Quasimidi Sirius

see below

see below

see below

I wrote the review below this. Since then, I've had a serious problem with my sirius, and I thought I'd write it up for the sake of potential buyers, as on a quasimidi groups bulletin board, another user has encountered the SAME problem and desribed the sirius as temperamental...

Without warning, one day I turned it on to find MOST of my patterns had changed to something not even remotely resembling the original. And, when recording, it would not record anything. Instead, the recording meter would tick over indefinately. Furthermore, when trying to play a certain pattern (p55), the sirius would freeze and have to be reset.

According to the person on the board, his went back to normal in a few days. Mine has yet to do so, and an initialization is in order, I fear.

I didn't save any of my work, because I didn't have a midi interface until now. My fault, but heartbreaking. And if this happened in the middle of a gig... you'd be at the mercy of the punters.

see below. But the fact that the sirius has stuffed up and I have no one to turn to has only made it more clear that in buying a sirius, you are taking a _sirius_ risk...

...sorry. couldn't help it.

Presets are not bad. at first they sound a little mid-rangy, but layer some sounds, tweak them a little, make your own ones, and you start getting some crazy sounds. Editing patches and patterns is a breeze, though saving them is a little confusing at first. The manual is no good. It is not in depth enough for the beginner, and even advanced users, I think, will find that it leaves a lot to be desired.

24 voice polyphony. The keyboard action is not good at all- keys feel plasticy and thin, not weighted how you'd want it to be. Effects are pretty average, and you can only have 2 effects. Once you overwrite one, thats it, the new effect will be applied to all your patterns. No memory or board expansion, but you don't really want it. you can squeeze the greatest sounds out of this thing- however, you'd want an acoustic reproduction module like the roland jv series for anything like pianos etc. On board sequencer is 7 track (4 rythm (incl. 1 percussion which has 12 tracks in itself) and 3 synth). Pretty good. allows for up to 32 resolution. HOWEVER, you cannot record polyphonic sequences in step mode. So laying down chord progressions is a trial and error process where you just have to slow down the tempo, and try till you get it right. which REALLY sucks. Keys have to be hit quite hard on some patches to achieve the max velocity. Velocity sensitive keys. Lots of knobs and buttons for real time editing on the fly, which is what I love about it. The random sound feature is great- just press a button and the sirius creates a totally new sound, which you can then save if you live to one of the sirius' 64 synth user patches, or 16 db, 16 hh 16 snare user patches.

The presets, as I mentioned, can come across a little mid rangy, however once you get into it, the sounds can be amazing. from deep analog basses, digital blips, sweeping pads, weird effects. i love it. the drums are excellent, with 2 whole banks of kick drum, high hat, snare and percussion patches dedicated to 909 and 808 drums, as well as a bank for each for dirty, natural, electronic and effect drums.

Works well for a wide range of music. I've been experimenting with trance, techno, ambient and uncatagorizable music on this thing, and it really encourages and facilitates constructive and original development of sounds.

Velocity sensitvity, as I mentioned, can be a problem, with some you really need to smack the keys to get the 127 out of it.

Reliable as far as I know. HOWEVER, unless I've inadvertantly done something, one time one of the effects changed. ??

Quasimidi folded a few years back, so I'm praying to god that

a) i don't have any problems
b) someone can fix them if I do.

I would definately buy this again, before any other synth of similar price range. I've been playing for about a year now, and this has boosted my creativity and production infinitely. I also own a yamaha an200, yamaha su700, behringer ub1204.

You should be making or playing sounds from the keyboard in no time. Various dials are above the keys for changing the filters, oscillators or modulators. Sounds are good but not mind blowing. This is useful to have for the basic stable crop of decent pads, techno, pizz, trance stabs and bass with some retro sounds in there too. There are also some floppy discs that contain extra sounds for dumping on the machine including Dance, Techno and Hardcore stuff if you can find them. Patterns, sounds, and sequences can also be dumped onto computer for back-up.

You can press one button to access the Random Sound function. This can create anything from pads, stabs or bass. You can also step through the menu to create sounds in around 32 parts. This includes settings for fitler cuts offs, octaves, evelopes, lfo modulations etc. Sounds can be recalled and compared using the recall one button function. You can also store the sounds easy again by one button press-down or go through the menus.

152 page instruction booklet in large writing with diagrams. It is straightforward if a little sparse on parts, though the machine is easy to use with well laid out design. Without instructions parts for setting up Midi to computer, or some of the other abbreviations found in the LCD display may be confusing or unaware of their existance.

Black 4 octave keyboard finished off with orange trim. Has various knobs and dark blue case buttons that are lit in red when active. Dials do not light which would be pretty neat but would of put up the price much, Looks nice and retro. Has an additional goose neck mic for fitting to the Sirius to work the vocoder. Machine runs on 10.5 volt main, so ensure you get this when buying second hand as fixed 9 and 12, to variable voltage may give it too little or much power causing functions not to work correctly. Has left and right audio 1/4" output. Midi in, out and thru sockets on the back. Space for carrier in signal and analyse input for vocoder and beat recognition system. Has footswitch connection. Has common Quasimidi LCD screen for displaying most of the functions. Not too heavy either.

Sound is based on DTE Synthesis of spectral waveforms, no ROMpler. Has effects with the usual reverbs, flangers, chorus and delay. Has a fully editable Arpeggio that can be handy. Also with filter section 24dB, 12dB low and 12dB high. 2 Oscillators per voice, 2 ADSR, 1 pitch envelope, glide and keyboard tracking. Has a step and real time sequencer and a drum computer.

Also has internal Vocoder that I have not used. Also Beat Recognition System for connecting up to turntables or CD. Here you can sync it with external audio signals and play live with a background track, really for gig usage. Again never used this and will not.

Like all the Quasimidi range this machine is designed for electronic type music in Techno, Trance, Electronica etc. You will find no piano or woodwind instruments. It has a few hundred preset sounds with names such as Trancer3, ModuloBX, 303Velo, AcidMod, Techno!, Cosmic. These are bass sounds, pads, stabs and fx. Also has a few hudred drum sounds like Dirty909, 606Kick, ThorHiHat and House1. Sounds are fairly decent with good pads suitable for uplifting pads, or dark stretch-outs.

It was likely the centre piece of the studio when first released, as a near all in one solution. You can create a self contained track using just this, though it would be more complementary having it talking to a computer sequencer, hooked up with other gear either hard or software based. Has many features overall but this includes the Vocoder and Beat System. If it was released today, it would probably not have the Vocoder, Beat System or Drum Sequencer. It would likely be two octave and more compact, with the reduced buttons missing for the drum grid and sequencer. The current synthesis functions and memory would all be increased.

Have had no problems and from reading other reviews here and elsewhere, it seems fairly sturdy and well built.

Machine is fairly uncommon on second hand sites compared to the Quasimidi Rave-o-lution 309 and is likely kept in the studio than being sold. It is found with the likes of Paul Oakenfold, Tall Paul, Kraftwerk and probably many other acts of that time. Has had very good write ups with Future Music and Sound On Sound when first released. Though technology has much advanced since 1998, this would still be handy to have as an extra in the studio for standard musical pads or stabs. People still use the 1982 Roland TB-303 for Acid sounds, or Roland 106 for an all-rounder, so no reason not to have this included to your tunes, if Techno, Electronica, Hard Trance etc is your thing. It does look pretty cool though. Unsure if I would get one if knicked, though you are getting decent hardware electronic sounds and most artists do have one an older, established machine for background sounds and if electronic music is your thing, then this should be looked at. There are not too many up for sale second-hand.

The Sirius is aimed for electro music. Easy to create new sounds with the random generator button function. One click brings up new sounds and also a name too! You can also go through each step to create your own sound. Manual is straight forward as there is nothing hard in using the machine.

28 voices, 7 part multimode. 49 keys, 4 octaves board. FX of reverb, delay, chorus and flanger. External sounds can be dumped onto the machine via floppy disk series, if you can find them. Left and Right output. MIDI in, out and thru. Headphone jack. Vocoder with external gooseneck mic feature too. 16 arpeggio presets, fully editable. On board sequencer. All buttons transmit MIDI data. Other features like Beat-Recognition System and others too, though perhaps not much use if you are using other gear.

If you are creating Techno, Trance, Hard Trance etcetera then it will be good to add to your arsenal. Nice pad sounds for Hard Trance and Bouncy Techno. Decent kick, snare and hi-hat sounds for use in a wide range of music. Other early Electro and retro sounds.

Had no problems.

No longer exists.

Good machine, though I would combine it with other gear for a complete music solution.

Editing is as easy as it goes. Everything is layed out very nice and there is enough knobs to encourage you to make your own patches. Macro knobs are very useful for quick programing - you can edit the envelopes with only one knob! Great. The menu isn't very deep, so it's easy to navigate through it. I would give it 10, but pattern and motif editing is a bit strange and non-intuitive. I don't use the manual a lot, because I just don't need it.

Polyphony is 28 notes, which is enough. Keyboard action is O.K., but it's very hard to get the maximum velocity value. You must hit it very hard, which isn't too comfortable for playing. You have 2 oscilators that can be detuned and you only have preprogramed combinations of many different waveforms - macros. A bit limited, but it's OK. Only 1 lfo, basic ADSR envelopes, no real osc sync or FM, only one filter - but a good one. Thre different tipes: LP 24db, LP 12db and HP 12db. HP filter is one of the best sounding digital HP filters I've ever heard. I use it quite a lot. LP 12db is very nice for pad sounds and mellow basses, but I don't like the LP 24db filter too much. It's not bad, it just isn't great. FX are a joke. Chorus is OK, and phattens the sound nicely, but reverb is useless. Delay is good for basic stuff. I don't use flanger, so I can't coment on it. Midi implementation sucks. It took some time before I figured how it transmits sequences. Weird. But it works well. The sequencer is very good for drum programing, but forget anything else. It's nice to have four different levels of accent on each track, the groove function, and of course XOX programing, but for live recording of lead sounds it sucks. Putting a song together on this one is impossible. Use other sequencer for that job. I use cubase on atari. Oh, and random patch function is quite usefull and fun!

Presets are very retro - electro sounding and few of them a bit trancey and a bit on the eurodance side. Everything sounds very mid-rangey, so don't expect some serious ground-shaking basses or piercing leads (everybody talks this way ;). It sounds like mid 80's DCO synths like JUNOs, JX8P,...It's possible to get those fat JX strings if you work a bit. I did! And I know how they sound, because I used to have a JX8P. They're not far away. Synth brass and digital sounds are its strong point also. It also makes good choir patches, but with a difference. Drum sounds are good. Kicks are punchy as they should be, snares are so-so, hi-hats great, percusion sounds good, but too quiet. All drum samples have more dirty and lo-fi sound, which I like, and they sound great in the mix. My first impression of the vocoder: it sucks. Maybe i'll find out how to cure its sound, but until ...

Very reliable. I would use it on a gig without backup for sure.

none. Quasimidi is no longer in the bussiness, so I only hope some guy will build a support page with all the schematics, software, spare parts,..you know.

If lost or stolen. I'd buy something else. Nothing toooooo exciting.

This keyboard provided a nice way of organizing everything. If you have worked with some of their other modules, you will see that it shares some similar aspects. It's kind of a pain to select a part, mute etc. because of how limited the space was.

The wheels are really strong and easy to use. The vocoder is also quite nice for live applications. I used it in the begining of a show one time, and they went nuts when they saw that it was me actually doing the talking. I'm kind of bummed out that they don't have any options to expand like the 309. The automatic patch button is also a very very nice feature that I use quite often. Work with that thing for about an hour, and you can get into the guts of the unit without doing much.

Hands down, it's got some awsome fat saw sounds. If you listen to Paul Oakenfold's stuff, you can hear this thing in some of his material (it may be another Quasimidi unit, but this is their best one so I think he has this keyboard). The vocoder is quite awsome. The gooseneck mic isn't too great, but it's nice to have. I like to set up a Sure SM58 on a boom stand going into the XLR input which provides a much better method of doing live vocals, or filtering a part with your voice. I wish that you where able to manipulate the vocoder settings...but 16 awsome presets are good enough.

Kick ass in the studio, and even better on stage. It's never let me down.

I've never had to call up Nova Musik yet, but my friend says they're very reliable.

If it was lost or stolen, you bet I would get it again. I was lucky to get it at the price I did (you rock Wil, love ya bro), and I would try to get it at almost any price. I've been playing live for about 4 years, and I use it with other Roland, Emu, and Yamaha boxes, and they all seem to love eachother. I love the sounds and the awsome analog vocoder on it, which I was looking forward to while I was waiting for it to come in the mail. You really can't compair this product to say that something else in its class is better. The MS2000 is cool, but it doesn't compair; the JP8000 is cool, but it doesn't compair. I choose this one over all. It's groove qualities made me look into it more, and it made me buy it after I heard the audio demos. It sounds even better in person. I wish it had a bigger ROM database (there's still a lot of sounds, but I'm just wishing). It can really help your music when you scroll through sounds, bucause you can hear how one sounds could fit in with your music (fiddle with the auto patch button and you'll see what I mean). If anyone has any questions, feel free to email me at anytime.

The Quasimidi Sirius was extremely easy to use, if you follow the manual, it basically takes you on a walk through tour of the Sirius, very nicely laid out, and can make new songs and sounds very quickly. I am giving it a 10 with they manual used together, you might have a little trouble without the manual.

The polyphony is great 24, previously the highest polyphony I had on a synth was 12 voices on it. The keyboard action is of the highest quality, very sturdy and responsive. It looks like it has expansion capabilities, but I think Quasimidi went under before they could release an expansion. All buttons and knobs transmit midi messages. It has a fabulous on-board sequencer, its very easy to use. I have to give it a 10 here based on the price to features ratio, I only paid $625 for it like brand new with manual.

The sound quality is absolutely fantastic. No bullshit XG Sounds here, just strictly dance sounds and synth sounds and drums sounds and lots of em'. The onboard effects are okay, I do not mind them much, but and some point I am sure I will need to get a good effects processor to accompany it. This thing totally reacts to my playing, no static here. It reacts great to velocity and aftertouch.

I have never seen a synth with better build quality, I wish all my synths were built this good. I plan to use it on every gig without a backup, its hard enough to find one muchless backups, besides how many people own more than one of the same synth.

Well Quasimidi went under in 2000, so I don't think your going to get any help from them anymore. I wont rate this category.

For me, being an electronic music junkie, this is probably my favorite synth. I love it, it is so easy to write songs with it and it sounds so damn good. I haven't really found anything that I do not like about it yet, except the fact that I won't ever be able to upgrade it. This thing fits in my setup perfectly and will stay there for a long time

Must for gigging trance/electro -artists. I make electro-ambient (not doing gigs) and I love the drums. I have owned R-O-L 309 with audio and drum-expansion. It was way noisy and synths-part was crap so I sold it. I missed those drums so I bought Sirius. I have to say that I didn't expect much but I was amazed! Synth part was much petter than in 309. Effects in 309 was loysy but better in Sirius. Synth part sounds fatter and bigger (much). Very easy to use with 25 knobs, data dial and lcd. I don't have manual.

Random soundgenerator is funny, just hit the knob and you have new sounds, not all are usable as expected. Polyphony is 28: Mono bassdru, mono snare, dual hihat, 12 voice percussion and 12 voice synth part (3 of them). Like I said I was amazed of effects: reverb is ok to add some space to dry drums, I like em. Pan-delay is useful, in 309 delaytime was too short. There is place for expansion and I have read that there is 16mb soundexpansions but don't know then. I'd like to get more outputs, only 2 outs (l/r). I tried to Vocoder and it's fun but I don't need it. There is arpeggiator, again I don't use it and much much more!

There is 380 synth sounds and 96 ROM locations and 96 RAM locations for each drum-section -> tons of sounds for long time. Sounds were suprise. I didn't expect cool basses or nice pads. I have 7 other synths (other va/wavetable are MW XT, AN1x, Nova, Pulse...). I'm still using Sirius even I purchased the Machinedrum.

Very reliable, well build.

They are gone.

I'd buy it again. Cool machine for techno-trance-ambient-electro-whatever musician. Get one if you find cause there is not new out there!

The ease of use is obvious, lots of knobs, almost all of them send cc#'s BUT there are some shortcomings: adsr-envelopes are only available through menus which is a quite major setback. But hey, ease of use, knobs for adr's. ;)

Polyphony seems quite suitable for this kind of synthesis 24 _is_ enough for drumgrids, 303-ish bassline, lead and strings.

Built in effects are despite of that, full crap. Only usable is the ping-pong-delay algorithm and still, delay has only ridiculous midi-values which don't even fit completely on bpm-range. Setback setback. Chorus and flange are far from warm and analog, and digital harsh edge is yet missing as considered as one.

On board sequencer is great when used in step mode and drumprogramming is as like in roland. But everything else is just curiosity, cc#'s cannot be edited except real time nor you can see values for them. Motifs and patterns are manageable but it still seems a bit confusing when you're used to computer-based sequencers.

There are 2 oscillators, which have the same waveform at a time and they are detuneable. Waves DO include imitations of Moog and 303:s, but some waveforms are looped, some one-shot alike, which confuses quite much, because adsr's do exist.

Filters are the best part, 24dB low cut is one of the best I've heard on a VA. 12dB/LP isn't so flashy, but useable on some pads. 12dB/HP is one of a kind with it resonance, highly useable.

Keyboard on itself seems to react to velocity a little hardly, as compared to Nord you must hit VERY hard on keys to get that 127 value.

Main side, the VA of Sirius is a disappointment. After a year of use, waldorfs and nords beat sirius hands down.

Rock solid. Never failed.

None, Quasimidi is down. =(

IMO, there are much more value for money with other synths than sirius.

COMPLEX SEQ.
THE PRESETS ARE VERY 80'S
EDITING IS OK
THE MANUAL IS A VERY LITTLE HELP

POLI 28
MULTI 7
POOR FX
POOR VOCODER
RARE SEQ. RARE NOT BAD!
PRO ARPEGIATOR-GATE-CHORD
THE MIDI CAPABILITIES ARE THE BEST FEATURES, U CAN SEND ALL THE INFO
TO OTHERS SYNTHS!!!!!!
THE BEST.

GOOD WAVETABLE SOUNDS -A LITTLE HARD SOME TIMES-
GOOD FILTERS
FLEXIBLE
VERY ELECTRO AND RETRO
HAVE PERSONALITY

MADE IN GERMANY,ITS SOLID.
AND BEAUTY

OTHER SYNTHS HAVE BETTER PRESS
BUT THE SIRIUS HAVE PERSONALITY

The sirius is an absolute doddle to use. I have 2 of the babies, and everyting about them oozes immediacy, and authenticity. from Moogs,PPG's, Oberheims, to the old silver stallion, the tb-303. The sequencer is one of the most intuitive i have ever used, and the results are very gratifying thus far. The presets are all so usable, and for Bass sounds...there are more than you can poke a stick at.

i read above, and some of the previous reviews stated that the sirius was 24note poly, when in fact its 28. I feel that while the in built effects are fairly good, they are a bit limited, there are only 2 FX processors...but not to take away from it, they do a reasonably good job at phattening the sound. As far as expansion goes, there seems to be an expansion bay underneath the synth, but no news from quasimidi as yet. As i said before, the sequencer is fantastic, easy to use, and doesnt take very long to get some excellent results. It also has a built in 11 channel Vocoder, i think maybe a 20 channel would have been better, as sometimes its hard to get a clear intelligible voice out..but still, you get that classic vocoder sound, and you can cleverly route the synth/drum/percussion parts, through the vocoder, and get some truly inspiring sounds:)

This synth is primarily aimed at the house/trance/goa, etc styles, since there arn't any crappy GM sets, no bloody woodwind, etc (ie, same old, same old). basically theres not much in the way of cheese, although if you try hard enough u can extract some really cheesy stuff ;)

so far so good, i wouldnt hesitate to use it in a gig :)...but im not that good yet, so i'll let you know closer to a gig :)

i'm in australia, and having no suppliers in australia, had to purchase mine directly from Quasimidi. They were very polite and friendly, but it took about 3 months to ship it!!!!!which i was not very happy about

i wouldn't hesitate to buy another one, if mine got nicked, overall i love pretty much everything about my sirius's,....a pleasure to use...im still drooling at some of the kick drums, and bass synths :)

How could it be any easier? No shortage of knobs, everything is clearly labeled. It says what it does, it does what it says.

Loads of features - onboard vocoder, sequencer, FX, gooseneck mic and XLR jack.

Retro, baby! Moog moov over, the Sirius can remember

Quasi USA has been a pleasure to work with.

Its quite easy to start bashing away with this thing, as it has lots of real-time
controllers and buttons, plus a useable set of preset patterns. Sound editing/creation
is simpler as on most machines, especially due to the "macro" feature,
which allows to select predefined envelopes or routing setups for your sounds.
The display is a two-line lc display and for that really sucks, as it doesn't
display enough information. On the other hand, the lots of illuminated buttons somehow
make up for this. Digging deeper into the device, the concept of the pattern sequencer
is a bit confusing at first, but when you got it, it really works ok.

The polyphony is 24-voice, with 7 independendt parts (bd, sd, hh, perc, 3x synth). Unfortunately, sounds
for the "drum" sections cannot be selected independently, but this is not a real problem,
as you can assign i.e. an alternative snare to the percussion section. Two built-in effectors,
completely crap. Can be used for simple delay effects. The keyboard is a 4-octave
with the usual two wheels (with the possibility to assign complex parameter sets
to the mod wheel a la Oberheim XPander). The vocoder is upper-class (11-band, several
preset programs) and allows to use internal or external sources as carrier and analyze signal.
The sequencer is a key component of the Sirius, its based on so-called motifs (single-part sequences
of definable length). Several motifs can be combined to form a pattern, which also
saves vocoder and fx values. The patterns can form a song. Unfortunately, no controller info can
be recorded into the sequence of the song (a la Rebirth), so everything has to be realized inside
the motifs/patterns. Patterns can also be assigned to the 16 buttons above the keyboard for real-time live action. A programmable arpeggiator with a shift feature is also available.
The clock can be syncronized to external audio sources (cd's, drummers) with a
beat recognition system and thus deliever a synced MIDI clock for the entire setup.

The presets (lots) are optimized for use in the dance/breakbeat context. Which doesn't mean you can't create
sounds suitable for other styles. The synth engine is a wavetable with a well-programmable filter.
Compared to the usual analogue madness, the Sirius really kicks some ass. Of course, its possibilities do not reach
things like a prophecy, but you get cool bass and pad sounds, and also really good drums. Noise floor is minimal.
If the Sirius is complemented with a machine for cool lead stuff (say a Prophecy) and something for good acoustic instrument
simulation (a sampler), it works perfect.

I only had it for two weeks, so no info on that. The thing looks sturdy, on
the downside it uses a wallwart. The included microphone (for the vocoder) and its
xlr connector on the instrument's top don't look that reliable. I would take it to
a gig without "backup" (i.e. no other dance workstation), but not as my only synth, but
that mainly for other reasons.

No info on that.

The thing is the greatest device on the market for its purpose I have come across.
Its main strenghts are the good analogue-style sounds in some areas, the sequencer, the
arpeggiator and the vocoder. Greatest weakness would be the effect section (but you can do that
externally). I use it in conjunction with a Prophecy, an EmaxII and an ESI-32, a Sony GR-MP5 and Lexicon
Vortex Effect and a Mackie 1202vlz pro mixer mainly for live situations, and in this
context, the Sirius really fills the feature gaps of the other devices in the setup.
The Sirius has two areas for which it is perfectly suited: as a stand-alone
dance/techno workstation to sketch out new songs and experiment, or as a live sound generator with
a good sequencer.

The preset sound are more dance oriented. If you want techno sound you will have to edit them. Hopefully editing is easy and the manual is very good.

Polyphony: 24 Part: 7, 4 for the drums and 3 for the synth sound. Trnasmit all in midi and receive all !!!! Very good because you can control another synth with it ! And it has an on-board sequencer and arpegiator wich can be sync to midi or audio msg (via an included BPM counter!) Very usefull for live performance for a mix !

Sound really techno if you edit well the patch. All the typical sound are in it ! The effect are good too. Finally it sound fat and deep.

Very good support.

ALl lot of sound !!! For more technical information: http://www.quasimidi.com/englisch/sirius.htm
URGENT:!! I sell mine because of finacial problem. 4 month old, one year guarantie, excellent contition. Sell with all: Sirius, Box, Microphone, External alimentation, 2 audio cables, 2 adaptators, documantation,garantie... ToM, contact me at: garnier@iname.com, live in FRANCE - Paris.