Alesis QS6.1

Well, not so bad. Ok, the display could be larger but after a couple of days I've been able to work. All seems be logic and well organized, some Roland devices IMHO are much difficult to use.

64 voices are enough, no sequencer but.. who care? 4 useful sliders to use in real time for editing or modify sounds while you're playing.
The keyboard is, as far as I'm concerned, the best one I've found on an (economic) synth, the feeling is fantastic, semi-weighted, responsive, well done, Alesis!
Two slots for expansions via Q-cards are a good choice, pitch and modulation wheels are not that good but usable, the chassis of this synth seems to be hard and resistant but (this is important), this baby weights only a few kgs.... great surprise!

Ok, I know, I'm speaking 'bout a 400 Euros synth, I can't expect too much.... but when I put my hands on it I felt in love with this one.
Very realistic sounds, very good pianos, electric pianos, organs and synths, Factory presets are enough to begin, good choice at all, bread 'n butter!
The only thing it sucks is the rotary speaker effect... too much noisy and you MUST work on it if you need a decent result (may be it's better to buy an external simulator, such as Spin or G4...).
Anyway, a very good variety and quality, for the price: 9

I don't know... never gave me problems, it seems solid and resistant

I contacted European customer care center (in Germany), a few days ago,about general informations, and they gave me an answer within a couple of days. Very good!

I would buy it again, this is, imho, THE BEST CHOICE for quality/price. Ok, it's simply a PCM based but do its work, it's simply to use and you can buy it for less than 500 Euros / Dollars. I've owned a lot of synths, from Korg M1 to Roland D70, from Roland XP 80 to Ensoniq SQ1, Korg 01wfd, Yamaha W5, SY 85 and so on... this baby is one of my preferred "toys"!!

Everything on the keyboard is easy to use but editing through patches completely to me besides adjusting the velocity elements, but custom splitting sounds in mix mode is very challenging. The Quick Start card is very good it has things that will help you get started immediately.

64 voice polyphony, and I like the effects on the unit-the chorus, rotary speaker, ec.
Lots of voices, some of which I really don't like, unfortunately, the Grand Piano to be one of them!

The Piano is very unrealistic-it sounds like a VERY VERY VERY bright mess of an instrument to say the least! This is the most important category to me! There is hardely any I am not primarily an organist so this keyboard is really not great....the organ patches are great! Some of them beating my Roland RD-700. I liked some of the loop rhythm/synth sounds.

The unit was dropped once and the whole LCD caved in. I lost complete touch sensitivity on one of the keys after a while, and I am not "heavy handed." But other than that?

I haven't had to deal with them.

This keyboard really doesn't measure up in the end. Sadly, the QS .2 series isn't any better, they use the same sound engines as their QS.1 keyboards. I think all of these sounds were great about 6 or 7 years ago when I bought the keyboard in the first place. Now with the technlogy of the Roland XV sound engines and the Yamaha Motif's...there is no comparison...with the great expressiveness of velocity 4 way switching and such, Alesis is way behind the competiton.

This review was written after having the keyboard for nearly three years...please read my previous review that I posted a few weeks after getting this synth for more detail.
I found the keyboard very straight forward regarding regarding programming.

I like the features on this machine, specifically the modulation and pitch wheels. I'm still not overly crazy about the keyboard.

I really like the sounds on this board, especially the lead synths, organs, and winds. THe basses and certain drum sounds are all right. Some sounds (effects) are rather worthless. This keyboard sounds very good when MIDI'ed with a Korg 01W!!

NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS!!!! Since owning it, I have had the following problems:
1. I had a key on my very first show with the new keyboard! (the entire unit was replaced by the seller).
2. The sustain pedal which came with the replacement keyboard failed totally within 3 months.
3. At 5 months, I lost both left and right outputs...I could only get sound through the headphone outputs...I'll address the customer service issue regarding this in a moment.
4. At 6 months, I began getting an "Internal Address Error" on two patches...if I use this patch, and play more than 2 or 3 notes, the keyboard locks up and I have to power down the unit and restart it to clear the problem.

Fortunately, that is all that has broken...so far.

With all of the problems with this lemon, you would think that customer service would have been helpful. WRONG! After several dozen emails, and numerous phone calls, I have been unable to get anyone on the phone or a response to the email. This is really a shame because I really like a lot about this keyboard.

I am a semi-professional keyboardist that has been playing for years in the US and Europe. I own (or have owned) over 15 different keyboards through my career (Korg, Yamaha, Roland, Arp, Moog, Kawai) as well as sound reenforcement and home studio equipment. I don't think a have ever had as frustrating a piece of equipment as the QS6.1. This was my first Alesis keyboard, I won't buy another. I give this instrument a 5, only because of the great sounds and a few miscellaneous functions. All-in-all, I would have spent better dollars having my DW-8000 repaired. A very disappointed customer!!

I am using the Alesis QS8.1, the big 88-Key weighted action big brother of the QS line. The operating system is the same for the 8.1, 7.1 and 6.1. Navigating through the presets is fairly straightforward though it took me a few days to get used to the way that the General Midi banks sort of sit in between the preset and user banks. For example, if you are working in the Winds section, and you are scrolling horizontally through the banks within the Winds category, you may suddenly find yourself playing a bell tone or telephone ringing effect from the General Midi bank. In other words, selecting tone #105 in Bank A of the the Synth category gives you a lead synth patch, but select tone #105 in the General Midi bank and you never know what kind of tone it will be because the GM bank doesn't correspond regardless of which instrument category it is located in. It's a small complaint, but when I'm arranging quickly and in a groove, nothing throws me off like getting a gunshot effect when I think I'm going to get a Rhodes piano.

Editing is not simple, but not any worse than most synths of this era and class. (80 menus and four editing buttons . . . that sort of thing.) The lack of a resonant filter is a real low point in the sound editing department. A patch editor would be very handy. The unit I have came with a copy of Sound Diver for editing, but I've had a lot of trouble getting it to work correctly. That may be a defect on my part though.

The manual is adequate. I'll give the ease of use category a rating of seven because I get less lost on this board than I do many of the others I've played with.

The QS series sports 64 notes polyphony, which allows me to flesh out most compositions without stretching too thin. I love the weighted keyboard action of the 8.1. The keyboard feel had a lot to do with why I purchased this instrument. I have also played the 6.1 and found its keyboard to be among the best of the unweighted 61 key keyboards I've played.

The QS has a good range of useable effects and they in fact play a large role in the character of some of the presets. The reverbs are very good and the delays are fun. A thicker chorus would be nice and the distortion is a little cold for my tastes. The effects do provide four busses, which is very nice when you are sequencing.

Midi capabilities seem thorough enough. Any problems I've encountered with MIDI are probably caused by me, the user.

The QS is not a workstation and does not have an actual sequencer. It does have a sequence player that you can load your sequences into, store them, and play them back. I've never used this.

Overall, I love the sounds. I bought this instrument over two years ago and I spent several evenings comparing it with nearly everything else available at the time in the stores. The winner for me was the Alesis QS. It was just a bit more lush, rich, punchy and expressive than the Korgs, Rolands, Ensoniqs and Yamahas that I was comparing it with.

The stereo piano is great to my ears and works wonderfully when recorded. I have no desire to use any other sampled piano sound from any other synth. For the piano sound, I am done.

The basic acoustic and electronic (808 & 909) drums are great, though I haven't found a place for many of the noisy novelty drum kits yet. I would like more kits though and I was surprised that Alesis, a company known for their drum machines and percussion units, didn't include more kits.

The wind orchestra sounds are very good and I use them in place of string sounds pretty often. (See strings gripe below.)

The synth sounds are for the most part very good and expressive. With some tweaking I'm able to extract some pretty grungy stuff for industrial/electronic/dance stuff. I could use a few less of those blasted Rick Wakeman lead things. AND . . .AND . . . synth sounds just really aren't synth sounds without a d*mn resonant filter. Alesis . . . please . . . get in touch with the synth community.

On the downside, the electric basses are really cheesy and I have a lot of trouble working with them. I just find myself sitting mindlessly recreating the slap motif from Seinfeld and that's just not very productive. (Actually I've just given up and just started using a real bass.) The two acoustic basses are . . . ok. Could use some more woody resonance and warmth. Synth basses are fun but again . . . resonance please!

I agree with another user's gripe about the string sounds. There are two that I can actually use. "Huge Strings" and "Tron Mood". The rest are neither very realistic nor expressive. I've been able to extract decent Brass when my playing technique is adjusted. I have to listen to some Aretha Franklin before working with the patches so I can play more like a brass player. In some ways I think this reflects kindly on the brass sounds in that they are responsive. But they aren't easy.

And I support another user's grief on the Rhythm presets with clanky woo-woo looping stuff. How do you use this stuff? You can't sync it with anything. I haven't written over the patches yet though because my wife, who isn't a musician, thinks they are the most fun thing since the "Big-Wheel". I'm happy for her.

I give the sounds a rating of 8 because the overall sound is still inspires me and is still better than a lot of the new instruments I've played in the past few months. As with any instrument, it's not going to do it all.

You can hear how this synth sounds by going to www.austindesigner.com The bulk of the sounds used on those short clips came from the QS. Email if you have questions.

The QS is very strong and stable. However, the pitch-bend wheel on mine broke. It's limp! I can't believe it.

Otherwise, no other hardware or software glitches after two years of dailiy use. (That's over 1200 hours of use.)

I haven't dealt with the company yet. All I know is that I have to send this 60lb. beast to California to get the stupid pitch-bend wheel fixed . . . and I'm not doing that. So - I guess I won't be giving them much of a chance.

I bought it new two years ago when it was $1800. It makes me sick to my stomach to see that they're selling for $1K or as low as $700 in some clearance sales or used. However, yes - it was a great value at $1800. At that time, there weren't any other 88 weighted key synths that offered this kind of sound with 64 notes polyphony at that price. Most synths topped out at 32 at that time. If it were lost or stolen, I would probably get another. (Though I would look into some things with a resonance filters and knobs first.)

It continues to inspire me and any of the Q series are great values, especially used. I've seen 6.1s going for as little as $400 and that's a steal.

Fairly easy to use. A quick once over of the manual should answer any questions on how to set up and use xtra features.

The keyboard has room for expandability with two available slots for any of the Qcard roms.

Unfortunately most of the sounds that come equipped standard with the keyboard are mediocre at best and that also includes most of the sounds on the Qcards as well. Theyre not horrifically bad, but theyre by no means excellent. If youre a bit creative though, you can manipulate most patches with the help of xtra hardware or software. I ran my QS6.1 thru a roland sp808ex and used the roland effects to get some very decent sounds.

Solid keyboard in terms of realiability. Ive always thought Alesis makes fairly good products and most are reasonably priced. They QS6.1 is a good example. It wont crap out on you and the thing is built alot more solid than some of the more expensive synths out on the market.

Never needed it.

Good dependable synth. I used min mostly as a midi controller but you can pick up midi controllers for alot less than what you would pay for this synth. Like I said, the sounds arent all horrible, but it may leave you wondering why Alesis took the time to make such a solid keyboard with mediocre sounds at best. The QS6.1 is really a very solid and reliable synth, but if its sounds that are important to you (and they should be if youre sending the money on a synth), Id opt to buy a synth rack with great sounds and save some cash by buying a midi controller instead.

Fairly straightforward, manual is pretty easy reading. Basic operation (switching patches, etc) is easy, the patches are laid out into similar sound grounds (strings, pianos, etc) which makes it easy...

Editing using the keys isn't exactly easy, but isn't exactly hard either... I have friends who have mastered the editing but I really didn't have the patience to learn... If you want to change simple things like add more delay, or get rid of some reverb, that is very easy to do... Maybe an hour or two with the manual and thats all it would take...

I dock two points for the editing of sounds, which as I said before isn't necessarily bad, but could be easier...

64 note polyphony (havn't run out there), 16 programs in mix mode (more than enough for me)...
The delay and reverb effects are good, but I didn't take much of a liking to the overdrive (or just am not good enough to get the sound I want out of it)... In mix mode you are limited to one effect settings, but I think lots of mix instruments are like this... and you can change the level the effects have on each channel in mix mode so if you want a crazy lead you don't need your drums to have all those effects on them either...
Doesn't have a sequencer, so if you are looking for that I'd definatley suggest hooking it up to your computer or another external sequencer... With a flash ram card (75 bucks or so) you can have up to 8 megs of samples, or could expand it with a Q card, which is great...
I give it a 9 for features...

This is my main gripe with the unit... Some sounds are nice, but some just make me shake my head and ask myself "How could Alesis expect anyone to use this?" (like the DSP Violin preset)... Some of the patches are just too over the top, too much there, I'd like to see more basics done right...

I only really found a use for one of the drum kits (DM Pro), but I like that one a lot, so it works out...
I think the action is very nice... Sure it's not weighted keys, but I think they feel nice compared to other non weighted keys I've played...
If you want a sample of what it can sound like, my band has MP3s online made entirely with Alesis 6.1 QS - http://everyone.dyndns.org --- check it out!

Without a doubt a 10 here... I've had it for atleast two years and havn't had any problems... The thing is heavy, built like a tank... I'd be lying if I told you I took the best care of it, but it hasn't malfunctioned ever... I'd gig without a backup... Reliability with this synth is not an issue...

Never had to deal with them, but they do have a nice SYS EX manual which helped me out when I wanted to know how to tell the synth to do various things VIA Midi, so they get points there...

It has some decent sounds, the action is ok, it's reliable... You may not like all the sounds and editing them to your needs isn't the easiest thing in the world... If you are looking for a keyboard with decent sounds go listen to it, if you like it pick it up, it's not expensive, you can play some samples with it...

I just wish it had more useable presets... I'm looking to get an additional sound module now to expand the sound possibilities...

I am happy with my purchase and I'd be upset if someone stole it - I've really bonded with it... Not sure if I'd get it again or something else, but if I went back in time and had a choice, I'd definatley buy it again...

Using the latest software version. The layout of the editing functionality could have been better developed. Not as intuitive to figure out. The manual is Ok and I found myself frequently using it to figure out how to do certain things, like envelope and filter and effects processing. Sounds are stored in sound banks, i.e. 0-10 pianos, 10-20 organs, although you can actually store a sound anywhere you want. This keyboard (like 99% of all keyboards made today) is designed for the studio, not for live gigging. As you scroll through sounds, looking for a specific program, the programs are changing at the same time! This is Ok in a studio environment, but not gigging live. In reality, all keyboards are made this way, unlike the Ensoniq VFX/TS series where you could scroll through sounds looking for certain programs on the fly, w/o actually choosing the sound. Manual is not well written in the area of effects processing.

64 voice polyphony, using a max of 4 voices per program leaves you with alot of polyphony. Not much cause to drop notes. Effects are Ok, except for the "Leslie", which is awful. I could make a better sounding leslie using a phaser or an LFO. Effects are also limited, as in not that many and can be difficult to route w/o reading the manual. Has expansion capability w/ QCards, which are 8 Megs of additional ROM waveforms. Alesis predetermines the waveforms on the card, therefore you cannot pick and choose the waveforms that you want on the QCard, they are predetermined for you. This board does not have an onboard sequencer. Has velocity and pressure sensitivity. The keyboard is light as it weighs only 19 pounds.

The sounds are cheesy. I play in a band. Brought it to practice and starting playing it; the drummer laughed. The word he used was "cheesy". In hindsight, he was right. Sounds are not realistic. The hammond organ and leslie are a joke. The acoustic piano lacked clarity and definition. Brass sounds are tinny and synthesized. My old Ensoniq SD1, which was manufactured in 1991, would blow this away in virtually every sound category (brass, pianos, organs, strings). The sound quality is a step above a Casio. This keyboard is not for a professional musician. What really puzzles me are the previous reviews that I had read from users who wrote to this site and said the keyboard's sounds were "great". It now makes me skeptical of everything I read here. Trust me when I tell you that the sounds are NOT high quality sounds. They sound cheesy, tinny and very unrealistic. I play classic rock music and rely on the electric pianos, acoustic pianos, hammond organs, strings and brass. This keyboard was awful in all those categories. Because of the poor sounds, I bought a "vintage keyboard" Qcard, which is filled w/ an abundance of awful hammond organ and electric piano ROM waveforms. I'm not sure which was worse, the 16 Megs of built in
ROM waveforms that came w/ the keyboard or the equally unimpressive
8 Megs of 16-bit, 48Mhz "high quality" vintage keyboard ROM waveforms. It just goes to show you that super high sample-rates of shitty sounds still sound like shit.

Never had a problem w/ the keyboard.

Called one time before I bought the keyboard to understand the difference between a QS6 and a QS6.1. Other than that, no interaction w/ the company.

I wish it would have been stolen so I wouldn't have had to go through the hassle of selling it. I owned it for 6 months and used it for 4 months. It sounded so bad that I just left it at home towards the end. I would not recommend this keyboard to anyone. It's not intuitive to use, it's not designed to be played outside the studio and it sounds awful.

I think that this keyboard is easy to use with a little effort. I skimmed the manual very lightly and finally figured out the menus. The software to edit patches, though, I think is a lot easier. A lot of the presets sound really good (pianos, organs) but some are a little lacking (synths, some strings).

It has a lot of features. I think one feature I particularly like is the expansions capability. You can store programs on PCMCIA cards. I like to experiment with features to learn them, and this allows me to save all sorts of variations without overwriting any over the presets I like. I don't use MIDI a lot. This keyboard does seem to be pretty well designed in that area, though. The four controllers are awesome; I would hate to have a QS 6!

I think that some sounds are good and others aren't. I would advise anyone to try it out at a music store. I think the best sounds are mainly the pianos/electric pianos...

I think this product is quite reliable. I have used it at a gig without a backup. I have taken it to many rehearsals and a few gigs. Nothing has really happened to it, but it seems really sturdy.

I've never contacted Alesis.

I've had this keyboard for 9 months or more now. I don't really know if I would buy it again. I think it is a nice keyboard, but like most good keyboards, it is expensive. In addition, I've recently moved more towards playing Analog Modeling synths, so I think this keybaord lacks that harsh sound I sometimes crave. I might buy one or an upgraded version again someday if I lost it. The sounds are good, and I really appreciate the expandability features. I think all keyboards should have them.

The instrumental presets sound great. All the piano and guitar samples are wonderful. However, I was somewhat dissapointed with the synth presets. With a bit of work, you can get these presets to sound great however. Editing patches takes a lot of paging through menus and can be confusing at first, but after a while you start to have the pages memorized. The manual is less helpful than simply spending time with the synth and getting to know the board.

With 64-voice polyphony, there isn't much voice robbing. They keyboard is very plasticy, but it feels right to me. It is about the average between pure easy plastic and weighty hard to press, erring more towards plastic. It has 5 different effect combinations, the highest up being an overdrive, to a delay, to a lezlie, to a reverb, to an EQ. They are easy to use, and easy to access in the menus. The configurations parameters are easy to change. The QS6.1 has 2 PCMCIA expansion slots that can accept QCards with new sounds and presets, or SRAM cards with MIDI sequences and new sounds. The serial port on the QS6.1 can connect to a PC or Mac to load up the SRAM cards, and transmit MIDI information. The keyboard has velocity and aftertouch capability. However, there is no onboard sequencer.

All of the instruments sound very realistic. There is a great variety of different sounds for each category and all of them sound good. The only instrument sounds I disliked were the straight synth sounds, they seemed a bit lacking for what I was expecting. This synth should work well for any type of music with the variety of great sounds. The onboard effects are pretty good, and the keyboard itself reacts well to your playing. A good feature is the ability to 'scale' the keyboard so that it plays harder when you play softly, or plays more softly when you play softly. The velocity and aftertouch are very noticable on the piano instruments.

I have not had any problems at all with my QS6.1 after having it for the past few weeks. It is very solidly built, with most of the exterior being metal with the exceptions of the two end caps that appear to be very sturdy plastic. The OS is very stable, so I think it is safe to say I could use this on the road without worry.

I sent an email to technical support about 6 days ago regarding purchasing a serial cable, and have not yet received a reply. This is the only issue I have tried, however.

If my QS vanished today, I would probably go into a bit more depth in trying out the Yamaha, Korg and Roland synths. However, I would probably buy an Alesis again based on the solidity and design of their product. I have been using my QS6.1 with my PowerMac 6100 and a Korg EM-1 for a few weeks and the setup works great. I love the sound, the keyboard, the way the ports are setup, and the feel of their product, but I dislike paging through so many menus just to get to the single parameter I wish to edit. I compared this product to the Roland XP-10, the Yamaha CSx2, and the Korg M365. I chose the QS6.1 because of its superior sounds and overall value. I had heard good things about how it was built and that is important to me. It helps me make music because the parameters are plentiful, the board will adjust to how you want it to play, and the sounds are great. Overall, I really like my QS6.1 and have had nothing but good experiences with it. Instrumentally, it is incredible, and with a bit of work, the synth sounds can be just as great.

I bought this keyboard half on a whim, and half because I had heard just one of the organs, and knew that I liked it. And also, because it's a really excellent value. However, the more I get into it, and the more I learn about all the envelopes and all the editing it can do, it is a MONSTER! (in an extremely good way). This is such a capable keyboard! It dokes not have the euro-dance and gangster rap qualities of a lot of Rolands, or other foreign boards, but at the ELEMENTAL LEVEL of pure sound, pure music, and pure professionalism, this keyboards is INCREDIBLE.

The presets are fine. Some are much better than others. Actually, to compare it with, say, a Roland XP-series, the presets are a little worse, but the way the basic editing is set up, you can play with the presets more easily, with ready-to-go leslies on the organs, reverb on the pianos, etc., and the four sliding bars on each and every program.

Editing patches is extremely easy on a primary level, by moving around the sliders. As you get into changing the filter properties, the three envelopes, and of course, the voices themselves, it becomes a headache, basically because there is SO MUCH to do! You will have to learn how to fully control this animal, but when you do, it is very worth it.

The manual is definately good. It is easy to read, but does require a very primary level of understanding, and then doesn't go into things too deeply, but over-all, it's all-right.

The polyphony is excellent. The 64 voice option on a mix is very strong, especially when you know how to use it. Keyboard action is really great also. This beauty is an American-made TANK. There are 5 main FX buses, which, to be honest, I haven't played with too much. It is very expandable, with full MIDI capabilities, a dozen Q cards, and software options.

ATTENTION LADIES AND GENTLEMAN: There is NO onboard sequencer (or arpegiator for that matter). For sequencing, you're going to have to use an outisde unit, on a computer, recording module, etc.

Alesis is a company known for precesion pro-audio equipment. We're not talking about a NIN Roland, or a Snowmobiles to guitars Yamaha. This is Alesis. This is their bag. So, for the most part, their sounds are AWE-SOME. There are, however, a couple catches, so pay attention:

Piano: 10, brilliant
Chromatic: 9, cool rhodes, but pretty sharp. Harpsichords could be a little thicker. Wurlies pass, EPs are decent, and marimbas/bells, etc. are over-all impressive.
Organs: 9, the leslies rock. The voices themselves tend to be on the harsh side, which makes for awesome gritty Magic-Carpet esque 70s organs, but the old drawbag and pipe organs leave something to be desired.
Guitars: 9, really cool, (for a keyboard), but are you going to record guitars off of a keyboard?
Bass: 8, there's some cool accoustic basses, like uprights and fretless, but the really fat, euro-synth basses are pretty weak.
Stirngs: 4, suck. Sorry, they really do. I don't know what the Alesis corporation was thinking. This is a really important part of a keyboard, and it's honestly not a real impressive area of the keyboard. You're going to have to make them softer by changing the attack, and maybe add some choral pads to the back just to make them, well, beter.
Brass/Woodwinds: 9, Actually, realistic. The woodwind-section lacks some foreign sounding instroments, like Indian flutes, and things, but over-all actually good, but who cares? Please don't record a trombone off of ANY keyboard!
Synth: 10, if you are talking about REAL SYNTHS. This things is loaded with saws, squares, etc. Pads are all-right. Afterglow, (83-1), is one of my favorite sounds on any keyboard ever, and is a gorgeous sweeping pad made up of a cathedral organ and choral ahhs.
Rhythm: 3, Really, really gay. Did somebody say 1989? Nothing cool here over-all. A few high-spots, but this is not what the keyboard was made for. WhereDrums (115-2), and a few others are cool, though.

I'd reccomend this for smart-rock, with retro style keyboards like organs and synths. Dance music is a NO. Anything wanting real sounding instroments, not dance loops.

I'm not much of an authority on the FX

You can absolutely depend on it. If there were any of these in the World Trade Center, they're somewhere under the rubble and still functional, that's what kind of equipment we're dealing with.

I do use it w/out a backup.

I've never dealt with this, but apparently it's a really sucky service. Sorry.

I'd buy it again, but 76 keys would be cool. It'd be nice if it had a sequencer, but what do you do? It's a great product either way.

I'd love to chat with some people about editing and stuff. Contact me.