KVR Audio

keiross · Post by **keiross** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 12:58 pm

Hi...

The display on my old Alesis has decided to stop working after years of loyal service. Not the end of the world as it sounds dated and I can still use it as a controller keyboard, but I do miss the lush strings and other worldly pads.

I make songs that are heavy on layers and effects, and although my PC is pretty good, the overworked processor can't handle virtual pads with a lot of release - so my question is can anyone name a reasonably priced synth that has quality pads (for trance, drum and bass, ambient, etc).

All help is greatly appreciated.

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 6:37 pm

there has to be soundiver or something else that would allow you to access the tones through your pc...if not with your host now

Norbert · Post by **Norbert** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 7:17 am

Patch editing software that's supposed to work OK in WinXP:
http://www.soundtower.com/synth/quadrasynth.htm

The download works in demo mode till you pay for it. ($35)

keiross · Post by **keiross** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 12:54 pm

Hink wrote:there has to be soundiver or something else that would allow you to access the tones through your pc...if not with your host now

Oh.. that sounds intruiging... you mean there'll be some software that'll enable me to navigate my Alesis remotely from my PC? That would be really cool because the pianos on there are also very good. I'll do some Googling.

Norbert wrote:Patch editing software that's supposed to work OK in WinXP:
http://www.soundtower.com/synth/quadrasynth.htm

The download works in demo mode till you pay for it. ($35)

That is a great help. Thank you very much!

(This forum rocks because of people like you two).

patman · Post by **patman** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 1:01 pm

JSynthLib supports QS synths, too. It's a bit dated, but pretty cool, nonetheless...

keiross · Post by **keiross** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 1:04 pm

Great, thanks.

taijiguy · Post by **taijiguy** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:35 am

If you're a fan of the Alesis QS synths, would it be worthwhile to pick up a used one from eBay? There are usually several QS 6.x, 7.x and 8.x models available.

GW · Post by GW » Wed Mar 07, 2007 4:17 am

The QS is actually a bit buggy MIDI wise. I got very frustrated with mine and the software I tried. I was trying to edit and sort sounds, so maybe for just calling up patches you might be fine. Try the demos first. If it's the display, having it replaced might be worth looking into.

Jace-BeOS · Post by **Jace-BeOS** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 4:57 am

yeah, geeze, call up Alesis and talk about getting the display replaced. Or call Sweetwater Sound, they're nice folks. As for MIDI flakiness... i had trouble too, but it turned out to be the interface... the stinkass Yamaha UX256 USB MIDI interface. The drivers are total crap under Microsoft's non-DOS Windows... Win2K and up... they released a 3.0 version of the USB drivers finally, but i've not tested this yet. likely it's just as unreliable. The trouble is timing of data transfer. MIDI Sysex is very susceptible to that and some devices are more sensitive than others (about how they can handle the data incoming or outgoing).

Jace-BeOS · Post by **Jace-BeOS** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 4:58 am

p.s.: the serial interface works much more reliably

taijiguy · Post by **taijiguy** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 9:08 pm

Jace-BeOS wrote:p.s.: the serial interface works much more reliably

Geez, I've had more problems loading banks with the serial interface on Win XP. They would always fail using Freeloader or any of the commercial librarians. Someone suggested using the midi connectors instead and I've had no problems since. I just plug directly into my M-Audio 2496 sound card.

My Alesis QS6 has given up the ghost and....