Hello there !

Basimilus Iteritas Alter is discontinued.
Basimilus Iteritas Alia seems to replace it.

Any thought about the new guy ?
Does it sound great ? (comparable to the previous BIA)
Can I build a bass/drum voice around it ?

For the context, I've got no musical knowledge, so I prefer playing with generative sounds (with a Qu-Bit Bloom 2 as my main melodic sequencer).
(Any cheaper alternative module would be great ^^)

(Sorry for my english, french guy here, I spare you the accent)

See ya !

as far as I understand, the original BIA sounds a tiny little different, but not really recognizable.
I heard it shall sound 95 - 99 % like the original one, just differs because a other chip was used.
I guess the most people dont identify the difference in sound.

I still have the old one.

The new BIA is a copy of the old one with additional features and swappable firmware to load the other vco-modules on it.
New one is better because of the swappable firmware.

Can I build a bass/drum voice around it ?

Yes absolutely, but it is one on its own.
Many people build a rack just around it, it´s very common.

I haven't heard a comparison IRL, only over the internet, but they really do sound the same. Front panel is slightly upgraded on Alia with the new Envelope output (plus, I'm not a huge fan of the original cluttered panel artwork). Alia implements the same synthesis engine as Alter, just on a different chip. So it will react to your various inputs in pretty much the same way. It has the added bonus of being re-configurable to any other Alia module.

I haven't seen or heard any evidence that any part of the Alia is a downgrade from the Alter. Looks like every change is either lateral or unambiguously an upgrade.

Maybe someday BIAlter will have some kind of "collector's item/original version" cool, but it was already so widespread before Alia came out, I don't think it's rare enough to be that unique.

Thanks guys.
I’m going to set some money aside and pick up the Alia—it’ll let me try out different firmware.
Since I’ve never had the Alter anyway, I won’t have any basis for comparison.