Isla Electronics ASICS will be the very first Alesis Andromeda polyphonic analog Synthesizer emulation, and it’s coming soon as a plugin.
Brad Holland of Isla Electronics has been working on the Caladan for several years. It’s a unique hardware synthesizer with a hybrid architecture unlike any other: an 8-voice analog synth, plus hybrid and digital synths that can be integrated via DSP cards.
It also features a sample playback engine and the option to load Linux VSTs. One of the digital synths will be ASICS, an emulation of the legendary Alesis Andromeda polysynth from 2000. Due to high interest, a plugin version will also be available.
Isla Electronics ASICS
Isla Electronics announced the ASICS for the Caladan synthesizer a month ago. I reported on it. At the time, they already had concrete plans to release ASICS as a plugin, since there was a lot of interest and converting it to VSTs wasn’t rocket science.
Brad Holland is currently working towards this goal. In a new post, he shows the UI of the ASICS plugin version and says: “most UI tidying to do now, and we have a plugin”.
This means the plugin is nearing completion and will be released soon. That would then be the first emulation of the Alesis Andromeda. It would be interesting that IE would have an emulation before Arturia or Cherry Audio.
Looking at the current UI, it has evolved from the first one. Yes, the inspiration is still very clearly noticeable, but it now looks more compact and faster to use. The July beta UI was as bulky as the original hardware.
The modulation matrix, settings, etc., have now moved to the left side into a dedicated sub-interface. Modulation elements such as LFOs and envelopes have been regrouped into left and right sections.
According to a FB comment, Brad confirmed that you can also use the plugin as an editor for the Andromeda A6 hardware.
Features To Expect
- 16 voices or maybe more
- two oscillators with subs per voice, 5 waveforms, PWM, FM, and ring modulation
- two filters per voice: 2-pole multimode SEM-style and 4-pole resonant Moog style
- three 6x stage envelopes
- three LFOs with delay
- effects
- and more
The first Andromeda emulation is within reach. I’m delighted to see this becoming a reality. I’m eagerly awaiting the final plugin.
Isla Electronics ASICS will be available soon as a plugin.
More information here: Isla Electronics
did they use the usual suspects Work?
no! The Usual Suspects creates DSP chip emulations. The Andromeda was a full analog synthesizer
Don’t mix up things
OK, sorry.
it’s confusing. 😎
I have an Andromeda keyboard. This plugin looks amazing, Ive been wanting something like this for a looooong time. Mostly looking forward to using it as a patch librarian, since Apple discontinued Sounddiver after purchasing Emagic in 2002.