In 2005, Alesis released "Fusion HD" all-in-one music synthesizer. The lineup includes "Fusion 6HD" with 61 keys(photo above) and "Fusion 8HD" with 88 keys. Fusion HD is not mainstream. However, after getting it, I like Alesis Fusion 6HD. It has a good touch keyboard with aftertouch capability. Bend and modulation wheels(precisely, wheel-shape guides and black sliders) up on the keys made the body compact. Reliable buttons. Bright screen with contrast knob aside. In the middle right, there is nice "Control Wheel" with EDIT/UNDO/STORE/PREV/NEXT/INC/DEC buttons. We can enjoy PCM, FM, analog-modeling, physical modeling(reed, wind) synthesizer programming. The PCM samples and effectors have own taste, being different from Japanese synthesizers.
I would like to mention Fusion's sample importing capability. After connecting to PC with a USB cable, we can use "Alesis Fusion Converter". The software enables sending AKAI S5000/6000 programs(akp), SoundFont(sf2) and so on to Fusion's internal HDD or CompactFlash memorycard. When you select a program, necessary samples are loaded automatically. It's amazing. It may take long time to load lots of samples. For example, it took 16 seconds to load 32MB piano. I think it is shorter than other samplers. Fusion has lots of value as a sample playback synthesizer.
| Sound | Comment |
|---|---|
| A-1 Holy Grail Grand Piano | Holy Grail Grand Piano is famous. I own a ROM expansion for E-MU Proteus 2000 and a CD-ROM for E-MU samplers. Fusion includes the piano. I do not praise the piano in 2017. However, it is not bad. |
| A-2 Studio Upright | Same waveform with A-1. This program cuts down overtones, so, it is easier to play. Polite good piano. |
| A-3 Concert Piano & Choir | Piano and human voice layer. Not so good. |
| A-4 Fusion Suitcase | I do not like this electric piano program. Too much attack, not going on smoothly. |
| A-5 AcoustiLectric Piano | I like this. After limitting amount of reverb, it may be usefull. Nice Alesis sound. It reminds me of QuadraSynth(I own QSR). |
| A-6 Jam Wurly | Nice, good Alesis sound. |
| A-7 Click Piano | Nice FM piano. |
| A-8 Supervamp! | Analog-modeling piano. Plenty voices with analog-modeling. Amazing. |
| B-1 Fusion Punch Clav | Bright, not crispy. I may adjust decay. |
| B-2 Analog Clav 1 | Analog-modeling clavinet. Interesting. |
| B-3 Pluckermann Harpsi | I enjoyed this program. |
| B-4 Dream Vibes | Lots of delays. |
| B-5 Concert Marimba | A strong arpeggiator is there. I used it. Not bad. |
| B-6 Handy Bell | Alesis was famous with their effectors like Quadraverb. The sound is not high-end, but it has own value. In this program, we have beautiful delay. |
| B-7 Chimey | FM bell sound. Fusion has 6 operator frequency modulation sound engine. It also has filters. There is no FM algorithms. You can use "Router" views to set routing. Difficult. |
| B-8 Weird Bells | One more FM bell sound. Different taste from Yamaha DX7. |
| C-1 Jazz Click Organ | With real Hammond organ, it is necessary to all notes off before percussion sound. However, this program enables percussion all time. It's easy to play. Good for both hands play on one organ. Distortion came from "Organ Rotary" effector. We can control distortion with expression pedal. Nice. |
| C-2 3 Drawbers Organ | Low 3 drawbars and 2nd percussion. Insertion effect is "Organ Rotary", too. |
| C-3 Martial Organ | Why "martial"? This sound made me playing "Silent Night". |
| C-4 Gospel Organ | One more Christmas music. |
| C-5 Ballad Organ 1 | Tender, far away organ. |
| C-6 Full Stops! | Pipe organ with all sounds on. Nice reverb. |
| C-7 60s Conti Organ | 1960s Continental organ, maybe. I have never played Continental organ. I have played old electronic organs, from Yamaha and Kawai. |
| C-8 Les Rues de Paris | I have never been in Paris. No chance and money to travel abroad. |
| D-1 Acoustic 6-String & Harm | Hitting hard makes harmonics. I do not know how to utilize it. |
| D-2 Stereo 12-string | I used arpeggiator because it is on. When you audition this sound, you may turn it off. |
| D-3 Heavenly Harmonics | Nice ping-pong delay effect. |
| D-4 Nylon Acoustic 1 Velo | My play is poor, sad. |
| D-5 Big Body Electric | Nice effector. |
| D-6 Single Coil Dirt Mute | I used arpeggiator. Do you like this? |
| D-7 Dist Rhythm Gtr 1 | Nice effector. Pitch-bending, modulation, aftertouch is smooth. Fusion may have a fast signal-processor. |
| D-8 Lead Guitar MW AT | I like Fusion's electric guitar sound. Fusion is next to Yamaha synths. |
| E-1 Big Fat Upright Bass | These days, almost all PCM synths have nice acoustic bass. In this program, a little bit loop is audible. However, with walking bass play, there is no problem. |
| E-2 G Fretless Bass | Pretty fretless. It reminds me of Birdland in 8:30. |
| E-3 Bass & Harmonix | For me, it's not easy to use harmonix. |
| E-4 Dyna Pull Bass | Too much attacks. Compressor may be effective. |
| E-5 Stik Bass | Phrase from "Orange Express". |
| E-6 Emmie Bass | From here, 3 analog-modeling basses. |
| E-7 Drum'n'Bass Square | At last, I used aftertouch. Nice portamento. |
| E-8 Growler Bass | Growling synth bass. Much peaks needs compression. |
| F-1 Arco-Marcato Strings | In one program, we can play both of sustain and decay sounds. Bright, no-humid, west coast nice strings. |
| F-2 Bright Violin | After normalization, this sound is very loud. It has not much peaks. Velocity changes the loudness much. |
| F-2 Bright Contrabass | No cello. After violin, contrabass comes. |
| F-4 Concert Harp | I have no idea to play harp sound. |
| F-5 Pizzicato Symphonique | Heavy delays. |
| F-6 High Mello Strings | The waveform is "Tape Strings". OK, it is Mellotron sound. I think it is Hi-Fi. |
| F-7 Symphonos | Beautifull effectors. Effects is really important for synth sounds. |
| F-8 Euro Strings | Analog-modeling strings. I played euro-like phrases(really?). It is beatiful with simple long tones, too. I think Fusion's analog-modeling is nice without making my own tones yet. |
| G-1 Ooh Meets Oz | Waveforms are "Vocal Ooh" and "Vocal Ahh". Usable human voice. Wide note range. Beatiful rotation. |
| G-2 Boys Choir on Tape | Mellotron boys. It is not Lo-Fi. Unique. |
| G-3 Fragile Spacechoir | Soft, very good. I would like to use. |
| G-4 Babylon Choir | Who knows ancient Babylon choir? OK, I love this sound. |
| G-5 Zipper Pad | Analog-modeling pad. I put my left hand on modulation wheel. Interesting. |
| G-6 Roman Choir | Korg synths' human voices are nice. Fusion is next to them. |
| G-7 Cloud Formations | Waveforms are "Eboby Flute" and "Overdrive Lead Guitar". Interesting fast decay. |
| G-8 Saturn Seven | Unknown spaces. I could not be an astronaut. |
| H-1 Big Stereo Brass | Usual, nice PCM brass. Bright, crispy, and smooth vibrato. |
| H-2 Big Classical Brass | We can hear french horns and trombones here. Nice deep reverb. |
| H-3 Trumpet | In this program, modulation wheel and aftertouch are not assigned to control vibrato. Does it have delayed vibrato? |
| H-4 Harmon Mute Trumpet | In junior high school wind ensemble, I have played trumpet. I went to a musical instrument shop managed by Yamaha. I bought a paper mute. Not metal. |
| H-5 Trombone | I tried using pitch bending. Bad job, sigh. |
| H-6 French Horn | When I was an undergraduate student, I was an extra member of unofficial orchestra at ICU, Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan. I played opening french horn solo in "Pavane pour une infante défunte". That's it. I am satisfied with this synth solo. |
| H-7 Brassalog | Analog-modeling brass. The recorded sound is soft. I did not notice that modulation wheel adds overtones. Good reverb. |
| H-8 2-Pole Saw2thBrass | One more analog-modeling brass. I did not use modulation wheel which adds brilliance. |
| I-1 1st Clarinet | I ask my father to buy Yamaha Electone when I passed the examination to enter Hamamatsu North High School. I got a second-hand Yamaha D-30. It has red tone lever named "clarinet". I loved it. Even now, I frequently make clarinet sound with square wave, FM, and PCM samples. Alesis Fusion is smooth with bending and vibrato. Faster processor works, maybe. |
| I-2 Lyrical English Horn | From now, english horn, oboe, basson. Three double reed instruments in 1st 128 programs. Synth designer's insistence, I guess. |
| I-3 Oboe Soloist | Decayed oboe. Interesting. A good proposal. |
| I-4 Bassoon | Double reed instruments are expensive for school bands. Junior high school wind orchestra I attended did not have bassoon. |
| I-5 Sultry Alto Sax | My play was out of tune. |
| I-6 Expressive Sax | I played alto saxphone range. I should have chosen phrase for tenor. |
| I-7 BariSax | I like this recording. Happy. |
| I-8 Woodwind Ensemble | Waveforms are "Ebony Flute" and "Tape Flute". Oh, no reed instruments. |
| J-1 Ebony Flute | Although I do not say "best", good flute. Velocity defines the volume and fixed during play. I want to reduce the amount. |
| J-2 Tape Flutes | Mellotron flutes, not a flute. So, I played with some voices. |
| J-3 Irish Pipe | At this sound, modulation wheel reduces overtones. Some programs are. They are difficult to control for me. |
| J-4 Tongue of Pan | Pan flute sound reminds me of Korg T2 and Roland SC-33. I frequently use SC-33 pan flute for a pre-vocal track. |
| J-5 Shaku Jack | In my playing history, this recording is the best with shakuhachi sound. One reason is I bought a SACD of Dozan Fujiwara. One more reason is Alesis Fusion's shakuhachi program is well done. Good response and comfortable reverb. I will train myself. |
| J-6 Rainforest Recorder | Bold recorder. Powerfull. |
| J-7 Modeling Lead | Reed-modeling sound. Modeling of wind instrument is difficult because PCM sound is more realistic. However, I will study how to use wind-modeling synths from Yamaha, Korg, Roland, and so on. |
| J-8 Bottled Light | "Synth Voice" and "Bottle Blow" waveform. Hi-fi Mellotron, isn't it? |
| K-1 Sawtooth Lead 1 | From here, eight "Lead" category programs made by analog-modeling. No PCM. Hooray! |
| K-2 PWM Lead 1 | It may be PWM(Pulse Width Modulation). I am not sure. |
| K-3 70's Lead ! | Osc1 is 3 octaves up from Osc2. Portament is effective. |
| K-4 Sine Lead | Octave apart 3 oscillators are active. 3 oscs are gorgeous. |
| K-5 Prophetic Sync Lead | Oscillator sync sound is outside of my vocabulary. Difficult to play. |
| K-6 Someday Soon | I disagree this is a lead tone. But, comfortable sound. |
| K-7 Baked Beings | By this program, I may compete with guitar players. |
| K-8 Super Synth | This sound is monophonic. Please change to polyphonic, and play chords. It's powerfull. |
| L-1 Pim's May Trix | "L" bank is "Pad" category. This sound is analog-modeling. I feel this is too loud as a pad sound. My understanding may be different from Alesis Fusion programmers. This sound respond well with velocity, modulation, and aftertouch. Lots of possibility. |
| L-2 Charge PWM! | Analog-modeling tone. Bright, nice. The 1st analog-modeling synth for me is Yamaha EX5. Only 2 voices. But, after purchasing Nord Rack 3, I invested muth in analog-modeling synths, It is not easy to answer how much analog-modeling synths in my house. Fusion's analog-modeling is nice, maybe effector adds richness. |
| L-3 Super Euro Synth | One more analog-modeling. Heavy delay. Cool. |
| L-4 Staircase | I used arpeggiator programmed. Is it "Pad"? |
| L-5 Dark Moon Side | Analog-modeling effect sound. Modulation wheel changes filter cutoff, resonance, and amout of LFO3 to pitch. LFO1 and 2 also are working. |
| L-6 Metorgan | FM bell-like sound. Although Yamaha DX7 is famous as FM synthesizer, many companies released lots of FM synths. Korg, Dave Smith Instruments, Clavis, Studiologic(Waldorf) and so on. Fusion's FM has own taste. |
| L-7 Oxide | One more FM pad. Much high overtones. Beautiful. |
| L-8 Little Lost Crows | One more FM pad. FM Wah attack is not same as low pass filter synth. |
| M-1 Devine Strings | "M" bank is "Synth FX". Those 8 programs are near to Korg "Motion" programs. At Alesis Fusion, most motions are controlled manually. |
| M-2 Padmover MW | Modulation wheel moves something. Not remarkable. Analog-modeling. |
| M-3 Soft Pad | Analog-modeling, too. Modulation wheel adds vibrato and something more. Good shaking. I love. |
| M-4 Compleat Pad | Analog-modeling. A little bit horn taste. |
| M-5 Solid Pad | One more analog-modeling. Not strong character, but, it may be usable. |
| M-6 Sweeper Pad 1 | Analog-modeling. Expression pedal changes the pitch. Surprising. |
| M-7 Drama | Serious drama opens. I am scared. |
| M-8 Sync The HP Filter | One more analog-modeling. Good motion. |
| N-1 Koto Mood | "N" bank is "Ethnic" category. This is Japanese Koto. I prefer y-axis pitch bend wheel. |
| N-2 Dynamic Dulcimar | I have no knowledge about dulcimar, sorry. |
| N-3 Celtic Harp | Beautiful reverb. |
| N-4 Thai Bell Ensemble | Isn't it too clear? |
| N-5 Exotic Zither | I have no idea. |
| N-6 Imperial Opiates | It reminds me of First Opium War from 1839 to 1842. |
| N-7 Casbah Minstrel | I searched Casbah, it is the city in North Africa. Are there many minstrels? |
| N-8 Uillean Pipes | Under G2, you can play bass. I pushed lower keys, and added melody with right hand. Slow attack bass sound is real. |
| O-1 Standard Set | "O" bank is "Drum/Perc". Alesis D4 is famous. I love Alesis drum sounds. I used Fusion's internal sequencer. Only three sounds, bass drum, snare, and closed hi-hat. Same in below drum programs. |
| O-2 8 oh 8 Kit | Maybe Roland TR-808 kit. Added west-coast taste. |
| O-3 Timber Kit | Long bass drum and bright snare. Making custom drum kit is not easy. I appreciate programmed drum kits. |
| O-4 Big Bad Kit | Good weight. |
| O-5 Glitch Kit | Interesting hi-hat. Is glitch? |
| O-6 House Kit | Snare is interesting. Not loud. |
| O-7 R&B Kit | R&B means Rhythm & Blues, right? |
| O-8 Ethnic Percussion Kit | I found Alesis Fusion has long program names. |
| P-1 FM Mothership | "P" bank is "Sound FX". The 1st program in this bank is FM mothership. When I was young, "Tokusatsu" TV programs are very exciting. |
| P-2 Unterwasser | FM program under water. Making special effect sound with synthesizers is not popular these days. I respect Alesis Fusion programmers. |
| P-3 Trancin' | I have not enough knowledge about trance music. I used programmed arpeggiator. |
| P-4 Alien Insects | PCM program. Waveforms are "Laughing" and "Sitar". Excellent. Good job. |
| P-5 Gamelan Dreamer | This program is not equal tempered. |
| P-6 FM Universe | In the space, no air, no sound. No problem. I feel nostalgia. |
| P-7 Pinwheels | Wind-modeling sound. First appearance. It may be difficult to use. |
| P-8 Offworld | Analog-modeling with polyphonic portament. Fine. |
| Sound | Comment |
|---|---|
| Stwy32MB |
This Steinway piano is included in the sampling CD below. 
This 32MB version is smallest one. 64MB, 128MB, 256MB version is available. However, Akai samplers before S5000/6000 has limitation that maximum partition size is 32MB. It means, 64MB or bigger version should be multi. I imported 32MB version to Alesis Fusion. It's nice. The result made me to try to import sounds in my S6000 HDD to Alesis Fusion. |
| BRIGHT STR1 |
This sound is included in the sampling CD below. 
Samples are named "MKS". Maybe, this strings was made by Roland MKS-80 analog synthesizer module. I love this much. |
| MELLOW STR1 | This sound is also included in the same sampling CD above. Simple beauty of synth strings. |
| Solina All Strings | This sound came from sf2 file of Solina strings ensemble. I purchased before. The sf2 file includes 11 programs. After importing, I edited only one program in Fusion. Others are waiting for my edit. |
| Sc55piano1 | Roland Sound Canvas SC-55 piano from downloaded sf2 file. In 1992, I bought SC-33 at Tokyo, brought it to Greater Boston Area U.S. SC-33 is really good for multipart use. Different from my old Korg T2 and Yamaha TG-77. SC-33 has send/return type effect bus. Amazing. Also SC-33 has good piano sound. This sample downloaded from the Internet has audible looping noise, but, I could shorten decay. Nostalgic. |
| PolyMoog Str1 | I may have admiration for old strings machines. I owned Yamaha Electone D-30 before, it has yellow tone levers to add strings sound. With vibrato function, internal rotary speaker and spring reverb, I loved the strings sound. I imagined combo strings machines have more beautifull sounds. Now I own Yamaha SS30. SS30 is pre-MIDI machine, so, it is in closet. This PolyMoog strings is nice. |
| PolyMoog Str2 | One more PolyMoog strings. |
| Suitcase1 |
I do not like Alesis Fusion's electric pianos. I imported 6 sounds from CD below. 
Although I made modulation wheel to send signal to chorus effect, I did not use the chorus in this recording. Rhodes in MAGNETICA has four velocity layers. In this recording, I did not use loud layers. |
| MarkI1 | Fender Rhodes Mark I, maybe stage, not suitcase. Different from the sound above. |
| MarkII1 | Fender Rhodes Mark II. Now, I can chose from 3 Rhodes sounds. |
| Wurlitzer1 | I have never played real Wurlitzer. I learn something from synth samples and programs. In this program, I shorten decay. Original samples have longer sustain. |
| ClavinetD6 1 | I do not know how to play clavinet. |
| JimmySlowS1Fast | MAGNETICA includes some Hammond Organ sounds. This sound has slow rotary samples. At the end of this recording, you can hear fast rotary. I pushed S1 button to activate rotary effect in Fusion. |