ASYX is out as of today, 23 October 2026, at an introductory €99, down from €149, until 5 November 2026. If you want it at the intro price you have a fortnight.
We wrote about this plugin on 29 August, when Isla Electronics — Brad Holland’s operation — was spinning it out of an internal engine built for a hybrid hardware synth. At that point it was called ASICS, which is what Isla, Synth Anatomy, Synthtopia and the Gearspace thread all called it. It ships as ASYX. Isla’s product page makes no reference to the former name; on that page “ASICs” appears only as the expansion of Application Specific Integrated Circuits, the chips the original A6 used.
We are not going to guess at the reason for the change. The relevant fact for anyone who read the August piece and has been waiting: it is the same product, and the name is different.
Why the Andromeda is a strange thing to emulate
The Alesis Andromeda A6 (2000) is the maximalist end of analogue polysynth design: sixteen genuinely analogue voices, two oscillators each, two different filter topologies per voice, and a digital effects and modulation layer wrapped around it. It was expensive, heavy, unreliable in the ways that dense analogue hardware is unreliable, and has never had a software emulation — not because nobody wanted one, but because the voice card is built around custom ASICs that you cannot model by reading a schematic off a forum post.
Isla’s claim is that ASYX is modelled rather than sample-based, built by working directly with an original A6, measuring and refining against the hardware’s behaviour.
What is in it
- 16 voices, usable as a 16-part multitimbral instrument, matching the A6’s architecture. Mix mode offers up to 16 parts per plugin instance.
- Two oscillators per voice, modelled on the A6’s custom oscillator ASIC, with sub-oscillators, PWM, hard and soft sync, and FM. Noise and ring modulation sit in the pre-filter mixer.
- Two multimode filters per voice: one derived from the Oberheim SEM at 12 dB/oct, one from the Moog 904A at 24 dB/oct with low-pass, high-pass, band-pass and notch. Series or parallel routing, with separate pre- and post-filter mixing.
- Three multi-wave LFOs and three 7-stage envelopes.
- A 16-step sequencer, an arpeggiator, 29 digital effects, and 1,200+ programs with a preset browser.
- A bi-directional editor for owners of the hardware A6.
That filter pair is the part worth dwelling on. Putting an SEM-derived 12 dB filter and a Moog-ladder-derived 24 dB filter in the same voice, routable in series or parallel, is why the Andromeda sounds like several different synthesisers depending on how it is patched. It is also why it is hard to emulate convincingly: you need both topologies to be right, and the interesting territory is in how they interact.
Formats and terms
- macOS Big Sur or later, Intel and Apple Silicon: AU, VST3, Standalone
- Windows 10 or later, 64-bit: VST3, Standalone
- Linux: listed as “coming soon”
- Perpetual licence, with all future versions included
- Usable on up to 3 computers, which Isla’s FAQ clarifies means simultaneously
- Licences and activations managed from an Isla Electronics account
No AAX is listed, so Pro Tools users should wait or ask.
Isla states plainly that ASYX is independently developed and not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Alesis. That is the normal and necessary disclaimer for this kind of product, and it is the reason the emulation had to be built by measurement rather than from manufacturer documentation.
The bi-directional editor is the quiet feature
Most vintage emulations treat the original hardware as a dead reference. ASYX ships an editor that talks to a physical A6 in both directions, which means an owner can use the plugin as a patch editor and librarian for an instrument whose own interface is a famously deep menu system — and move sounds between the hardware and the software in either direction.
For the few thousand people who own an A6, that may be worth more than the emulation.
Sources
- ASYX — Isla Electronics
- Isla Electronics ASYX: the world’s first Alesis Andromeda emulation is now available — Synth Anatomy
- Isla Electronics ASYX – The Andromeda A6 Reborn in Software — gearnews
- Isla Electronics ASICS demo — Gearspace thread