Alesis QS8 Issues


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Posted by Pete Morton on October 27, 1997 at 20:49:50:

I purchased my Alesis QS-8 about 3 weeks ago, and am enjoying it immensely! However, I'm having a few problems with the onboard MIDI sequencing which I would like some help with.

I bought the QS8 because I knew that it had the ability to download Standard MIDI files onto a PCMCIA card, which could then be played back without requiring an external sequencer.

The first problem I have is that it seems to take an INCREDIBLY long time for Alesis Soundbridge to bring in one of my MIDI files into Project Manager. My MIDI files are generally about 60K in length, and it seems to take about a minute to process 10K. The system I'm using is a DX4/100 with 64MB of RAM running WIndows95, so I don't think that it is slowing it down too much. My MIDI files were created using Master Tracks Pro ver 4.9 (I tried using Cubasis, but didn't like it much). Is this an expected length of time to convert the files? I've tried saving my work as both Type 1 and Type 0 MIDI files, but it doesn't appear to make much difference.

The second problem is that I tend to use my Roland JV-1080 for additional sounds during my MIDI compositions. I discovered that you can check a box in SoundBridge Project Manager which plays MIDI sequences to the MIDI Out port, and this will send messages to my external sound module. The issue is that at the start of each sequence, the Alesis seems to send some sort of message on each channel to my JV-1080, resulting in a "bang" from all active instruments at the start of each piece, which is pretty annoying! Is there any way around this.. I haven't really tweaked my MIDI files for GM messages or anything - I just tend to record the various tracks and save it, rather than getting into editing Controllers and things!

I think the keyboard is great, and would be even more awesome if I could get over these small issues!!

Thanks for any help...!!!


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