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 Forum index » Instruments and Equipment » Alesis Andromeda
Second hand Andromeda: some problems
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LamerDeluxe



Joined: Jul 08, 2008
Posts: 38
Location: Netherlands

PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 2:31 am    Post subject: Second hand Andromeda: some problems
Subject description: hanging at bootscreen and voice hanging in digital effects
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I have recently bought a second hand Andromeda, which unfortunately turns out to have some problems which the seller cleverly hid from me.

I hangs at the boot screen unless you turn it on and off twice in quick succession.

After some time voice 6 will start getting stuck in the digital effects section, the effect will keep on looping, when you retrigger voice 6 or change to another patch, the looping sound will change accordingly. Turning the effects off makes the sound go away.

I did the various resets (button 1, 3 and 4) and reloaded the OS, no change.

I've read something about updating the bootloader and it possible being corrupt. Where can I find the bootloader and which version do people here use?

I also noticed my preset banks are not the standard ones. I wonder if changing them to the factory ones would help.

I'm also having trouble receiving dumps from the Andromeda, the same amount of bytes keep missing. But that might be because I'm using my BCR2000 as a midi interface.
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sunny pedaal



Joined: Nov 16, 2004
Posts: 735
Location: netherlands
Audio files: 12

PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 9:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

tip: reset everything including the factorypresets
lower the midiresolution/ sysextransfer rate at the a6 and or receiving/sending midicomputer
eventually switch of voice six.
don't know 'bout uploading the bootloader though,
good luck, anybody else idea's?
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LamerDeluxe



Joined: Jul 08, 2008
Posts: 38
Location: Netherlands

PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 11:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Thanks Sunny!

I will give your tips a try.

I've turned off voice six already, but if nothing helps I'll have to have it repaired. I hope the cost of repairing added to the price I paid won't add up to the price of a new A6.

What bootloader version do you have?

Resetting the presets means uploading the original banks to the user bank and copying that to the presets, right?
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wwjd



Joined: May 20, 2008
Posts: 34
Location: West Des Moines, Iowa, USA

PostPosted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 11:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

you installed the LATEST OS, right?
that fixed some problems I had with a used one I bought
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LamerDeluxe



Joined: Jul 08, 2008
Posts: 38
Location: Netherlands

PostPosted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 11:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I installed 1.40.13 and reverted to 1.40.12 yesterday, but that didn't improve anything.

I adjusted the sysex send rate in the hidden menu -> global -> button 7 -> button 7 & 8, but that didn't help with the sysex problems.

I also deleted all USB entries from my registry and installed all USB and midi related hotfixes I could find, to no avail. I think the sysex dump problem must be the midi interface I'm using (BCR2000).
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husker



Joined: Apr 30, 2008
Posts: 32
Location: wellington.newzealand

PostPosted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 5:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I use BCR2000 midi without problems - what app are you using for SysEx receiving? Have you tried A6 Banker?

http://www.mk2software.com/banker/forums.html
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LamerDeluxe



Joined: Jul 08, 2008
Posts: 38
Location: Netherlands

PostPosted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 11:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Hmm, that is interesting, so it's probably not the BCR then.

I've used a6 banker, sounddiver and midiox. All give the exact same result, for instance 6 bytes missing from indiviual program dumps.
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soundwave106



Joined: Nov 24, 2004
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Location: Elmo's Mud Wrestling Club
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 4:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

husker wrote:
I use BCR2000 midi without problems - what app are you using for SysEx receiving? Have you tried A6 Banker?


Actually, while normal note data is fine, I've had problems using the BCR2000 to transmit A6 Sysex patch data, personally.
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LamerDeluxe



Joined: Jul 08, 2008
Posts: 38
Location: Netherlands

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 7:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

A collegue of mine just suggested routing the output of the BCR back to the input and checking if the resulting sysex file is also missing bytes. I'll try that tonight, maybe I can find out which bytes go missing.
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LamerDeluxe



Joined: Jul 08, 2008
Posts: 38
Location: Netherlands

PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 2:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

The loopback test confirmed it was most likely the BCR was dropping bytes. I got an e-mu 2x2 midi interface and all the sysex problems completely vanished.

Restored the Andromeda to all factory presets, and did a firmware update back to 1.40.13 again. But the startup and hanging voice problems remain.

The factory presets are indeed mostly quite horrible, what were they thinking. I also noticed most of the mix presets are like a groove machine, an octave of drum loops, bleep loops and a lead sound. Fun to play with but a weird choice for a flagship analog synth. The Andromeda does drums quite well though.

The guy in the store told me I was experiencing the usual Andromeda problems, he went through seven(!) Andromedas before getting one that was completely okay. He said I could bring it in for repair and they would send it to the proper Alesis repair shop. I could expect something around 150 to 400 Euros in costs, depending on repair time and parts.

He also said a properly working Andromeda was completely worth it, that the Andromeda development costs killed Alesis and Numark would soon stop producing them alltogether.
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sunny pedaal



Joined: Nov 16, 2004
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Location: netherlands
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 1:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

i think the guy in the shop said some very reasonable things, fully agree with all said above.
i would do it, as a good upstarting and well tuned a6 is worth it.
however the occasional hanging , once every so many hours of deep programming, might remain. sometimes it also might be a question of taking him to the edge. i don't mind so much about that, just saving the patch every now and then. still like it.

ps much in need for some nice drumpatches !
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LamerDeluxe



Joined: Jul 08, 2008
Posts: 38
Location: Netherlands

PostPosted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 1:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I'm absolutely going to have it repaired. I'll just have to wait until after my vacation, because I need the money for that first Smile I'll make do with how it works until then.

I haven't experimented with making drum sounds on the Andromeda yet, but I like the preset ones already.
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hogberto



Joined: Mar 20, 2006
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 3:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

good luck with the repair.

it is absolutely worth it. the andy will repay you with glorious sounds for many year to come. Cool
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LamerDeluxe



Joined: Jul 08, 2008
Posts: 38
Location: Netherlands

PostPosted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 3:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Thank you. I'm really looking forward to having an Andromeda that works properly.

Meanwhile I tested all my outputs and they seem to be okay.

Just made a cool explosion sound with it, the numerous knobs really help to quickly tweak a sound.
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edtumog



Joined: Apr 15, 2008
Posts: 10
Location: London

PostPosted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 11:31 am    Post subject: Repair Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Hi matey, was reading your problem with your A6, very similar scenario to the one I experienced.
Bought mine second hand and was disappointed, just sounded a little dull, like a flat copy of a jp6, if you get my drift. Voices failed on auto tune, screen fooze on boot up, sysex didn't work to well and eventually, the output dropped to an un-useable level. Eventually called up Alesis in the U.K. and they agreed to look at it for me
(I could tell by the way the guy spoke on the phone, he new exactly what would be wrong with mine)
Got it back and Alesis had put a new main processor in. Cost £140 but what a difference !
Sounds like an analog synth now, great bass, great sounds and all very stable.
Reading through various comments on this and different forums, it seems there are a lot of A6's that need looking at but trust me the difference between before and after repair made the £140 seem very little.
Good luck.
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LamerDeluxe



Joined: Jul 08, 2008
Posts: 38
Location: Netherlands

PostPosted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 2:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Awesome! Thanks for your reply, things like this are exactly what I need to hear Smile

I'm having fun with it anyway, until I can get it repaired. I've been working on a kind of "drippy cave" effect that sounds very convincing as well as a couple of strings and bass sounds.

The Andromeda is really very deep, lots and lots of options to use. This to me is what makes it feel expensive and well though out.

Getting all the levels just right, avoiding noises and dialing in to the sweet spots is what is the most tricky part. But if you could only work within preset sweet spot ranges, the sound wouldn't be as varied.

I have been thinking about starting some just-for-fun sound design challenges here, like trying to recreate a well known sound or instrument on the Andromeda. People could post an mp3 and/or patch of the results.
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sunny pedaal



Joined: Nov 16, 2004
Posts: 735
Location: netherlands
Audio files: 12

PostPosted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 5:16 am    Post subject: Re: Repair Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

edtumog wrote:
the difference between before and after repair made the £140 seem very little.
Good luck.

the a6 sometimes is like a guitar: if you buy one, play it for a short while and get it finetuned/ repaired/ callibrated/ swapping the worst voices-filters etc, on the subjects that matter to you most.
therafter i didn't find any new problems arrising over the years i've been using it now. with guitars everybody seems to agree that it has to been serviced once after buying it new, with a synth that seems to be not done, however , my guess is that lots of a6's benifit from it, so just keep a few hundert buck aside when buying one and therafter ...enjoy !
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