The Alesis Andromeda A6, released in 2000, is one of those synths that shows up on every “most-wanted hardware reissue” list and never actually gets one — a 16-voice true analog polysynth with a dense, patch-cable-free architecture that Alesis never repeated and nobody else has cloned. Isla Electronics just did the next best thing: a from-the-ground-up software emulation called ASICS, developed by Brad Holland and headed for release as a standalone plugin.
Built as a side effect, shipped on its own
ASICS didn’t start as a product. Holland built it as the digital synthesis engine inside the Caladan, Isla’s in-development hybrid hardware synth that pairs 8 voices of true analog synthesis with expandable DSP cards. The Andromeda-modeled engine was meant to be one voice option among several on that hardware — but enough people who saw it demoed asked for it as a standalone plugin that Holland is now finishing it as one, independent of the Caladan’s hardware release timeline.
What’s actually being modeled
The Andromeda’s voice architecture is dense even by analog-polysynth standards, and ASICS is aiming to reproduce the specifics rather than approximate the vibe. Per Isla’s own description, the plugin is targeting 16+ voices of polyphony, with dual oscillators per voice (each with a sub-oscillator) offering five waveforms plus PWM, FM, and ring modulation — matching the Andromeda’s actual oscillator complement rather than a generic subtractive-synth stand-in. Filtering follows the same logic: dual filters per voice, modeled on the Andromeda’s SEM-style 2-pole multimode and Moog-style 4-pole resonant designs, the same two-filter-character pairing that gave the original hardware its range between glassy and fat. Three 6-stage envelopes and three LFOs with delay round out the modulation matrix, alongside built-in effects and an editor mode built specifically for the original Andromeda A6 hardware — useful for anyone who owns a real unit and wants a modern patch-editing front end for it.
Where it stands
ASICS is described as nearing completion, with Holland currently finishing UI work rather than the synthesis engine itself. No price or firm release date has been announced yet — it’s a “coming soon,” not a pre-order. That puts it a step behind a finished product, but the technical specifics already public are unusually detailed for a plugin still in UI polish, which is generally a good sign that the underlying engine work is largely locked.
Why it matters
Software emulations of famous vintage synths are common; a first-ever emulation of a specific, well-regarded, never-cloned hardware synth is rarer, and the Andromeda’s combination of real cult status and total absence from the plugin market made it a conspicuous gap. That ASICS exists at all as a side project of a different piece of hardware — rather than a company setting out specifically to clone the Andromeda — is also a reminder that some of the more interesting synth-emulation work right now is coming out of small teams building their own instruments first and packaging pieces of that work for everyone else second.