Conference napalm::commusic_v1

    
    sounds like heat. Are there things in sockets? Try wiggling them.
    Otherwise it might be a cold solder joint. My Midiverb II had a
    cold solder joint in it's power supply jack (stupid *&*^%^# 1/8"
    micro-jacks!!!!) which caused a power failure during a gig. Grrr...
    
    Anyway it sounds like when it heats up something expands away from
    it's connection. The loud crashes are current/voltage paths being
    broken on the "guzzin" side....
    
    /pjh

    Oh Great!  I just recently got a microverb to use in a live situation
    -- can I count on it failing sometime on the gig, or is that the
    exception rather than the rule.  With the things I've been hearing
    about Alesis equipment lately, it sounds like the rule.
    	I've had mine at home for a month or so with no problems --
    can I expect the problems to start when I start lugging the thing
    around?
    
    	Ron

    In all fairness to Alesis, I've had one MVII that's been functioning
    perfectly for >6 months, one that failed in 2 weeks, and one that's
    never failed in the 9 minutes I used it this morning.
    
    Alesis: Hot gear, poor QC.
    
    Edd

    
    Edd is right. My HR-16 is running great. The MVII has had a couple
    of really stupid QC-type problems. I've heard of other people with
    the same basic QC type problems. No smoke, but...
    
    Still annoying.
    
    /pjh

    Has anyone with Alesis gear run into the power supply ("wall bug")
    going bad?
    
    		-Jim

    My Ah-Loses wall bug (for HR-16) had an intermittent in the 1/8"
    plug from day 1.
    
    I cut the Alesis plug off and put a Jap Shack one on.  Works fine
    now.   
    
    One of these days I'm gonna write a nastygram to Alesis and tape
    that plug to the letter....
    			:-)
        
    	-Bill

    FWIW - I bought my MV2 over a year ago for $340.  That was just
    when the price and QC was going down.  Near as I can figure it,
    something happened to the stuff made since then.  I think the older 
    stuff had much better (read: acceptable, average, status quo) 
    reliability.  I've not had one single problem with my MV2 and have 
    been using it continuously for over a year.
    
    Steve

    re: power supply, plugs, connectors...
    
    There are 3 distinctly different power supply plugs/receptacles
    on the MVII and the way they are mounted to the case is different
    also. 
               
    My older (and so far totally reliable) MVII was a surface mounted
    female jack for the PS, attached with a small chrome nut to the
    case.
    
    My recently departed MVII had a recessed female jack accessed through
    a small hole in the back of the case.
    
    The new one has what I can only describe as a recessed 'androgynous'
    jack. Even though the plug from the PS is inserted into it, it has
    a center pin that is inserted into the incoming plug. Kinda like
    a BNC connector....
    
    Edd
    

    Called the store where I bought my �Verb, they said they have had
    cases where the wall bug ITSELF was bad, i.e. didn't put out enough
    volts/milliamps or whatever.  The connection TO the 1/8" jack seems
    OK on mine (jiggling the plug didn't help)...guess the problem is
    either INSIDE the �Verb itself, or the wall bug is bad...
    
    		-Jim

    I've had no trouble with my MV II.  My HR16 had a few screws loose
    (literally!) when I got it, but no problems electronically. 

    A friend of mine had a �verb for a year with no trouble until a gorilla
    dropped a guitar amp across the front of his rack and broke the pots
    off.

    Like I said somewhere else in here, Alesis has cut its dealers in half
    and cut production about the same in order to try and reign in their QC
    problem.  No one will buy the ^^4verb if it's 80% DOA. 

-b

    
    
    
           Alesis - the Sun Microsystems of the electronic music world

    MV -   	2+ years
    MVII -      1+ years
    HR16 -      3 months
    
    Never had a single problem......		Scott_a_happy_Alesis_owner.

    I bought a MVII a year ago. After 2 months it started jumping
    patches. It went back for repairs and has worked fine ever
    since. I am happy with it now, but I was swearing for a while 
    there.
    
    Mark

    re .9 et alia: Alesis QC problems go back to the very beginning.
    I bought one of the first Alesis products, the XT digital reverb.
    It was, at the time, a leadership product.  For its price ($895)
    it was a high quality reverb with 4 (count'em, 4!) presets.  There
    was nothing else in its league.                                        
    
    A few months later, it started making crackling noises after it
    had warmed up.  The noises got worse and worse.  When I sent it back
    to Alesis, the guys at EUW loaned me a newfangled contraption from
    Roland, a thing called the SRV-2000.  I came back two days later
    and said, forget the XT, I want one of these.  A little while later
    I bought another one.  The SRVs have worked flawlessly for years.
    
    When Alesis QC comes up, a lotta folks say "but I haven't had any
    problems, why are youse guys dumping on Alesis?".  Well, those folks
    have just plain been lucky.  Alesis QC is a joke.  I have never
    seen as many complaints so consistently about a single vendor's
    gear, regardless of the specific unit.  With no QC to speak of,
    some units are gonna be out at the high reliability tail of the
    failure distribution, and some are gonna be real DOA-class lemons.
    But the problem is the average is too low, and the spread is too
    broad.  This is, to anybody with QC experience, prima facie evidence
    of a serious QC problem.
    
    This sort of thing can put a company out of business.  Not because
    people stop buying because of the bad quality reputation, but because
    so many units come back for repair or replacement.  Nothing like
    a huge inventory of broken equipment to screw the bottom line.
                                                         
    len.
    

    {mumble}
    
    grrr... hard to believe, but my new MVII is less than perfect.
    
    OK, I admit it, Alesis QC has been a hot topic lately and I went
    looking for trouble. Wee, damn if I didn't find it...
    
    Seems who ever put the keypad on the new unit forgot to attach it
    securely to the PCB. Press one button and watch them all move in.
    
    No big deal, I'll fix it myself in 89 days, but soooooooo typical...
    
    Would DECMS be interested in sending a missive off to Alesis outlining
    these problems? Not a complaint letter, but more of a "listen guys,
    you make great products poorly and we're getting a bit tired..."
    type thing....
    
    If not a missive, how about a missle?
    
    Edd

    Not to get down a rathole here, but are SRV-2000s still sold - or even
    made? 

    I could use a new (programmable) reverb unit.

-b

    I started an SRV-2000 note (1578).   Let's talk about SRV's there.
    
    	db
    	Commusic non-moderator

    
    re: .-2 Edd
    
      I'd be willing to contribute to a constructive letter detailing
    all the QC problems we've had with Alesis stuff. I've had enough
    trouble with it myself.
    
    /pjh

    OK, if anyone wants to get their QC issues for any currently produced
    Alesis product, send me a VERY short (1 line per problem would be
    nice) list of the issues...
    
                    HR-16... loose piezo, cold solder joint
                    MVII ... loose keypad, bad power jack...
    
    Design issues are another story. As much as back-stepping an HR-16
    is desirable, that's a design flaw not QC, and this isn't the proper
    forum...
    
    I believe the tone should be constructive criticism. QC aside, you
    certainly can't fault them for coming up with innovative products...
    
    Edd 

    
    I have a microverb whose tri-color led stays RED all the time and
    I get crackling noises out of it. Does anyone have a scematic for
    a microverb - or is this a much simpler problem ?? (Its 9 months
    old , so out of warranty).
    
    	Why don't these guys extend the warrantee to a year ????!! With
    all these bad reports you'd think they'd try and stay on top of
    it. I also have a HR-16 that's been *holding* up well.
    
    Jim
    

    Re .20
    
    Does this happen (red light, noise) only after the unit has been
    turned on for a while?  That's how it is with mine.  It's on its
    way back to California for replacement/repair.  Will report here
    on what happens...meanwhile I play sans reverb...
    
    			-Jim

    Alesis problems:
    
    My MVII is nearly a year old, works great, my HR-16 is now 6 months
    old, works great.
    
    I did think I had a problem with the HR about a week ago, I called
    Alesis' service department and after being on hold for nearly forever
    they helped me troubleshoot my problem over the phone...and it was
    MY problem not the HR's, saving me a month or so of transit time
    on the unit...very helpful bunch of folks...    
    
    re: warrantee, rumor on USENET has it that they will repair, for
    free, units that are out of warantee....trying to improve their
    reputation...
    
    re: overall realiability, maybe I'm lucky maybe not but I still
    think the main reason that Alesis has seemed to have so many problems
    compared to other manufacturers is that they sell more of thier
    small stuff than other manufacturers....I'm relatively certain that
    more uverbs and MV's have been sold than SRV's to Commusic noters,
    probably more HR's than TR-707's etc....since much of this stuff
    was, at least initially, difficult to get, we started with less patience
    than usual....and Alesis has been considerably easier to get info
    out of than Roland, for me anyway....
    
    
    dbII

    After purchasing a MVII in January and not having any problems with
    it other than some small object rolling around loose inside I sprung
    for the Alesis Micro Limiter.  After plugging it in for the first
    time and nearly blowing my head off I came to find it DOA.  
    
    Ben.

    This being the closest to a Microverb topic...
    
    I saw that a Microverb III is out now, and it's a full rack space unit.
    
    Also saw that Union Music in Worcester was cleaning out the
    MicroLimiter and MicroEnhancer ($80 each at their invitation-only sale
    on the 18th), maybe Alesis is going to dump the 1/3 rack format
    completely?
    
    						Brian

    Re: -1
    
    Does it do more than 1 effect at once?  Any other details?
    
    Thanks,
    Mike

    
    From USENET.  For lack of a better place to put this.
    
    
From: [email protected] (Michael R. Kesti)
Subject: Alesis to drop Micro series
Date: 11 Feb 91 19:53:04 GMT
Sender: [email protected]
 
I have been informed by my local Alesis dealer that Alesis intends to
discontinue production and sale of their Micro series products, with
the exceptions of their MicroCueAmp and the new MicroVerb III (the
latter of which is not in the Micro style packaging) in the immediate
future.  In fact, this dealer conjectures that production may have
already been stopped).
 
This was revealed to me while attempting to purchase a Micro series
rack adapter.  A call to the dealer's wholesaler resulted in learning
that they would accept orders for this item only until the end of
February '91.
 
So, if you are looking to buy a MicroVerb II, MicroEQ, MicroGate,
MicroLimiter, or MicroEnhancer, you may want to do so soon.
 
Lest there be any doubt:  My employer and I have no affiliation with
Alesis nor any of their agents, representatives, dealers, and wholesalers.