circuit bent alesis quadrasynth s4 plus synthesizer

via this auction

Sold For: $400



"the above audio track features just the sounds of the quadrasynth itself and it's bent interface is being modulated in realtime with an akai ewi4000s wind controller merged with several different evolving layered sequences being played by the dave smith evolver.

all sounds from are from quadrasynth recorded direct with effects being handled directly by the quadrasynth's effect chain.

will not be making many of these due to overhead costs. bid now if you want

features

-43 point patchbay with 16 switchable points with 4 switches and 4 input jacks

-8 high quality stackable banana jacks- i will include 4 different colors and sizes. including 4 which can easily wrap around from the footswitch jacks to the front panel with enough room around most rack cases

-original clock or injected precision getlofi oscillator with realtime continously variable sample rate control

-knob to control sample rate

-switch to control sample rate manually or via midi

-midi circuitry by highlyliquid installed which controls sample rate via any midi cc controller, note information, program change, etc.

-midi power led and activity led

-midi input for modifications and midi thru jack added

-milk glass lens and slow phase color changing led

-4 inputs for footswitch with dedicated 8 switchable banana jack points

-green led indicators for bends

-replaced direct solder tabs for memory battery with a convient coin cell holder which allows easy slip in and replacement of battery

-fresh lithium 2032 memory battery (should last 10-15 years)

-all modifcations piggybacked on a 1u rackmount enclosure (take your circuit bent gear on tour without fear!!)

-cleaned all mechanical parts and contacts

-excellent condition alesis s4 plus (retains full functionality if nothing is activated)

-original owners manual

-jpeg diagram of bends emailed to winner

-power supply included for north american use only. power supply can be included for international shipments (please refer to shipping notes)

the alesis s4 is in excellent cosmetic and perfect functional condition. missing the adat plug cover (doesn't effect anything) the only issue is that the backlight is slightly dimmed from a factory fresh unit. screen is still clearly visible in complete darkness.

start with a synth that features up to 4 voice layering per voice of polyphony, a full featured 8 source/destination modulation matrix (9 source/destination after modification) impressive legato and articulation, great morphing, custom split abilities, powerful effects algorithms, 4 quad knobs that transmit midi or provides realtime control, huge selection of waveforms, flexible filter and amp functions, 3 lfos per voice, up to 64 voice of polyphony, 16 part multitimbral, and a design team from alesis which featured some true musical synthheads and you have an impressive synthesizer. add the ability to circuit bend and drastically alter waveforms as well as the ability to modulate sample rate manually or via midi and you have one of the most bizzare and powerful editable circuit bent synth availble. after market support is still excellent on this synth. several editors exist that facilitate the editing of the quadrasynth's powerful synthesizer system including motu, midiquest, and soundtower that will make the most of your circuit bent synth. i'm using soundtower's editor (cheap!) and it makes editing a breeze as well as a great librarian for organizing your sounds.

midi circuitry is of the highest quality by highlyliquid. it handles dense information at fast speeds. for example the midi responds brilliantly to the dense midi information a wind controller sends and the fastest sequencer speeds i can throw at it all at the same time via midi merge. the midi mod allows a thru chain from the s4 plus into the added midi in (or you could send any midi in signal from any other controller or sequener) and still have another thru port availble. the midi circuitry is fully programmable and retains memory. you can assign virtually anything to the sample rate. sample rate is controlled with a getlofi precision oscillator, also of the highest quality and able to precisely keep up in speed with whatever midi thrown at it without a hitch. in order to program the added midi circuitry you simply need to send it a short group of sysex commands (34 characters or 17 figure string) via a daw, sequencer or a freeware utility such as midi-ox. very easy, and completely custom. for more details please review the easy to use charts on the firmware manual via highlyliquid's site: http://highlyliquid.com/support/docs/pdf/MPA-Firmware-Ver-1-2.pdf

this is a fully featured synth before modifications. to really understand the potential of this instrument please refer to www.alesis.com and search for a pdf of their s4 plus quadrasynth model. i'd ignore reviews from people that used this instrument as a preset box. that's not it's biggest strength. although many of the presets are great, it's biggest strength is the synth itself and it's depth of editing.

if you are not comfortable with midi, sysex, controllers this may not be the synth for you. you will need to edit the sounds and control information to get the most from your setup. it's pretty easy and logical in comparision to most synths i've used. if editing isn't your bag, again this is a preset box so there are over 500 preset sounds (an additional 128 slots in a user bank) for you to start bending away immediately!!! i'd highly recommend an editor like soundtower for the alesis. it's cheap, very easy to navigate and synchs up perfectly without any bugs."

Update:

circuit bent alesis quadrasynth and akai ewi4000s

YouTube via spunkytoofers