Alesis
QS8(TM)
July
12, 1996 Alesis Corporation celebrated the Los Angeles premiere of their new QS8(TM)
64 Voice 88 Key Expandable Master Synthesizer with a clinic and concert featuring
keyboard virtuoso Keith Emerson. Held on the evening of Tuesday July 2, 1996,
the event was a successful co-promotional effort between Alesis and Guitar Center.
"The QS8 roll-out is the perfect example of our new co-promotional program
at work," said Douglas White, Alesis' Director of Sales. "By combining our internal
promotional resources with those of our dealers, we cause a larger segment of
our potential customer base to become aware of Alesis' product line and specific
events that relate to Alesis. The end result, of course, will be better traffic
in the stores and expanded sales numbers. Co-promotion will become an essential
part of the symbiotic relationship between dealers and manufacturers, and Alesis
is happy that our first large-scale efforts with the program have been immensely
successful." Alesis' CPP (co-promotional program) is designed to help dealers
place advertising in local and regional publications, stage events, and perform
other actions that promote the sales of Alesis equipment. The CPP lets Alesis
contribute funds for these purposes based on percentiles of dealers' sales numbers
over specified time periods. The QS8's Los Angeles premiere was held at Guitar
Center's Hollywood location. Over 200 people filled the store's large Pro Audio
arena for the clinic/concert, which was advertised in local music magazines and
promoted with a large banner outside the Sunset Boulevard storefront. The event
began with a demonstration of the QS8's sounds and functionality by Alesis keyboard
clinician David Bryce. The standing-room-only crowd was then treated to an hour-long
show by Emerson, who used Alesis' QS8 and QS6 keyboards to perform some of his
most well-known compositions like "Touch and Go", "Fanfare For The Common Man",
"Hoedown" and "Tarkus". Emerson played several songs with a full backing band
as well as a solo performance that highlighted the QS8's built-in 8 Megabyte Stereo
Grand Piano sound. "Keith Emerson has played an instrumental part in the development
of the QS8," said Jim Mack, Alesis' Director of Marketing. "His incomparable knowledge
of both acoustic and electronic instruments was of great value to our sound development
team. Now, after his involvement in this co-promotional event, it's apparent that
Keith has also contributed to the sell-through of Alesis' flagship synthesizer."
The Alesis QS8 features a full-size 88-key weighted hammer-action keyboard
with aftertouch and release velocity, resulting in an extremely piano-realistic
feel. It incorporates 16 megabytes of onboard sound ROM, expandable to 32MB with
two PCMCIA sound card slots. The QS8's collection of sounds includes a phase-accurate
stereo grand piano voice, as well as a full complement of all-new organs, strings,
drums/percussion, brass, woodwinds, and rhythmic/sonic loops. It also features
several banks of both new and classic synth textures, including waveforms from
Keith Emerson's famous analog modular synthesizer. The QS8's extensive master
controller features include four fully-assignable real-time control sliders as
well as pitch and modulation wheels and inputs for a sustain pedal and two assignable
pedals. The QS8 also features advanced onboard effects, an ADAT Optical Digital
Interface and a built-in serial data port . The QS8 includes a CD-ROM in Mac and
Windows format that includes sequencing, editing, and sample import/playback software,
demo sequences, extra sounds and much more. Suggested retail price for the QS8
is $1,999 (US), making it the most affordable fully-weighted 88-key synthesizer
available. For more
information, visit their web site at www.alesis.com. |
