I've always been a big fan of the Andromeda sound, but I have to admit that a while back Uncle E posted some A/B comparisons of stuff he did with DCAM to emulate his Andromeda and they sounded fantastic... in some ways better.

The links seem dead, but here's this:

http://www.fxpansion.com/uploadedFiles/DCAM-Song-The_Diamond s_Hurt_My_Face_Bruv-Drew_FX.mp3

I will say that Himalaya's stuff is nice for dcam,most definitely, and definitely think Dcam is nice too,but nothing like the andromeda my friends,though I hope it one day plugins get there.

I have an Andromeda... damn fine synth!

I'd love to have an Andromeda but there's one problem...They weren't cheap to begin with, and since they stopped making them, prices have gone crazy - nearly reaching Jupiter-8 levels. It just doesn't make sense to buy something at that price, when a good plugin can give you *almost* the same sound.

But it has all those knobs!!!

It's a shame I only have two sets of thumbs and index fingers

Nice demo, Himalaya. DCAM is pretty good at getting those sort of "silvery" sounds with the fizzy top end like one often hears in A6 demos, as well as crazy audio rate mod stuff (which holds up surprisingly well when you render at high oversampling). I suspect that when the tech from Cytomic's The Drop eventually finds its way into next-generation Cytomic synths, they're going to ramp it up another notch beyond DCAM.

I have kind of mixed feelings about the A6 sound examples I've heard. There are things in some demos that I do like, but it always sounds a bit brash and abrasive to me. I have a few multisampled A6 sounds for Kontakt and they have that quality too, that kind of edgy tone. I can see how that could be useful part of the time as part of a bigger palette. Maybe a no-brainer at the $2700-ish price one could often buy the A6 for when still in production, but now at $4G+, that's bringing it into the price range of several other desirable polys.

I have to disagree about the "edgy tone". The A6 is a very flexible synth, capable of a wide range of tones. It might be that a lot of the factory presets have that type of sound, based on the preferences of the sound designers. Just roll off the lowpass filter a bit.

For the record, I scored mine on the used market for $1400 USD. I'm only the second owner, and the original owner just never got much use out of it. I'll admit that its a complicated instrument... despite all the front panel controls, there is a lot of menu diving and complex modulation routing to fiddle with under the hood. It isn't for everyone.

Thanks David.



This is what DCAM was/is accused of a lot, ie: that edgy tone. It does have that (in spades) but it also does silky smooth as well. I've sat here with an Oberheim OBXa and did some emus and Cypher came out very well indeed (considering it's not an emu of the OBXa). The trick is though, care needs to be taken with modulation, to stimulate what needs to be stimulated in order to get that 'chunky' and silky tone. So, I'd imagine that newcomers would easily forget to do that and would end up with 'full-on' saturated sounds.

This is the problem with very flexible synths. Perhaps that flexibility lends itself to dodgy sounds in the hands of the inexperienced muso. I dunno...

You're very lucky, as they cost several times that amount now. I guess that's a testament to how good it is - you don't see Supernova's or JP8000's selling for that amount...Of course it was quite unique in that it was the only analog polyphonic synth of the era, but still. These days, it's actually more expensive than most "classic" analog polysynths as well.

I have the A6 here..bought..as in used...needed a bit of work and TLC to be brought back...it is worth it though.

I used to own an A6 and I did not really fall in love with it like I have with my other Analogues.
I always felt it was missing something in it's sound compared to older analogues but I could never put my finger on what it was.I always seemed to be able to get the sounds I wanted from other synths quicker.The A6 is a powerful synth and the modulation matrix is so huge that you can spend ages just absorbed in trying stuff out.I found the rotory dials a bit too sensitive which made fine adjustements and selection of mod matrix entries a pain.
Having said all that the pads/strings and analogue sweeps it could make were beautiful.I guess it is all down to personal taste as lots of people swear by the A6.
The LCD display developed a circle of dead pixels about the size of a penny after only a year of careful use and I had to spend over £200 to get a new LCD unit.
I then sold the A6 and I have always kind of regretted selling it because some of the sounds it made did blow me away.I fell into the trap of thinking it could replace lots of my older analogues and I always felt it could not really pull this off-I think I missed the point and should have appreciated it for what it could do.

Just checked ebay.Wow the price of them has soared.
Last edited by synthmagic on Sun Apr 08, 2012 5:06 am; edited 1 time in total

It's a shame that Alesis never followed on and produced a scaled down Andromeda (or even a complete new synth), one which would follow simpler paradigm, perhaps that of a Jupiter 8 or OBXa.

Well, after the company went bankrupt and Jack O'Donnell took over, I think he wanted to diversify and focus on low-cost products which would return them to profitability. This was at a time when hardware was being totally replaced by virtual software, and analog polysynths were the last thing anyone was shopping for. Its a different story today, and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Alesis jumps on the analog monosynth bandwagon.

It was unfortunate that the A6 got axed. There are all kinds of monosynths on the market but for currently produced polys, you have the DSI's and Studio Electronics CODE and that's it. Well, other than the Schmidt prototype which was shown at NAMM and Messe and was going to cost something like $30,000 if it actually goes into production (which is what a polysynth of Andromeda-like complexity costs when done with discrete components by a boutique synth maker instead of a large company, it seems!).