How to get G-MIDI on Quadrasynth?
Terry Sparks
Midi compatible. I believe there is an expansion card for it, and I
believe the QS-Plus upgrade includes GM. But...
For those of us who cannot yet afford the plus-upgrade, is there a
collection of patches or a poor-man's way to get GM into the Quadra?
Terry - Portland
Chuck Willis
> One of my minor beefs with the Quadrasynth was that it was not General
> Midi compatible. I believe there is an expansion card for it, and I
> believe the QS-Plus upgrade includes GM. But...
I believe that the GM card was never developed because they were
including GM in the QS+.
> For those of us who cannot yet afford the plus-upgrade, is there a
> collection of patches or a poor-man's way to get GM into the Quadra?
Yes, there are such patches available. I got mine from the QS web
resource, but I don't remember exactly where that is. Like somewhere off of
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~djb/ or something. Someone correct me if I am
wrong.
Chuck
///////////////// Chuck Willis - cfwi...@students.uiuc.edu \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ http://www.students.uiuc.edu/~cfwillis/ /////////////////
Stephen LaBar
>
> For those of us who cannot yet afford the plus-upgrade, is there a
> collection of patches or a poor-man's way to get GM into the Quadra?
>
If you go to this site, you can download all the patch banks that have
been developed for the QS, include all banks from previous versions,
all the banks from the virtual composer RAM card, and a GM bank. As
far as I can tell, this is the same GM bank that the QS+ has. Word
is that there will not be a GM QuadraCard.
Hope this helps.
Paul R.
Willis <cfwi...@ux4.cso.uiuc.edu> writes:
>
>I believe that the GM card was never developed because they were
>including GM in the QS+.
>
>> collection of patches or a poor-man's way to get GM into the Quadra?
>
>resource, but I don't remember exactly where that is. Like somewhere
>off of
>http://www.dartmouth.edu/~djb/ or something. Someone correct me if I
>am wrong.
>Chuck
Almost, Chuck. I believe it is http://coos.dartmouth.edu/~djb/
That's too bad about the G-Midi card. I was hoping it would come down
in price and thus, be cheaper than an upgrade.
Chuck Willis
> Almost, Chuck. I believe it is http://coos.dartmouth.edu/~djb/
> That's too bad about the G-Midi card. I was hoping it would come down
> in price and thus, be cheaper than an upgrade.
Yeah, I still haven't decided if I want to upgrade. Rumor now has it
that the sample transfer software will be available for IBM around Sept
1st so maybe... I will wait until others use it and see what they say
about it (how clean, etc). Did anyone ever figure out how much an 8MB
card would cost?
ENorlander
2Mb in the S4 Plus ROM expansion (not in the QS Plus Piano, though). Both
units have a GM bank of programs, however, the S4 Plus has dedicated
sample ROM (bird tweet, telephone, fret noise, etc.) to provide enhanced
GM playback (the QS Plus Piano synthesizes these sounds as its ROM
expansion is dedicated to mostly to stereo grand piano). Both units also
have the 15 drumkits from GS (Roland General Standard).
The reason we elected to take this path is because the original QS didn't
conform to GM from a software standpoint (no Ctlr 10 panning, no special
treatment of MIDI Ch 10, etc.). Both S4 Plus and QS Plus Piano do conform,
and play GM sequences very thoroughly. They tend to be a bit less wet than
the Roland boxes, which was a concious decision. We think most people
prefer to hear more music than reeeeeeeeeeeeeeverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrb ;-).
Happy GM, everybody!
--Erik
PS - check out the QS6.
Trust Micro Consulting Services
>If you go to this site, you can download all the patch banks that have
>been developed for the QS, include all banks from previous versions,
>all the banks from the virtual composer RAM card, and a GM bank. As
>far as I can tell, this is the same GM bank that the QS+ has.
Be careful though. Alesis only supports the GM operation on the QS Piano
Plus. The downloadable software bank is as-is/no warranty. Also, I'm not
sure the downloadable bank is 100% GM compatible like the piano plus. I
use the original QS with the bank and it's a little flaky at times. I plan
to upgrade to the plus soon. I hope this helps. By all means, download
these patches to get all you can out of your unit until you can get it
upgraded.
S Ewing
mohan krishnan
ENorlander <enorl...@aol.com> wrote:
>expansion is dedicated to mostly to stereo grand piano). Both units also
>have the 15 drumkits from GS (Roland General Standard).
They do? Where are these drumkits, in the keyboard specifically? This
feature is not mentioned anywhere in the manual.
>The reason we elected to take this path is because the original QS didn't
>conform to GM from a software standpoint (no Ctlr 10 panning, no special
>treatment of MIDI Ch 10, etc.). Both S4 Plus and QS Plus Piano do conform,
>and play GM sequences very thoroughly. They tend to be a bit less wet than
>the Roland boxes, which was a concious decision. We think most people
>prefer to hear more music than reeeeeeeeeeeeeeverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrb ;-).
>
Who is we? Do you work for alesis, are you on the QS design team?
>
>PS - check out the QS6.
And one last bit, what exactly is the QS6? I haven't been a fool to go
out and buy the S5+ only to have it outdated, am I?
(Seriously, I have heard here and there about the S6. So what is it?)
ENorlander
ship with (or shortly after) the QS6. You should be able to get it free
from Alesis Product Support at that time if you have the QS Plus Piano, S4
Plus, or the upgrade package. Chances are it will posted on the internet
as well, although where I'm not certain at this point.
The QS6 is a 61-note version of the QuadraSynth with weighted plastic
keys. It has all of the software benefits of the Plus units and an
excellent GM bank. Like the Plus, same DSP chip as the Q2. 640 Programs,
500 Mixes, shipping in September - October. It does NOT replace the
QuadraSynth Plus or S4 Plus units!!!
Someone else questioned the GM program bank for the original QS. Well, I
can't really endorse it because the original QS can't accomodate true GM
in that it doesn't treat CH10 in the peculiar way that GM does. There are
128 programs in GM, plus drums on CH10. Since a QS bank is only 128
programs, this means that you'd have to use one of the Preset drumkits on
CH10, and hope that the GM sequence doesn't send any program changes on
that channel.
Granted, this is kinda squirrely, and that's why GM was implemented
properly on the Plus units. When you switch the Plus (or QS6) into GM mode
(from the front panel or via SysEx), it automatically sets up a special
set of 15 GS drumkits on CH10 that are hidden in the demo bank. If you
want to load these kits into your user bank, switch GM on, then edit the
programs on CH10, saving them to your user (or card) bank or MIDI edit
buffer, and then send program changes on CH10 to advance to the next kit.
--Erik
Chuck Willis
> The QS6 is a 61-note version of the QuadraSynth with weighted plastic
> keys. It has all of the software benefits of the Plus units and an
> excellent GM bank. Like the Plus, same DSP chip as the Q2. 640 Programs,
> 500 Mixes, shipping in September - October. It does NOT replace the
> QuadraSynth Plus or S4 Plus units!!!
So what exactly is left out of the S6? I see in your other post that the
S6 will retail for $100 less than the S4+ so something must be missing
unless Alesis is feeling generous or got paid to take some 61 key
boards. Also, why 61 keys? I would think that with the big new piano
sample, you all would be coming out with a 88 key weighted version soon.