Alesis Fusion Tutorial

ALESIS FUSION ANALOG SYNTHESIS TUTORIAL
The LFO as a ‘module’ is very simple and looks a little like this:
LOW FREQUENCY
OSCILLATOR
Rate
Select
Typically, it offers a triangle wave, rising and falling sawtooth waves and a square wave which
can be selected with a switch. Some LFOs offer more waveforms such as sine wave and/or
pulse wave (though some offer less - just triangle and square!). The frequency of these
waveforms is governed by the RATE control and typically they cover a range of one cycle every
few seconds to around 10Hz (10 cycles per second). 5-7Hz is commonly used with a triangle
(or sine) wave for vibrato.
And that’s about it! Or rather, that used to be about it.
These days, LFOs are far more sophisticated and offer other parameters such as delay/fade.
There is, in fact, some confusion between manufacturers about this. Some use DELAY where
the onset of the LFO is delayed - i.e. after a note-on, nothing happens and then the LFO kicks
in at full level:
Note-on
Delay
Others, however, use a FADE function where the LFO slowly swells:
Note-on
Fade
The latter is far more ‘natural’ for vibrato as this mimics the action of players of stringed
instruments such as violin who tend to introduce vibrato slowly after the start of a note.
Controllers Page 30

Alesis Fusion Specifications

General

Type	Workstation
Polyphony	64 voices
Synthesis Types	Sample Playback, Virtual Analog, FM, Physical Modeling
Display	240 x 128 pixel LCD
MIDI	In, Out, Thru
RAM	64MB (expandable to 192MB)
Weight (61-key)	28 lbs
Keyboard	61 or 88 keys
Keyboard Type	Semi-weighted (61-key), Hammer action (88-key)
Effects	Reverb, Chorus, Delay, Flanger, Phaser, Distortion, EQ
Storage	40GB internal hard drive
Sampling	Yes
Inputs	2 x 1/4" inputs, 1 x XLR
Outputs	4 x 1/4" outputs, 1 x Headphone