This was a great segment. The way you arrange your reviews makes it really fun to watch. It would be fun to see you regularly take on these keyboards that nobody has any hope for.
Yes! I'd like to see this become a regular feature ... scouring the depths for keyboards designed without love or care. I feel like there as still a good few tones, rhythms, and uses for this budget machine.
Alesis had to file bancruptcy in 2001 and got a new owner. After that, they still made cheap music equipment as before, but most of the earlier innovation potential and ingenuity was gone and never came back. Luckily, the early Alesis gear still kicks ass! The MMT-8 sequencer and Midiverb III get a lot of use in my studio
Yeah. I have 3 Yamaha keyboards. I have an original DX7, a DX7s, and an EX5. But you're absolutely right. The Montage series is such a cool synthesizer. Yamaha has always been a great name. I also have some Behringer synths. I have the DeepMind 12 (Totally bad ass) Model D, and K2. Then a product from Ensoniq and Novation as follows :Ensoniq SQ1+ and a Novation MiniNova. My last Alesis was an Alesis QS 8.1 and that thing toured everywhere with me. It was a great keyboard. It had been dropped 3 times and just kept right on going.
@@kostependrhs its great for my 19 month old grandson whom has taken great interest in my Korg Kross 2 workstation. i bought this for him to work on basics and he can use it on our DAWs....Stay tuned for Beanie on tha Beat
I hear many perfectly useable tones in this plus connect a few guitar pedals to this bad boy and you can definitely expand the capabilities! This thing is like $50. I'm definitely going to grab one soon
I can't understand why 30-40 years ago toy music instruments were made with such a respect to children and why they are so so-so nowadays... Seems like modern technologies allows to put amazing top quality sounds in cheap toy synths and drums. The memory-chips are not so expensive anymore as it was in 80-s. But mostly all I've tried at store shelfs sounds horrible and sometimes even out of tune.
I have become a collector of old home keyboards and synthesizers (from the 80s and 90s) lately, and honestly I believe that there are so many gems out there. It’s wild to me that a lot of them are regarded as junk and just sitting in peoples’ closets these days.
I completely agree with you. Technology has advanced dramatically, but quality has declined in the opposite direction. I still find the old Casiotone and PortaSound attractive (high quality, durability, and the spirit of manufacturing) after all these years.
Yes the only reason a kids keyboard in 2021 isn’t at least 75% of a Korg Triton , Motif , Fantom , M1 , XP80 , etc. is gatekeeping . I don’t even understand this from a greed perspective either , wouldn’t it be effective brand loyalty and awareness to grow your customers ? I mean the ip already exists , the tech is considerably cheaper , so r&d is cut down to minimal .
@@Death_By_Media I understand what you’re saying, but I think the comparison is a bit off. When I think of home keyboards these days being compared to quality home keyboards of the past, I think of comparing them to the Casio Tone Banks of the early 90s. I have a CT-670, and I love it. When I compare it to things like the various modern Yamaha PSR keyboards that I’ve owned/tried, the CT-670 beats them all in terms of good and useable sounds. I think there was a level of pride and quality put out into the home keyboards of previous decades that is simply gone these days. Maybe it has to do with us living in the digital age. I think maybe it has to also do with the fact that there are so many means of entertainment, toys, music gear in general these days that these manufactures are not looking to impress as much with their modern home keyboards. I also think that a lot of the home keyboards of the 80s and 90s were made with the intention of being “toys” and beginner keyboards, but they were also made with the intention that professionals could potentially get some good use out of them as well. I think that since we’ve seen the music gear market open up drastically in the sense that there are almost unlimited buying options for customers (ranging in both price and quality; i.e. great instruments for cheaper prices than previously seen), it has cemented the concept to these companies that a home keyboard does not need to deliver much on quality, but rather just be something for beginner use only. Idk, these are all just my thoughts and ramblings though.
Kind of a tall ask, but Alesis came out with a new(ish) model called the Harmony 61 pro that seems to have a ton of bells and whistles for an insanely low price (~220 USD). You should review it! I know that’ll likely never happen but thank you for the all the content! You’ve helped me understand keyboards so much!
I could 70% confirm that the piano sounds are low-quality sampled from Yamaha's. You could find the original sound on S03, PSR-1500/PSR-640/KB-200(Mainland China Exclusive Model, I'm a Chinese myself). The marimba sounds are ripped off as well. Also, some of the sounds seems to be ripped off from sounds in Roland SC Series (SC-55 to be exactly?).
2:38 -- There's a clue on the label as to the quality: inMusic. They own brands such as Ion (those really cheap USB cassette decks from a few years ago that now litter thrift stores), Marantz Professional (not to be confused with just plain old Marantz -- more really cheap cassette decks), etc.
The only review of this little thing that makes any sense on the whole internet! I have this instrument and I also noticed that the higher models 54, 61 have the same processor (I think Holtek). Is it possible that the software in them is the same? Automatic accompaniment could then be unlocked :)
I like some of those lo-fi sampled sounds that machine has. Some of those tones reminded me of the sounds generated with older sound cards from Tracker music. It's actually an interesting little keyboard. I could use a lot of those tones in some lo-fi synth wave tracks. Good review!
Excellent review as always. Bog standard keyboard Like most others. It needs a 'dirty pitch' button to spice things up a bit and some sort of harmonizer and rhythm scrambler (don't think there is such a thing yet).
This has Yamaha vibes written all over it. The choir patch sounds very much like Yamaha PSR-500 (also SY-77 IIRC?) choir and if you look at the little drum icons under/above each key of the Harmony 54 and 61 keyboards they look exactly the same as those that Yamaha would use.
Don’t be fooled, all that is left from Alesis is the brand name, a meaningless badge. Since the bankruptcy and takeover by Numark in 2000 things went downhill and since the takeover by inMusic Brands in 2012 it lost all connection to Keith Barr and his company that once provided us with the groundbreaking ADAT-technology. This is just a rebranded Chinese toy. The sound chip was very likely designed for a 61 key keyboard (or maybe even 88 keys, hence the ARK-88 on the main board), which would not need a transpose function. They just chopped off the bottom and top keys. It looks like the Harmony is also being sold as “Alesis Melody 32”.
I’m at least 98.75% certain that the Conga/Bongo drums are directly ripped off from Yamaha keyboards circa 1991. Compare to older XG sounds, and for example, the PSR SQ16, PSR-520 etc, which I personally owned. When you were playing the music during your opening of the keyboard, I thought for a while you were using sounds from an old Yamaha instead of this board, but later, when you got to the percussion portion, at approximately 9:25, I realised that those are onboard. Actually, listening back, more than just the conga/bongo drums are direct rip-offs. The timbales, cymbals and even toms are from Yamaha. The more I listen, the more I’m certain. The snares however, don’t trigger my stupid music brain, so they might be the only originals in the drums at all.
This could be possible. And the question is, why didn't they use some of their own drum sounds? I almost believe that Alesis had nothing to do with the development of this keyboard. They just had their name written on it.
@@KeenOnKeys At 3:54 you can see "SunnyWay" written on the CPU module. Probably that's the real manufacturer of this keyboard. The ending tune is really cool by the way :-D
@@sonictv2373 Oh damn, yes. Just noticed that. I hear SC-55 snares in there. This is enough to get a company sued sideways. Why would anyone do this? It’s obvious for people that know what to listen for. Yes, let’s rebadge and resell other people’s sounds and think nobody will notice… Not quite…
I think that the worst thing is, there are no mini sampling keyboards today. The last one came out 26 years ago as the SK-60. I wasn't alive in the late 80s when they were all the rage but I still have a whole lot of fun with my Casio SK-8 today. When I'll hit university, hopefully I'll know enough about programing to contribute on the revival of these keyboards.
The ‘home’ keyboard I use is from the 80s. The Yamaha PSS680 which blows these into the weeds. Ok it was high end for home keyboards but having midi in and out and manual synth controls it’s still pretty good now especially when used with effects. Tbh though some of the sounds of the Harmony 32 are pretty good.
Great review, I'd be interested to know how you rate the Casio SA-46 compared to this, I know it has no midi but it seems to have some other nice features.
I wish there was an octave switch. I'm gonna return it. All I wanted it for was to learn the Charlie Brown theme song. Uh. Lol could you recommend me another keyboard that's portable?
for some reason UA-cam makes this video buffer extremely slow even though my speed testing app tells me my download speed is running at over 340 mbps, what is going wrong? I do not have this problem with other videos today.
Hi I have a similar keyboard. MusicTime keyboard 270, 37 keys from F to F. I got it second hand and its more than 15 years old, it sounds amazing for its price. One problem though, the drums are too low most of times, theres something wrong inside, the drums can play louder Ive heard, theres a bad connection somewhere. Any idea where to look? Thanks..
You should definitely try to circuit bend that HR-16! There are plenty of tutorials on how to safely and easilly turn it into a modular glitch machine that still works like an unmodded version if you want it to.
Excellent video. ALL of your videos are perfect. I can't believe how crappy that display is, though... and the sounds are... meh. Compared to the PSS-A50 by Yamaha-- this is a sad alternative.
My dad owns a QS8 from 98 and it’s great! Can you compare the price to a store in New York and he got two grand off the price when he was at the store. Everything was cheaper in a music store in NY And the stores policy was that if you could match the price to another store they would make that the price.
This Keyboard doesn't represent what i am used to by Alesis. When i think of the great products they made in the 90's i owned and some of them still own. Adat, Quadraverb, 3630, Midiverb, Monitor 1 and Monitor 2, RA 100, SR 16, Nanoverb. They were essential at my recording studio in the middle 90's. Today i have the DM 8 Pro drum set and it is great.
The display is likely so dark to save batteries (no bad idea); in a normal lighted room it works well. The floppy keys buzz during percussion, which should not happen in a name brand keyboard (adhesive felt would prevent this). Some strings and choir pads sound ridiculous and the waveforms are harsh (Casio could do that better). Likely they don't put classic Alesis samples in, because they bought the chip elsewhere, which contains unchangeable mask rom samples and perhaps lacks the envelope hardware of actual Alesis synths. In the video at 3:54 the sound chip is labelled "SunnyWay, ARK-88, 20201105". This may be actually a Holtek product (a company known for button cell operated cheap LCD gadgets); at least in early 2000 Yongmei and many Chinese toy keyboards used them. Some of those Yongmei make every sound (even organs) slowly decay when holding notes.
@@KeenOnKeys To fool the grannies. Alesis once was a name brand (much like Bontempi) and now likely not so much (or at least they rebrand cheap foreign novice trash without caring about good quality). The thing functions, but that's it.
The Alesis Harmony 32 (also seen as "Melody 32") may made by Medeli or even the Chinese brand Yongmei. But Yongmei tend to be even worse; they were infamous for selling under a zillion of trade names absolutely terrible trash keyboards those often were even unplayable. E.g. it was impossible to play polyphonic notes (e.g. fingered chords) because the key matrix diodes were omitted to save some cents, which produced cluster mess like pushing your flat hand down on adjacent keys when more than 2 keys were pressed. Early models even contained Stylophone hardware despite they looked like a digital polyphonic keyboard. In 1980th Alesis made well known reverb devices, but nowadays they seem to be only a label to rebrand other stuff that has nothing to do with the original company.
Don't forget that some of the sounds were taken from Yamaha and Roland like the Yamaha XG Sample Engine and the Roland Sound Canvas. It's really sad actually.
I have this in my collection , I feel that surely there has to be a way to access all the hidden features from the full size melody 61, including the auto accompaniment for the rhythms, and also the rhythm programming function. If you're almost certainly makes sense that they're able to be accessed somehow , I would hope that since I'm not a circuit Bender I could figure out how to access them myself if someone could possibly give me an insight on it I think it would be very neat to Access all the hidden stuff from the melody 61.
if you are really interested in hidden features, I remember an mc cript keyboard having the ability to access auto accompaniment from its bigger sibling, the first demo song is mozart night music, second is twincle twincle litter star, third is red rivver vally, the larger model has drum pad at the bottom, alternatively you might be able to find a rebranded super music centre with only 3 demo songs and outsmart the store and access all 8 songs
you can use more then 16 sound as midi in .. in cubase --midi channel--program selector.. and i found that i can send the midi notes to 120 sounds of the this keyboard ::))
The thing that made me sad is that it has some potential. Hardware is obviously capable as demonstrated in part where you feed in MIDI from DAW. And some of those layered tones actually sounds great. But there are so many mistakes - bass with missing low octaves, no transpose, sequencer obviously designed by someone who never used sequencer.
Looks like a case of "label-slapping" . I have a feeling Alesis had little to nothing to do with this product other than sticking their name on an open-source Chinese-made toy. I guess the days of my much loved Microverb and Monitor Ones are gone :(
When you said that Harmony 32 could have been a lot smaller, you showed a picture of a smaller Harmony 32 keyboard. Is that a real picture of a smaller version? Is that one you created? Is it a picture of a prototype? What gives?
@@KeenOnKeys I see, very detailed pictures, and I can certainly see how the Harmony 32 could have been made physically smaller without sacrificing any features. Mind you the speakers might need to be changed in size, so the sound from a size reduced unit may differ from that of the original unit.
Thanks for the review. I got from my wife a Yamaha PSS-F30 for my second universty degree about six weeks ago. In the music store it was this, the F-30 and the myharmony 54. When I tested this I immediately felt how hollow the keys are. And how poor the material of the plastic compared tho the Yamaha. I liked that so much that i bought a used pss-a50. The PSS-A50 is far better even for the higher price. Better key quality, better sounding tones, recorder and the keys are touch sensitive. It's a big shame for alesis to made this. I understand for this price they couldn't get more, but I think 90% of the people would pay a little more for better keys or better quality instruments. Even the PSS-F-30 beats out the crap from this "Instrument".
it's sad that PSS A-50 is the only small, good quality keyboard with touch sensitivity in this price range. I think Casio should made next generation SA series with touch response - and better sound quality, because it's not terrible, but also not great for 2021.
My first keyboard - the Casio VL-1 - had more innovation and character than this and that was about 40 years ago. We should have amazing sounding keyboards with synthesis, sampling and multitrack recording for under £100 these days. (if a company combined low end/average smart pad/tablet technology with a keyboard that had built in speakers they could include a full recording studio and playing lessons AND auto accompaniment - or keep it simple) My mind boggles as to why this type of keyboard has gotten so bad.
"If you like very high-tuned timpanis, here's something for you." Hilarious! Great review, it's a shame this little gadget seems like an almost total waste.
The reason why the display is very weak is because it’s made by a Chinese factory that usually used to make lights for toys with light and music. so the display is meant to be used in the dark. (Kind regards, Christopher.)
6:37 that may be not a good organ, but it is a good Irish pipe lol by the way i doubt that this keyboard is just a oem product which not design by alesis itself.
Have any of these manufacturers ever approached you to help make demo videos? Like Naysy does with Synth Riders? Your outro song was way better than this keyboard
@@KeenOnKeys I bet if you approach them as an established UA-cam keyboard influencer they might consider using you to make feature and sound demo videos. Your production values are higher than most official product vids I’ve seed and I’ve learned more about the use of keyboard features from you than I ever could from the manuals they used to ship with.
The Andromeda should have become a classic .. only it fell very quickly to specific unreliability problems, which Alesis did nothing to address.. and the thing fell to obsoletion within a year.. Alesis really should have road tested it more thoroughly before release.
No matter how bad or simple the keyboard is, you always make them shine with your excellent demos.
This was a great segment. The way you arrange your reviews makes it really fun to watch. It would be fun to see you regularly take on these keyboards that nobody has any hope for.
Yes! I'd like to see this become a regular feature ... scouring the depths for keyboards designed without love or care. I feel like there as still a good few tones, rhythms, and uses for this budget machine.
Alesis had to file bancruptcy in 2001 and got a new owner. After that, they still made cheap music equipment as before, but most of the earlier innovation potential and ingenuity was gone and never came back. Luckily, the early Alesis gear still kicks ass! The MMT-8 sequencer and Midiverb III get a lot of use in my studio
I really don't understand why this channel hasn't at least 1.6 million subscribers!? It's an amazing channel, well-produced and very interesting.
Toy-like with toy-like sounds. Yamaha has nothing to worry about. Excellent review. Amazing production quality.
Yeah. I have 3 Yamaha keyboards. I have an original DX7, a DX7s, and an EX5. But you're absolutely right. The Montage series is such a cool synthesizer. Yamaha has always been a great name. I also have some Behringer synths. I have the DeepMind 12 (Totally bad ass) Model D, and K2. Then a product from Ensoniq and Novation as follows :Ensoniq SQ1+ and a Novation MiniNova. My last Alesis was an Alesis QS 8.1 and that thing toured everywhere with me. It was a great keyboard. It had been dropped 3 times and just kept right on going.
Seems like you have no idea how a toy keyboard sounds. This is actually quite good for the purpose it was made for. And much cheaper than yamaha.
@@kostependrhs I remember when I was a kid I had a little kawai keyboard. It sounded brilliant. It was sample based. It sounded amazing
@@kostependrhs its great for my 19 month old grandson whom has taken great interest in my Korg Kross 2 workstation. i bought this for him to work on basics and he can use it on our DAWs....Stay tuned for Beanie on tha Beat
Some of the sounds sound like they were taken from Casio keyboards.
I hear many perfectly useable tones in this plus connect a few guitar pedals to this bad boy and you can definitely expand the capabilities! This thing is like $50. I'm definitely going to grab one soon
I can't understand why 30-40 years ago toy music instruments were made with such a respect to children and why they are so so-so nowadays... Seems like modern technologies allows to put amazing top quality sounds in cheap toy synths and drums. The memory-chips are not so expensive anymore as it was in 80-s. But mostly all I've tried at store shelfs sounds horrible and sometimes even out of tune.
I have become a collector of old home keyboards and synthesizers (from the 80s and 90s) lately, and honestly I believe that there are so many gems out there. It’s wild to me that a lot of them are regarded as junk and just sitting in peoples’ closets these days.
I completely agree with you. Technology has advanced dramatically, but quality has declined in the opposite direction. I still find the old Casiotone and PortaSound attractive (high quality, durability, and the spirit of manufacturing) after all these years.
Yes the only reason a kids keyboard in 2021 isn’t at least 75% of a Korg Triton , Motif , Fantom , M1 , XP80 , etc. is gatekeeping . I don’t even understand this from a greed perspective either , wouldn’t it be effective brand loyalty and awareness to grow your customers ? I mean the ip already exists , the tech is considerably cheaper , so r&d is cut down to minimal .
@@Death_By_Media I understand what you’re saying, but I think the comparison is a bit off. When I think of home keyboards these days being compared to quality home keyboards of the past, I think of comparing them to the Casio Tone Banks of the early 90s. I have a CT-670, and I love it. When I compare it to things like the various modern Yamaha PSR keyboards that I’ve owned/tried, the CT-670 beats them all in terms of good and useable sounds.
I think there was a level of pride and quality put out into the home keyboards of previous decades that is simply gone these days. Maybe it has to do with us living in the digital age. I think maybe it has to also do with the fact that there are so many means of entertainment, toys, music gear in general these days that these manufactures are not looking to impress as much with their modern home keyboards.
I also think that a lot of the home keyboards of the 80s and 90s were made with the intention of being “toys” and beginner keyboards, but they were also made with the intention that professionals could potentially get some good use out of them as well. I think that since we’ve seen the music gear market open up drastically in the sense that there are almost unlimited buying options for customers (ranging in both price and quality; i.e. great instruments for cheaper prices than previously seen), it has cemented the concept to these companies that a home keyboard does not need to deliver much on quality, but rather just be something for beginner use only. Idk, these are all just my thoughts and ramblings though.
Maybe we should do it make a lot of money!
Big love to this channel ❤
Thanks for your latest review that's just as fun and inspiring as the previous ones! It's really sad that this model doesn't quite deserve it.
Excellent review as always on keen n keys
You can't imagine how useful this video is for me. Really thanks!👍
Kind of a tall ask, but Alesis came out with a new(ish) model called the Harmony 61 pro that seems to have a ton of bells and whistles for an insanely low price (~220 USD). You should review it!
I know that’ll likely never happen but thank you for the all the content! You’ve helped me understand keyboards so much!
I could 70% confirm that the piano sounds are low-quality sampled from Yamaha's. You could find the original sound on S03, PSR-1500/PSR-640/KB-200(Mainland China Exclusive Model, I'm a Chinese myself). The marimba sounds are ripped off as well.
Also, some of the sounds seems to be ripped off from sounds in Roland SC Series (SC-55 to be exactly?).
Yeap, completely agree, I can recognize those Roland SoundCanvas and Yamaha AWM tones from a mile away lol
Your serious humor, makes justice to the serious joke Alesis did...
how to get the percussion sounds?
Thanx a lot! Super review! Nice Music! Nice Voice! Great Video quality and montage! Wish you all the Best! Keep going this deal! )))
2:38 -- There's a clue on the label as to the quality: inMusic. They own brands such as Ion (those really cheap USB cassette decks from a few years ago that now litter thrift stores), Marantz Professional (not to be confused with just plain old Marantz -- more really cheap cassette decks), etc.
Many thanks. I just bought it. I think I will try to make Dungeon Synth music with it, I think those Lo-Fi sounds are perfect for this
Really nice video as always. Looking foward to your next video.
The only review of this little thing that makes any sense on the whole internet! I have this instrument and I also noticed that the higher models 54, 61 have the same processor (I think Holtek). Is it possible that the software in them is the same? Automatic accompaniment could then be unlocked :)
I like some of those lo-fi sampled sounds that machine has. Some of those tones reminded me of the sounds generated with older sound cards from Tracker music. It's actually an interesting little keyboard. I could use a lot of those tones in some lo-fi synth wave tracks. Good review!
I don't understand... Can I use it this keyboard as a midi controller independently? Why are you using an Arturia to show midi controller functions?
Yes, you can use it as a Midi controller. But you can also use it as a sound source. That's what I showed with the Arturia Minilab.
Came to ask this. For a tiny, travel MIDI controller (with its own built-in tones) this would sometimes work better for me than something full-sized.
Excellent review as always. Bog standard keyboard Like most others. It needs a 'dirty pitch' button to spice things up a bit and some sort of harmonizer and rhythm scrambler (don't think there is such a thing yet).
This has Yamaha vibes written all over it. The choir patch sounds very much like Yamaha PSR-500 (also SY-77 IIRC?) choir and if you look at the little drum icons under/above each key of the Harmony 54 and 61 keyboards they look exactly the same as those that Yamaha would use.
this keyboard is using a holtek chip, which is now public domain material as yamaha gave holtek the rite to use the sounds
Don’t be fooled, all that is left from Alesis is the brand name, a meaningless badge. Since the bankruptcy and takeover by Numark in 2000 things went downhill and since the takeover by inMusic Brands in 2012 it lost all connection to Keith Barr and his company that once provided us with the groundbreaking ADAT-technology.
This is just a rebranded Chinese toy. The sound chip was very likely designed for a 61 key keyboard (or maybe even 88 keys, hence the ARK-88 on the main board), which would not need a transpose function. They just chopped off the bottom and top keys. It looks like the Harmony is also being sold as “Alesis Melody 32”.
I believe that a new model of a mini keyboard should include an octave shift function.
What another piano, maybe better, do you recommend for a smalll child?
I wonder if downloading the software upgrade might have fixed some of your issues? 😀
I would just get something like this to practice my chords while I'm at work.
I’m at least 98.75% certain that the Conga/Bongo drums are directly ripped off from Yamaha keyboards circa 1991.
Compare to older XG sounds, and for example, the PSR SQ16, PSR-520 etc, which I personally owned.
When you were playing the music during your opening of the keyboard, I thought for a while you were using sounds from an old Yamaha instead of this board, but later, when you got to the percussion portion, at approximately 9:25, I realised that those are onboard.
Actually, listening back, more than just the conga/bongo drums are direct rip-offs. The timbales, cymbals and even toms are from Yamaha. The more I listen, the more I’m certain.
The snares however, don’t trigger my stupid music brain, so they might be the only originals in the drums at all.
This could be possible. And the question is, why didn't they use some of their own drum sounds? I almost believe that Alesis had nothing to do with the development of this keyboard. They just had their name written on it.
Yes. There seems to be a few roland sounds in there as well.
@@KeenOnKeys At 3:54 you can see "SunnyWay" written on the CPU module. Probably that's the real manufacturer of this keyboard.
The ending tune is really cool by the way :-D
The snare drum sounds are both ripped off from Yamaha and Roland.
@@sonictv2373 Oh damn, yes. Just noticed that. I hear SC-55 snares in there.
This is enough to get a company sued sideways. Why would anyone do this? It’s obvious for people that know what to listen for.
Yes, let’s rebadge and resell other people’s sounds and think nobody will notice… Not quite…
Extraordinary video review for an ordinary toy keyboard.
I think that the worst thing is, there are no mini sampling keyboards today. The last one came out 26 years ago as the SK-60. I wasn't alive in the late 80s when they were all the rage but I still have a whole lot of fun with my Casio SK-8 today. When I'll hit university, hopefully I'll know enough about programing to contribute on the revival of these keyboards.
there was that weird korg sampling keyboard, but even then that was a long time ago
The ‘home’ keyboard I use is from the 80s. The Yamaha PSS680 which blows these into the weeds. Ok it was high end for home keyboards but having midi in and out and manual synth controls it’s still pretty good now especially when used with effects. Tbh though some of the sounds of the Harmony 32 are pretty good.
Oh yeah! Those things sounded great. I had one of those and you are right they sound amazing!
Does the keyboard make a weird sound when you turn it on?
I have the MELODY54 and that sounds like something is breaking.
No it doesn't. I would have mentioned that in the video.
Great. Thanks for sharing 😀
I think this might be a re-badged cheap, Chinese keyboard, made by Hangzhou Aierke Electronic Co.,Ltd. It's their "ARK-88" epoxy blob CPU chip in it.
The sounds remember me, same sounds of modules tracker from Amiga 😁
I was gonna say it sounds like 8-bit sampler :D
@@Blahdnb :-)
Great review, I'd be interested to know how you rate the Casio SA-46 compared to this, I know it has no midi but it seems to have some other nice features.
The SA-46 actually doesn't sound much better, but everything works as it should and it's a lot more fun to play.
Alesis is a sad shell of its former self
I wish there was an octave switch. I'm gonna return it. All I wanted it for was to learn the Charlie Brown theme song. Uh. Lol could you recommend me another keyboard that's portable?
Yamaha PSS-F30 or A50
@@KeenOnKeys I just went to target and I got casiotone ct-s195
Thank you. Wish I saw that earlier.. but I have 30 days to return
for some reason UA-cam makes this video buffer extremely slow even though my speed testing app tells me my download speed is running at over 340 mbps, what is going wrong?
I do not have this problem with other videos today.
Hi I have a similar keyboard. MusicTime keyboard 270, 37 keys from F to F. I got it second hand and its more than 15 years old, it sounds amazing for its price. One problem though, the drums are too low most of times, theres something wrong inside, the drums can play louder Ive heard, theres a bad connection somewhere. Any idea where to look?
Thanks..
LOL @ Walk Like an Egyptian
That last song arrangement sounds like a cheap take on Walter Murphy’s “A Fifth of Beethoven.” 😆 Love it.
is the headphone output also an output to the interface?
Do you know how or if I can change octaves?
It's not possible
You should definitely try to circuit bend that HR-16! There are plenty of tutorials on how to safely and easilly turn it into a modular glitch machine that still works like an unmodded version if you want it to.
Thanks for the tip. Maybe I'll give this a try. But not before I've done a review on it.
Omg I love rock organ! It's not at all like a rock organ. They should've called it UFO Landing.
Excellent video. ALL of your videos are perfect. I can't believe how crappy that display is, though... and the sounds are... meh. Compared to the PSS-A50 by Yamaha-- this is a sad alternative.
Today's Alesis is not the Alesis you used to know in 90s... Their product quality is on par with typical Chinese generic brand level these days.
Where did you get that MG-1 plugin? I had an MG-1 as a kid.
It's from Cherry Audio and it's for free.
@@KeenOnKeys Nice! I am going to look in to it. Thank you sir
does this has auto accompaniment styles like Yamaha do?
My dad owns a QS8 from 98 and it’s great! Can you compare the price to a store in New York and he got two grand off the price when he was at the store. Everything was cheaper in a music store in NY And the stores policy was that if you could match the price to another store they would make that the price.
Can it be used like MIDI?
This Keyboard doesn't represent what i am used to by Alesis. When i think of the great products they made in the 90's i owned and some of them still own.
Adat, Quadraverb, 3630, Midiverb, Monitor 1 and Monitor 2, RA 100, SR 16, Nanoverb.
They were essential at my recording studio in the middle 90's. Today i have the DM 8 Pro drum set and it is great.
The display is likely so dark to save batteries (no bad idea); in a normal lighted room it works well. The floppy keys buzz during percussion, which should not happen in a name brand keyboard (adhesive felt would prevent this). Some strings and choir pads sound ridiculous and the waveforms are harsh (Casio could do that better). Likely they don't put classic Alesis samples in, because they bought the chip elsewhere, which contains unchangeable mask rom samples and perhaps lacks the envelope hardware of actual Alesis synths.
In the video at 3:54 the sound chip is labelled "SunnyWay, ARK-88, 20201105". This may be actually a Holtek product (a company known for button cell operated cheap LCD gadgets); at least in early 2000 Yongmei and many Chinese toy keyboards used them. Some of those Yongmei make every sound (even organs) slowly decay when holding notes.
Interesting, but I still wonder why Alesis had their name written on it.
@@KeenOnKeys To fool the grannies. Alesis once was a name brand (much like Bontempi) and now likely not so much (or at least they rebrand cheap foreign novice trash without caring about good quality). The thing functions, but that's it.
For the demo, they should put a demo that can be made on the keyboard
The Alesis Harmony 32 (also seen as "Melody 32") may made by Medeli or even the Chinese brand Yongmei.
But Yongmei tend to be even worse; they were infamous for selling under a zillion of trade names absolutely terrible trash keyboards those often were even unplayable. E.g. it was impossible to play polyphonic notes (e.g. fingered chords) because the key matrix diodes were omitted to save some cents, which produced cluster mess like pushing your flat hand down on adjacent keys when more than 2 keys were pressed. Early models even contained Stylophone hardware despite they looked like a digital polyphonic keyboard.
In 1980th Alesis made well known reverb devices, but nowadays they seem to be only a label to rebrand other stuff that has nothing to do with the original company.
Alesis is now an “inMusic Brands” brand.
even in the early 2000s alesis made some great virtual analog synths.
Don't forget that some of the sounds were taken from Yamaha and Roland like the Yamaha XG Sample Engine and the Roland Sound Canvas. It's really sad actually.
I would love to see what you can do with a microKorg :)
Spending hours trying to come up with a synth tone is crazy, imo??? And they sounded so similar or the factory sounded better??
I have this in my collection , I feel that surely there has to be a way to access all the hidden features from the full size melody 61, including the auto accompaniment for the rhythms, and also the rhythm programming function. If you're almost certainly makes sense that they're able to be accessed somehow , I would hope that since I'm not a circuit Bender I could figure out how to access them myself if someone could possibly give me an insight on it I think it would be very neat to Access all the hidden stuff from the melody 61.
if you are really interested in hidden features, I remember an mc cript keyboard having the ability to access auto accompaniment from its bigger sibling, the first demo song is mozart night music, second is twincle twincle litter star, third is red rivver vally, the larger model has drum pad at the bottom, alternatively you might be able to find a rebranded super music centre with only 3 demo songs and outsmart the store and access all 8 songs
you can use more then 16 sound as midi in .. in cubase --midi channel--program selector.. and i found that i can send the midi notes to 120 sounds of the this keyboard ::))
The thing that made me sad is that it has some potential. Hardware is obviously capable as demonstrated in part where you feed in MIDI from DAW. And some of those layered tones actually sounds great.
But there are so many mistakes - bass with missing low octaves, no transpose, sequencer obviously designed by someone who never used sequencer.
Looks like a case of "label-slapping" . I have a feeling Alesis had little to nothing to do with this product other than sticking their name on an open-source Chinese-made toy. I guess the days of my much loved Microverb and Monitor Ones are gone :(
Hi there, are you going to do a review of the Yamaha sonogenic SHS-500?
When you said that Harmony 32 could have been a lot smaller, you showed a picture of a smaller Harmony 32 keyboard. Is that a real picture of a smaller version? Is that one you created? Is it a picture of a prototype? What gives?
That is a picture I created. As well as the picture of the Harmony 44.
@@KeenOnKeys I see, very detailed pictures, and I can certainly see how the Harmony 32 could have been made physically smaller without sacrificing any features. Mind you the speakers might need to be changed in size, so the sound from a size reduced unit may differ from that of the original unit.
Thanks for the review. I got from my wife a Yamaha PSS-F30 for my second universty degree about six weeks ago. In the music store it was this, the F-30 and the myharmony 54. When I tested this I immediately felt how hollow the keys are. And how poor the material of the plastic compared tho the Yamaha. I liked that so much that i bought a used pss-a50. The PSS-A50 is far better even for the higher price. Better key quality, better sounding tones, recorder and the keys are touch sensitive. It's a big shame for alesis to made this. I understand for this price they couldn't get more, but I think 90% of the people would pay a little more for better keys or better quality instruments. Even the PSS-F-30 beats out the crap from this "Instrument".
it's sad that PSS A-50 is the only small, good quality keyboard with touch sensitivity in this price range. I think Casio should made next generation SA series with touch response - and better sound quality, because it's not terrible, but also not great for 2021.
i like this one i want to get one asap !
These have alot of the same tones as the Casio SA76
How did you connect it to midi? because I want to connect mine to my other keyboard which I’m going to have as a master keyboard.
It has USB Midi. So you can not connect it directly to your other keyboard. You have to connect it to your computer first.
Is this similar to the Alesis Melody 32?
Yes
My first keyboard - the Casio VL-1 - had more innovation and character than this and that was about 40 years ago. We should have amazing sounding keyboards with synthesis, sampling and multitrack recording for under £100 these days. (if a company combined low end/average smart pad/tablet technology with a keyboard that had built in speakers they could include a full recording studio and playing lessons AND auto accompaniment - or keep it simple) My mind boggles as to why this type of keyboard has gotten so bad.
Is that display backlit? Is it a segmented LED readout like on the PSS-A50, or is it an LCD type screen?
It's an LED display, just like the one in the PSS-A50, but less bright.
@@KeenOnKeys I can't even seen anything showing up on that display at all, like, nothing. Then again I am vision impaired.
"If you like very high-tuned timpanis, here's something for you." Hilarious! Great review, it's a shame this little gadget seems like an almost total waste.
The reason why the display is very weak is because it’s made by a Chinese factory that usually used to make lights for toys with light and music. so the display is meant to be used in the dark. (Kind regards, Christopher.)
I was surprised that it is Multitimbral. 40 quid in the UK.
Alesis can be very good and… very cheap. Anyway, your video is as good as usual.
Did you learn all the riffs in the world?
hate how I want one of these simply for that off-putting gameboy advance honkytonk sound
6:37 that may be not a good organ, but it is a good Irish pipe lol
by the way i doubt that this keyboard is just a oem product which not design by alesis itself.
it has microphone port ? i want to buy this for my 4 years old daughter
No
Not far away from a musical birthday card.
What prog is the seq
Legend
Have any of these manufacturers ever approached you to help make demo videos? Like Naysy does with Synth Riders?
Your outro song was way better than this keyboard
I would like to create a demo song for a new keyboard. But I think most manufacturers prefer to stick to the royalty-free back catalog.
@@KeenOnKeys I bet if you approach them as an established UA-cam keyboard influencer they might consider using you to make feature and sound demo videos. Your production values are higher than most official product vids I’ve seed and I’ve learned more about the use of keyboard features from you than I ever could from the manuals they used to ship with.
i really wish someone would make reissues of the old Portasound keyboards
you'd need permition from yamaha to do that as most of the material is still copyrighted
Is it Liam Neeson voice?
Please compare with medeli mk1 37keys
A terrible piece of junk, but you make it shine.
Some of those sounds remind me of the Casio SA-46/76
What are some of your favourite toy synths?
It is a good toy for kids. Alesis should bring back Andromeda, a software version will be nice.
I own one yes its basic but it works
would have been better if you recorded audio thru audio output instead of camera mic
Are you kidding? Of course I used the headphone output.
Eh 3M labels could turn it into a nice looking workhorse?
ชาร์ท กับ พาวเวอร์ แบงค์ ไม่ได้ แต่ ชาร์ทด้วยที่ชาร์ทมือถือ ต่อ ไฟบ้าน ใช้งานได้
The Andromeda should have become a classic .. only it fell very quickly to specific unreliability problems, which Alesis did nothing to address.. and the thing fell to obsoletion within a year..
Alesis really should have road tested it more thoroughly before release.
6:40 Final Fantasy PS1 days
Make a video its over all tone
👍👍👍👍
Do you have an instagram?