Alesis QSR

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 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. There aren't as many buttons to use compared to the QS6.1 for exapmle, but it is only 1U rack space.
I would strongly recommend a patch editor.

PCMCIA cards for your own samples and sequences, two pairs of outs, optical - what more could you ask for?

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.

Ok well I better start by warning that I don't often give 10's unlike most reviewers (how could a synth be perfect?) so bear that in mind.... The QSR is pretty easy to use...it's only got one knob so anyone who buys it should know what to expect. The menus are pretty logical, though and editing is pretty straightforward with a nice big LCD. It'll be a while before you need to edit anyway, cos there are 600 presets to get thru.... Manual bad at all.

16 channels 64 voices you get a lot for your money plus the option of the Q-cards, this box could be the main work-horse for your studio...but be aware that very few of the sounds are quite as good in multi as when playing them solo (effects?). Still, a very impressive synth for the money

This is where some thought is needed before you buy. Alesis seem to have gone the Roland way and saved many of their best sounds for the expansion cards. Don't get me wrong there are some great sounds here...... most of the acoustic sounds are really good, it's maybe worth getting for the piano and steel guitars alone. But to make it the all-round killer it could be, you should budget for at least one card. Anyone hoping to make techno straight from the box will be disappointed, the "wierd noises" category is a bit lacking in "wierd". I've heard very good things about the Eurodance card......check them out before you get any QS, or you'll need to spend long hours editing your own patches. With this in mind, it's not QUITE as good value as it seems but it's no dog either.

it works ok so far

Two e-mails to the company were unanswered...why is this ? Common courtesy should demand some sort of reply. Now that some companies (Novation etc) have interactive help forums, this isn't good enough I'm afraid.

It's worth what I paid because it fits perfectly in with my other synths (Audity/Super Bass Station/CS1x...all pretty budget stuff) and I don't need to ask it to make squeaky bleeps. However if this is gonna be your only synth you better budget for the card of your choice. I should mention that for those with a PC, you can equip the QS series with Flash Ram cards capable of loading Audio samples from computer, turning the synth into a sampler. I haven't tried it yet, but it may add a definite advantage to the QSR when you weigh up the competition.

Well the QSR's Ease of use can be roughly divided in two parts: the selection and use of preset sounds and the editing. I play keyboards since I was 14 and have recently bought this awesome expander. Initially I was only interested in improving my tecnique and learning songs, so I mainly used about a third of the potentialities of QSR. Using single programs or mixes is very simple, intuitive and fast. Recently I started editing and making new sounds and entered the second part I was taking previously. Editing and creating it's obviously harder, but I had to learn the basics of sound generation and it's sure they have to be learned anyway, indipendently from the expander you use. Many are the editing parameters, so you can do almost everything. The manual is well done, there's everything to answer your questions and explain. All the parameters are divided in sections which contains more sub-sections so editing becomes fast and intuitive.

Having no keyboard, the QSR is fully centered in making sounds perfect, and so it does. 64 notes polyphony, lots of effects mixed in four "effects send". Each program (a piano for example) is made of four samples mixed with lots of parameters. Programs and mixes are grouped in variuos sections (pianos, chromatics, choirs, guitars, basses and many others) underling the rational disposition in QSR. Perfectly compatible with MIDI (I use the QSR with a computer to compose music) and fully expandable: You can buy expansion PCMCIA cards (divided in sections such as vintage, disco, organs, old synths, ethnical etc....) or you can buy an empty PCMCIA card and put in programs encoded with Alesis software (also the utilities that come in the CD with QSR are well done). This means you can record a laugh, a noise, a note of a guitar and make from it a program. GREAT! If you experience problems, the manual is ready to be consulted and solve them.

The QSR can handle the aftertouch, velocity, modulation, pitch and many other real-time modifications. You can select which action a controller does, so you can modify in real time almost any voice or effect parameter. Initially, I bought QSR because of it's wonderful sounds. I needed an expander with no tons of strange and never heard sounds, but with realistic pianos, guitars, electric guitars, basses etc. By using it, I found it's great for everything. Great pianos, organs, harpsi, clavi, guitars, basses, brass, winds, choirs, drums, and many others. I also found that there were many synth sounds and dance sounds. It's great for everything, it's capabilities cover all the range of musical expressions. Having more than 600 sounds and 400 mixes, I bought it an year ago and I still used only a forth of them.

There's not much to say. The QSR is sure and reliable platform. If you want to make backups you can save on PCMCIA cards or on SYSEX files. Nothing to say, it's perfect and safe.

I never experienced the need to call Alesis for anything I could ask. Therefore, Alesis has an internet site at: www.alesis.com. There you can find upgrades, patches, docs, and everything about their products and other musical happenings. After having bought the QSR I phoned to Alesis to ask about their expansion cards and I found them extremely kind.

It's great, only an example to note this. I like metal and recently bought one the last of Stratovarius' albums. I listened to the sound the keyboard player uses and found it great. I searched that sound in QSR Synths section but, also if the preset synths were great there was noone perfectly equal. So I edited one of the similar sounds and now I have it, perfectly the same of that one of Stratovarius' keyboard player. I don't have a great experience in sound editing and creation but I succeded, beacuse QSR's potentialities made this possible.

Easiest if you own a computer, but only as reliable as your computer. On the other hand if you have a good knowledge of synths, and you don't mind flipping through menus, programming without a computer is very simple. The manual is readable but not very to the point, they probably could have expanded in some areas and make it flow a little bit smoother.

64 voice polyphony, up to 4 layers per patch. 4 effects buses (limited to 5 configurations) two PCMCIA slots - you can buy Alesis QCards which add an additional 8 megs of sounds per card to the QSR, which already has 16 megs, plus you can get a Flash ROM card which lets you store samples, Std. MIDI files, and additional patches and mixes. The QSR has 4 assinable outputs, ADAT optical output, MIDI in/out/thru, built-in computer serial interface for fast transfer between computer and QSR, and a 48kHz sample clock input. The QSR also comes with a CD-ROM loaded with demos and a few registered version programs, like Sound Bridge which lets you transfer samples and SMF's to a blank card. and it comes with Cubasis.

The sounds on it are excellent, they would work well for any type of music, I write a lot of dance and ambient music, and I have not even finished playing with all of the preset sounds. The sounds are very full and unique because of the use of four layers. The effects are very distinct, I think they sound great, although they are very basic effects, reverb, delay, flange, chorus, overdrive. And they are already preset to five differnt configurations, you can edit every parameter, but you only have 5 configurations. The QSR does however, have a non-resonant filter, a resonant filter would be greatly useful for techno/dance music. Each preset does have 4 assignable controllers and they can be programmed to numerous parameters. The effects parameters can also be assigned to the knobs.

So far it has been very reliable, most of the problems that I have had with it have only been caused because of my computer (unreliable). The QSR has two play modes, program mode and mix mode, in mix mode you can arrange programs over 16 MIDI channels and set the effects mix as well, this feature is very nice because you don't have to worry about setting up your synth to play a sequence, every time you want to play it.

I got my QSR with the free FlashROM card/serial cable promotion, it said that it would take 6-8 weeks for delivery, but it only took about 2 weeks. Their web page is very helpful, you can download the manuals from it for free. I did that before I bought mine, and it was nice to be able to go to the store and play with it before I bought it.

The QSR is an excellent sounding synth, and for the price it is more than worth it. The QSR comes with more features than any other synth I've seen for it's price, and even for more expensive synths. A resonant filter would have made it ten times better. I would still buy it again just because it is an exceptional deal.

For: Incredible sounds and effects; the included CD-ROM is packed with useful software for Mac or PC; straight ahead manual; actually easier to navigate than the QS8 because of the display; connections a-go-go.
Against: Change a patch, get distortion (some of it rather interesting, though); manual could use an index.

Module: Single-space ROM: 16 megs (expandable to 32) programs: 640 (128 user-defined) mixes: 500 (multitimbral; 100 user-defined) Poly: 64 note Effects: 4 effects bus (reverb, chorus, distortion, delay, EQ, rotary speaker) Outputs: MIDI In/Out/Thru; 2 Stereo Outs; digital in/out; serial port Slots: 2 (for PCMCIA-format cards, QCards) Extras: CD-ROM with Mac & PC editors, patches, demos

I'd say the QSR has rock and pop in its soul. The acoustic sounds (winds, brass, etc.) or fine, but they don't shine like the Top 40 selections. Excellent organ simluations (a match for Voce) are in this machine with a Leslie that is darned impressive in its speeds. Guitars are another highlight, expecially using the control wheels (and of course, you have to try and play like a guitarist). Synth pads and leads are hot, too. Finally, there's the vectorish patches, especially the drum-patterns, which are fun to jam over. The drum sounds? What can I say, they're from the Alesis drum machine. And the effects, especially distortion, are splendid.

To early to tell, but I've yet to have serious trouble with any module I've ever owned or borrowed.

I've only used E-Mail for customer support, but my mail was answered promptly. I also got good response from the dealer, Kraft music, which I'd put up there with SweetWater.

For price, features, and general WOW, this is a worthy machine (and yes, there's GM if you must have it). The big effects glitches when switching programs can probably be worked around by creating a special mix if you plan to use the QSR live. For MIDI mavens, the multitimbral mixes are easy to set-up (especially using the Unisyn Mac software) are wonderful since you can maintain the same effects used in the original programs. Spif. I can't wait to use a PCMCIA card and the included software to turn this into a cost-effective sampler!
I'd buy it again.