QS6 - 61 key model

The QS6 is a powerful multitimbral synthesizer from the effects-box geniuses at Alesis. There's 64 voices of polyphony and 16 parts multitimbrality and tons of memory and expand-ability packed into to this big, blue, beautifully laid out performance synthesizer. Based on the original QuadraSynth series, The QS6 has 8 MegaBytes of samples and uses digital additive/subtractive sample playback synthesis to create high quality stereo grand pianos, organs, strings, drums/percussion, brass, woodwinds, new and classic synth textures, General MIDI, and rhythmic/sonic loops. Most of them sound pretty darn great too! However Alesis had not yet fully anticipated the dance craze and so this is not one of those "physical-modeling" synths that began appearing at the same time. And sadly, in addition to the north-bound Pitch/Mod wheels, there are only just two real-time assignable control sliders for live tweaking, which is not a lot at all.

As a master synth, the QS excels in it's price range, except for that tiny LCD display which makes navigating through the pages and pages of program settings pretty tedious. The QS6 implements the powerful QS Modulation Matrix, allowing users to assign virtually any controller source to any modulation parameter. There's an onboard multi-effects processor (based on the QuadraVerb 2) with four totally discrete effects busses that include reverb, delay, rotary speaker simulation, distortion, chorus and much more. With a direct Mac or PC hook-up, loading patches and editing via software is a snap! QS synths shipped with Alesis' Sound Bridge software for Mac/PC which lets you write AIFF and WAV samples, Standard MIDI Files and Program data to PCMCIA Flash or SRAM cards. It can play Standard MIDI file sequences from the expansion cards without the use of an external sequencer. For an all around versatile modern synthesizer that isn't focused just on dance or trance, be sure to consider the QS6.

More demanding players may want to check out the more professional QS7 (76 semi weighted keys), QS8 (88 weighted keys with piano style hammer action) and QSR (rack-mount) versions. They also featured double the sample-ROM and many other upgrades! By 1999, all the Quadrasynths were being replaced by the QS6.1, 7.1 and 8.1 versions.

Bill Hemp

April 9, 2011 @ 1:46 pm

Also used by Dymaxion Vehicle

mac

March 10, 2011 @ 2:31 pm

Hi, I got one of these last year, and one of the keys went out, any idea how it can be repaired? Also, when I hook it to my PC, it's not reading they keyboard either by MIDI or USB. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Mac

Teleny

February 20, 2011 @ 10:37 pm

Picked up one of these for $100 because I couldn't pass it up. Man, what a fine used keyboard. Great sounds, sound quality, easy to use-nice keys. If you are real pianist, they keyboard will be a bit lacking, but I was raised on synths-so it feels pretty good to me. Strengths are the samples and overall sonic quality. As the intro makes clear-it's not the most up to date, dancey kind of synth, but can do a lot of stuff from decent pianos to drums. A good used buy!

KHEN

February 12, 2011 @ 1:54 am

I got one! and I am selling for only 345$.. if you are interested just contact these numbers +639996802320 and this one +639327689984

Big City Music

January 29, 2011 @ 8:21 pm

@frisco We have a QS6 in our store for sale. It is virtually untouched. We want $350 for it and will ship for free upon payment. You can email us at bigcitymusic706@gmail.com for more info and pictures on it.

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