Hi! Recently I purchased an Alesis Classical Piano Q card for my QS 7.1. I bought this thing solely on a demo I heard on the musician's fiend (sic) website. Even through my crappy computer speakers this thing sounded really good. It seemed to sound WAY better than the stock QS pianos (which to me sound like doo doo)Well...not exactly. When I plugged in the card and eagerly accessed the sounds it sounded to me like it was MAYBE marginally better than what was already in the machine, but no where near wht the demo sounded like. Iguess my query for anyone out there who is familiar with this instrument is: How DO they get it to sound like that? Is there additional programming involved? Do I need to run this thing thru a $10,000 signal chain? Does anyone out there have experience w/this particular synth/card combo that's happy with it and if sowhat are you doing with it? Sorry for the long post but very much thanks in advance for any pointers.
Bob Green
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No worries: no $10K signal chain necessary - as Nate touched on,
No worries: no $10K signal chain necessary - as Nate touched on, the fidelity derived from your QCard is dependent on the last steps of the audio chain... from the sound generator to your ears, and you probably already have everything you need at home. Your QS (and any other good keyboard/module) will shine via a decent set of headphones (one that has a 20~20khz range) and/or the connection of the line-outs of your QS to a stereo receiver with a good set of 2 or 3-way speakers (if you can't afford a small PA/mixer). When I was much much younger and couldn't afford a full PA, I used this method of amplification, and sound quality never suffered. BTW, I've blown two sets of computer speakers with my QS8! Most computer speakers can only handle a certain amount of abuse and anything exceeding the output gain from a PC soundcard is sure to fry computer speaker drivers. Certainly Alesis produced the demo you heard in a studio and mastered it for release, tis why the sound you heard on the demo is 'sweeter' than what you hear live - betcha find the exact demo on an Alesis Product Sample CD! Best of success...
Howdy Well, there's lots of things to consider. For example,
Howdy
Well, there's lots of things to consider. For example, sometimes the guy that makes the demo will know exactly what to do to make a certain sound shine. Maybe it sounds good in a certain register / velocity range / etc.
Of course, your playback system will make a difference. If you listen to the demo through your stereo and play the instrument back through a Pignose, it probably won't sound as good.
I don't have any particular experience with this card. Perhaps someone else does and can chime in.