Alesis
Alesis is a company that designs and markets electronic musical instruments, which it has manufactured primarily in China. Alesis is owned by Numark and based in Cumberland, Rhode Island. The products manufactured by Alesis are mainly for studio and live performance (as opposed to practice) use and are targeted at professional and semi-professional musicians. Alesis is known for budget equipment but has sometimes produced surprisingly high-quality and innovative gear such as the Alesis Fusion, Andromeda A6 analog synthesizer and virtual analog modeling synthesizer called Ion and the Micron which is based on the Ion. Alesis achieved an early success with their original MidiVerb device, a stereo reverb (2 in, 2 out) at a reasonable price. Although the MIDI specification was not extensive, it was sufficient. The unit responded to patch changes 1-63 to select different preset reverb sounds, higher numbers activated "Defeat" mode (which was Alesis parlance for Mute). The MidiVerb was built using off-the-shelf parts, which enabled the device to be repaired in the field easily. The list of popular Alesis gear includes the MicroVerb, SR-16 drum machine (introduced in 1991 and still in production), the Quadrasynth line of sample-based synths, and the ADAT 8-track digital tape recorder, ubiquitous in the early 90s. The company suffered financial turbulence in 2001 following an April 27 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, after investing heavily in the hard-disk equivalent of the ADAT, the HD24. In the subsequent restructuring, Jack O'Donnell (president of Numark Industries) acquired the company.




































