Yalls opinions on the Alesis QSR and the Proteus 2000

  • Thread starter Thread starter anppilot
  • Start date Start date
anppilot

anppilot

Never Act Like U Know All
Hey guys, I dont know if this has been asked before, or how many times before, but, What is your opinion of the Alesis QSR aound module and the EMU Proteus 2000?

I plan on buying both of them, I'd like to know what others think of them because I havent had the chance of playing around with them.

Thanks in advance
 
QSR

Yo anppilot!

I am a big fan of the QSR. As for the Proteus, I haven't used it. I like the QSR simply because of the quality of the patches. Organs . . . . KILLER KILLER KILLER! Put some rotary emulation on there and you've got yourself a damned fine solo or wash instrument. Some of the brass sections . . . PUMPIN'! Some of the drum kits . . . IN YOUR FACE. There are some useless dance loops on there and some freaky little bells and whistles, but which module doesn't have that. Pianos are passable, but I'm sure there's better out there. With some tweaking, though they can sound quite nice (especially the Dark Classical patch). The Rhodes and Wurly tones are top notch. It's really a good box for the money. If you've got some extra cash though, I'd suggest going with the QS6.1. You get a set of keys PLUS four drawbars to customize your patches with EASE AND a MODULATION WHEEL. That thing is tops when it comes to reving up the leslie. So there you have it . . . your friendly neighborhood TaxMan's opinion about the QSR. :D

--Tax :D
 
I personally own a QSR with the vintage keys, vintage synth, eurodance, and hip hop qcards, and I also own a Proteus 2K with the Pure Phatt and Techno Synth ROM and a Roland JV-1010. My keyboard controller is a 6.1 (but the 6.1 is going away, anyone want to buy it?!?!?) I personally would not give up either. We (meaning my buddy and I) do a lot of different music. I do mostly R&B, hip hop, techno, and trance, he does mostly country, pop, classical and top 40. I can’t see myself getting rid of either but if I had to replace one before the other it would be the Proteus 2k just because of the options and sounds I like and I think my buddy would agree.. If you’re wanting more different type sounds and quick tweakablity go with the Proteus, if more traditional but very wide variety of sounds is what you want, QSR all the way. BTW if you’re thinking about the Roland… move on. The only reason I have the Roland is for the guitar type programs for my buddy who is a guitarist. Otherwise than that I would get rid of it. (I’m hoping I can find a rom or a qcard with cool guitar licks so I can get rid of it!) it’s a pain in the ass to program. Its not very user friendly. And the manual SUUUCK. That’s my 2 cents.
 
Go Alesis!

I would say you can't go wrong with an Alesis. I have an Alesis/Piano plus and love how it sounds. I just wish I knew more about how to get a leslie/hammond sound out of it Can anybody help me on that? As much as I love my Alesis, I hate the manual...I think it was written in pig latan.
 
I hate to be the only one to disagree, but I don't really like the QSR or any of the Alesis QS synths for the music that I do. I had a QS 6.1 for about a year and a half (I also had an Ensoniq KT76 and a Roland JV1010 at the time). During that time, I found the QS to be very weak. I especially detested the way that Alesis "cleaned" up all of the samples so that all of the "grit" was sucked out of the synth. I feel in love with the QS in the store, probably because there was a limited variety of synths in that store (small town where I went to college). But after trying to force that synth to do what I needed to be done, I gave up, sold it and bought a Roland XP30, Emu Mo' Phatt and Gigasampler. I'm sure that for some brands of music, the QS works out fine, but for me I never could get anything all that pleasing from it.

Pads - The QS is great for these, but once you get tired of it's "sound"...... I personally think that Korg does pads better...

Electric Pianos - I'm not sure who really "likes" this sound, but I found them to be very unauthentic and rather fake sounding (I really dislike that mid-rangy thing that Alesis does to the E. pianos)

Drums - A few "ok" acoustic-ish kits, but nothing useable for "beat-oriented" music (i.e. R&B, strong beat-oriented Pop, even when I programmed original drums, the kicks never seemed strong enough.... I feel the same about the hip-hop card, very weak. Also, I used my QS to load original drum samples... there is some kind of processing going on in this keyboard that changes the samples slightly, making them appear smaller and without as much body as the original samples had......

Pianos - ok, but when I got Gigasampler and loaded the "Gigapiano", my former Alesis sounded like a toy

Brass- ok, but I've heard much better samples

Organs - they sounded great in the store and the 4 sliders really amazed me, but after getting this beast home I realized how short the samples were and how fake the organs sounded. Now, I will use a really Hammond to get the "Hammond" sound.

Guitars - Electric guitars were unauthentic, but there were a few really good acoustic guitars, particularly a few combination guitar/strings or guitar/pad patches.

Strings - absolutely AWEfull! I have never heard a worst set of string samples. There was nothing that I could do to get them to settle down. I absolutely abhorred the strings on this machine.

Synths/Weird Sounds - pretty good. I personally feel that the QS does its shining in this area and the pads, but it wasn't enough to keep me

I would never discourage someone from getting a synth that they really liked the "sound" of. Sound is very subjective, so to each his own. However, I have never bought all of the past hype that Alesis has gotten from the QS series, but I guess that for some ears and for certain types of music it's ok. For me (I do a lot of "beat-oriented" music... Pop to R&B (urban), occasionally a hip hop track and I also do some orchestral work). The QS never really fit the bill for any of these styles. Oh well, it's only music.

Rev E
 
I'll tell you what I know about the QSR.

I've had it for a couple of years now and I'm satisfied for the most part in terms of built in sounds. I like the cards too, but the bad news is that there are not going to be anymore cards except for two prototypes that have yet to make it to market. Consider this fact before buying! It's like getting an outdated video game console. :eek:

I'm usually the kind of person that uses all aspects of a synth. None of the user definable patches for my JX-8P (for example) are factory preset. I also filled an M-16C cartridge with home grown sounds too. Still, I haven't done anything like that with the QSR.
Read that information as you will, but I think the reason that I've been procratinating on this is twofold.

I'm so skilled at programming my JX-8P that I don't feel the urgency to learn programming another synth.

I'm so satisfied with the library of sounds that come with the QSR that I'm in no rush to replace them with my own creations.

Anyway, I hope this helps you decide in terms of the QSR.
 
thanks guys for yalls opinions. i just bought the qsr a few days ago. i like the pianos, some of the pads, some of the basses. all in all, its not a bad synth, but im thinking that im gonna buy a triton rack next week.

:D
 
Ok...What about the Proteus...???

Korg, Roland, EMU/Ensoniq, Akai, Yamaha, Waldorf, Nova, Kurzweil, GM...isn't it subjective to the artist's creative direction? Nah...Alesis makes horrible sounding synths with exception to their new Andromeda. Now that's a beast well worth taking a gander at. The Andromeda is amazingly intuitive to operate and sounds better than any analog modeling synth I've heard to date. It's not a stand-alone synth for composing but it's the best damn (TRUE ANALOG, GRITTY, SINK YOUR TEETH INTO...) thing Alesis has unveiled since the late 80's. Kurzweil and Yamaha have never impressed me either. (yeah, I disliked the DX7s' too!) Kurzweil simply rapes your pocketbook. Yeah, the K2500 and K2600 sound great and feel great but the sounds are all too familiar now...much like the Korg M1 of the good ol days. My $800 Proteus 2000, samplers and software are far more useful and sound better than a single wAAAAAAAy overpriced workstation. However for hardware, my preferences are Ensoniq and EMU (DACs rule!). Their machines are built well, sound great, easy to use and don't gouge the wallet. Roland is great too but it seems they keep re-inventing the same trademark sounds and simply charge you more money for spdf outs, expansion boards and 24 bit effects, new interface, etc...BIG DEAL!!! Akai? well, outside the acclaimed MPC 60, 2000 and 3000 series, it's a wash. That company simply missed the pocket when they had the chance. S5000? I don't know anyone that bought one. Aesthetically, the newer S-series looks great and the removable interface is somewhat practical but why would anyone bring a delicate and expensive box like that with them on the road (What's with the 3.5 drive too?). Why would anyone spend that kind of money on a sampler when you can buy Gigasampler at a fraction of the cost and have the best of them all in terms of an extensive sound library. For composing...use your head and look ahead...don't follow the masses...buy what's right for you...listen to it...imagine your music written with it. If you buy the latests and hottest machine, there are thousands of others doing the same...oh yeah, ask yourself...can I really write music or is it the machine? If you can't write hooks and melodies on a simple piano, your 2 or 3K new monster machine won't save you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top