Alesis QS8.1, QS7.1 manual Using Pcmcia Expansion Cards, Saving the User Bank to a Pcmcia Card

Part 9: Extras

USING PCMCIA EXPANSION CARDS

The QS provides two PCMCIA EXPANSION CARD slots, [A] and [B ], which are found on the rear panel. These accommodate Alesis QCards and RAM cards. The RAM Card is a type of PCMCIA SRAM or FlashRAM card. We currently offer one which has 512K of memory and will store 8 complete banks. Larger Flash RAM cards can store up to 8MB of sample data using Alesis Sound Bridge software. Each PCMCIA Expansion Card slot can house a card with up to 8 Mb of RAM, for a total of 16 additional megabytes of sound storage.

The QCards are ROM cards, which stands for Read-Only Memory. This means that you can’t store (“Write”) to them. So the kind of card you need to use for that sort of operation is an SRAM or Flash RAM card.

Note: The cards must be Type 1 PC cards (PCMCIA), and must be either AMD-C series or -D series FLASH cards (or fully compatible). Any SRAM card should work. Many different card sizes from 256K to 8 Megabytes are supported; just make sure they are 5-volt read/write only, and have an access time of 150 nanoseconds or faster.

SAVING THE USER BANK TO A PCMCIA CARD

The entire contents of the QS’s User memory (100 Mixes and 128 Programs) can be stored to an Alesis PCMCIA RAM card inserted into card slot [A] on the QS. Depending on the amount of RAM a particular card has, up to 8 complete banks can be stored onto it.

❿Insert a card into Sound Card slot A on the back of the QS. Alesis recommends that you use card slot A for all RAM card storage operations.

❡Press [STORE].

①Press [PAGE] three times.

This selects the “SAVE TO CARD” option. The display will look like this:

➃Use the [CONTROLLER D] slider or the [VALUE] buttons to select a bank location on the card to store to (A1–4, etc.).

If the card contains a ROM bank, it will show as Bank 1 and you will be unable to store to it.

➄Press [STORE] to transfer the user bank data from the QS onto the card.

If the display reads “CARD A IS WRITE PROTECTED.”, switch the write- protect switch on the card to off and repeat the procedure.

160 QS7.1/QS8.1 Reference Manual