Alesis QS7.1, QS8.1 manual Drum Mode

Editing Programs: Part 8

settings, Effect Level and Bus information are saved with the Program when you store it back into memory.

DRUM MODE

Drum Mode helps you personalize your music by allowing you to construct your own drumkits. Any one or all of the four Sounds in a Program can be put into Drum Mode. The parameter which controls this is found in the Voice Function (button [40]) on page 2. But before we get into that, please note that Drum Mode isn’t the only way to hear drums or percussion from a Program. In Keyboard mode (which we'll explain shortly), if you select a kit (such as “Rock Kit 1”) as the voice of a Program Sound, an entire arrangement of preset, pre-mapped drum sounds will be assigned across the keyboard. If you select a single drum (such as “Timpani”) as the voice, that single drum sound will sound across the keyboard range, with a different pitch on each note (the original sample pitch will appear on C3). In either case, in Keyboard mode you treat the entire Sound as a single instrument, with only one pan position, level, or Effects Send amount or Bus.

However, Drum Mode changes the nature of the VOICE function, giving you the ability to select 10 drum samples per Sound and individually control their pitch, level, panning, effects routings, and placement on the keyboard. Drum Mode allows you to construct your own drum kit from a collection of 343 samples: 21 kicks, 26 snares, 33 toms, 43 cymbals, 75 percussion instruments, 82 sound effects and 63 synth waves. Plus, there are 90 rhythm beats to choose from (pre-sequenced drum loops). When a Sound is in Drum Mode, you can assign 10 different drum samples to 10 different keys anywhere on the keyboard. If all four Sounds in a Program were placed in Drum Mode, you could assemble up to 40 tailor-made drum sounds in your kit. To round things out, individual drums can be “stretched” to occupy up to four consecutive keys without transposing (for more realistic flams).

Here is a block diagram of a Sound in Drum Mode.

When Drum Mode is enabled, the Sound will have fewer parameters for editing. Consequently, not all Function buttons will respond when pressed as they do when the Sound is in Keyboard mode. Specifically, the LFOs and all Envelopes (with the

QS7.1/QS8.1 Reference Manual