Posted by John on June 07, 1999 at 02:30:29:
In Reply to: Re: QS7/QS8 operating system upgrade? posted by Jack Kesselman on June 04, 1999 at 10:40:55:
: Are we sure that there are absolutely no changes to the sounds on the 7.1/8.1
: I thought that I read on the web site that the sound quality has been improved
: on the 7.1/8.1 models.
: From the web site:
: The QS7.1 is one of the newest members of Alesis
: award-winning QS Series of keyboards and synth modules. It
: offers an excellent selection of new features including a
: newly-designed backlit LCD display thats larger than that of the
: preceding keyboards, making it perfect for live performances. The
: QS7.1 also includes dedicated buttons for Transpose and
: Sequence Select, allowing you to immediately access these
: functions without paging through menus. Plus, weve enhanced
: the General MIDI sound set so that composition and playback of
: compatible files are even better sounding than before, and the
: new Alesis Synthesizers CD-ROM software pack has been
: improved to offer more powerful tools for serious MIDI
: productions.
: : The only features new to the 7.1 and 8.1 are all
: : hardware like a transpose button and larger LCD
: : and a sequence button but the sounds and menus
: : are all the same
Not surprised that Alesis did something about those QS GM sounds.. I tried playing some
midis I'd originally done on a Roland RAP-10 GM soundcard on the QS7 GM mode. Boo-o City!
It's like all the life had gone out of them. (to be fair, though.. the RAP-10 was one of
the prettier sounding 32-voice GM cards of its day). I'd guess that a QS GM upgrade would
possibly have to be an EPROM chip swap or something.. don't count on it.
(thinking of resurrecting the RAP-10 in a Pentium 100 I have in the attic, just for those
old tunes.. use the QS7 for new stuff, avoiding its GM altogether).