Re: pedal 1 and 2 assignment

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Posted by jan on August 02, 2002 at 01:15:20:

In Reply to: Re: pedal 1 and 2 assignment posted by Eric on July 31, 2002 at 20:11:19:


"AlesisQS 6.1 thru 8.1 Made Easy!" by David Crawford with Caroline J. Whitear. Alexander Univeristy updated/expanded for Hal Leonard ISBN 0-634-02082.

The book is intended to be a primmer on the QS series; a cookbook for the novice to get him to the internals and confident with the machine. I was less than thrilled with the book. Perhaps I was expecting more than it could deliver, but I'll mention what I think are some of it's more glaring shortcomings.

The book takes the least common deominator, 6.1 as the epitome of QS. That is any jacks unique to the back panel of the 7.1 and 8.1 are not included (even in passing) and the QSR isn't included in the book at all.

The QS sound engine is stereophonic, yet the book states "If you're playing into a mono keyboard amplfier (typical life application) then plug a 1/4" single ring tip audio cable into either the Left or Right Main on the QS. Some keyboards are labeled Left Mono or Left Main, or Right Mono or Right Main, which means that, through these jacks only, the signals will be summed into that one output." (p.9) One of two things is happening here. [1] This is lifted from documentation for another instrument, or [2] There is a series of QS out there that actually do sum the Left/Right signals. (not!)

P13 "PCMCIA expansion card slots
"There's Slot A-1 and below it, B-1. These slots are reserved for the Alesis family of Expansion Cards which come with lots of new sounds for you." At least by Page 27 there's mention of Type 1 SRAM cards. But then almost assumes that the user has one already to save their edits.

For a tome on the QS a lot of space is dedicated to other auxiliary equipment and software. "A more recent development is a MIDI mixing board. One favored in Los Angels and used at Hanz Zimmer's Media Ventures is the Peavey PC1600x" (so?, who is Hanz Zimmer, and why should I care? btw, which MIDI mixing board is favored in Deluth?)

Likewise Cakewalk, Cubase, Emagic and Samplitude are mentioned (mostly Cubase) for controlling the instrument. And there recommendations for AKG 240 headphones and Mark of the Unicorn MIDI multiport MIDI devices.

Although the book is intended as a cookbook, much of it reads more like a recepie card... press this button, then that one three times, then this one, then....

As an aside, the table of MIDI manufacturers SysEx numbers does not include the SysEx number for Alesis.

This all sounds pretty negative, but there is a lot of good information in the book. Chapter five, Panning & Setting Levels within the QS Mix itself redeemed the book for me. Overall "QS Made Easy" just was not exactly what I had hoped for...

Finally. Always remember and never forget: "Generally the MIDI jack is Male to Male." (p.5) Huh?!?!? I always thought that plug=pin=male & jack=hole=female. Did that just say that the plugs at the end of the cable are jacks or did jack mean _cable_ in that statement?


: There is a book called "Alesis QS Made Easy". One place you can find it is www.samash.com . Enter "Alesis" into the search window, and you'll find it on page 2 of the search results. $25.00

:: Also, any tutorials out there, like QS Programming for Dummies?





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