Bremerton, Washington, USA
|
Product Review: Ion iED04
StoreTags: Alesis, Ion, IED04
Viewed 5681 times. 17 people liked this blog. You can rate it below if you haven't already.
People who enjoyed reading this: mrk087, Roshi, zfigz, ignatius, energygiant, DrexonField, Moriarty, license, Hikikomori, bla, crabster, bbwax, ejectorset, Zanf, room, mlbot, mapmap
-->
link
I don't often buy gear- I'm broke for the most part, and I'm really happy with the setup I currently have.
One thing I was sure I wanted was a better way to lay down percussion tracks. Using a piano roll or a keyboard to tap things out just felt wrong. I looked at a lot of MPC type controller clones, and their pads just didn't quite feel right. What I really wanted was a set of drums. But I live in a townhome- I don't have the space or the money for a full electronic kit, and acoustics are deafening. Because I have a bionic ear, they really, really hurt without some serious volume control.
Then, while being drug through the makeup section of a Target by my wife, I chanced upon a clearance Ion iED04 marked down to just below $100. I was so tempted, I bought it for myself for my birthday, thinking for sure I would take it right back for a refund if it sucked.
It doesn't suck at all, in fact. I am having so much fun with this unit programming drums. Using sticks makes for 10X better drum tracks than the MPC controllers I played with . Flams and rolls are a breeze, and because FLstudio's piano roll is so choice, I can play a couple bars of drums, overdubbing, and then partially quantize it so that I keep the chaos of real drumming, but pull the timing into tightness.
Also, playing with sticks has helped my(previously rotten) sense of rhythm enormously.
The onboard sounds are all from the HR16, but I don't use them. Typically, I use this controller to trigger either the NaturalSoundStudio drumkit soundfont, or Garritan Jazz's drum kit. I layer and supplement these drums with something punchy and 80s like a DrumTraks, or an Oberheim DX kick and snare.
I was really worried about latency bothering me, but thus far I feel fine. The unit triggers fast enough for my playing of rolls and things- bear in mind I'm no drummer though. The only issues I've had with the unit thus far are the occasional triggering of adjacent pads, the velocity scale is a little steep(it doesn't take much to trigger a 127 note), and the midi notes being sent out are too short for a couple of VST's to reliably trigger. Nothing thats been enough to bother me at all. The midi implementation is kind of an afterthought, and not flexible at all. But since I am connecting to software, all I really need is the signal, I can modify the inputs of FLstudio easily to get around any of the issues I've had.
I just wanted to clue everybody in, because these units are being discontinued at retailers all over the place, and you can probably find them on clearance at a Target near you- but they're only $127 with free shipping from Amazon. This is almost identical to the Alesis unit also pictured, which is currently selling for about $180 with BFD lite and a USB connection. Alesis makes all the ion products. |
totally not worth it when the Yamaha dd-65 is coming out this month and if you search with google products you can find it for $209 with free shipping.