Programs-programs-programs

[Jokeyman123]

After restoring 2 older Fusions-taken me a few weeks, still working on the one-just discovered-had backed it up before changing hard drives on the one with the bad keybed assembly-the volume I backed up on the computer which was originally in this Fusion-which I just reloaded-took about a 1/2 an hour-has just about every program-mix and sample I've found here and the other Fusion support groups-I had missed this somehow. i was impressed already-but this completely blew me away-I will need the ram expansions for some of these programs-even found some organ programs that use the knob controls as drawbars-fantastic programming there. Hollow Sun, VStream, Ultimate pianos, others I can't remember without having it in front of me-somebody loaded this up already! Will not need to add any more anything anytime soon. Makes me think the 2nd very expensive mainboard might be worth having for 2 working Fusions after hearing what must have taken years to develop-very impressed. This thing synthesizes sounds I've only heard on all 4 of my other workstations-and my old Pro-One, and any of my Roland/Korg modules, astounding. Guess I'll keep it.

[Jesse]

I'm glad you are enjoying the Beast

[Jokeyman123]

Just installed the 2 EX sample modules, working fine. A little awkward as far as the ribbon cables stuffed under the expansion board-not the most elegant design-guess it holds up OK, but rather not see so much stress with these tightly sandwiched in between the board and the jackboard out the back. Not much can be modified there. Leaving the 3.5" IDE 120GB HD in for now. Tomorrow''s another day-except with a bit more snow here. Good excuse to stay in and do more Fusion explorations....leave the snow shovels, snowblower alone for a day or two or three.

[parametric]

Indeed. The IDE socket and it's ribbon stuffed between two pcbs is NOT nice . . .

Has made it hard to fit/try other possibilities.

MANY have tried IDE<>SATA adaptors - So FAR - NONE have worked (AFAIK)

BTW - don't believe all you hear from InMusic. When I first had my 8HD - they tried to convince me it only needed ONE E3 for

Memory expansion . . . . I had to ARGUE with them . . .

Chris

[Jokeyman123]

Inmusic-got it, thanks parametric. Just grasping for a replacement mainboard that won't cost 500 plus US dollars. Frustrating-the bad mainboard is almost fully functional-just yesterday-managed to boot past the HG piano again-I keep setting the global setting to reboot with last boot only-instead of booting up everything. Watching the CPU meters for CPU and memory usage-I see clearly-vengine #2 is working and playing voices-at full volume-and can even call up the HG and other pianos-but only play at reduced volume-even with all effects sends, other voulme settings up-until i go to song mode-create a track-now the HG piano and any other sound that will not play at full volume in program or mix mode, now works in song mode! Maddening.

The main (base) voice engine meters in the CPU menu do not show any action at all-somehow the Fusion must use one voice engine to reserve voices to play with the song mode, but not as programs. I'm thinking more and more-the defect is in the main 64MB ram on the motherboard. Maybe our new member in Croatia will help-I am contacting him today. Snowed in a foot and a half last night anyway in the Poconos. And its still snowing-one of the largest single snowstorms, even here in the last 10 years, pretty nasty!

[Jokeyman123]

One more item regarding loading programs....

Now that I've sorted through the thousands of programs that are available for the Fusion, developed over years-I can simply copy ever folder-for every collection-including for example Lipi's 25,000 (!) still in shock over that one...all the Hollow Sun's, VA, KS, KPR, everything-into the main Fusion "Volume" folder-the root folder that represents the entire contents of everything on the Fusion, and providing all the original structures are intact and preserved in their original folders-samples, mixes-whatever were originally in their respective folders, these all can reside together in the Fusion? This is mind-boggling. This means I could literally have a database of sounds, samples, multimixes, songs only limited by the HD size-the Fusion can hold literally tens of thousands of programs/mixes etc.? I have to look over the reference manual-there must be a limitation in terms of the numbers of folders? No? I understand the sampling limitation, and voice allocation design-but I can install all Lipi's programs-only around 700-800MB of data actually-in addition to everything else-and the Fusion will recognize all this? Might take awhile to scroll through the categories, but still, this is astonishing if it is so.

[parametric]

You're just starting to find out

Many people look at the Fusion and think "Oh, it's just another Synth", but it's far from that . . .

There IS a constraint on Bank Names and I believe Program Names IIRC regarding number of characters . . . .

I can't call the specifics to mind, BUT if these are violated - it can cause PROBLEMS . . . . .

Doubtless, it's in here somewhere . . . .

The Voice allocation is INTELLIGENT and WILL vary, depending on what you have loaded and "pending" . .

Some of the <Groove_Mix> and <Split_Layer> Presets for instance can comprise 5 or 6 Programs . .

Alesis Fusion Mix Mode ROM_Split-Layer sounds.pdf

(124.31 KiB) Downloaded 298 times

Mostly - it's extremely generous - which is what we like to hear

Yes indeed the Hard Disk is really the only limitation on what can be stored . . . .

I would advise that it's probably a good idea to make your own <Favourites> Banks to save looking through the whole content . . .

Remember that if you make <Songs> using the Programs, if you then delete or move them subsequently, it will BREAK

those songs - and the programs that can't be found will be replaced with the "Holy Grail Grand Piano" . . . .

Chris

[Jokeyman123]

Generalmusic I think were the first to have-8 layers/splits/ playable live with the 8 faders-or as a B3 clone-or in a sequence-or both simultaneously-or ith independent loops that can fade in and out with fader control-actually 32 tracks in the mixer but low polyphony by today's standards-only now am I seeing this on the newer Korgs, Yamaha and Rolands-and even more interesting "coincidence"-my Casio PX560-yep a Casio-also has a very similar design scheme as the Fusion mix mode-using hex layers-for an individual tone-up to 4 hex layers can be used in a sequencer recording-and 2 can be layered at a time for live playing-I wonder-if the idea was first born on the Fusion, and inherited on the Casio by a little birdy. So yes I have been studying the split layer concept on the Fusion with great interest-so much new to learn on this-reminiscent of my first SY77-which still blows me away with its power. It took me years to learn and use the depth of functions it had back then, I still have to go back and practice moving around the menus just to remember how deep this was. and then this Fusion...whew. It was significant to me back then-one of our percussion ensemble guys had a few acting roles in "Law and Order" the first series run-and I discovered that the original theme had been entirely created on...an SY77. If you have one Chris-listen to the theme-clarinet, bass, ep,-all the tracks were done on that alone-I read an interview-forget who did it-it was one of the Keyboard Magazine columnists. I only mention-I've been very selective (within my budget) over the years re what I've kept, and what I've passed on-the Pro-One I regret a bit-but the keys and oscillators were frankly-horrible! The Equinox-the SY77-still not completely sold on the Casio PX560 although its good at what it does, my dinosaur TS-12 and now the Fusion. Studying over so many of the big-ticket keys-still to me mostly romplers with a few added toys here and there, certainly don't seem worth a few thousand or so. And then there's the Fusion. What an immense chameleon.

[VegasGroove]

Jokeyman, Kurzweil was the first, not Generalmusic... The K2500 could do this in 1996
Interestingly enough, G.E.M. put a LOT of effort into copycatting Kurzweil technology... the Equinox was the only non-Kurzweil board that could natively load Kurzweil's proprietary disk format.

[Jokeyman123]

Kurzweil beat them by 2 years, I see! Guess Generalmusic was the poor musician's Kurzweil. I had the Kurzweil RG-200 for many years, picked out of a storeful of digital consoles-Yamahas, Kawais, etc. I liked the RG-200 piano samples the best-sounded most like a true grand. I'd been considering recently-an older 2500 or 2600 Kurzweil-but I think even the 76-key spring action versions are pretty heavy, decided on the Fusion as it seemed a little easier to carry around (a little but my back isn't agreeing lately)-I do intend to take it out on gigs if this pandemic ever ends. I'd carried KS-32s and the TS-12-also not too good for my old back. The Fusion "looks" lighter-because of its baloney-shaped body sort of the Airstream RV of the keyboard world, I like different. So gives me the illusion its lighter to carry, and I know what that gets me-more physical therapy soon.