Alesis Vintage Keyboards Q-Card

Very simple. Don't need a manual. Just put it into a slot.

No extra polyphony. Adds more basic samples, programs and combi's to your Quadra or QS synth.

Sounds where a bit dissapointing to me. Not that they where bad, but Alesis synths have allready high quality Fender Roads and good organs and if they where not good enough I programmed them so with the basicsamples. What I could use: organs other then the hammond-like so the first program I tried was In a Gadda, expecting something like a Vox Continental... it didn't even come close. Do the people with Alesis know that organ like Voxes, Farfisa's have not only sinus IC's but also saw IC's? The only real additions are the mellotronsounds.

It seems strong. Slot of the QS-series seem better than the quadra, but in both cases never had any troubles.
Maybe a tip for Alesis: built the (2) slots in future models on a place where the carts can stay in it while transporting like Korg or Rolands.

Dutch dealer gave me all the time I needed to find out what carts I could use, including looking in the basicsamples.

I didn't buy it. Alesis has much better carts then this one.

Very simple....just plug the PCMICA card into the synth, scroll through until you get to the card programs/mixes, and start playing. I'm using this with an original QS6, and I don't know if this is different on the 6.1, etc.

This card features 128 programs and 100 mixes. Essentially, sounds are grouped as electric piano, chromatic, organ, orchestral, wave, and drum (same as the QS synths). Many sounds seem like they have effects (reverb, etc.) sampled with them....they can't be edited out, which is unfortunate in many cases.

Here's the important stuff....I was really excited when I got this card, because I am so into vintage electro-mechanical keyboards like Rhodes, Clav, Wurly, Hammond, etc. However, I must say that I am rather disappointed with this card. The sounds are high quality samples (at least most of them), but most are uninteresting and uninspiring to me. There are some nice presets among the electric piano sounds (for instance, one of the soft Rhodes sounds is pretty cool), a nice Clavinet ("Classic Clav") sound, and the combo organ sounds are top-notch and very clear. I really like the ARP Omni (called "Om Knee"), except it has a heavy reverb sampled into it that can't be removed, unfortunately. Cool, obscure keyboards are also included, such as RMI (Rock-si Chord and other models) and the ARP Quartet, and LOTS of Mellotron presets are included. However, the bottom line for me is that this card doesn't have a lot of "bang for the buck" when examined as a whole. I really use lots of Rhodes sounds in my music, but this card doesn't provide anything above and beyond what is already included in the QS, or that can be programmed with some effort with the QS onboard samples. I'll probably keep the card, but can't see using it like I had hoped to. Good quality sounds overall, and I applaud Alesis for that, but there aren't enough to really inspire me like I had expected. Oh, well.

I haven't used lots of ROM cards with synths, but I would expect it would be reliable.

Haven't had to deal with Alesis before.

If I was able to demo this card before purchasing it, I probably would have passed. Now that I have it, I'll make the best of it.

Plug and Play, Select the card bank and go!

110 assorted Electric Pianos, Clavinets, Harpsichords, Organs and
Mellotron voices. Also sone layers and a set of drums.

I like the Electric Pianos, Organs, and Clavs. I am not as happy with
the Harpsichords (kinda artificial sounding) and Mellotrons (not as
etherial and "grainy" as the real thing. Then again, I don't have a
lot of time to muck with the mixes, so I'm sure there is room for
improvement.

Maybe if I can play with some of the voices whenever I get time, they''
be bitchen enough!!