Alesis QS6.1

Editing sounds, not easy by any means. Playing presets easy...and making arrangements is very easy. I have yet to figure out the fx presets 10 years later just because it is THAT clumsy. I figured out how to use the Yamaha SY85 10x over compared to this synth.

No sequencer, no big deal...I knew that. That's why it has a PC interface. I love it but you need to use a roland serial device because Alesis gave up support fairly quick on that....very lame.
Expansion boards were good....I'd say better than the SY85 but that's about the only thing better but it's 3x as cheap.

Great bass sounds, orch, piano. I've found that in 2009 though it's only used as midi input and the controllers suck. You are only given 4 controllers unlike some cheap, tiny controllers which have like 8.

I also have no idea how to use the 1-4/abcd controllers with Cubase 3SX anyhow. The mod/pitch wheel works though.

A solid 10. As midi alone....flawless. I have not used it's internal sounds for a long, long time since computers became so fast. I did however have some great songs only using the sounds from this keyboard and there are a few I miss, but now I have gigs and gigs of samples and other synths that far outclass that synth in every way.

Never needed.

Overall it's a decent synth and I would be lost without it mainly because of the PC interface which I have grown to love. I have no idea what the actual midi-in/out cords do because I've never needed them.

Let me start out by saying that I do not want to use a laptop for live sequencing. They are unreliable and I want to have a quick set up and tear down with the minimum of crap. So I have the QS6.1 and a rack of vintage synths. MIDI out and audio out to the rack, rack out to the PA. Simple ad quick.

This synth has AMAZING potential for live MIDI sequencing. There is only one UGLY problem - there is a bug in the software that causes the last song's final MIDI data to be blurted out of the MIDI out data buffer when you start the next sequence. If you only use the QS as the sound source this is not a problem, but if you use external modules, then it is a BIG problem.

The fix for this is deceptively simple. You wire a temporary on foot pedal (like a sustain pedal) to short (mute) the MIDI out and step on it when you select the sequence. Email me and I'll explain, it's trivial to do.

Having fixed that, and also configuring Soundbridge, you are ready to ROCK...

Here's my workflow. Set up a multitimbral mix on the QS. Mine is Ch 1 through 10 play externally but not internally, 11 - 16 play internally. Then sequence on a computer (mine is Metro, or Cakewalk to you PC people). Save as a standard MIDI file. Upload the MIDI files to a flash ram Card (email me for more on this process) and play them from the QS. It works perfectly.

NOW it gets cool. You can load 127 samples on to the card and map 40 of them to a drum program, or 4 to a "musical" sampled keyboard program. I used sampled drums, and adding the verb to the sample before hand solves tons of programming problems.

So I have flash ram cards with 40 sequences and the accompanying samples. Pop em in and go. The flash RAM cards can be had for as little as $30 for the 4MB models. You can use 8MB, but I've never gotten past 4MB and I do A LOT of drum samples.

The internal sounds are quite good, considering. However, if you use sampled bass and drums (either from the QS card or an external sampler), and perhaps an analog type module for pads etc, the internal sounds fill out the remaining spaces very well. The QS drums tend to be too hi-fi, not enough middle, and using samples and adding verb before hand really makes a difference to the sound of the track.

The thing will last forever.

Never needed it. The web has all you need if you dig.

For the price, if you want to sequence live, there is nothing that can beat it. You have to overcome some tech (email me) but after that you will be soooo happy. No laptop is an excellent feeling.

See videos of my rig in action at myspace.com/petenkelly

If all you're doing is play the presents it's super easy to use. It's laid out in an intuitive fashion. Although splitting the board is a feat I've yet to accomplish, granted it's something I've yet to look too far into.

If you plan on editing the sounds... Well I hope you have a weekend to spend with the manual. You have to do EVERYTHING through the LCD menu, and it's TEDIOUS. There are NO programmers for the PC, so you're stuck mucking about in the QS's innards. It's supposedly quite powerful, with a full blown mod-matrix, but it's such a pain to edit I've yet to touch it outside of presets.

64 poly. The effects are easy to use if you use the effects set for the program. Once again, if you want to edit the effects or add an effect to the existing patch, get prepared to dig through the menus. It's a pain.

MIDI in/out/through. Easy to use. Also has an obsolete PC/MAC serial bus that I never even knew existed till I got this synth.

Can use Q-Cards, although you can only find them on Ebay, and then only rarely, and then they're (still) around $100 a piece.

No sequencer, which really bummed me when I received this synth. I didn't do my homework :(

Ugh. I should have done my homework. I bought this for electronic sounds, and they're there, but they're not great, and there's barely any of them in the board. It has physical modeling sounds out the wazoo, so if you're into that sort of thing you're gravy. Alesis claims this shipped with the most expressive and best sampled piano ever for it's time. I didn't think it was all that great actually. My friend's Triton sounded much better.

Once again, don't buy this for dance/electronic/techno/trance/etc. If you want a cheap 'keyboard' for orchestral or whatever else you'd use it for, you should be good. But then again, in this age there are much better boards for the price.

Oh and the drums. Boy oh boy are they weak. Same with the effect sounds. But the drums are terrible IMO.

This thing's a tank. I've accidentally dropped it on it's side and gigged with it many a time. I got a few dings in the bottom of it, and even a cut to the metal, but it's still a beast. Somehow one of my keys got stuck in a position that's a little higher than the rest, I think I dislodged the spring, but it still works 100% velocity /aftertouch and all.

-1 because I've run into a problem dumping my sysex. I can only dump/receive the first 1/3 of any sysex data I send/receive. I attribute this to the terrible program they give you. It's early 90's DOS quality if that helps any.

Have never had to deal with them.

Doesn't spur creativity. Editing the synth is just too much of a pain. I can't find much use for many of the sounds. I maybe used 20 of them ever. Now it's just my controller. Such a waste/shame. I wish I could get more out of this board. Maybe if I ever stumbled upon a Beatbox/Vintage Synth QCard I'd be in business. But thanks to their rarity that'll never happen.

I found it very easy to use if you're only using the presets. Programming is complicated & the manual doesn't help. I bought mine to replace a dead Korg-6000 2nd tier synth, and was pleasantly pleased with how it sounded much better than the expensive Korg.

64/32 note polyphony is plenty. Two card slots. I've never used the midi. No on-board sequencer which would have been nice.

It has a wide range of presets that cover just about any sound you need to play classic/alt./hard/pop rock, R&B, or blues. All the preset sounds are great. For the money you can't beat it compared to Korg, Kurzweil, Roland & Yamaha.

I've had mine now for 10 years, practiced/rehearsed with it 6-10 hrs./week, and have gigged with it about 300 times. I have never had any problem with it (knock on wood). I've never had a back-up for it, so if it had gone out on me I would have been SOL, but that's not been a problem.

I never received the free Q-card, but from what I've heard & read from many others that have experience with Alesis customer support... they don't have any. I hope I never need them.

I would most definitely purchase this keyboard again (if I could get it new). For the price you just can't beat it. As a matter of fact I'm about to go buy a new QS8.2 for $800 (now just $100 more than what I paid for my QS6.1) to replace another mfg. (I won't mention their name here) I used for lower tier which wore out in 4-1/2 yrs.

It's easy if you have previous knowledge about programming.

It has all I need, and more it has BUZZ in it's outputs.

Most of the preset sounds are great, and of course you can make better by yourself. But the sounds are useless because of the BUZZ !

No, you can not depend on it. Alesis QS6.1 has serious problems with the power supply. There is very disturbin buzz in most of the synths. Don't by it if you can choose !!! Read more: http://www.midiworld.com/quadrasynth/qs-forum/qs-forum.html

There is no customer support in Alesis. Read more about this in http://www.midiworld.com/quadrasynth/qs-forum/qs-forum.html

I would love this synth if it just would work. You can play with the synth but you can not or example use it for recording. Shame on Alesis for leaving the customers alone with the output buzz problem!

Excellent Synth, very easy to navigate presets.

The layout consists of 13 Sound Groups. Each group contains 10 user patches, 30 preset patches, and 10 GenMIDI patches. A total of 650 Sounds.

Piano and synth presets are great. But Alesis could have worked a little harder on the strings.

Editing patches is very simple, however sometimes its a little hard to get exactly what you want.

Manual is helpful if you know what your looking for. But I did notice that it said the synth has no aftertouch. But myne definetly has aftertouch and it works perfectly.

No problems with the 64 voice polyphony, even under heavy sequencing.

The Action is excellent, not like any other synth I ever worked with.

I wasn't very impressed with the effects. It also takes a while to fully understand the effects matrix.

There are two Q-Card expansion ports on the back, but i haven't had the chance to try them out yet.

The MIDI features are excellent.
I use it with reason 2.5 and was not the least bit dissapointed. MIDI in works great too.

No on-board Sequencer. But you can load sequences in the Q- Card slot and play them back on the synth.

All though my main interest is dance music, this synth is best for realistic sounds.

The velocity sensitivity is great but its almost impossible to reach 100%
without a MIDI controller. Release velocity and Aftertouch both work great.

Very reliable. No bugs, loose sliders, etc. It's built like a 68 pound steel tank.

I probably won't use this at gigs, but if i did I would definetly use it without a backup.

No reason to contact them so far.

If stolen, I'd definetly get another. I have only been using it for about a month and it has been a great source of inspiration. I would definetly recommend it to any keyboardist.

I have own this keyboard for 5 years. It is the easiest and most reliable key i have owned. The preset sounds are full and rich.The editing is simple and the alternate sound reinforcement adjustments help taylor the sound to your liking. The manual is very good as manuale go.

The action in not wieghted although there s an adjustment that simulate wieghted key action.The User presets are great. You can adjust the timber and atinuation for each and save it to a bay.The Qcards are great. additional rich full soundshere is standard key and presure sensitive for bending and attinuation

I have been told without seeing me actually playing the the individual horns and piano not to mention the organ sound are very real and convincing.Onboard effects are great many variables.Very clear sounds no interferance or static.The velocity and aftertouch are great. You can adjust the amount for each sound.

Very reliabele. The customer support is excelant. I do play this on gigs and I do not have a backup key. I do have two i work with but both are individual to the music selection and do not depend on each other for support.

The customer support and technical support is excellant.

If I have to buy again i would look for another of the same modle or get a newer version of the same.I have been playing for more than 30 years.GEM,Rhodes,Oberhiem,Roland,yamaha.I choose this one for the sound quality and dependability. All the formentioned keys did not have the full rich sounds.I wish it had a little better piano like a good grand sound.It not just helps me make music it is music. I use it in a band on the weekends and I write music scoring for local film makers.

The Alesis QS6.1 is a very easy unit to use as long as you only use the preset sounds. However, it is somewhat more difficult to try and create your own sounds on it. Overall, not the hardest to use.

Others have gone into great detail on the features so I won't get into it.

As most keyboards, some sounds are very realistic and useable, while others are horrific. To my ears, the guitar button should have been omitted! Most sounds are quite satisfactory - but some of the bad ones are REALLY bad.

This is my beef with Alesis! The first keyboard I got had a key which was not touch sensitive, it was either full on or full off. I went back to the dealer and exchanged it for another. Only this time, I got a photocopy of a manual inside the box instead of the original. The second keyboard had problems with the right main going out at about every 5-10 minutes or so. If that wasn't enough, the #60 Brass switch was jammed and would not go "on". What are the odds of a customer buying 2 keyboards and having problems with both?! In any case, I am not going to replace it with a 3rd one. As far as I'm concerned, I have had it with Alesis. Ironically, I bought this model because it was entirely made out of metal and I thought it would stand up against the test of time. Sorry Alesis, but your product sucks the big one and deserves the "1" in the reliability department. My only regret is that I cannot type in a "0" in this field.

Even though, as you can see with my reliability rating, I must admit that their customer support was decent. They did in fact refer me to a repair shop in my area and told me that I could pay to have my problems fixed. Ideally, I should never have gotten the opportunity to call them to begin with...

Due to reliablity issues, which really is "instrumental" - I would not recommend this keyboard. If you only play in your home and never intend to gig with it and have plenty of time to return it and have it repaired, go for it!

To an average pianist, the set up is very easy- sequential layot of banks, each with numerical presets. If you can navigate a computer keyboard, the QS 6 is cake. For a synthesist, things get a little hairier. Programming the unit through the LCD is hard to master, but easier once you get the hnag of it. The effects take the longest to master, but once you get them, you can assign any effect or envelope to any of the four sliders- very nice for live apps. The manual is very comprehensive, and if you don't have it, you can download it in PDF format.

This is your standard modern 61-note electric piano. Like any other keyboard in the size/price range (Korg X5d, Roland XP-30, etc), it had standard stereo outs, 16-ch MIDI, sustain and custom footswitch outs, as well as a serial port for docking to a computer. Like most synths, it is upgradeable via card slot (PCMCIA). There is no sequencer, but this is not a workstation, it's a performance synth. In MIDI slave mode, all key velocities and sliders/wheels are controllable.

I bought the QS8 in 98 when it first hit the market, and have been dying for something that is as beautiful sounding, yet portable. In all my travels through synthesizers, the QS6.1 has a better soundset for the gigging musician than any other synth for under $500.00. Some would say the Stereo Grand Piano is lacking, but trust me, I've played dozens of synths, and this one has an AMAZING piano sound, untouchable by any other company's lower-end synth. Do not compare it to a professional Yamaha stage electric, it will ovbiously not match up... However, if you play jazz or rock, fusion or funk, acid, house, trip-hop, and any other style that needs warm pianos, gritty rhodes organs, and low-fi sounding synths, this is a great tool. The touch sensitivity is not the best, but these are organ keys- my QS8 responds just like a piano should, so it's only an issue with the weight of the keys. The expressive control of your sound is more fufilling than any other plastic-keyed synth I've played (save for perhaps the Roland EP series, but those are not synthesizers).

This is not a specific keyboard- I've seen light jazz groups on stage with a QS... but I've also seen Black Metal bands with a QS synthesizer as well. The sound set is that diverse.

For those who bash the QS's sounds, comparing it to newer models, I don't think you can fairly judge the QS6.1 against a Yamaha Motif or Korg Trinity Pro... those boards are in a seperate league, and also run upwars of 1600.00+. The 6.1 is a $3-500.00 miracle machine.

I have owned at least 20 or more synths, and have taken a few of them gigging. I must say the QS6 stands in the top 20% of the pack, the Korg Polysix being at the bottom (Analog... went out of tune alot). Anyway, the QS6 is NOT an Ensoniq board, it's not built like a tank. It's a combination of sturdiness and small form, so take care of it. Get a gig bag. If you carry your synth open, spill a beer on it, and then drop it on the stage, you'll have to expect that something's going to go wrong. There's delicate circuitry inside these things, and it's crammed into the 6.1 especially tight.

The only issue I've had with this unit is the velocity on my 2nd C key has become a little odd, stricking slightly louder than the others. I don't think anyone but me notices, but I'm a sick perfectionist.

Basically, if you want a synth to throw off the stage, go buy a more tank-like Ensoniq VFX or ESQ1, or a Yamaha DX7. If you are willing to take responsibility for your gear, the 6.1 should be no problem on the road.

I have never dealt with Alesis, but have heard horror stories. If this breaks, I'll either take it to my local synth repair store (most big cities have a music store that can do synth repair) or eBay it to buy a working one.

I would definatly replace this unit if it were broken or stolen. It has become a valuble addition to my setup, and even though I already have a QS8, this one seems more important to me as the "go anywhere grand piano". This is no Korg Trinity. This is an Alesis, which has become synonomous with "no frills, just good." Alesis has a very limited product line, which I applaud because it seems they take more time to keep their products high-quality.

I've seen some complaints about the QS6, about it's programming difficulty, it's easy-to-break nature, and odd software issues it has. Trust me, go to eBay and type in "Roland" and check out how many broken Juno 106's are being sold. There will always be flukes in a product line of tedious electronics, it's bound to happen- especially if you buy a pre-owned board that may have been used and abused. Buying hte QS6 is no more of a risk than investing in a price-comperable Roland RS-5 or a Korg X5d... and the sounds of hte QS6 smack the other boards in the face.

As far as programming goes, HAVE YOU EVER TRIED TO PROGRAM A DX7? How about a Roland D50? It's hard! The Alesis, to me, is like looking at a kid's program, step-by-stepping you through sound creation... but that' just me.

All in all, this is a wonderful keyboard for me, Alesis has done nothing yet to proove me wrong... and I own a QS6, QS8, Quadraverb, Nanoverb, Nanopiano, and MMT-8 as well as Alesis monitors and power amp. It will never replace the strings of my Roland D-50, it will never touch the 80's saw waves of my Ensoniq ESQ1, it has no knobs like my Korg Polysix, but it, like the aformentioned synths, has a place on the musical wall, a place that you might find very suitable as well.

I'm a Professional Studio Producer. Over 2 years i have experienced the Alesis 6.1 Synth. I will give you the side by side comparison in complete form. Make sure you read this very carfully. If you know how to turn on a light switch it , then you will know how to operate the synt. Note i said operate not programme it.

Features are straight forward. You can take the basic 5 effect once you understand progamming and create what you want. Reverbs, Flager, Phaser, can all be programmed. Note you will need to know what you want and how to go about getting exactly that. Don't rush it takes time. The #1 plus to this board is you can load your own one shots or samples. If you dont know what one shots or samples are or how to do this you are truly a starter/learner. Get the lingo down and you will be impressed. You can take a sample from any drum machine and have the best drums in the world , never have to buy a drum machine that #2 . stay with me.

The sounds are not the best, honestly Korg has the best variety of sounds. The best quality of sound will have to go to a split. One sound is 16 bit=Korg Alesis is 18bit. Higer quality. Again, the Alesis have some sounds that would embarras korg and vice versa.

One the Modulation spring broke. I fixed it myself.

BAD

I'm constant in criticism. The board is damn good, if you are smart and know how to do one shots or multisamples you will not have to buy another board again. My advice is if you have question contact me. I will give you the truth. I dont work for Alesis Korg Roland Etc.. My adivce to Alesis is to come out with a better variety of sounds.

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.

Well, I do not know software version, other than the basic one that it comes with.
I like a lot of the sounds but I am horrible at making new sounds so they are getting a bit tiresome now. I have been looking into softsynths lately and have found some killer new stuff. I like to mix the good sounds on the QS with the good SS on Cubase.
I'd like to get some strong drum samples but not sure where to look as of yet.
The manual confuses me alot and doesn't show step by step angles like I like to see. Effects confuse me, patches confuse me....basically I am confused when it comes to the manual.

64 polyphony....Action is nice and solid. Built in effects and not very easy to use compared to the old Yamaha SY85 I was used to.
It's very good at midi though unlike the SY85....I'd love to find a softsynth based on the SY85....WOW....that had some FAT sounds I miss everyday.
No onboard SEQ but then it would be $2000 if it had one...no thanks.
Cubase is better for that anyhow.

The sounds on Q cards seem to be excellent.......I bought my Alesis with 4 cards all for $550...what a deal.....Presets overall are pretty good but the good ones will get more use than the crappier ones, which leaves you wanted even more good sounds.

No problems as of yet.

No need to deal with yet.

I would want another one because I am already used to working with it, although if something came along that sounded as good but was really, really easier to use I'd probably get that.

QS6.1 ROM version 1.00 - ORIGINAL QS6.1
I bought this keyboard right when it came out, before there were QS7.1's or QS8.1's. It is beautiful! The presets can be a little dodgy at times, but almost every great synth has SHIT for presets. Some of the 6.1's presets are there mainly to demo a feature (think modulation matrix here people) and many are quite fantastically lame, but the bread an butter sounds like strings, winds, horns, keys, etc. are all there and some of them are really great. Many become great with just a little work.
I learned to edit patches the hard way: by DOING it. It seems that every user review I've read so far is somebody complainig about a lack of graphics for editing. Don't worry about it! It took some study, but editing patches can be a breeze with nothing but the built-in screen. I usually start from scratch, too. That way, the sounds come out exactly how I want them to. Unisyn is kind of nice to have, but not in the least bit necessary.
The manual is great, it explains almost everything in sufficient depth for most anyone. The exception to this would be the more complicated use of the Mod Matrix. ARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH! I wish there was a bit more explanation of the wacky things you can do with it (a few presets really blow me away with their mod matrix settings, so I know crazy things are possible).

64 voice polyphony, which means 64 sample-based oscillators are available for use in the voices. You can use 1-4 per voice. Note that all other oscillators are independant of these voice oscillators, so they (LFO's, etc) don't use up poly like on a few other boards.
The keyboard is extremely sweet, I think that it is the BEST non-weighted keyboard out there. Once you play it, any other non-weighted keyboard will feel CHEAP and FAKE. I have been banging hard on it for 3 years now, and it feels like new. I couldn't wish for any improvement here. As a lifetime piano player, I am qualified to say that the action is keen as could be.
There are 5 effects blocks, all pretty traditional in nature. Reverb, chorus, lezlie, delay, flange, "resinator" (no NOT a resonant filter), detune, EQ, LPF, overdrive, and that's about it. Sorry kids, no Yamaha or Roland style whiz-bang effects here. Just the basics. They are extremely simple to use, each patch or performance (mix) has its own effect configuration which you can change. There are 5 routings to choose from. The effects themselves are very high-quality, as any Alesis module owner could tell you. One thing on my list is a resonant filter, as the Alesis has none. Techno kids be aware of this!
It can accept QCards (way too expensive in my opinion), or flash / sram cards that you burn samples to yourself. You can also burn midi data onto a card for playback with the internal midi sequence PLAYER (not recorder). Whoopee!
The board is channel aftertouch sensitive, has 4 assignable data sliders, pitch and mod wheels (great big friendly rubber ones), and midi in / out / thru. Also included is a serial port for direct PC / MAC connection, leaving midi ports free. All in all, as my sequencer is my computer, this board is great. I would rather control modules with it than get another board, as it's midi is dead on.
No onboard sequencer, although there is a midi sequence PLAYER, as noted before. This thing is designed for computer studio use.

The presets range from very average to really cool. Many of them are pretty cheesy, some are okay, and some are awesome! Play around with the patches until they sound great, that's my motto. Bear in mind, some of the most classic synths of all time have positively terrible presets (I'm thinking Juno here).
I do weird music. It works for me. I couldn't see myself getting another keyboard synth for a while, because I can't give up the beautiful feel of this machine. Time to buy rack-mounted modules!

This thing is built better than ANY japanese synth on the market. Period. Korgs, Rolands, Yamahas, etc. all feel cheap compared to this METAL TANK of a machine that was made in AMERICA. This keyboard is a beauty, and will last forever. I have never had a system software problem, either. This is one that could survive a trip into orbit, a hard landing in the desert, and be recovered and played

I have never needed to contact Alesis. One point needs to be made here, however: Don't buy a synth for the free expansion card. That is just plain lame. Buy a synth because it works well for you.

If I lost this board, I wouldn't even consider anything else. I'd buy one straight away. I hope that never happens.

When purchasing this keyboard, I looked at everything else available, including the Trinity, the XP-60 / 80, the JX-105 "groovesynth", and the CS1X. I couldn't be happier with my choice. If you are the kind of person who would rather sequence on your keyboard than your computer, maybe another board would be for you. If you are a techno person, you might be disappointed that there isn't any resonant filter. I am not. If I want a resonant filter, damnit, I'll get a Sherman Filterbank. Most on-board resonant filters I have used are a little weak, anyway, but the Filterbank can light your setup on FIRE!!! (no shit) I do wish I had more sliders, but who doesn't.

Cakewalk Pro Audio (All Versions)

Have spent countless hours trying to get this keyboard to react somewhat like "ALL OTHER KEYBOARDS" that I have come across. I can not seem to get this keboard to work like a midi slave or to transmit on channel 1 and route that input data to the other tracks and or patches that I select through Cakewalk. Getting ready to dump this keyboard for something that really works...

Never got there, too busy just trying to make it work!

Never got there, too busy just trying to make it work!

Never got there, too busy just trying to make it work!
Manual is useless!

Would never condiser another product even remotely set up ohter than the general midi standard. This piece of paper weight might be great as a stand alone piano, for a musician that has three hands and loves to mix everything from the pianos control buttons, but I need MIDI to work, when I want it and get what I expect for results. The Alesis QS series really sucks when it comes to this.

Don't know what version I use, doesn't matter cause I don't have any problems with the software. The presets: to be short, I don't like 'm. Synth patches are ok if you can live without a resonance filter. The acoustic sounds are dull, not inspiring (compared to tody's standards, but hey, it was build in 1996 or so...). Many people like the piano and organ sounds, I don't like them, to thin, to synthy. Bought the Jazz Piano expansion card, sounds a little bit better than the internal piano sample.
I certainly dislike the way editing is done, I can't get the hang of it, buttons are use for too many functions, the display is too small. Manual is OK, if you are used to roland and yamaha gear. Can't beat the Ensoniq manuals tho.

Polyphony 64 adequate for 'normal' use, don't like the keyboard action, too plastic, feels cheap. Expansions? sure, two slots. In Europe these expansions are way to expensive, heard better pricing storys from the US.
"You don't seem pleased with the board, why did you buy it?". There are a few things I like about the qs 6.1. Only one thing actualy. At the time, it was the only synth that could play midifiles from a memory card, that's what I use the QS 6.1 for. Works like a charm, fast playback for midifiles (I use a Roland G-800 for sound playback), no swapping floppys anymore. Rating is based on the midifile playing feature (the only reason I bought it)

As I said, I don't like the sounds. It's not shocking when you sample at 48 khz and only create space for 8 mb of samples (the other 8 mb was for the internal piano sample). Don't think it has a target for a type of music. Onboard fx are ok. Velocity isn't consistent across the board. It's difficult (almost impossible) to get the keyboard to output velocity values of 126-127.

Seems solidly build, I would (am) use it on a gig without a backup (not counting the roland g-800)

Never dealt with Alesis, a few weaks ago the middle G key stopped responding, brought it back to my music store, repaired it in 1 week.

I would not by the unit again (I probably would at the time I bought is 3 years ago) because there are better boards available at this time that can play midifile from a solid medium.
I'm playing keyboards for 10 years now. Boards I own (or ever owned): Yamaha EX5, ENSONIQ TS-10, Roland XP-50, Roland JV-80, Yamaha V50, Yamaha SY-55, Yamaha PSR-6, Yamaha PSR 540, Yamaha PSR 460, Roland g-800.

A sess?o de efeitos me confunde, e possui poucos bot?es para tantas func?es.

Realmente o que se pode chamar de bom e barato. 64 notas me parece um pouco razoavel, ainda mais para mim que o uso somente em apresentac?es ao vivo. O painel de controle de parametros em tempo real e fantastico

Amigos: n?o fiquem receiosos para comprar este equipamento. Foi minha melhor compra nos ultimos anos. Os sons de piano, org?o, e metais s?o "de babar" as cordas deixam um pouco a desejar.

Waipahu

Ok, I'm the guy that was complaining earlier about how Alesis's customer service sucked because they never sent the free Q card and never answered my calls or email. I sent them one last email telling them that I was weighing my options legally and a customer service rep replied the next day. He told me in the email that Alesis has gone through a lot with declaring bankruptcy, relocating, etc, but apologized for the problem and said he'd look into the matter. I got a follow email the next day telling me that they used the wrong address for the first mailing so they would resend the Classic Synth Q Card that day and that I should receive it within a week. About a week later, it arrived as promised.
I hope this is a new trend for Alesis, as I would never deal with them again with their prior customer service efforts. I am still a little trepidatious, but I think they are trying to fix their Customer Service problems. I would give this particular effort a "10", but with all the hassles, I'll let you decide.

I am writing this review to warn potential Alesis purchasers: Alesis' Customer Service SUCKS! Like others have mentioned, I bought the QS6.1 instead of another keyboard because of the free Q card offer. 8 months later I still have not received my Q card. When I emailed 6 months ago, I was given some cr@p about an address goof and given the assurance that the Q card would be sent to my correct address. Since then, I've emailed, called, etc and keep getting the shaft.

So, if you want the shaft as well, go ahead and buy Alesis products. I for one will NEVER buy another Alesis product again. My opinion is that product manufacturers owe it to their cistomers to treat them well. Alesis doesn't. I'm now toying with the idea of taking them to small claims court to give them a taste of what I feel they've done to me.

Avoid Alesis products.

Horrible customer service ruins it for me.

I'm a newbie at this, because this is my first keyboard. I guess it was intended for someone with someone actual experience, but I think I might start getting the hang of it soon, hopefully, hehe...the trouble I am having is playing this with the computer. I have hooked up a serial cable to the computer, and when I use digital orchestrator pro or Cakewalk or any other software, the response time seems too long from when I play the note and when I actually hear it on my computer. Is there a way to fix it so I can hear the note almost exactly when I play it? I wish it could be a little more faster. I have already adjusted serial speed settings, if you can help me it would be GREAT if you could email xkpkp@hotmail.com, thanks.

Features seem nice, great MIDI capabilities, if I just knew how to use em...heh.

Not sure...

Hasn't broken for about a month and a half now.

NA.

NA.

No idea (and I dont care) about software version, Its a new gear and I dont expect to have problems in this matter, at least no yet.

Just turn it on, and you are on the way.

The preset sounds are wonderful, much better than any keyboard at this price range. Many patches available, even better than presets.

Editing looks to be easy if you are using the software included. No software?, I have never tried

The Manual is not a bad one, but it could be much, much, much better. Issue to get better and go deeper, Alesis

64 poliphony, of course less if you are using mixes

Great effects, easy to use. I love delays and reverb

Two card expansion capabilities. Great card sounds! Also, thousands of new sounds on Internet. I have more than 2000 already!, 80% of them pretty usable.

No arpegiator, no sequencer, but you can use the software included for sequencing (Emagic), or to record them in a ram flash card.

After that, you wont need any sequencer, nor computers, nor anything. Who says you MUST have a sequencer for live performance alone?

Great sounds for the price!

EXCELLENT PIANOS!!!. I couldnt believe it. Other sounds are great, as well, but pianos worth the price alone.

Just try it in a dealer, and you will hear it by yourself

New gear, I dont know (I hope so...)

No crashes until today

Two months to receive the promised qcard free with purchase

Thats not quick, but I never complaint for a FREE card

Thanks Alesis!

If stolen, I would replace it with the QS7.1, just for the 76 keys

Great keyboard, if you dont have $2000 to play around

Perhaps Roland XP-30 sounds better, but it costs $400 more!!! ($400 actually costs a Roland JV-1010)

Forget XP-10, or even Korg X5D. Please, forget them. No point of comparison with this excellent baby

Just give it a try. You wont regreat

It's fairly easy to use even though the implementation of the SoundDiver software can get weird (patches reassign themselves to new locations for no apparent reason) at times.

Effects are hard to use but works fine for basic sequencing through Cubase.

Sounds are pretty good. Pianos and organs especially.

It doesn't leave my studio and hasn't broken in 5 months. We'll see.

This is the reason I wrote this review. I bought the QS6.1 over the Roland XP-30 for the sole reason that I was going to get a free Q cards in the process. Fat chance. I bought it in December of 2000 and as of mid-May 2001, have not received the card. I called them and was told they would ship at the end of January. I have sent 2-3 emails and received no reply. I feel as if I've been defrauded. You can't just put out an offer and not deliver like that. Now I hear the company's filed Chapter 11. It is sad that as an owner of a long list of Alesis products (HR16, Quadraverb, DM5, Microverb, etc.) all of which I enjoyed, I will NOT be buying Alesis products in the future.

Nice keyboard, untrustworthy company.

Nothing too complex, although I use this set of keys purely for live performance...no sequencing here. No editing either, although I should give it a try soon. I have a Korg N1 at home for my MIDI and editing and all that crazy stuff. An 8 is given due to this: there are 4 realtime control sliders which each do something different for each patch. From what I understand, there is no way to know what each slider will do without just trying it out. This really gets on my nerves, and if someone knows how to find this out, let me know.

Good features, bought it because it had the most stuff for the money (lack of aftertouch was what ruled out the Korg X5D). It has expansion capabilities, but I don't plan on spending $100 or more to get a few more Alesis sounds (more later). No sequencer, but I didn't need one. The transpose button is handy, and call it trivial, but I absolutely love the feel of the pitch bend and mod wheels.

OK, let my ranting begin. The sounds, and there are many of them, and they are expressive, and there generally seems to be whatever I need (a very wide variety of sounds and styles), but...well...err...none of these sounds are that great. They're all passable, but rarely anything more. It is satisfactory but nothing more. And the sounds are definitely inferior to my Korg N1. There's expansion available as I said before, but I can't imagine there being any sounds for this board worth my money. OK, so that wasn't a rant, but it wasn't good.

No problems. And I've never met anyone who beats a keyboard onstage like I do. Or run it into walls, or whatnot. Still works sweetly.

If I could give this a negative number, I would. I bought this with a $100 rebate through Alesis and Guitar Center. I bought the keyboard in June. AFter not receiving the rebate by September (they said 6-8 weeks), I tried calling, writing, and E-mailing Alesis (and so did Guitar Center, I got in touch with them, and they said they'd try to call Alesis). Bottom line, it is nigh unto impossible to talk to anyone at Alesis. My dad (yes I'm only 17, so I still only have the power of minor in these situations) even called them and managed to find someone who would talk. He wrote angry letters as well. Finally, after a barrage of such communications, I finally received the rebate...IN JANUARY!! I don't plan on buying from Alesis again due to this experience. It also didn't contain the CD that the box said came with it, and the people I contacted for that purpose said they didn't think it same with the CD-ROM. At this point, I felt the need to find the Alesis HQ and set up a public stoning of the Customer Service Department.

OK. This is for anyone who was deciding between the QS6.1 and the Korg N5EX (very common competitors). I have the N1 (N5EX soundset, just more keys) and this is my advice....BUY THE KORG!!! There are more sounds, and the sounds are infinitely better than the Alesis. The Korg has a very visual display filled with graphics, while the Alesis display tells you almost nothing. I know the Korg works well with MIDI sequencing and etc. And I never had any problems with Korg's customer service (I got their $100 rebate within 6 weeks). The only thing the Alesis has going for it against the Korg is expandability, and like I said, who wants more crappy sounds?
Since I already had the N1, the Alesis was the best bang for the buck. So I'm satisfied with it. So it got a 6. I'm being nice. Final advice: GET THE N5EX!! NOT THE QS6.1!!!

First off, I'm primarily a guitar player who was looking for a good solid keyboard for my project studio. What a find this thing turned out to be. Compared to customizing an ART SGX guitar preamp this thing is a snap! Found myself recording on the very first night I got it. I've already come up with my 10 favorite sounds (of course that meant a few sleepless nights going through all the presets). The manual was in English (ok, I'm a computer programmer, it doesn't take much) and easy to read. I've used Korg and Roland keyboards before this purchase and found the Alesis to fit into my logic pattern as to were things should go and what each button "should" do. So far, editing the effects (come on, I'm a guitar player!) hasn't turned out to be too easy, fortunately Alesis has the most usable effect already programmed into most sounds. You just use the 4 parameter faders to adjust the amount of effect desired.

64 note polyphony is probably above anything this guitar player is ever going to concur on a keyboard. The effects are nice and solid, pitch and modulation wheels feel solid and work well. As stated above, the effects can be a little bothersome changing, but since most are preprogrammed at very usable (or predictable?) levels things work out just fine for me. I love the after touch and the key sensitivity, especially on the "strings" sounds.

The most ironic thing about buying a synthesizer, at least for me, is that I love the "traditional" keyboard sounds. I can't get over how awesome the traditional and electric piano "group" sounds. The organs are very realistic and who doesn't love a good Hammond B3 and Leslie-esque rotary effect and the apex of your song? But as a guitar player I must admit, even the "guitar" group of sounds are amazing, especially the acoustic guitar sounds (ok, the electric ones don't cut it, but who buys a keyboard for guitar sounds?). Strings are better as groups/orchestras than as stand alone instruments, same with the horns. I do have lots of fun in the "Synth" bank but I'm at a loss as to how anyone could work most of these sounds into anything more that one or two songs, maybe good for the odd lead now and then. Overall for my purposes, absolutely stunning.

I bought this keyboard largely on the recommendation of our bands keyboardist. He has had one (a QS6 I believe) for several years and hasn't had a problem. Mine probably won't leave my house. Based on what I've seen from the other Alesis gear I (and the band) own, it will last a long time.

I've never had a problem with any equipment I have purchased from Alesis. I was once given a "broken" Alesis Qudra-Verb and set out to fix it. Turned out only one little part was broken. Turned out to be some specially built resistor that I (and the many places I took it) had never seen. Alesis wanted $50 for one of these things (plus shipping!!) and the pc board was littered with them. Since a new one is around $250, in the trash it went.

I bought this keyboard about a month ago and I've been waiting to get over the "newby" feeling one gets with a new instrument. So far, that hasn't happened. I love this thing! It sounds better than I imagined and you can't beat the price. I would definitely replace this if were lost, I can't imagine how I got along without it before I bought it. For a guitarist who likes to "screw around" on the keys, this thing is great. I'm sure there will be some fairly prominent keys on all those songs I've been meaning to finish writing but haven't found the time to record. Believe the hype, this thing sounds great!

Everything's layed out in plain English. Basically an easy synth to get to know. The realtime sliders are nice, but are seldomly routed to parameters that have much effect on the sound.

64 voice polyphony, plenty enough for me. Alot of boards now have 128, but you can't expext that for a synth of this price. The serial interface is a very good feature. Overall construction is nice and solid. The aluminum front panel is very classy. Mod and pitch wheels are sturdy and feel great. I like the thick ruber soft keys as well.
One major complaint! The keys absolutely suck!! You can really tell they cut corners. I visited a few local music dealers, intersted in buying a QS. At on of the stores I noticed a key was flooping down in the keyboard as if something internally had broken. I thought these things get abused, it's nothing. I went to Guitar Center with cash in pocket to buy one. No salesman would help me :o(. I guess I looked poor. Too bad for them. I was there for over 2 hours playing the synth. I wasn't in a hurry so the salesman part wasn't a problem. Funny thing is I broke a key and it did the same thing. Flopped around down in the keyboard! Hmmm, Maybe I'll buy the rack version. I can't have a synth I feel I have to be careful with everytime I play! This is a serious consideration
in purchasing one of these.

This thing sounds great. It may be poorly constructed in the keys department, but the sounds are top notch. Most of the patched are very inspiring. The synth pads are awesome. I love the Dark Grand piano patch. Drums are great too. It does sound a bit brite, but I like it and think it will sit good in a mix. It is good for bread and butter sounds. If you want to create dance music you'll probably want a virtual analog to compliment the QS6.1. But you'll still get grreat use out of the sounds in here.

CRAPPY KEYS. If your an expressive player this board is not going to cut it for you. They are weak, wobbly, and springy. The QS7 and 8 series feature better keys. Oddly thought the rest of this synth seems well constructed. I think they cut corners to keep the price low. They just picked the wrong area to do it. I'd prefer a plastic front panel with some robust keys.

I plan on buying the rack version. I do love the sounds, and that is what matters most. The sounds are great for any type of pop/rock/hip-hop/electronic music. It has a very musical sound. I prefer the pianos to the other affordable synths on the market. Great pads too.
Would have been an incredible value with a bit stronger keyboard.

This is my first keyboard. The manual needs an index. It is written for somone with more experience then myself, although I have been able to figure most of it out. Manual has almost no mention of the software that is included, which was a big reason for me to purchase. Control setup is good, and I did get used to it fairly quickly.

64 voice,more then enough for me. Action is quite nice. Effects are very good, and quite clean, and easy to manipulate in real time. Have not bought expansion cards yet, as I have had to many software problems-Alesis to send me new disc (Had to go to sales manager) No sequencer, as it is included in software (I am using different software. Seems to have good MIDI capabilities.

Most sounds are good, expecially piano and organ. Bass and lead-type synth sound have a lot to be desired, Hopefully I can get software working so I can import some sounds. Good selection of drum sounds, I use with my drum machine. I like the action, especially for organ sounds.

Seems to be built like a tank- all metal case, and no knobs other then the two wheels (which seem tough) to break) Switches seem to be good quality.

Here is the downfall. I ordered a serial cable, the wrong one was sent, I was charged 50% restocking, and $20.00 shipping on the right one. Footswitch was DOA, after a month and half, I still have not recieved replacement, even though I returned it with an authorization #. I was treated very rudely by parts department,who claimed all mishaps were my fault. I have not been able to get software, including serial driver to work with my PC to work, the main reason I chose this synth. Luckily, Windows ME has Alesis driver built in, so I purchase another software package for sequencing. I finally spoke to sales manager,who says he is going to fix everything for me. If I can't get satisfaction, I will sell it.(I've had it too long to return to store) I am not a happy boy.

I would have rated this as very good, however the customer service was so bad, It made me want to return. I have so far had good luck with my Alesis drum machine and Nanoverb, which is why I chose an Alesis synth. As my first MIDI instrument, I am very disapointed. If the service department did what they were supposed to, I probably would have been happy. I will not buy another Alesis product.Let's see if the manager I spoke with does what he said he will do.

The QS6.1 is a brilliant keyboard, simply brilliant. Personally, there?s only one reason that makes me buy a new keyboard: inspiration. If I don?t get inspired from the first moment I play around with it, I just turn it off and that?s it. But with this machine, I immediately started recording while trying out the patches and mixes? so many instantaneous ideas for various styles of music felt nice!

Presets are divided into patches (single sounds with up to 4 voices) and mixes (with up to 16 patches)? this means, on a mix you can have 16x4 = 64 voices! Of course, with a 64-note polyphony, you?ll only be able to play a note at once. The patches and mixes are great both in terms of quantity and quality. Inside you?ll find anything you want, ranging from delicious synthpads and textures, to some real pianos and guitars, bass sounds ranging from techno to ?standard? ones, synthleads and many, many different types of unexpected textures. Some are combinations of drum/percussion sounds with leads or pads, on a single midi channel.

Editing patches, to be true, I consider it to be ?acceptable?. It?s not the kind of synth that I feel like I can make any type of sound that I need starting from a zero basis. On the other hand, the available patches are so many, that I usually just pick one, which is near the sound that I need, and start to edit. This is fast and the results are the desired ones. By the end, that?s what counts most for me? if I get the result, I?m happy. Patch editor (various available on the Net) simplifies this task, and I mean a lot.

About the manual, is the first one that I had some fun while reading. The text is clear and the approach to the reader is quite ok, really. The guys who wrote this should be no older than 30! I would like to see some parts a bit more detailed, but oh well. Still, if Alesis had kept its good writing plus some extra detail, it would have been perfect. And by the way: no index at the end. They say the manual is so clear and straightforward that they didn?t need to put one? wrong decision. We are the ones to decide what?s clear. Nevertheless, navigation thought the QS6.1 is quite simple and straightforward. Saying this let me add that the real-time sliders are a good tool for immediate processing. You can assign these to the parameters you want, and use them over you sound.

Overall appreciation to its easy of use, I?d give it a 9 for the mentioned facts. It?s in fact easy, but 10 is a rate I always keep on my pocket until a synth that talks to me and reacts to my whishes comes on the scene (one day?). LCD is big and helps a lot (it shows slider position as well), buttons feel nice to touch, and the wheels are made of rubber. Not plastic! Positive decision from Alesis. Keyboard action is just great, well weighted.

Polyphony is 64. So far, no problems with it at all. Keyboard action is good, very good indeed. I?ve been trying other keyboards like the CS6x, S30, X5D, XP30/60/80, and I like this much. Effects are rich and real. I love the reverbs, just like I do the delays and chorus. Sliders can take care of this job, when applying these into sounds. Great. When I bought my QS6.1, I immediately started to change effect parameters without reading the manual. Not that hard, although you can go into some serious programming to get even more detailed and complex effect structures. The QS allows you to. One very good feature is that you can copy the effect parameters applied to a certain patch into another one, meaning that with so many pre-programmed factory combinations, it?s always easy to find one and simply copy it into your own arrangement. I like this very much. Very useful.

Expansion is provided through 2 back slots. Whether these are RAM or ROM, just plug it and use it. Abuse it! If you want, you can buy a 512 SRAM (around $60-70) card and put inside 8 banks. 1 bank consists of 128 patches plus 100 mixes? ok, where?s the calculator? 228 times 8, gives you 1824 sounds in one card on the moment. Besides, available onboard are 5 banks more, giving you a total of almost 3000 sounds available inside the box! That?s something! But ok, if you don?t wanna spend more money, just use the software provided with the synth, and load the banks, save it? whatever you want. At this point it?s worth to mention that Alesis also provides a huge amount of banks on this CD-Rom. From synths to pads, real instruments, dance stuff... so many delicious brand new sounds!

The QS6.1 also behaves well when working as a midi controller. One extra bonus is the serial interface, which replaces midi cable and has roughly twice the speed of the later. Use it to load banks, transfer sysex data, patches, samples and midi? everything. Nice.

Overall appreciation to its features, I would say I?d give it a 8. It has everything I need for my PC-based studio. I?d put some realtime knobs on the top, but that?s it, not much to say (I admit it would blow its nice looking). No sequencer, thanks, otherwise I would have to pay much more for something I wouldn?t use. PC?s does it much better. The only thing is: if it had an arpeggiator, I would consider to give it a 9 or even a 10. I miss it, and that would have been a very useful feature.

Well, well? here we go. The reason why we all buy synths! First let me say something? I?ve been looking to other posted messages. Even before buying the QS and some other gear, I?ve been using some Internet reviews before buying. My point: NEVER buy a piece of gear just because someone loves it and talks of that in a very passionate way. Example: I compared reviews from the XP-60 and by the end I just said, ?I?m loosing my time?. Many people love some synths, some other hate it. Piece of advice: ALWAYS go to your music store and try it out. Even if the guys get bored, don?t care. Put the phones and rock, forget what?s around? that?s always the best!

Ok, saying this, here we go.

The QS has everything. From dance-based bass and leads to orchestral instruments, guitars to flutes? everything! I liked the QS because I wanted to buy a flexible keyboard and that?s precisely what this machine is all about. While navigating though the sounds, sometimes I consider it to be oriented for this, sometimes for that? and the reason is that it has so much of everything that it covers all my needs. Honestly, a more mature appreciation leads me to say that is a flexible and complete machine for many types of music. Not one specifically.

In more detail now. Synthpads are a must. Rich, warm and luxurious. So many types, so many variations? for every taste. From silent pads to warm effects, aggressive entrances to expressive textures, it?s all there. Very, very good. That?s my gold metal for the QS, along with the pianos, which are clean and real. The ?TruePiano? patch is simply perfect, and from my point of view, even better than the Roland one and far much better than the Korg or Yamaha? but hey, don?t forget that?s my opinion. Others have their own, which I respect. Guitars are very nice, although some sound a bit too crispy and a little to bright. On the other hand, if you use these over your sequencing work, with bass and warm patches, you also get a very interesting mixture, and they get more alive. I like this. Some of the sounds tend to sound like that, very bright. In some cases I thing Alesis could have arrange these better, but on the other hand this gives a certain ?character? to many of the patches when mixed. Drums are quite usable, some very useful indeed, although some not that much. I think you?ll need and external source for your drum arrangements in order to complete the QS6.1. Anyway, from latin to asian styles, techno to rock, they?re there. I miss something like trance-oriented styles, but that?s me, and it would be asking too much (maybe). Bass collection is vast and, again, for every taste. Good quality in my opinion. I like the synths and strings, and also again, some I consider as being ?usable? only but some are rich and beautiful. Very good brasses. About noises, cosmic and strange effects, you get a lot of it. It?s hard to define if a strange or crazy noise is good, but truth is that the sound is nice and clean, and I rest my case to that. I presume it?s a matter of taste or preference.

There are a lot of complex patches and mixes, some with rhythm lines and arpeggiator-type included. On these, many are wonderful, and for the first time concerning sounds, I must admit that some sucks. Not the quality in itself, but rather the arrangements that Alesis has choose. But? oh well, I live with that. One good thing is the applied effects, which give some other dimension to the sounds. Alesis was smart when deciding on what parameters to apply to the sliders, concerning the type of patch used, I mean, if you have a piano surely you don?t want to have a slider just for distortion (don?t you?!), but rather reverb, some chorus, etc. The same applies to ?spatial? sounds and pads, where they chose the right effects for the sliders (this means that for every patch/mix you call, the sliders have different pre-programmed parameters). Great!

All in all, this synth as some incredible sounds. It?s very flexible and has i

No 10?s can be given here, unless I would drop it from an aircraft, the synth would get into 1001 pieces, and 15 min after the manufacturer would have it fixed. But this seems to be one on the best-built synths I?ve seen, solid as a rock (just try to walk around with it for your gigs!). Looks like it?s worth the money, not plastic at all. Don?t worry if it falls, but careful with the floor. :-)

About a backup, no matter what pieces of gear you have? just do it! You never know, do you? But generally speaking, it never failed me and seems to be pretty reliable. Both inside/outside.

I give this a 10. But that?s ?my? 10. Let me tell you why? I never had to fix it, although I already had the need to speak with Alesis about some technical stuff and general information about the gear. I usually do it by email, and as far as that concerns, it worked out perfectly. The guys were fast on the reply, and precise on the contents. That?s how I like it (we, I guess). So, this ?10? concerns my personal situation, and the net support they gave me in Europe. Moreover, Alesis is working fine if many European countries, cause I sent emails to more than one nation. The result was always the same: fast and precise.

Still, if it gets to major repairs, I can?t comment on that.

I paid 1300 DM in Germany. 2 weeks of use, completely new. Worth every single coin. I wanted to buy it back in Portugal where I live, but prices were the double? nevertheless, even if I had paid that market price, I?d surely be happy anyway.

If stolen, I?d buy it again, sure, or maybe the 7.1 with its 76 keys. I?ve been around with some other Yamaha and Korg synths for the most. This is the one I consider being more complete, more flexible, and more realistic. It?s inspiring. This almost says it all. A wonderful piece of gear that is the heart of my studio. Sounds are excellent, rich and warm depending on the kind, with really good sound quality. I love the pianos, the various types of textures and pads, leads, and effects. And it comes with hundreds and hundreds of new sounds on the CD, for dance, orchestral environments, strings parts? so many! Software is also provided by Alesis on the CD as well.

For the bad part, I wish Alesis had done a better job on those rhythm+bass+something patches and mixes (nevertheless, some are great fun) but that?s it. Go into editing and just change it. The drum sounds could be a bit better, but I?ll get a DR-202 soon, so? oh well. I miss the arpeggio, I think it would have been a truly great add, but I can live without it.

Besides this, the synth is a hell of a machine. Solid! Keyboard action is wonderful. The LCD is generous and easy to read. Great quality for such a price? that?s value for money, as I said before. By the time I bought it, I also considered the XP-30 and Korg N5EX. I?m happy with the decision. It was worth it. It?s like I?m not trying to get ideas for my compositions, but rather the QS is opening a big door into creativity. I can?t ask more!

That?s why I buy synths: inspiration and creativity. And it?s all there? at least for me.

If you want some more info, just reach me at:

in2existence@hotmail.com.


- Nelson Vaz

OH MY GOSH!!! I LOVE THIS SYNTH!!! So easy to use. I haven't tried editing any of the preset sounds or created ANY of my own sounds because the presets are slammin'. I didn't have to read the manual as far as to access the sounds in both the Program Mode and Mix mode. I haven't loaded the software on my computer yet but when I get to that point, I know that I won't be dissapointed.

64 poly is enough for me. Expansion caoabilities; RAM and ROM!! This synth has it all. No onboard sequencer though but that's what the computer is for (or a multitrack). Man, the 4 sliders and the effects -- I LOVE IT!!!

This is my first pro-keyboard so excuse me if I sound to excited! The sounds on this bad boy are VERY useable, without tweaking! As far as sounds goes, it depends on what you're looking for. All the sounds are useable for whatever style or genre of music you're into. I love the velocity and aftertouch - perfecto!

I can't imagine that this synth would need a backup of any kind. All I can say is that it hasn't crashed or cause problems with my setup (which is just a few things).

Haven't dealt with Customer Support yet so I cannot comment on this section.

You know, it's funny that I bought this keyboard because I'd never played on it in the music store, so I really didn't know what this keyboard sounded like and if I would like it. All I know was that I wanted a pro-keyboard! I was ready to buy either the Korg N5EX or Roland XP-30 because I like some of the features on both. Man oh man, I'm glad I didn't!! YES I would DEFINATELY buy this synth again if it were lost or stolen!! Though it lacks an arpeggiator so I'll just use my computer sequencer's arpeggiator for that if need be or just do it myself. I couldn't afford the 76 key QS7.1 at the time but I do have a Yamaha PSR-GX76 that I can use to midi to the QS6.1 if I ever need 76 keys to access the Alesis sounds without transposing. I'm in the process of writing some songs with it now and with the Alesis SR-16 and recording it on my TASCAM 414-mkII (I might hook it up to my computer, who knows). If it had a onboard sequencer, that would've driven up the price. Now I'll just buy the Roland JV1010 module for the expansion board sounds and buy either Korg X5DR or the Korg NX5R module for Korg sounds (because space is limited for more keyboards!!). I highly recommend this synth to ANYONE, pro or not!! Though if you need more keys, get the QS7.1 or QS8.1.


PEACE!

The presets are decent - I have had to adjust effects on several of them, though. Very easy to use (the last synth I used extensively was a Yamaha DX-21). I am a guitar player using this for recording/sequencing. I have not yet had to edit any patches. The manual is adequate.

The 4 slider controls are great. Keyboard action is good for this price range. I agree with previous posts regarding crappy sus. pedal. Expansion capabilities are vast (Soundbridge, QCards, SRAM Cards, etc.). By utilizing Soundbridge and a PC or Mac, you can create your own samples, or import samples of various other formats. Where else do you see this feature in this price range??
I almost got a QSR - then I saw that the QS6.1 had (almost) all the features of the QSR, plus a 61-key velocity and aftertouch sensitive kbd, and more buttons (easier control) for only $200 more.

Most instruments are very realistic, with the exception of the strings and the acoustic basses. Organs are great, and I look forward to more when my Vintage Keyboards QCard comes in. Synth sounds are also quite good. Pianos are great, IMO. I've read reviews on other sites complaining about Alesis pianos (and other sounds). I believe the problem with these folks' sounds lies in their amplification, NOT within the QS.
Velocity sensitivity is very good, but aftertouch is somewhat less wonderful.

I feel quite sure that it will prove most reliable. Metal construction. Keys seem suitable for all but the most violent of players. My 2 1/2 year old has already proven this.

N/A

If you are looking for an expandable, affordable, great sounding synth, look no further. All in all, better sounds/performance/ features than similarly priced offerings by Korg or Roland.
If it were lost or stolen, I would replace it immediately.

The presets are great, as well as their organization. I brought the keyboard to the church I play at the week I bought it and selected sounds for each song on-the-fly in my headphones. I haven't really delved into patch-editing yet (I'm very much an out-of-the-box user), but the manual is very easy to understand and it comes with a Quick Reference card to get you started on that kind of stuff.

I don't know the exact polyphony, but I've never had notes drop out on me before and I use it for intense MIDI sequencing. The keyboard action is just about the best feeling I've ever gotten on a "cheap" board. The pressure sensitivity feature is kind of funky and takes getting used to, althoug the fact that it's there at all on a keyboard of this price is great. The effects, quite simply, are wonderful. Very lush reverb on the classical piano sound, especially. Expansion seems easy, although I haven't tried it. There's two slots on the back to insert QCards for extra sounds and patches, or else you can put in a FlashRAM card with your own patches or even to play back your MIDI sequences. As far as MIDI is concerned, I use it for MIDI controller for other modules live, and for MIDI playback in my "studio", and it is flawless. No onboard sequencer, but like I said you can use it live to play back sequences off a FlashRAM card so you don't have to lug a computer to gigs.

The sounds overall are MUSICAL. I can flip through patches all day, and nearly every one inspires some kind of musical thought or creation. The realism is about the same as other keyboards: the warm synth pad sounds are awesome, the pianos are versatile and workable, the horns and winds are funky. The effects are Alesis's topnotch studio effects, so they rock.

This keyboard is quite dependable, as it is made of metal. I did have to tighten some screws on the bottom when I got it, but they probably became loose during shipping. Also, it has sat in my hot vehicle, neglected, for days at a time and no problems with it (knock on wood, and no I'm not pressing my luck anymore).

I've never had to call customer support. But, Alesis's tech support is SUPPOSED to be good.

I would definitely buy this synth again if it were lost or stolen. I don't think there's a much better value out there than the QS6.1. In shopping around I looked at keyboards with similar features that cost much more (granted, they were from a certain two companies who have THE BEST sounds, whose names start with R and K). For what I do (MIDI sequencing and pop/rock live keys), it is perfect. It eliminates having to cart around a huge rig. Overall, this is a great synth in any case, but when you see the price range it's in it absolutely will blow your mind.

The presets on this synth are great! With additional Q Cards, you can add more sounds in the style you prefer. The addition of the SoundBridge software allows you to download new sounds to disk to play on the QS6.1. Awesome! I haven't tried editing yet, but there is additional computer software for that, so I think it's pretty flexible. The manual is okay.

You can read the other reviews for the features, but I have one quibble: I wish Alesis added the ability to use pure tone tunings and others rather than just equal temperment. Just my personal thought. Apart from that, it has the goods.

Very good sounds. I actually like the drums and synths very much. The weaker sounds are the orchestral instruments. I think this synth is great for dance, techno, rock, etc. You can use it as a good scratch pad for orchestral stuff, but you won't fool anyone.

Just got it. Alesis gear has held up for me in the past, so I have no worries.

I haven't dealt with them, but I guess we'll see how long it takes to get my free Q Card with the purchase.

Value is awesome! I am primarily a guitar player who wants to use the QS6.1 for recording, songwriting etc. I am very happy with this synth. Far superior to other synths in it's price range. I would buy it again if it were stolen. Well worth the money.

I've had QS6.1 for about 4 months, basically for having a second keyboard on stage. I play classic rock and blues mostly, so I needed organ and piano (acoustic and electric) presets as well as some warm pads and strings. I am a bit lazy in programming and was looking for a keyboard with a large selection of presets, as well as the ability to change sounds fast on stage. QS 6.1 has responded very well to those demands, and I found it very convenient to have around when the power supply of the other keyboard decided to retire on stage. The manual is OK, although I didn't refer to it after the first week. I've done some programming, but I believe the presets with the controllers provide a fairly good coverage of the sounds that I need.

64-note polyphony should be OK by anyone's standards, especially on stage. Having a classical piano background, I play busily most of the time and I didn't notice any sounds being cut-off suddenly due to polyphony restrictions. The built-in effects are great, and the preprogrammed sliders make life easy. The rubber wheels are also very comfortable, especially when you have umpteen spots on you in a crowded bar, and you keep on sweating. I never really needed a sequencer on stage, in any case, I'd use the one on the other keyb if I ever needed.

The piano and organ sounds are great, although I'd love to have some more electric piano options. The strings sound a bit too treble, I have to turn down the treble on the amp every time I use strings, that might be a pain sometimes especially when I have to d.i. the keyb to the mixer. The synth pads are OK, as well as the lead sounds, but the brass and winds, again, are too bright. For the type of music I play (classic rock and blues), QS6.1 is satisfactory. Some of the effects sound fabulous when you have the luxury of a stereo input to the PA, but nevertheless, they sound quite good on mono as well.

It's being constantly abused, but it held up yet. I don't think I'll have problems, as I've been carrying it all the time in the trunk. Personally, I don't think any keyboard should be used without backup, but I have a gut feeling that QS6.1 could be used.

I haven't dealt with the company directly.

I've used Korg DW-8000, Yamaha DX-7, several portable keyboards (the latest is a Yamaha PSR-730) and QS6.1 has the best keyboard action. True, the plastic keys are never like "real" keys, but this comes close. I'd definitely buy the QS6.1 again, but I'd give more serious thought to upgrading to a 7.1, for the 76-key keyboard. I've been playing for about 20 years in bands with different gear, and the QS6.1 has the best organ sounds I've played. I wish the same could be said for strings and brass tones, but I guess I'll have to work on them a bit.

I have to start out by stating that I am not a keyboard player by trade but rather a song writer who has a small home studio. My main instruments are bass and guitar. That having been said I must say that I was blown away by this instrument! At first glance I thought that maybe I would have some problems getting to "know" this keyboard but after just a few minutes I was recording some stuff and having a blast. Editing the presets couldn't be easier and the manual, although lacking in some areas, really helps reduce the learning curve. Alesis puts the complete manual on-line so if you ever lose it or leave in the studio you always have access to a copy.

The reason why I bought this particular board is because it has many features that other boards in it's price range didn't have, such as after-touch. The polyphone is fine at 64, the semi-weighted keys are much nice than boards from Korg and Roland, and the effects are great. This board is also expandable which makes a huge difference over boards in the same price range that are not. No sequencer, but I wasn't looking for that feature. It does, however, come with software for sequencing and more. There are a lot more features that I have yet to use but I just love knowing they're there if I need them.

This is where the Alesis really shines! I tried a Roland XP-10, a Korg X-5D, and a few other similarly priced boards before I got my hands on the QS6.1 and I can happily report that the Alesis is worth every penny that you'll pay over the price of those others. The pianos, organs, and synth sounds are terrific, and the drum sounds kick! Even the horns are decent, which is a feat, let me tell you. I am a big fan of producers such as Mitchell Froom, Becker/Fagan, and Goerge Martin, and can easily imagine producing tones that would please those cats with this instrument. One slight annoyance: some of the stereo samples sit in funny places in the stereo field but this is easily tweaked in edit mode.

This thing is make from the shells of old army tanks! I tried some other boards that looked and felt like something Milton Bradly would churn out but that's not the case with this board. Everything here is solid and built to last.

I had to get in touch with Alesis once (see the annoyance listed in the expressiveness catagory) and they responded THE SAME DAY! With some other board makers that I 'auditioned' I am still waiting for them to return my email! I don't usually give 10's for anything but, if I did, I would give one here!

This is a great board and if I had it stolen I would replace it right away! I would love to compliment this with a really nice module and, with this board, I feel the quality and features would make it a perfect fit for even the most expensive module.

Considering it's my first synth, I'd say it's very easy to use. I'm familliar with MIDI instruments and sequencing so that's not new. I'm speaking strictly of getting the QS6.1 to play the sound you want, send and receive on the channel you want, and making simple tweeks to the sounds: It's easy.

Completely programing a sound with effects doesn't seem like it would be especially difficult either. It might not sound good, but that wouldn't be the synth's fault :)

Features specs and a downloadable manual are available from the Alesis website, so I won't go into it. The features that are provided make it extremely easy to integrate the QS6.1 into a MIDI/digital audio studio, catalog programs and mixes, etc.

The hard-features (keys, wheels, buttons) are all well placed, well sized, and clearly labled. What more do you wan't?

I'm playing the QS6.1 through a nearfield monitoring system, so I'm getting a neutral auditioning of each program. So far, from the 50 ro 60 I've spent more than a few minutes with, the presets are pretty good. In general, some of the acoustic instruments sound a bit bright when soloed. However, this extra brightness makes them sit nicely in a mix, and keeps the highs nice and lively. In otherwords, the sounds are well suited for a home/project studio.

The keyboard plays very well. Some of the velocity curves can cause a program to switch between its sample sounds a little quickly, but it can probably be adjusted. I've just gotten used to it. The keys feel like plastic, because they are, and they have a nice "keyboard feel", i.e. a touch lighter than a piano's keys. Feels good.

Made of metal. Low profile controls. Heavy sides and corners. Don't throw it, and it should be fine.

NOTE: much better construction than other synths in its price range.

Don't know.

If it were lost or stolen, I'd buy the QS7.1 for the extra keys, not the sequencer. It's a shame they don't make a 7.1 without a sequencer to bring the cost down.

I play and record jazz, rock, metal, pop, and classical. I play some of it, and engineer some of it. I have a fairly extensive home studio setup. It's based a CubaseVST system, and includes external mixing and effects. The QS6.1 is right a home in this type of environment.

So far I've used the QS6.1 for programing drum beats, jazz piano parts, bass lines, and string ensembles. Its MIX mode makes all this stuff really easy, and it integrates well with CubaseVST.

Bottom line: Excellent sounds and programability. Great for home/project digital audio/MIDI studios. Not big enough to keep a pianist happy for long (but you already knew that).

If only Alesis made a computer editor for this keyboard....
No problem. You can get other 3rd party editors if you look on the Internet. Though it is featured that this new generation of QS6's has a larger LCD display (and this one looks pretty nice, dont get me wrong), 2 lines or so just does NOT cut it, especially if you have 20000 parameters you may want to alter... Moreover, a 16-channel velocity "graph" would be nice esp since theres enough room for one, but nooooooo :( On editing patches: if you screw up, and youre a beginner like me, you might as well reset your keyboard cause there is probably NO POSSIBLE WAY you can Undo what you did. The manual is very nice though. It reads like a book.

This synth has enough features to swamp you. Knowing that its only about $700, youre paying a matter of pennies per feature ;) It's got 64 Poly, 4 fully customizable sliders, 2 pedal jacks, velocity, aftertouch, editing, add-on cards, MIDI Playback with add-on cards, sampling with add-on cards, semi-weighted keys (BIG plus for a 61 key), etc. No Sequencer, but that's ok by me. Some people might find Cakewalk and a laptop computer more useful :P No silly "DEMO" button, which is another big plus for those looking for real studio gear.

I've heard various entry level Rolands, Yamahas, and Korgs, and their stock sounds are almost alike in quality. so I initially bought this keyboard for 2 things alone: 1) the pianos, 2) the pads. Over the months, I've grown to like many of the other sounds too. The alesis, however, is really different... so different that it takes time to get used to the delightfully crisp and clean (sometimes, too crisp and clean) sounds it has to offer. Pianos, guitars, organs, and techno/New Age synth sounds are out of this world awesome. Strings and horns suck. Drums need some variety, but they are good they way they are.

Rock Solid. The case is not plastic, not wood, but metal. I'm sure that if I threw this out the window it will not break :) j/k but why would I? I like this thing so much!

This is a field that Alesis needs to work on. I sent them 3 distinct emails and got no reply. What does that mean? E-mail Server shut down? No, it means go read the manual and fix it yourself. Luckily the manual is good or else I would have given this category a negative score.

If I had more room, I would get the QS8.1 which is a fully weighted 88 key synth that contains all the features of this one. If I didnt have more room, I would get another qs6.1. However, I would first think nice and hard at Korg N5EX, N364, Roland XP-30, and Yamaha PSR740 which are about the same level with this synth.

I replaced my Korg M1(yes, M1) with this keyboard. I had to unlearn KORG and learn the Alesis architecture. Within a couple of days I was navigating nicely. Presets are excellent for the most part. Some are too clean. True stereo piano is very realistic!. Editing the patches is a piece of cake.
The manual could use an index but it is infomative.

Going from 16 to 64-voice polyphony is great! The action is a little lighter that I'd like it to be but definitely bearable. The Organ patches are plentiful and awesome. The quality of the organ patches hinged on whether I bought the piece. The Leslie effects using the modulation wheel were ingenious and much better that I expected. No sequencer but I can do all that on my computer anyway.

The response is great, particularly for the piano. This board actually allows themood the be felt and heard. The strings are a bit heavy but OK. The drums sounds are fair.

This board seems very reliable. I had my Korg M1 for 11 years and had to do some minor repairs but that's to be expected. i wonder if the instrument family selection buttons will wear out (They're rubber) I've had the board for 2 months and take it on the road often.

I have not dealt with Tech support but the web site looks good and has a lot of information.

I would replace this board immediately if lost or stolen. I really like it. The sounds, feel, and expression really make this board shine! I do with it had a sequencer but that would have driven the price up.

I find trying to navigate through the display for editing and so on a bit of a pain but can get used to. The presets, like most sounds are incredible. The manual was a little vague but I've seen lots worse! :)

I needed an awesome sounding synth engine. This one boasted 64 key poly of 48k samples. Sold! It worked out just as well. It has some of the nicest pianos I've heard and a good selection. It's not too expandable but the other feature I bought it for was the ability to load and play samples in either Wave or Akai format. It takes a PC cable but it works. (having to order it was a pain, should be included)

Incredible sounds, although I haven't found a drum set that's done much for me but that's me. Effects are ok but a bit of a pain to manipulate. It's not a weighted keyboard but it has a "weight" to its keys that comes close. It has 4 sliders that can be programmed to apply different qualities to the selected sound(s); effect levels, filter levels, expressiveness control, etc.

It works, and is easy to use with Cakewalk etc. The only problem I've ever had with it, is trying to play it with the serial cable unplugged from the PC. It freaks, playing every note you don't. Wierd. Otherwise an excellent instrument!

No contact with Alesis directly.

It's great! It's an awesome synth engine, quite flexible for exiting and great for MIDI control. I was suprised it was so reasonably priced.

I bought this keyboard primarily as a replacement for a Korg DW-8000 that decided to go belly up a couple weeks before a big Y2K New Years show. I found the organization of the sounds to be fantastic, as well as global parameters such as detune and joystick controller functions. I have not attempted to create my own patches as of yet, but I am very pleased with the factory patches. My only complaint is that the sounds play rather thin and trebly at times, but I am sure that I can work with that in the mix. The manual is extensive at first glance, and I hope that, upon reading, it is as informative as it is thick.

The keyboard's action fits my playing style well (I am more of a keyboardist than a pianist), however I do have a concern about the quality of the keyboard. I have had it for 2 1/2 weeks, played one show, and already have a broken key. I beleive that the spring mechanism has come undone...when this happened, the key "fell" into the down position and stayed down while sounding the note. The keyboard could not be used during the show without placing something under the broken key to hold it up and keep it from sounding.
All of the polyphony/effects/MIDI capabilities are excellent for an instrument in this price range. It is not a Workstation, but does make an excellent accompanying device to one. I found that it is very complimentary to my Korg 01W/fd.

I found the pianos to be very realistic, if a bit thin and trebly at times (on a few patches). I love the True Stereo piano when it is used in conjunction with the 01W piano. The organs have very good patches, although a few of them require some tweeking to get them how I like them. Horns, guitars, bells, etc. all sound real good. The strings are fine, but I am surprised to see that for a new keyboard with as many "vintage synth" sounds, that it has no decent ARP String Ensemble sounds. In fact all the sounds are pretty good with two possible exceptions. 1. The drum sounds are terrible. 2. The general MIDI sounds are worse. Again, I use the O1W for drums and i Don't normally use general MIDI. If I do, I have a Roland XP-10 which suffices much better for this use.

I expect that my problem with the broken key is just a fluke. I have been playing long enough to realize that, but I can't rate this keyboard any higher than a five at this time in the reliability department. It is a very sturdy machine that doesn't move around on my stand like my Roland XP-10 does. I typically use 4 to 5 keyboards on stage at a time, so I wouldn't have to rely upon it solely. I do beleive that it will not fail electronically unless dropped from a U-Haul or something

In getting my Alesis fixed, I am dealing with the company I bought it from for a replacement rather than a repair through Alesis. I know that the company has been helpful with other Alesis equipment that I have had questions about, and they have a very good website.

If it were lost or stolen I would replace it with the next model up. It is a very good sounding keyboard that has added to my equipment immensely. I still wish I had my DW-8000 though, and I will probably have it restored. I have been playing for 29 years, 20 in bands. I have the Korg o1w/fd, the Roland XP-10, Roland SH-101, Arp String Ensemble, Yamaha PSR-400 and PSR-47 (cheesy, but sound good MIDIed together)and Korg Polysix. I love the sounds and ease of use, but hate the fact that a key broke on it's first trip out of the studio. I can't really compain about anything considering it's price. A ribbon controller would have been a nice touch.

I have been using synths since the Arp Odyssey. This synth was purchased to be a back-up to a powerful, albeit quirky Ensoniq VFXsd. The sound banks are methodically arranged and can be accessed relatively easily. The sounds are plentiful and of good quality. Very little looping or digital harshness is evident. Programming is easy once you become familiar with the synth's layout although I do wish the Envelope Generators had an additional point and the ability to go negative with respect to the initial point. Because of it's ability to outperform the VFXsd as a master keyboard, the Ensoniq has become the backup.

With 64 note polyphony, velocity sensitivity, (channel)aftertouch, and high quality on-board signal processing this piece has some power. As a master keyboard, poly aftertouch would be nice but otherwise the keyboard response can be scaled to the users touch. Of course the 7.1 and 8 make better master keyboards because of the additional keys, but I have an 88 key Technics PX7 for that. As a tool for sequencing; the unit has no on-board sequencer, but in the "MIX" mode will work well as an input keyboard to an external sequencer and shine as a slave device. Channel, program, transpose, and volume assignments are easy to accomplish and make the use of the QS6.1 versatile as both a master keyboard or a slave. It only has two foot controller jacks; one for sustain and an assignable one(default set for volume). An additional jack(available on the 7 and 8 series) could be used to toggle lezlie, portamento, etc. The four assignable controller slides on the panel though are a plus and I have been able to work around the lack of the additional foot controller input. Expansion cards are available for program bank and sequence storage and the serial output for hook-up to a Mac or PC without the need for a MIDI connection is a nice feature.

I am very particular about piano sounds and use an EMU pro-formance for them, however the Alesis has sounds that most would say sound as good or better than comparable products. Having once played(and carried)a Hammond/Leslie set-up, I love the organ sounds and the the ability to change speeds via footswitch. I play rock, classical, blues, alternative, and a bit of others and the sounds are great. There are some interesting effect patches and complex dynamic programs that sound incredible if I can just figure out how to incorperate them within a song. The sax and flute patches on my Ensoniq are preferred by me and will be used until it crashes for good. The onboard effects benefit from Alesis' long running experience and success in the development and sales of signal processing units. The programmers did a marvelous job with the programs and effects. Aftertouch seems to be a little touchy, not very linear(almost like on/off) but perhaps I will aquire the feel for it in time.

Let's be honest. Once you have given your trust to an older Ensoniq piece, you'll trust nearly anything. I purchased this instrument in response to a reliability problem and it was one of my main focuses in determining my choice. I figure that having "A++" quality sounds in an unreliable synth was less desirable than having "B" quality sounds when you need them. I feel that the QS6.1 delivers "A" quality sounds and with the past performance and reliabilty I have received from numerous other Alesis products, I am confident that this was an excellent choice.

I was calling technical support before the unit even arrived. The website provides much info as well as downloadable owner's manuals. I read the manual online and called Alesis with technical programming questions. They were friendly and we didn't go through the product ID red tape. After I began working with the synth, I encountered questions regarding the architecture of the piece. Although they answered completely my questions on the unit's capabilities, they had no suggestions on how to accomplish the tasks I was attempting. After some more exploring and experimentation I was able to resolve the situation and accomplish my goal.

I would buy this piece again(or a used 7, 7.1, or 8 for the same amount). I have used many synths and keyboards. I used to own a music store and sold Yamaha, Kawia, Ensoniq, and Technics keyboards and synths and Alesis effects and drum machines. This is my first Alesis synth and feel that it will perform well in live and studio applications. This is my newest piece and will be used in conjunction with soon-to-be dinosaurs and a sotware synth(Seer Sytems Reality)running on a 400MHz Pentium II PC. I looked at Yamaha and Roland products but for the money, The QS6.1 was the deal for me.

I've only used the presets(adjusted the effects some) and have had no problem. I'm a guitar player and have found this board easy to use for recording. I've used the stereo piano and some organ sounds on a few tunes. Works OK for me.

I like the sliders, expession and sustain pedal outputs(might get a new sustain pedal though). Still can't get the com port thing to work with my computer but the MIDI in/out works OK. Sends a clean signal to the board.

I like the sounds. Some are kinda crispy but I can work with that. So far I've found the sounds I needed when I needed them. I think I'll get a Korg or Roland module for variety rather than the Q card things. All in all sounds swell to me.

It's made of metal so it seems sturdy. I haven't had any problems but I haven't taken it to a gig.

I have an ADAT, SR 16, and a couple reverb units and they've all been support free. I've only had the keyboard for 5 months but no problem.

It's a fine 61 key board. Better action than the other stuff in it's price range. It has worked great on several demos and I plan to keep using it. If I lost it right now I'd get another one. I compared it to Korg and Roland and it seemed best of the three.

Not too bad for the features it has. It starts to become more involved when you get into editing your own mixes and patches. If you read the manual carefully, it will become clearer. The larger LCD screen is nice, and there are a few more extra buttons to give you faster access to its features (sequence and transpose for example). The only complaint I have with the manual is it doesn't explain the concept of flash RAM cards very well - I really had to hunt down the info I needed.
One complaint though: I didn't like the tabular concept of editing mixes/ patches etc. Depending on what "mode" you were in, the same button would do different things. I constantly had to read the writing on the synth to figure out what button to press. Plus, the cursor keys were away from the rest of the keys. It reminded me of typing before I learned to touch type - hunt and peck, hunt and peck. I would strongly recommend a patch editor.

Great controller. I love the rubber controller wheels. The keys and aftertouch feel right to me. Alesis synths have the most features for the price. It would be nice if it had optical outs, a sequencer, and multiple outs but this omission makes the unit cheaper than it's brothers - the QS 7, 8 and soon to be 7.1 and 8.1. It also has two PCMCIA slots compared to 1.
The addition of the 6.1 over the 6 is that it has the same amount of sounds as the QS7, 8, and R.

Here's the thing. I've always found QS's to be too "sampled" and unrealistic sounding. The samples are delightfully crisp and clean, but not very inspiring. I found this synth to be better for techno sounds than natural sounds. I wasn't overly impressed with the Q cards either. I guess it tried to be everything to everyone and thus doesn't do one thing very well.

Seemed to be pretty sturdy. Never locked up on me but I don't think I used it long enough to find out.

Alesis customer support is great. They're kind, helpful, and reasonably prompt.

It's a great synth for the money but I just wasn't happy with the patches - not very expressive and inspiring. I could have added my own samples of my liking but that's too much farting around for me. I'd rather be composing than adding and editing patches and samples.
It is for this reason I went to a Roland XP30. It was exactly what I was looking for.

I guess I'll have to read the manual on editing sounds, like for example I would like to make the pianos less bright. The nice thing it has is a transpose button which you hold down while pressing a key that corresponds with how you like to transpose

i am finding that not only can I use this board to play out conviently, which was my main purpose in getting it- to avoid carrying around sound modules, taking up setup time, but also it will hook up nicely into my PC and digital recorder (not through a digital interface though) for some sequencing.

the sounds are very good- the strings are pretyt nice. the main thing I am picky about is the piano and I think it is decent but not nearly as good as the korg sg rack I have. i looked also at the new korg n5ex, but the pianos on that were somewhat brittle and the keys weren't as tough- it was a tough choice to make though as I feel both keyboards are great, the alesis comes through for me with the 4 sliders which make the organs very versitile. the response on this board is very nice also.

i have had it for a day and have had no problems, so I really can't comment here

when I e-mail them I always get a good response

i think it is a great all in one package. many different types of sounds, and they are very clear. the only thing I wish it had were the Korg Sg Pro X samples- but with some tweaking I'll get them a little less bright. The only other board I considered was the N5EX, but the sounds are impossible to find on it, and i felt this board has a nice amount of resistance. something else that looks similar at NAMM is the Xp30 by Roland, but usually the keys are a little lighter