Alesis QS8

I don't know what software version I am using. The presets sound great. Alesis has tried to give the greatest possible latitude for people who like to program their own patches. Therefore, programming is quite complicated, especially since the display is so small. The included MOTU Unisys software makes it somewhat easier, but it's still complicated. It's much easier to use one of the presets as a starting point. But when I say it's not easy to use, that's not a fault of Alesis --- their intent is to make a powerful instrument.

The polyphony is 64 notes. The keyboard action is superb --- the same Fatar action that many other 88-key controllers use. Alesis is famous for its effects, and the QS8's are superb --- but not easy to program, for the same reasons given above. The QS8 accepts both cards for new programs, and also PCMIA cards to expand the RAM for downloading new samples. It is an excellent controller. It can transmit MIDI data on 16 channels at once, is pressure sensitive, has pitch and mod wheels. No hardware sequencer (I didn't want one). The included CD has a software sequencer.

Good sounds. If you are adept at programming, you can use filters to vary them to taste. Much flexibility. There are so many sounds that I can't even begin to comment on all of them. I do mostly jazz and musical theater, and it works well for those. Also excellent on your typical solo job (wedding reception, etc.) Effects are excellent, as noted above.

Very dependable, and I would definitely use it without backup. I got a SKB hard case with wheels, though, which I recommend. It's a little heavy for a dead lift.

I would definitely buy it again. I had looked around at 88-key controllers for a long time. This one has a great price, is one of the smallest and lightest of the bunch, has great sounds, and a great keyboard feel.

The qs8 is easy to use for basic functions. Patch selection is very easy. Sounds are grouped by type, such as pianos, organ, synth, etc., and are clearly labeled on the keyboard. The 2x16 character LCD is too small for editing sounds and effects (they had to simplify this keyboard to offer it at such a low price?), but the MOTU Unisyn software included makes editing much easier. The manual is good. It describes basic program selection, multitimbral use, and patch and effects editing, each in a dedicated chapter. The preset sounds are typical. Same types as most synths, but definitely a cut above the norm. Whereas on other synths I don't care for the preset piano, organ, static synths sounds, etc. on the QS8 the piano and organ are good and I enjoy playong most of the presets.

88 weighted keys. Very good hammer action. I was looking at the QS8, Roland A90, and Kurzweil PC88, and I prefer the action of this one. The A-90 I found a little sluggish, and the PC88 is clicky and very noisy to play. It has 64 voice polyphony, four effects busses, and two PCMCIA slots. Also features aftertouch, velocity, and four control sliders, which is nice. No built in sequencer, they assume you are using a software sequencer anyway with all the included software (once again keeping the price low). You can download samples in AIFF, WAV format to a PCMCIA RAM card to make your own sounds. It has two Aux Outs which I always like, lets you process parts outboard, in case you run out of effects busses or need a different type of effect.

Pianos are good. I like DarkClassic preset, as I find the others too bright for classical. To give you an idea I have an E-mu Proformance piano module and I like the Alesis presets better. Alesis did their own thing when the samped these piano patches. They have their own sound, which is subjective. I have begun to really like it. They didn't try to make it sound like a Roland paino patch, etc. The organ sounds are very good. Nice wurli/rhodes sound (try Whirl Lee). Guitars are OK Very nice synth pads (although no res filters), good bass sounds, drums are very good. Woodwinds aren't very good (but then again, are they ever?), brass is OK. Regardless of how realistic the sounds are the samples are very good, no noise, good loops. If your looking for that trance / new agey morphing resonant filtery synth pad and bass sound like the Korg Trinity / Z1, you won't find them here. Just very high quality generic samples (although with four voices per patch and mix capabilities you can get get very peasing synth pad sounds that change over time). The onboard effects are very good, although very hard to edit the way you want them without using Unisyn. You have to go through many pages on that 2x16 LCD, which is cumbersome and sometimes frustrating. Four control sliders are very nice. For many of the presests the controls sliders are assigned to reverb, chorus, filter, etc.

Very nicely built. Nice metal frame. Very sturdy (although it weighs 60 lbs. as a result) I would defintely use it on a gig without backup (my back-up would consist of a Korg Wavestation or Ensoniq EPS, which break keys and malfunction sometimes).

Haven't needed costumer support

I would definitely buy it again. It was $550 less than the best price I got on an A-90EX and PC88. I enjoy playing it very much. It has hundreds of sounds and a top notch keyboard action. If you don't like the factory pianos try it with a Kurzweil micropiano - this sounds very nice (and you could buy both for $1792.00 - still cheaper than the competition). If you need extensive controller features this may not be the one - try the A-90.

This machine is a dream to use. All of the sound groups are clearly labled. I want a guitar sound, I press the guitar button and then can choose between 10 sounds x 4 banks for that group (and that is just the programs. There are an equal number of mixes). I hate having to wade through menus or rotating a dial to find my path. The direct access features are great for live use. The outputs are labled at the top of the keyboard so I don't have to crane my neck to read what output is which. Editing patches is somewhat less straightforward, but the included Unisyn software from Mark of the Unicorn does an excellent job of providing a visual editing interface. The addition of a serial port eliminates the need for a dedicated midi interface for small studios. (This would be a 10 if the LED display was a bit bigger).

88 fully weighted keys. Aftertouch, velocity, excellent hammer action. There are four separate effects busses including excellent Lezlie effects for those organ sounds. The inclusion of a PCMIA card makes expandability painless. Being a piano player, keyboard action was extremely important to me, and I found this keyboard to be better than most of the other boards I tried. Four realtime user-definable controllers enhance expressiveness in addition to the pitch and mod wheels . The inclusion of an ADAT optical output jack is useful for professionals. 64 voice polyphony and 64 separate simultaneous voices make this very versatile as a stand-alone synth. Note that this is a performance synth, and as such, there is no built-in sequencer. That is not important to me, however, because I do all of my sequencing from my computer. You can, however, download sequences via Soundbridge (included). You can also download samples in AIFF format to make your own sounds.

Sounds are excellent. I find the piano sounds to be very good, and the organ sounds are excellent. The woodwind (especially the flute) leave definate room for improvement, but adding the Classical Card gives you excellent strings and even a rolling snare. Some of the mixes absolutely blow me away. Drum sounds are very good (quite a number of them from the DM5 drum module). The keyboard is very responsive and you have complete control over velocity curves. The portamento is well implemented, and the monophonic sounds are very well done. There is an excellent amount of performace and lead sounds. I find most of these sounds to be of extremely high quality, and that was the main reason I bought this synth. There are not enough distorted guitars for my taste, however, but the acoustic guitar sounds are very good. All in all, sounds are excellent and very versitile.

This keyboard is very solid. It has withstanded plenty of abuse. I haul it around on a weekly basis, and have just recently bought a case for it after I chipped a key slightly. This thing is very reliable, however. The only problem I see is the protruding ADAT connector that would be very easy to break off. I use it routinely with no backup. It has never crashed on me. Keep in mind that it is a really heavy synth, though (~70 lbs). I think a QS7 would be preferrable for gigs, but I would loathe to give up the extra keys.

I've never dealt with the company.

I absolutely love this keyboard. Every time I go in a music store to look at other keyboards, it just re-enforces what purchase I made. I highly recommend hooking it up to a good sequencer so you can take advantage of the flexible multi capabilites. I've had this thing for about 4 months and I have yet to find a keyboard in its price range (or even up to $500 more) that comes close. Hats off to Alesis for making a world-class musical instrument.

Basic use (like program selection) is very easy. Most preset sounds are good to excellent. Unisyn is bundled and makes editing patches fast and easy. Without Unisyn you are flying blind; you can make individual changes quickly and the layout is logical but a program can have about 400 pages (really!) of menus.

This is one lean mean machine. No built in sequencer but the bundled Cubasis works great for my basic needs. Key action is excellent but faster and lighter than a real piano. Effects are logical, good sounding, flexible, and well documented but not simple. Only feature I miss is rez filters. Also, it's easy to create good sounds or modify the presets but there's only 1 bank (128 programs) to store my improved sounds. I think 8 more banks on a PCMCIA SRAM card is about $80, so at least this is fixable. Overall it has done everything I need consistently well.

The factory piano patches are not great, but I have a bank of much better ones at www.best.com/~sams/alesis (they may move to http://midiworld.com/quadrasynth/). The samples are pretty good, and the QS has a fine sounding architecture. With more carefully constructed piano patches I find this to be a satisfying piano, but with the factory patches it's not great for classical or solo work. This synth is excellent for rock, pop, scoring and composing. Not great for classical. I'd choose other things for modern dance music, but with a sequencer it could do some dance stuff acceptably. For my needs this is a great sounding, very satisfying instrument.

Built like a tank, no real problems. Unisyn can confunse the synth on rare occasions; if I'm doing heavy edits I have to power down the synth about once a week and reset it about once a month. Resetting doesn't trash the programs. I've never lost any work. Excepting the Unisyn-related glitches, no problems at all.

I love playing it! I dig the huge variety of good, musical sounds, the programming flexibility, and the intelligent design. I like it more the better I understand what it can do. I'd certainly get a QS8 if I didn't already have this one.

It is pretty easy to use except the effects processor may take a while to learn how to use effectively.

It has tons of features It has 64 voices of polyphony. 640 sounds. Good effect processor. Digital out. The only thing that it needs is an arpegiator.

The sounds are good. The piano is to bright and lacks warmth. It does not have a good DX7 electric piano. The flute sucks. The organs are very good as well as the basses, percussion, and synth sounds. The brass sounds are ok.

Very Reliable!

Never had to get customer support.

The price was good. It has many usefull sounds and a good keyboard action, I just wish the piano sound was better!

Manual is not very easy to use. For beginners, it will be a nightmare!! (remember your Physics 555 text?) This keyboard is one of the most-talked-about keyboard series. Two line green LCD screen is bit too small, but it does work fine. MOTU unisyn (Computer software which controls almost all functions in the keyboard) comes with the unit so if you have a computer, editing sound, configuring keyboard becomes relatively easy. despite of small LCD panel, It is pretty easy to browse through patches and preset sounds.

It has 88 hammer action keys which feels very nice, very close to actual piano. First impression was bit heavy for me. This synth has 64 Voice polyphony with built in effects which uses Quadraverb II algorithm. Again, you would have to dig through the manual to figure out how to set them and assign them. It accepts two Alesis Quadracards or PCMCIA type flash ram card. Via serial connection you can upload .WAV files from PC. Midi files can be uploaded so you can still play your sequence although the unit does not have a FDD. Alesis advertises that they eliminated on-board sequencer to lower the price. If you are reading this review, it means you probably have a computer.. Programs such as Cakewalk or Finale is better than ANY on board sequencer out there. (A program called CUBASE is included in the CDROM that comes with the unit)

Sounds Excellent! There are some Very nice sounds. Piano and organ are one of the best I have heard so far. They are Incredible.. Keybeds responds to just about every movement you make on the key. forward and backward velocity sensitive, channel aftertouch, etc,etc. Modulation and pitch wheel is kindda far away (they are on left end of the panel) but then again, This is 88key keyboard.. it is not pretty to have effect wheels in the middle of the keyboard. If you change patches before reverbration dies off, you will hear some noise when there is a program change.

People have some crossing opinions on reliability of Alesis Keyboards. I heard that the QS series has few DOA (Dead on arrival) shipments. I heard number of concerns regarding this. My cousin bought QS series keyboard that had broken pitch wheel. Heard few people that had bad volume/slider, DOA ADAT connectors, Broken Pedal, etc,etc. BUT, Alesis makes VERY impressive efforts to resolve these problems. They will send you a new one even before they recieve your defective unit. Fortunatly, Mine didn't have any defects (So does many of buyers out there - I feel sincerely sorry for Unfortunate ones.)

While their Quality Control is slightly doubtful, The company makes very impressive efforts to resolve any disputes. I called their tech line twice to check on my back ordered CD ROM. Waiting Period was about 5 minutes which is pretty good in this buisiness. They were very friendly, too. (Well, At least one I dealt with)

Roland A90 which is a 88key controller with no sound cost lot more than this QS8. Comes with tons of sound, many features that I can't list here.. Very nice keyboard. It is defenitly worth $1500. It could be a perfect 10, but with respecting buyers with DOA shipments, I would give 9. If you are considering QS6, go take a look at QS7 just for once. The price difference is about $250-$300, but you get tons of more sounds and feature. I would encourage anyone to buy QS7/8 instead of QS6 if money permits. Alesis had few earlier problems meeting market demand on QS8. (Apparently, They are shipping sufficient amount these days) I had to wait for two months. but Waiting was definatly worthwhile. I would buy this keyboard again. Of course "you get what you pay for" but in this case, it's bending the rule slightly.

It powers up as a grand piano, which is what I want. That's as easy as it gets. Not being a MIDI programmer, I'll probably never use this thing to its full potential, but as a substitute for wood, felt, and strings, it has no equal.
The manual is probably OK if you understand all that stuff. I haven't figured out from the manual how to create my own custom preset that sounds the way I want it. The user interface is not intuitive.

This keyboard's action is the closest to a real piano that I have played. It's why I bought it.
Many voices (I haven't counted them). I'm still looking for the most realistic piano sound to go along with the feel.

The sustain pedal is not as responsive or realistic as my Roland RD-500. Neither are the piano sounds. But then, nothing I've heard is as good as the Roland. Consequently, at home, I use the QS8 as a keyboard and the RD-500 to produce the piano sounds. QS8 MIDI OUT -> RD-500 MIDI IN.
I'm trying to figure out how to program a soft pedal. Anyone know how?

It's a brand new product, so I don't know how dependable it is. I'm taking it for a New year's Eve gig, but the Roland will be along just in case.

I'd buy it again. I love the action, which accounts for the 10 I'm giving it. I hate that it does not come with a fixed pedestal, a fixed sustain pedal, and a soft pedal. I hate the el cheapo pedal that comes as standard equipment. Had to spend $50 to get a good one.