobs for less than the cost of an Ion?
 
I'm very confused, the more I learn the less sure I am about what I want. Let me clearly lay down what it is I'm looking for. I record experimental/progressive music, everything from metal to country to reggae, so a keyboard that is versatile in many forms of music would be ideal. I would like to get a nice organ sound, at least a decent piano sound, and tons of trippy ambient effects. I don't have a computer so no software, and I can't go much higher than $500. Is there a keyboard/synth in my price range that will give me what I want?
 
When you say experimental/progressive, what kind of stuff are we talking about? How does "experimental metal" sound? (just curious, not being a smartass)... when I hear the word "experimental" it conjures up sounds like Autechre, Matmos and the like.

Ok, you say you want nice organs (are we talking about pipe organ or Hammond emulations?), pianos (acoustic or electric?) and trippy ambient effects (err... hummm... what's trippy for one can be mundane for another... so could you please elaborate more on this?).

OK... there are two avenues you can take... both of them digital, as analog synthesis will not really cover you, unless you go for some monster modular and even then you won't get good pianos out of it (maybe electric... but I degress).

Option 1 would be some ROMpler like the ones fierywater recommended (personally I don't have much experience with lower end ROMplers, having dealt with primarily workstation stuff, so I can't give you good advice there).

Option 2 would be to go for some second hand sampler such as E-Mu or Akai... which one you go for would depend on what you're looking for... E-Mu's got some killer filters and a flexible modulation matrix, and Akai... well... it doesn't color sounds as much as the E-Mu, the optional sound effects are better and some models come with an optional analog filterbank. They're going pretty cheap on eBay nowdays. The nice thing about the samplers is that you're not limited to just the built-in soundsets, you can load anything into them from pianos to steam engines and mess with them from there. The downside is they don't come with any built-in sounds, so you actually have to load them from external sources such as CDs. Both the E-Mu and Akai come with some sample libraries that should get you started (and make sure that they're included if you look for stuff on eBay)... and then as the time goes on, you can expand on those by either sampling stuff yourself from other sources, or purchasing sound libraries on CDs as both E-Mu and Akai have a tremendous 3rd party support.
 
When you say experimental/progressive, what kind of stuff are we talking about?
Click to expand...
Hmm, hard to explain. Mixed styles, very expressive, a lot of focus on the sound (if that makes any sense). Definitely not your typical radio song. I 'm trying to do something different with music (i know i know isn't everybody).
organs (are we talking about pipe organ or Hammond emulations?)
Click to expand...
Hammond.
pianos (acoustic or electric?)
Click to expand...
Both.
trippy ambient effects (err... hummm... what's trippy for one can be mundane for another... so could you please elaborate more on this?).
Click to expand...
Very trippy psychedelic sounds. Lots of odd sound effects would be great, but I would also like to get some effects that hold a musical quality.

Thanks for the input I hope this helps explain what I'm looking for a little better.

ps. Just out of curiosity how far away is the ion/micron from my what I need?
 
Masters Of War said:
ps. Just out of curiosity how far away is the ion/micron from my what I need?
Click to expand...
To put it mildly, they don't even come into the vicinity of what you're looking for. At least not for pianos and organs.

The thing about tripped out sound FX, drones and such it's probably not as much about your sound source as what you do with it afterwards via FX processors (ring modulators, flangers, phasers, distortion, reverb, delay... etc), and other post-processing, such as extreme time stretch/compression, pitch shifting and the like.

Ultimately, in your price range you'll have to decide what sort of sounds are the most important to you as most likely you won't find one instrument that's good at all of them... even if you triple your price range that statement still holds true. For example, with sample based stuff you won't have the real time control of the Hammond drawbars, let alone the Leslie emulation that's such a big part of that sound, as you'd get with instruments dedicated to such emulations.

Having said this, I still believe that actual samplers would give you the most flexibility, specifically because you won't be tied to one built in soundset, and then as the time goes by and funds become available you'll be in a position to decide what you need to supplement it.

One final thought, don't be gun-shy about some of the complexity that you'll encounter. My very first electronic instrument was the Kurzweil K2600, a rather complex instrument even by the standards of seasoned synthesists. But i'm glad I did, because the stuff that I learned on it has made it very easy for me to get to grips with pretty much any other synth I've come accross. It took a while for me to get the hang of it, but I'm glad I stuck with it as it paid off in the long run.
 
I haven't played a wide range of keys, but I've spent a LOT of time with my Yamaha S80 over the last few years. It's got great piano and organ sounds (about 30 of each). I believe the whole S series (check out the S03 - $500 at zzounds) has the same functionality, just differs in controllers and expansion slots. It does also have a decent selection of effects and some kind of wierd pads. The S03 looks like it might be a bit more limited, but my S80 is supremely tweakable if you're willing to read the manual. I highly recommend at least checking it out at the store if you can.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top