Alesis Wedge
The Wedge produces reverb and ambient effects. Its reverb varieties include halls, plates, rooms and several special application reverb programs like Virtual Stereo(TM) rooms, flexible gated reverbs and effects specifically designed for post-production usage like ADR. In addition to its reverb capabilities, the Wedge provides other effects like delay, chorus, flange, rotary speaker simulation, autopanners, multieffects and more. A total of 256 programs are offered, with 128 presets and 128 user programs. The Wedge provides four 45mm sliders to adjust several effects parameters in real time. The Wedge features Alesis' Impulse Audition(TM) button, which emits a full spectrum audio impulse. This impulse is designed to make it easier for engineers to manipulate parameters such as diffusion, decay, and reverberation swirl.
User Reviews of the Alesis Wedge
- Submitted by Gary from Pontiac, MI (12 points) on Mar 21, 2004
- This to me is not a toy because, you don't play with this kind of editing power you take it serious... this machine has 24-bit to 18-bit conversion out and 48khz processing... no joke. The sound is good honestly, I won't say very good because I have only used a Lower end Lexicon and it compares to that I have not used a Lexicon mpx-1 yet or pcm-91... so I am saying that this machine is a very nice fun to twiddle with piece of equipment.
- Good Points: The good points are the four real time sliders and tap tempo function.
- Bad Points: The bad points are changing effects does produce an audible click and the midi realtime changes does too... but I bought it for cybor effects so it doesn't matter artifacts can be interesting.
- Price Paid: US$120.00
- Purchased At: Music Go Round
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- Submitted by matt from Dustin, OK (10 points) on Feb 26, 2004
- This thing is great for feedback loops. I run an A-B switch into it in such a way that I can feed a sound into it, let the reverb, delay, or echo chew on it and then *BAM* open up the feedback loop and let it explode! Fun shit. It should also be noted that you can create internal feedback effects without an input and tweak them to some degree. Because you can use the sliders to edit parameters such as freq modulation depth and rate quickly and easily, it's easy to use this to shape huge sounding walls of noise quickly. Its reverbs SOUND digital but can be extremely convincing: an interesting combination. At its best it sounds like a convergence of delay, reverb, and distortion coming at you like a tidal wave.
- Good Points: Easy real time operation with lots of editability Self oscilation Cheap and available Digital yet realistic sounding
- Bad Points: Sorta fragile. Be careful with it or build a case. Be aware that it can get pretty hot if you run high gain signals into it and make its chip sweat. If you put this on an amp, it might melt.
- Price Paid: US$90.00
- Purchased At: ebay
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- Submitted by Adrian from Raleigh, NC (274 points) on Sep 24, 2003
- Useful box, especially for ambient type things. More or less a quadraverb in a more desktop friendly layout. The reverbs sound great to me, but I've never been picky about "real" sounding reverb. Its designed to be used as a studio toy, not a performance tool, but the 4 sliders on the top make it pretty easy to edit settings in real time (esp compared to similar rack units from alesis, digitech, art, etc) Best used for post processing, particular for the big reverb sounds (adjusting the reverb dwell time to huge values is always fun). It has a 5.5sec mono delay, plus various stereo multitap delays (but tweaking the values doesnt alter the pitch of the repeats, just sort of digitaly truncates/resamples). There is a reverse reverb, okay pitch shifters, and all the various time domain effects. Many of the preset are setup to allow two totally different settings on left/right inputs (say, a flange on the left and reverb on the right) Using one of the stereo setings to intertwingle two signal paths is sometimes fun. But the real primary use is postprocessing for ambient sounds, with a fairly easy to edit/tweak interface.
- Good Points: good reverbs, long delays, stereo, interface is nice (esp compared to most rackmount gear), handy for table top useage,
- Bad Points: changing presets with a active signal causes audible pops, can't edit patches so any given 4 params can be changed at once (ie, you see 4 at a time, and can page though all of them, but cant rearrange the order)
- Price Paid: US$100.00
- Purchased At: ebay
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- Submitted by SPIKE from Houston, TX (116 points) on Nov 13, 2002
- The unit has MIDI in and out/thru, 2 Audio ins and 2 audio outs, an Alpha dial, four faders, 11 navigation buttons, and a TAP/Audition Button. One can quickly dial up and find an effect, tweak it to insanity, and get on with production. The 4 faders also send and receive sysex so you can automate your effect tweaking with your favorite sequencer. The Wedge is pretty well thought out and REALLY easy to use. the 128 presets are great starting points and when you want to edit something you just jump into the edit mode and it uses the four faders to change parameters. When you are selecting an effect you can quickly demo it with the 'TAP' button. When this thumbprint shaped button is triggered a quick hit of white noiz into the effect. The efx are clean and the unit is very quiet. The reverbs are REALLY nice. The other efx are things like delays, flanges, panning, and of course chorus. The unit is GREAT for drone and really long ambient washes. It also works great for stereo motion. It's powered with a standard Alesis 9vac bump in the line four pin power supply which is easy to replace like I had to for mine. Really great for dark ambient noiz elements.
- Good Points: REALLY easy to use. Very versatile. Audition button is very helpful. Unit is very quiet. Small and compact. The unit is small and compact. Built to withstand some harsh use or "accidents." Mine survived a very heavy scsi drive landing on it from four feet up. It's had some reconstructive surgery since then. Can be automated. 128 user patches to save your own creations.
- Bad Points: It is discontinued. The faders are not assignable and do not send CC# info. They only send SYSEX.
- Price Paid: US$99.00
- Purchased At: Guitar Center
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