In Reply to: QS8.1 newbie!! posted by Wes Hunt on March 24, 2000 at 20:19:21:

If you have a computer with a sound card, my suggestion would be hook everything up. (even if you don't, you can do it thru the serial port) I'm not sure what kind of software the QS synths come with nowadays (I have a QS6 I bought 4 years ago) but once you hook everything up you'll be able to :

(1) Customize the sounds thru an editor (MUCH easier than thru the display, which is basically an exercise in frustation ) My QS came with UNISYN which works decently considering it was free.

(2) Record some music, or be able to listen to midi files (thousands available on the internet) thru a sequencer program (I would imagine one came in the CD-ROM). I use Cakewalk Home Studio. With one you can rearrange songs, mute some tracks and play along other instruments, etc, write your own stuff. This is probably one of the most enjoyable aspects of synths nowadays. I like to have a drum track with a bass line going while I jam with it. Plus if you get a midi file than is pretty close to the original song, you can print out the sheet music and save you a couple of bucks that way instead of buying it. All you need is a cable.

Just a couple of suggestions.. have fun

Rod

: Hi, I just bought a QS8.1 and am new user to the keyboard synthesizers. I was wondering if anyone could give me some pointers on how to utilize my keyboard. It seems that there are so many functions on the synth, I just don't know where to start. Any advice would be very helpful. Thanks in advance.