Alesis Keyboard and Serial Connection

Last Updated: 2/14/10

The serial driver provided by Alesis for connecting a musical keyboard that sends and receives midi (ex: QS6,QS7,QS8,QS8.1,etc..) to a PC are known to have issues sometimes. If you can't get the Alesis serial drivers to work, you are not the first. Try some drivers from here: Roland Driver Page
The drivers Roland drivers are not from Alesis, but work and are even recommended by Alesis in some cases.

Alesis Serial Midi Driver: Click Here
Alesis Support FAQ's: Click Here
Alesis Software Downloads: Click Here

Roland USB MIDI Interface Driver - Mac OS X: Click Here or the previous link.

Helpful Links:

Misc. Forum Post
All about Midi
Boris' QS Support Page

Helpful Info:

Use baud rate of 38.4 on com ports when trying to use serial connection. Change this speed through device manager.

If you only have one Com (i.e. Com1 and no Com2) then you may need to enable the other Com in the Bios.

To install the Alesis serial driver:
1. insert the Alesis CD into CD drive
2. open Start menu
3. choose Settings
4. open Control Panel
5. open Add New Hardware
6. choose next (begin installation)
7. choose no (search for new hardware)
8. choose sound, video, & game controllers (hardware type)
9. choose next
10. choose have disk
11. choose browse
12. select D drive (D = letter of CD ROM drive)
13. open Software folder
14. open adswin folder
15. select oemsetup.inf file
16. choose OK
17. choose OK
18. choose OK (Alesis driver verify)
19. choose finish
20. select appropriate serial port connection from menu
21. choose OK
22. select yes (restart computer)

How to prepare the QS and a PC for use together
1. Make sure to power OFF the QS and the computer first
2. Connect the serial cable from the computer to the QS
3. On the back of the QS set the serial switch to PC (not MAC)
4. Power ON the QS and the PC
5. On QS press EDIT SELECT then GLOBAL
6. Use PAGE< > to select pg. 7 and turn General Midi ON
7. On QS press EDIT SELECT then GLOBAL
8. Use PAGE< > to select pg. 15 to set I/O: to PC 38.4Kbaud
9. In some cases (such as using Cubasis) you will want to use PAGE< > to select pg. 6 and turn off the local by scrolling to out I This disables the local keyboard.
10. press MIX and choose 00 then O
11. Use BANK< > to select GM Multi (not mandatory but recommended starting point)
12. Now you are connected to work with a software package and should go to the instructions for that software.

Keywords: musical keyboard serial midi alesis