RIP MarkOne's Alesis Fusion

[MarkOne]

Oh well, she was probably living on borrowed time for a while now...

So in the middle of a composing session this afternoon, there was a loud bang and the power went out in the studio, I looked around in bewilderment to see -and smell - the dreaded magic smoke curling up from the right hand side of the Fusion.

She'd taken out the mains trip for the studio...

It is fair to say, I probably had the last surviving one on the planet. They were notorious for blowing the PSU, and if you ever looked inside one you would realise why.

It was the time of the Korg OAYSIS and Alesis had the Fusion in development at the same time. Realising it ticked many of the boxes as the OAYSIS (Multiple synthesis types, Hard drive storage, Audio recording, oodles of polyphony, sequencing, etc, etc...) The powers that be decided to fast track the launch of the Fusion to try and eat into Korg sales figures. At about the same time the developers realised that one DSP board wasn't enough.

Long story short, they shoehorned a second DSP board in, (Literally, an identical board, upside-down on top of the first one) didn't update the PSU, and launched with what was essentially a pre-production prototype. (really, the wiring inside is a true horror!) Of course it was unreliable and it soon gained that reputation. Helped along by angry pitchfork wielding torch bearing Guitar Centre salesmen, it's demise was swift and sad. It was essentially the end of Alesis in the synth market - Go and look at their website. Not a synth to be seen.

But for those of us early adopters, those who's machines weathered the eyewateringly steep infant mortality curve. What a beauty she was. A fantastic sampling engine, a (sometimes bewildering but deep) modulation matrix, a multi oscillator VA. A filter section you could apply to all the synth engines with loads of filter types, Wind based physical modelling, a sequencer and hard disk recorder capable of recording audio and MIDI data. And a performance mode that could let you mix and match splits and stacks of multiple instruments.

And for those of us with an 8HD, a pretty good hammer action keyed too.

All at the time for something like a 3rd the cost of an OAYSIS.

I really don't think it's worth taking her apart. spare PSUs were as rare as hens teeth 10 years ago, and I've seen (and smelt) enough magic smoke in my life to know this was something of a major catastrophic failure.

You shall be sadly missed, Miss Fusion!

[jjlonbass]

I wouldn't chuck it away just yet - looking at the service manual, the power supply outputs +12V, +5V, +3.3V and the only unusual voltage -16V. It ought to be possible to arrange something that can provide these voltages and that provides more current such that it doesn't blow up again.

John

[James Perrett]

I'd echo John's advice. Provided the power supply is self contained, it wouldn't be hard for a knowledgeable person to create a replacement PSU from scratch. However, it may well be possible to rescue your PSU.

[BillB]

Hey MarkOne, sorry to hear about your Fusion. It has always been one of those ‘interesting’ synths that I looked at seriously when they came up second-hand. No room for one now, but it’s comprehensive combination of capabilities always makes me think twice. I would echo the other comments. If you like it, don’t give up on it - especially the HD with its nice keyboard. The PSU might be replaceable by a custom build - got to be worth a one or two hundred £ spend to keep it going. I know someone who does this sort of stuff, I’ll find their name and post later. Are you in the U.K?

[BillB]

Here you go - you could try Alex at Plasma Music. He’s very good on PSUs.
https://plasmamusic.com/about

[N i g e l]

interesting synth, I was not aware of it, ta for sharing.

My first thought, based on "taking the mains out" was capacitor failure.

https://www.deepsonic.ch/deep/docs_manu ... manual.pdf

other theories and web solutions are available but it looks like it has happened before & might be fixable if the secondary damage is also reparble.

[OneWorld]

They are one of the synths I also considered buying, they seemed to be quite innovative, but considering they seemed to have been discontinued not that long after introduction seemed to suggest portents of doom. I do see them from time to time on eBay for quite low prices and think to myself "Worth a punt maybe?" but then I think better of it, I'd not heard of the power supply problem so I conclude they are best left to those more adventurous than myself. Hope you can get it fixed.

[MarkOne]

I’ve had 24 hours to think about this. Thanks for the encouraging suggestions but I think I’ll let the Fusion have a graceful departure from the studio.

If I’m brutally honest, the biggest things I’ll miss are the weighted 88 note keybed and the Hollow Sun sound set.

For those of you who haven’t been here a good few years, Steve aka Hollow Sun was a regular on this forum until his untimely demise. He was also a brilliant samplist who Alesis commissioned to creat a sound bank for the fusion to try and revive its less than stellar reputation.

The stand out bank for me was his Mellotron bank, (IIRC these samples came from Tony Banks’ own ‘tron - I know for sure Steve repaired Tony’s ‘tron prior to a gig in Bristol,) But I have other Mellotron samples, even if they don’t have the same provenance.

There are better 88 note controllers there, and I think there is already a thread somewhere about the questionable financial arguments for pouring money into an old synth.

[Random Guitarist]

Probably a wise idea, although I was briefly hoping I might sell you mine

I think you are right about the sounds. I often thought the Fusion's problem was that the sounds are not shiny 'ear-candy' demo sounds, but they are very useable and there are a lot of good vintage sounds there. I'd love to be able to get the sounds in a different format. Then I wouldn't have a Fusion cluttering up the house.

[Folderol]

It would seem to me that this would be eminently fixable, for considerably less than arm+leg.
For a start a modern power supply would be much smaller for the same ratings 12+5+3.3 is quite common, and an isolated DC-DC converter could provide -15 (which should be close enough), or an 18V one and drop the couple of volts with 3 or 4 diodes

[Tomás Mulcahy]

(sets up ebay search for Alesis Fusion HD88 "for spares or repair"). It's a great keyboard action. I loved the aftertouch.

[pw]

InMusic Brands 01252-896-040 - had one PSU in stock last week....
Just under 100 quid delivered.....

[BillB]

PW, thanks for the helpful suggestion and welcome to the SOS Forum.

Is there somewhere on the InBrands website where these spares are listed, or did you just happen to have come across this info by coincidence?

[pw]

i bought one for an mpc5000 which has the same psu

[Jokeyman123]

Old posts here, but if interested take a look at the alesis music user group-we have some interesting new info re power supplies-I have restored 2 dysfunctional 8HD's I purchased recently which now work perfectly. InMusic in the US got me a replacement mainboard-wiring is not a mess, look inside for yourself. Makes my SY77/Generalmusic/Ensoniq boards inside look simple! we have someone trying to design and build a new PSU. also alot of info about installing new hard drives, new screens-look for parametric, Jesse and Jokeyman plus many more very knowledgeable musicians who advanced this seemingly trouble-prone workstation.

[Martin Walker]

Hi Jokeyman123, and welcome to the SOS Forums!

Thanks also for the useful info - just in case, here's the link to the Alesis Fusion User Group:

https://www.alesismusic.com/index.php

Martin

[DGL.]

Look on RS/CPC/Farnell for an enclosed? PSU, the -16 can be had quite easily as it should be in the adjustment range of a +/-15V supply and the 12V supply can be created via the now +16V, plenty of switching blocks a available to do the job.

[fusioneer]

I'm in NYC, and just developed a power loss on my left output of an Alesis Fusion 8. I've used almost nothing else except when recording for a decade. Best feel and sounds around, and I'm used to it. Only trouble--I can't seem to get a good mono organ patch out of it. At slow speed, the panning becomes volume changes. The right channel's working fine, and soundmen like mono better. However, I plan on fixing the left output. [It's strange, there IS FX coming from that side, just not dry signal! WTF] Anyone got any ideas, or know a key repair guy in New York area?

[resistorman]

I'm in NYC, and just developed a power loss on my left output of an Alesis Fusion 8. I've used almost nothing else except when recording for a decade. Best feel and sounds around, and I'm used to it. Only trouble--I can't seem to get a good mono organ patch out of it. At slow speed, the panning becomes volume changes. The right channel's working fine, and soundmen like mono better. However, I plan on fixing the left output. [It's strange, there IS FX coming from that side, just not dry signal! WTF] Anyone got any ideas, or know a key repair guy in New York area?

Have you tried a hard reset?

[N i g e l]

If this was an Alesis Micron I would say it was an output stage failure.
Looking at the service manual for the Fusion it could possibly be similar.

There are transistors which short the output on power up so that there is no click/whumph through your speakers. After power up the transistors disengage and normal service is resumed. If one of the transistors fails, the output will always be shorted to ground and sound from that channel will be muffled/attenuated/distorted.

[resistorman]

If this was an Alesis Micron I would say it was an output stage failure.
Looking at the service manual for the Fusion it could possibly be similar.

There are transistors which short the output on power up so that there is no click/whumph through your speakers. After power up the transistors disengage and normal service is resumed. If one of the transistors fails, the output will always be shorted to ground and sound from that channel will be muffled/attenuated/distorted.

Useful info, but they did say that there are EFX coming out, just not dry signal.

[N i g e l]

I took to it mean that the EFX signal was comming out as 100% wet rather than dry+EFX mix. The EFX signal would be at a lower level and seem to pass over the mute Transistor ok.
I also had that on my Yamaha hard disk recorder which uses a similar circuit.

I think we need more detailed info from the o/p. Is the output fine when its sent to the aux out instead of the main out ?

[Jokeyman123]

You mention monophonic sound. Way back when Phil Spector re-invented what a song should sound like-he did not record in stereo-he created some of his best works in mono. I know, I have a "Best of Phil Spector" vinyl from I can't even remember when I bought it-and it is all in monophonic sound-and it sounds fantastic, even by today's standards. As nutty as he was, (back then in the late 50s-60s, many people in the music studios carried firearms for protection, he wasn't the only one) he knew how to create a massive, well-defined soundfield for a song.

[Arpangel]

Don’t get rid of it, its a good bit of kit, I saw one advertised recently, and was tempted myself. Definitely worth repairing.