Alesis Q Cards

[Lee Sarkasian]

Dave Bryce! Thank you so much for my FIRST Vintage Keys Q-card, I swear by RazorRotor to this very day! 
Best regards from ATX!

 

Dave ( emagic, not Sequential! ) Smith

[Todd Whaley]

This is a question for Mr. Bryce. I believe there are 3 completed, yet unreleased QCards- Guitar & Bass, Film Score, and Industry & Nature. Are there any more that you know of and could they ever see the light of day?

[tedsorvino]

Hi everyone. New to the Quadrasynth. I’ve got the old 76 keys version. It’s ok for what it is. I

use it mainly for controlling expanders. Q cards are way overpriced nowadays, so they are out of question for me.

i would like to ask if you ‘ve found a compatible pcmcia adapter for direct connection of the quadrasynth with a modern computer for patch exchange and storage.

 

Plenty of adapters for amiga and compatible synths. Amiga 600 & 1200 are both sram type 1&2. Voltage and dimensions are what differentiate types, i think.

 

[tedsorvino]

Some answers here 

 

http://www.benweaver.info/alesis/

[Synthaholic]

On 9/14/2024 at 5:35 AM, tedsorvino said:

Plenty of adapters for amiga and compatible synths. Amiga 600 & 1200 are both sram type 1&2. Voltage and dimensions are what differentiate types, i think.

Yes, I still have both of those Amiga computers, along with the Amiga 500, and the Pretec cards pictured in my earlier post in this thread were acquired through Amiga sources, not Alesis-related.

[tedsorvino]

Is it ok to use any laptop with pcmcia slot with those cards?  because ‘ve read that some slots don’t run on the 12v needed to write files on the cards.

 

ps. The protec cards are very expensive. I think it’s because of the rarer amd protocol. The link i’ve sent says all about it + a fix.

[Synthaholic]

1 hour ago, tedsorvino said:

Is it ok to use any laptop with pcmcia slot with those cards?  because ‘ve read that some slots don’t run on the 12v needed to write files on the cards.

I don't know! I didn't know that slot voltage was an issue. I used mine successfully with a Toshiba laptop.

[My Keys And Me Are Vintage]

12Vdc is only required when trying to write to certain PCMCIA cards. I have some notes when I learned how to clone the Qcards from BIN image files ...

 

There are two types of cards: Intel and AMD. They write data in different ways. For reading back data from the PCMCIA cards, there's no real difference.

But for writing to cards, the Intels need 12V on the Write Protect Line. Typical laptop PCMCIA drives don’t support the PC Card standard fully and dropped the 12V early on in PCMCIA history. They cannot be written to when inserted in the QS, either (no 12V). 

 

Alesis synthesizers can't write to Intel cards, but can read them. For Intel cards, use a PC with PCMCIA reader. Intel series 1 and series 2 cards need a 12V supply to write data, and not all PCMCIA writers have that. The top slot in the QS may be the only slot able to read the Intel cards, also. 

[My Keys And Me Are Vintage]

One model of laptop that should be able to write to the Intel cards is an older Dell Latitude C840 that had 12V (per the PC Card spec). I stopped at that point, because I had already bought an old XP laptop with PCMCIA just for these cards, but no 12V line, and I didn't want to buy another! 

[tedsorvino]

9 hours ago, My Keys And Me Are Vintage said:

One model of laptop that should be able to write to the Intel cards is an older Dell Latitude C840 that had 12V (per the PC Card spec). I stopped at that point, because I had already bought an old XP laptop with PCMCIA just for these cards, but no 12V line, and I didn't want to buy another! 

The whole explanation is excellent. Now it’s perfectly clear what’s needed for the cheaper intel cards.

i mean big difference berween card types.

You can find intel for 20 euros (incl. shipping) when most amd are more than 80.

 

ps. Strangely enough the user manual tech specs for the particular dell model you mention, shows 3.3v and 5.6v for the pc card supply. No mention about 12v.

[My Keys And Me Are Vintage]

6 hours ago, tedsorvino said:

The whole explanation is excellent. Now it’s perfectly clear what’s needed for the cheaper intel cards.

i mean big difference berween card types.

You can find intel for 20 euros (incl. shipping) when most amd are more than 80.

 

ps. Strangely enough the user manual tech specs for the particular dell model you mention, shows 3.3v and 5.6v for the pc card supply. No mention about 12v.

I did not think to read the spec sheet, as I got that model info from a comment on a forum somewhere. But it's not unusual to see different components used on the same model, and perhaps the user who posted that model had such a variety. It's an unanswered question that I no longer need to figure out, but still interests me. I have two of those Intel cards I can't write to with my old XP laptop, most likely because of the missing 12v. Cisco routers used those PCMCIA cards for updates, and if you can get them to work with QS, they were much cheaper. Maybe a simple jumper wire to get the 12v to the correct PCMCIA pin is all that's needed. 

[tedsorvino]

8 hours ago, My Keys And Me Are Vintage said:

I did not think to read the spec sheet, as I got that model info from a comment on a forum somewhere. But it's not unusual to see different components used on the same model, and perhaps the user who posted that model had such a variety. It's an unanswered question that I no longer need to figure out, but still interests me. I have two of those Intel cards I can't write to with my old XP laptop, most likely because of the missing 12v. Cisco routers used those PCMCIA cards for updates, and if you can get them to work with QS, they were much cheaper. Maybe a simple jumper wire to get the 12v to the correct PCMCIA pin is all that's needed. 

I totally agree with you about router cisco cards and the idea with jumpering the pins is normal if the pinout is known, but there's always the problem of frying a microcomponent on the reader-writer board and then it's over. 
 

ps. Finally ichecked the pcmcia slot pinout of some computers and apparently it’s pretty common to have 2 pins for power supply. Also it’s common most laptops to have a 12v rail. So if a jumper goes from that rair to the card supply and we cut the previous supply path to it (i mean if it was 3.3 or 5.6) then there is no danger.

[tedsorvino]

After reading the link by ben weaver, i found some affordable intel series 2 cards (4mb) but it’s impossible to find a laptop with 12v supply on the pcmcia slot. Some people say that some cards have the 12v supply on them. That’s a hint on why a particular card works on a normal pcmcia slot and a different one doesn’t.
I found an old win 98 toshiba (haven’t tried it at all yet) with 5.6v and plenty with 3.3v can be found.
In case i take a tap from the 12v rail what’sbthe pcmcua pin out? what pins are the programming voltage and is this voltage quality appropriate for programming (i mean regulation etc)?

 

[My Keys And Me Are Vintage]

3 hours ago, tedsorvino said:

After reading the link by ben weaver, i found some affordable intel series 2 cards (4mb) but it’s impossible to find a laptop with 12v supply on the pcmcia slot. Some people say that some cards have the 12v supply on them. That’s a hint on why a particular card works on a normal pcmcia slot and a different one doesn’t.
I found an old win 98 toshiba (haven’t tried it at all yet) with 5.6v and plenty with 3.3v can be found.
In case i take a tap from the 12v rail what’sbthe pcmcua pin out? what pins are the programming voltage and is this voltage quality appropriate for programming (i mean regulation etc)?

 

I don’t think there is much value in buying the 4MB cards. Only a couple of the QCards were issued on 4MB cards, and not the good Qcards. Stick with 8MB. I suppose if you want to do your own samples to a card 4MB will work, but there are simpler ways to get and use samples! Wait for a good listing of an AMD 8MB card and grab it. If you learn to burn copies of QCards, you only need one blank. Maybe $75-$100. 

[tedsorvino]

6 hours ago, My Keys And Me Are Vintage said:

I don’t think there is much value in buying the 4MB cards. Only a couple of the QCards were issued on 4MB cards, and not the good Qcards. Stick with 8MB. I suppose if you want to do your own samples to a card 4MB will work, but there are simpler ways to get and use samples! Wait for a good listing of an AMD 8MB card and grab it. If you learn to burn copies of QCards, you only need one blank. Maybe $75-$100. 

The only objection i have, is the current usability and quality of the (extra) qs sounds. I don’t know if they deserve the 80 euros and time investment. It’s just out of curiosity. Nearly 90% of the onboard ones are not for me.
But the 8mb card capacity tip is really good to know.

[tedsorvino]

In case you are interested here are a page with access to some sound patches https://www.midiworld.com/quadrasynth/qs_sound.htm

 

Hopefully they ‘re working

 

ps. I think  that there may be a better way for patch dump between computer and qs via good efitors or librarians (sound diver, midi quest or older equally good software). That way all custom patches saving and loading on cards can be avoided. 

[john0]

How can I join this groupe

[My Keys And Me Are Vintage]

There is a big difference between a Qcard PCMCIA and an SRAM PCMCIA. Maybe that wasn’t clear? A Qcard is really an extra read-only bank of samples and programs utilizing those samples. The QCards are not just patch settings. The samples on the QCards were professional, high quality samples that still sound great today. The 8MB on the Qcard is mainly filled by samples. The Vintage Synth card has some samples of classic synths and their signature sounds. Those never will be outdated. When you write a QCard binary image file to a blank card from the PC you are transferring an 8MB image of those samples and settings to the blank card. (You can use a blank card greater than 8MB, but the extra space is ignored. Don’t spend extra for a bigger card.)

 

Any edits have to be saved to the QS internal User bank or a second PCMCIA SRAM card (256Kbytes or 512Kbytes) inserted in the second slot. I used a 256Kb SRAM card to save my patch edits and keep the extra banks that came bundled with the QCards. One SRAM card shows up as four extra banks, if I remember. So no need to send patch dumps from the computer more than once, if there are four extra onboard banks present via the SRAM card. 

[Loonytunes]

Hello people, I have just re acquired some QS goodness in the form of a QS7, wonderful cosmetic condition but had a wonky pitch bend wheel, super easy to fix, they  made this thing really accessible, anyway to the point, I think I have found a vintage synth card for it which will be great but just needing a pointer regarding the sram cards just to go in the extra slot for extra bank storage, am I correct in saying these are easier to get and work with the qs than the full on cards for writing samples to, I have found a PSION 256K, would this work for example?

Appreciate any pointers

ta

 

Ok so just found out the psion card I was a looking at is literally just for psion devices (protected) so where do I go to from here to resolve extra patch storage? Conformed I now have the vintage card so want lots of room for all those extra sound banks

 

[stoken6]

18 minutes ago, Loonytunes said:

Hello people, I have just re acquired some QS goodness in the form of a QS7, wonderful cosmetic condition but had a wonky pitch bend wheel, super easy to fix, they  made this thing really accessible, anyway to the point, I think I have found a vintage synth card for it which will be great but just needing a pointer regarding the sram cards just to go in the extra slot for extra bank storage, am I correct in saying these are easier to get and work with the qs than the full on cards for writing samples to, I have found a PSION 256K, would this work for example?

Appreciate any pointers

ta

Sorry don't know the direct answer - but you can save new patches (which use the vintage synth card samples) in on-board memory, of course. Is there a reason you don't want to do that?

 

Cheers, Mike.

[Loonytunes]

8 minutes ago, stoken6 said:

Sorry don't know the direct answer - but you can save new patches (which use the vintage synth card samples) in on-board memory, of course. Is there a reason you don't want to do that?

 

Cheers, Mike.

Hi, simple reason is in order to run unison etc I have to run a vm on my Mac then pass the usb midi interface over to the vm blah blah, it works but I just want to kind of dump every decent patch I can find over to the qs in one hit and not have to do it again Hence the need for the extra 4 banks I can seemingly get with a card

[My Keys And Me Are Vintage]

9 hours ago, Loonytunes said:

Hello people, I have just re acquired some QS goodness in the form of a QS7, wonderful cosmetic condition but had a wonky pitch bend wheel, super easy to fix, they  made this thing really accessible, anyway to the point, I think I have found a vintage synth card for it which will be great but just needing a pointer regarding the sram cards just to go in the extra slot for extra bank storage, am I correct in saying these are easier to get and work with the qs than the full on cards for writing samples to, I have found a PSION 256K, would this work for example?

Appreciate any pointers

ta

 

Ok so just found out the psion card I was a looking at is literally just for psion devices (protected) so where do I go to from here to resolve extra patch storage? Conformed I now have the vintage card so want lots of room for all those extra sound banks

 

 I’ve had a QS8 for years, but I think the best of them, is the QS6.1, by far. Nice keybed, two PCMCIA slots, lightweight and channel aftertouch. 

 

What you may want is an SRAM card, 256K is enough. 512K may be pricier, but as they do not show up often, get what you can. Here’s a picture of one from a year ago. They have a small internal battery, so be prepared to order one of those, not much money. 

256K gives you 4 extra user banks. So both of the Vintage Synth extra banks only take up half the card. Just be sure to have the SRAM card and the Vintage Synth card both plugged in together. 

 You will cycle thru the QS banks, Card A-1, Card A-2, etc. I use bank 4 as a place to store all the QS favorite presets, those not needing any matching QCard. Makes it easier to cycle thru the best sounds. You can also just keep your favorites from both extra QCard banks in one bank, freeing up another SRAM bank. You can see a 512K SRAM card is like having a warehouse of space to keep presets! 

[Loonytunes]

1 hour ago, My Keys And Me Are Vintage said:

 I’ve had a QS8 for years, but I think the best of them, is the QS6.1, by far. Nice keybed, two PCMCIA slots, lightweight and channel aftertouch. 

 

What you may want is an SRAM card, 256K is enough. 512K may be pricier, but as they do not show up often, get what you can. Here’s a picture of one from a year ago. They have a small internal battery, so be prepared to order one of those, not much money. 

256K gives you 4 extra user banks. So both of the Vintage Synth extra banks only take up half the card. Just be sure to have the SRAM card and the Vintage Synth card both plugged in together. 

 You will cycle thru the QS banks, Card A-1, Card A-2, etc. I use bank 4 as a place to store all the QS favorite presets, those not needing any matching QCard. Makes it easier to cycle thru the best sounds. You can also just keep your favorites from both extra QCard banks in one bank, freeing up another SRAM bank. You can see a 512K SRAM card is like having a warehouse of space to keep presets! 

Hi thank you, yes thats exactly the kind of thing I am looking for and my usage case, does not have to be Alesis branded as long as it works, found this what do you think? 38-pin 256K Byte Memory Card "Star Card" How many pin is the Alesis requiring as I see some 38 pin and some 64, cannot seem to find this info anywhere and I usually thingk my google-fu is strong 

[Loonytunes]

Ok seems that one is not compatible (via the seller) anyone have any suggestions where I can still obtain the correct card please, not looking for the bargain route just want to find one that will work