Any QS6.1 users here?

[anotherfreak]

Got someone wantin' to trade, I own a Fusion 8, but it's WAY over my head in some areas what are the oponions on the 6.1? ease of use? tones? I like good organ/piano/string sounds

[Teh]

I had a QSR rack unit about 15 years ago. From what I remember, the piano and strings were good to excellent quality and some interesting synth patches. The QS6.1 is essentially the QSR with a 60 key keyboard, so the tones are going to be 15+ years old in style and resolution. IMO, if you're trading off something that's not being used or you don't really care about, then give it a shot.

If you're looking at getting great quality piano, strings & organ patches for recording, then I would look at acquiring a decent MIDI controller keyboard and making the investment in soft synths. Extremely high quality samples of actual instruments recording with a variety of dynamics, so the patch responds more like a real instrument. Pretty reasonably priced too.

[tomteriffic]

I've got a QS 7.0 and QS 8.1. As noted before, if you're using something strictly for studio work, it seems that the controller/virtual instrument setup is the way to go.

That said, the QS'es are pretty user-friendly have decent sounds (the default stereo piano patch can fool ya with a good pair of speakers) and, while they take some practice to edit patches, some time with the manual is well-spent and it gets pretty easy pretty quick, at least for the more common stuff. I bought the 8.1 as a dual-use live and studio unit. It has the weighted piano action. The 7.0 is the same with a 76 key springy synth action. It's also a lot lighter. The primary difference I've found is that there's no dedicated Transpose button on the 7.0. You have to dig down a couple of menu levels. Everything else is pretty much the same.

Hit me up if you want to talk about some horse-trading.

PS, there are a metric ton of organ sounds on this thing, some of which have a fader or two that double as fake drawbars. I'm still trying to come up with a "string swell behind a piano" sound as good as the E-mu Proteus keyboard had, though. On their own, the strings have a wide variety available and I've used them on a couple of recordings.