Alesis Quadrasynth - History

History

In 1995, Alesis gave the Quadrasynth an upgrade with the QuadraSynth Plus. It had more ROM (24MB), plus many more program patches. The General MIDI library was added, as well as an 8MB stereo Grand Piano sample.

In 1996, Alesis introduced the first of their QS series syntheiszers. The first of these were the QS6 61-note synth and the QSR rackmount synth. Following these in quick succession were the QS7 76-note synth and the QS8 88-note synth (the flagship of the series). Essentially, the QS synths' architecture is still based on the original Quadrasynth, but with the important addition of a modulation matrix, allowing users to assign virtually any controller source to any modulation parameter. Many of the sounds in the Preset and User banks were re-written, and new samples were created, including samples of Keith Emerson's infamous Yamaha GX1 synthesizer. Emerson even wrote new patches for it, and demonstrated the new QS8 at a release party for Alesis in 1996.

In 1998, Alesis upgraded the QS line with the QS6.1, QS7.1 and QS8.1, which were basically the same as the original QS line, except that Alesis created a new 8MB Bosendorfer Stereo Grand Piano sample for them. Also, a bigger LCD screen, and a few extra assignable sliders (for performance tweaking) were included.

In 2003, Alesis decided to keep the QS series alive with the QS6.2 and QS8.2 (there was no 76-key version). This happened after Alesis declared bankruptcy in 2001 and was acquired by Numark. Basically, the x.2 line is identical to the x.1 line but with many stripped-down hardware options. There is now no ADAT port, no multiple outs (only a stereo pair), only one PCMCIA expansion slot, and no aftertouch on the 88-key model. The only other differences are a new brushed-aluminum casing (replacing the original black metal casing), plastic end-caps instead of oak (on the 88-key models), ergonomic placing of cursor buttons, and 24-bit effects and DAC's.