UVI Mission 6 €79
Inspired by a lesser known, but respected analogue classic, UVI’s latest Mission visits the limits of Andromeda
As analogue classics go, the Alesis Andromeda A6 is not the model that most cite as a favourite. Part of the reason for this could be that many original Andromedas have suffered component failure, placing them out of operative reach. But find one that works and you’ll hear a huge-sounding analogue from the year 2000, when analogue wasn’t really the flavour of the millennium!
T-minus and counting
Thankfully, while the price-tag of an original secondhand Andromeda remains high, UVI can help you with another one of their superb re-enactments, providing the very spirit of the original analogue machine, through a vast number of samples.
Mission 6 resides within the usual UVI ecosphere, being operational through their freely available Workstation plugin, or for extended use via their Falcon synthesiser suite. For our money, the Workstation plugin presents the information in an incredibly concise manner, while being highly stable as a plugin. You certainly will not be missing out on the party by not using it through the Falcon software, although you can take the editing capabilities far further, if that’s an interest for you. You’ll need a spare 12GB of disk space, which not only confirms the sampled nature of this library, but also underscores the 400 beautifully curated presets, to get you going.
This is not to say that you cannot perform deep editing, because the Mission 6 is laden with the usual UVI suspects. The main edit page draws graphical inspiration from the original machine, and, in many respects, provides a more simplistic and usable interface. One criticism often labelled at the original machine,
“Represents the very spirit of the original most admirably in an easy-to-use and immediate incarnation”
is that it was incredibly complicated to use, largely thanks to its comprehensive modulation capabilities, and an LCD display, which didn’t always provide the strongest and clearest clues, while in edit mode.
Ignition sequence start
This library conforms entirely to the common UVI format, allowing the loading of up to two sampled sounds/waveforms to form a patch. The raw samples include absolute basics, like saws, squares and triangles, along with pulsewidth modulated sources and distorted tones. There are also plenty of more colourful and programmed samples, perfect for creating more elaborate and lush textures. These are all beautifully categorised, making light work of finding something suitable. The ‘Main’ working page is also where you will find the filter settings, providing low, band and high pass iterations. These are unsurprisingly not quite the same deal as the Andromeda, in part due to the complexity of the filter section included with the original, but are perfectly functional, with four-stage envelopes to accompany both the amplifier and filter sections. Four other pages give considerable modulation, editing and effects capabilities, along with a comprehensive arpeggiated section.
Mission Pros and Cons
UVI’s exemplary presentation of the Andromeda in this form provides a great sounding and production-ready alternative to the original. Many would convincingly argue that the strength of the Andromeda lay with its preset patching, with the ability to tweak at will. While the Mission 6 lacks certain elements, albeit sometimes incredibly complicated ones, what it does offer is a very healthy facsimile, which is inspirational, ready to go, and sounds very fine indeed. Mission 6 represents the very spirit of the original most admirably, in an easy-to-use and immediate incarnation, and lest we forget, it is quite literally a fraction of the price!