Per Mike: "Looks like a 'nearly production' version as I see only 2 hand soldered jumper cables. Everything else looks neat. Even the PCMCIA card slot is there, even though there is no external plastic guide/surround."
Note the ALESIS S6 MAIN PCB REV. x5 dated 5-23-95 printed on the PCB in the 2nd to last image below, followed by a sticker found inside dated 9-5-95. It likely fell off a chip.
The QS6 was released in 1996, per Wikipedia: "In 1996, Alesis introduced the first of their QS series synthesizers. The first of these were the QS6 61-key synth and the QSR rackmount synth. Following these in quick succession were the QS7 76-key synth and the QS8 88-key synth"
Update via Mike: "Info from one of the original Alesis engineers around the time says that this was the only prototype made. They had done tests 'out of the box' but only 1 physical 6461 was made."
"Matriceal mode is a unique MODE of the OXI One sequencer, designed to strike a balance between generative sequencing and fine hands-on manipulation.
Matriceal was introduced in firmware 3.0 and it has been upgraded in the 4.0 firmware release. Don't forget to get the latest firmware here: https://oxiinstruments.com/OXI-one/UP...
"Noise Engineering’s Kris Kaiser and Stephen McCaul on building their eurorack modular synth company after leaving jobs in sound engineering and biology academia. What makes this process unique? How do they manage a squad of dedicated people? What is the best thing about being your own boss?
This video is NOT sponsored by Noise Engineering or anyone else
00:00 - Intro 00:39 - Why modular synthesizers? 02:43 - How is a modular synthesizer different from a more traditional synth? 04:18 - What does your job look like in 5 years? 05:51 - Does that uncertainty create a lot of stress? How do you deal with it? 07:13 - How did you decide to change careers to start Noise Engineering? What factors went into that? 09:08 - How did you know it was time to grow your company? What were you looking for? 11:00 - What are the pros and cons, in your opinion, for starting your own business? 12:46 - What are some major hurdles you and other eurorack companies are dealing with right now? 14:51 - How have these factors affected pricing? What goes into pricing your modules? 16:28 - What are some of your most important lessons from being in business all these years? 17:23 - What's one thing you did, or decision you made, that greatly helped you, your company, or your career? 18:25 - In your opinion, what are the keys to building and maintaining great relationships? 19:20 - When you have disagreements, or when things go wrong, how do you deal with that? 24:29 - What are your core values that you don't want to compromise? 27:52 - Walk us through your process from Idea to Creation? 33:41 - What's it like to finally release something (Xer Mixa) that you've been working on for years? 35:23 - So what happened to the Iteritas line (BIA etc) Why did it retire? 40:20 - Is the Versio line now the most popular product? 41:42 - What can be done about the lack of diversity in the Eurorack and modular synth community? 43:45 - What advice would you give a young person or someone seriously considering starting their own creative business?
Meet The Makers is a series of interviews and discussions about the creative forces behind small maker industries. These questions were created to help young artists and people new to the modular synth community discover more about the people who make the tools, their challenges, successes and lessons. Coming up 12/2/2023 we'll be live streaming a discussion with Steady State Fate founder Andrew Morelli.
Thanks Kris and Stephen for generously giving time to this project. And to Patrick O'Brien for providing amazing samples of Noise Engineering modules in action."
"A new patch bank for the Prophet X. Also available in the SF2 format for Logic and the Tal Sampler. 50 multi-samples from the Kawai K1 and Yamaha FB-01. Great sounds to add texture and depth to your music and productions.
The samples were originally meant for MY Prophet X, for my live needs. A way of having all my vintage synths in one keyboard when doing live gigs doing MY own songs as faithful as possible to my albums. Every sample in here has been recorded by me personally and sounds exactly how I want them to sound. They've all been recorded through the Yamaha DMP7 digital mixer for extra mojo. Many of the samples are velocity layered multi samples, some upwards of 30-50 samples per set. Be aware that this pack is the multi-samples only. IMPORTANT info for Prophet X users: This sample user add-on pack is imported like this : px/u01
If you want to purchase this bank, please send me an email and I'll give you the download details. Please specify if you want the Prophet X or SF2 bank. They cost the same.
My CONTACT email address is this: espenkraft69@gmail.com Price is $15 USD or €15 Euros if that's your preferred currency. PayPal only. * The above email is NOT the one to use for payment. That will be given upon ordering.
If you haven't already bought my big epic Prophet X sample- and patch bank from before, I'll be happy to offer both that AND this new one in a bundled price of $40 USD (or €40 Euros) combined. Let me know in the email."
Here is a demonstration of a male choir patch that I made on the Future Retro Vectra synthesizer. Even though this synth engine is normally layering the 4 voices (oscillator pairs with separate envelopes) as a single voice, it also has a nice paraphonic mode where you can play 4 voices simultaneously through the single filter. I assigned the xy joystick to the vibrato rate.
2. Future Retro Vectra Paraphonic trick
One thing about paraphonic synthesizer voices, is that the notes are retriggered through the filter and final VCA. This can be very useful in a patch or sound like this, where some of the voices are still playing the last chord until cycling through all 4 voices. The XY joystick in this patch changes a minor chord to a major chord by raising the third a half step. If the joystick is in the middle between the major and minor third, then you only play the blues with this patch, just kidding.
3. Future Retro Vectra Synthesizer: beat and sequencer example
The Vectra has a unique feature where the envelopes can be delayed for each of the 4 voices. By creating drum sounds then using this delay to create rhythms and sequencing a simple pattern using this drum loop, you can get some interesting rhythms. The mix joystick lets you control the balance between the drum sounds. the XY joystick is changing the delay on 2 of the voices.
4. Future Retro Vectra Synthesizer: Cello sound example
The Future Retro Vectra Synthesizer has a powerful voice architecture. Not only does it allow a similar wave blending engine like the famous Prophet VS or the ModWave, but it also has 4 joysticks to mix, filter, and adjust the sound as you are playing it. The XY joystick is assigned to vibrato rates and the aftertouch is assigned to the vibrato amount.
"This is a video to demonstrate the EML POLY-BOX. The POLY-BOX was created in the late 70's to allow polyphony and chords to the modular world. It takes an oscillator input and uses phase-lock loops and top octave divide down circuitry to give you all the notes of the western equal-tempered chromatic scale.
Using this as a processor for a Roland SH-101 is shown in this video. However, any synthesizer can be used, and one can even confuse it more when 2 or more oscillators are mixed into the input of the POLY-BOX."
Here are ome pics of the inside of the prototype Alesis 6461 QS6 posted here, in via Mike. These pics have been added to that post as well.
