EuroDance (Z2)
Expansion card

Alesis EuroDance       

The second offering from Alesis in the Q series of expansion PCMCIA cards for their 1990s synths.

The EuroDance is surely one of the best in the series, providing excellent, big, well-produced quality sounds for the electronic and dance genres.  However, this card offers many other great patches for other types of musical genres- the pads in particular are very spacious and beautiful.

New waveforms include classic House organs and pianos, analog synth waves, additive/bell waveforms, TB-303, Fairlight, ambient, many loops, and some absolutely slamming drum kits, with all usual suspects such as TR-909 and TR-808, but also CR-78, classic Drum 'n' Bass drums (Amen breakbeat) and much more.

Check out the way it sounds here below.

Alesis EuroDance Q Card audio demos

Factory Demos:

 

00 Encounter . . . a classic Drum 'n Bass / Jungle of mid-1990s - back then, this type of ambient D 'n' B was in vogue in the U.K. - Typical sub bass and excellent pads

01 E Mayhem . . . cool Techno tune, showcasing the killer drums, and the new 303 waveforms

02 The House . . . all sounds that were hugely popular in the mid-90s - the Korg M1-style percussive organ and piano, the clean 909, etc.

03 Gretchen . . . beautiful demo - This genre was very in vogue for a brief period in the mid-90s, as happy house - and featured the triplet-vox sequences

Stream:

 Stream all the  examples below as an .m3u playlist

Individual Listening:

 


Program name with audio demo My comments
000 Percolator Classic breakbeat on the left, and fat resonant lead on the right - all synced
003 Darshan Skippy D 'n B
004 Nebulous Beautiful analog string pad on the right, and cool Drum 'n Bass pattern on the left
005 Omen The quintessential "Amen" break, a bit tweaked.
007 Kronosis Another variation of the "Funky Drummer" loop, a bass, an organ
010 CyberCrime Cyber-Punk type sound
014 LiquidDub1 Nice Reggae/Dub pattern
019 Propulsion Groovy patch, with funky drum loop and expansive sounds
020 UseModWhl! Standard Roland TB-303 patch - the sound of Acid House
021 3oh3SawMW 303 with sawtooth waveform, the modulation wheel opens/closes the filter
022 3oh3SqrMW 303 with square waveform, the modulation wheel opens/closes the filter
023 Rave03SwMW Distorted 303, sawtooth
024 Rave03SqMW Distorted 303, square
025 BsLineSwMW Another excellent TB-303 BassLine emulation
027 Euro Bass Classic 1980s synth bass
029 PhutureBas Solid synth bass
030 Deep Bass Deep and powerful synth bass
031 Unit Bass Precise bass
032 Rogue Bass Sampled from the Moog synth, perhaps?
033 MegarzBass Rave bass
036 JungleBass Quintessential sub bass for Jungle / Drum 'n Bass
037 Organ Bass Classic House sound
038 Thwap FM FM bass
039 Klub Kore Epic Trancey
040 Technozid Oustanding Techno lead, typical of the early-mid 1990s
043 HouseJelly Variation on the above
044 Techniac And more Techno leads
045 Volt Stack Superb analog-sounding saw wave
046 SimplySaw Simple but classic
047 Strate Saw Warm, pleasant synth brass ensemble
051 HiPasSeqMW The mod wheel applies the High-Pass filter
054 SineOfTime Expressive analog monosynth, a la Moog
056 Flange Hye Cool sound
058 VoxMachina Classic Fairlight vox
061 HouseOrgan Super-classic House sound - used by Deee-Lite and many other House acts of the '90s - Basically, sampling a chord off the M1's organ sound
068 Vintag2600 Emulating the ARP 2600
070 Warm Pad Ravishing soft pad - perfect for many music styles
072 VinStrings String machine sound - a la Solina and the other string ensemble synths of the 1970s
073 Slo Choir Beautiful digital vox
074 Oxygene Sounds a bit like certain sounds used by Jan Hammer in the Miami Vice period
075 Gemini Another great synth pad, aided by the excellent on-board effect processor - which was basically the QuadraVerb 2 if I remember correctly.
077 Megalith Very cool ambient sound, a bit vector'ish
079 Hose Me Nice sound fx
081 Viscera Voxy pad
082 GlimmerPad Gorgeous ambience pad - with crystals falling in the background
083 Nature Pad Yep :-)
088 Romulux Sequenced synth
089 Strafing Moving synth
090 HousePno1 Classic Korg M1-style house piano
093 VirtRoads Classy, sparkling electric piano
096 HouseOrgn1 Another classic sound from the Korg M1 - the percussive organ - aka standard House organ
098 HouseOrgn3 Full-speed Leslie in this organ
102 AdditvBell Beautiful FM-style bells
105 Jam Guitar Standard acoustic guitar
106 Gittar Nice guitar through the fx processor
107 Guitar Pad With a short pad in the background
109 DirtGitarr Yep
110 Rave Kit Typical distorted drum kit from the early 1990s rave days
111 Techno Kit Standard Techno drum set = Roland TR-909
112 House Kit Slamming House set
113 Jungle Kit The typical "Amen" breakbeat, "ReCycled"
114 Trance Kit Heavy drums
115 Loop Kit Taken from records
116 Club Kit Typical "high Q" bass drum that was in vogue during the mid 1990s.
117 8oh8 Kit The classic TR-808
118 Sear78 Kit the classic CR-78
119 E-Drum Kit Simmons drums!
121 Cyber Wars Scary
122 Blackdrop Superb sci-fi FX
123 X-Ray Pad Another great ambient fx
124 Adrift in space
126 Fishery Craze


 

 

Alesis EuroDance Q Card pictures (click on thumbnails to enlarge)

 

Alesis EuroDance Q Card manual - click icons to enlarge.

   

Links

SITE Type of resource DESCRIPTION
     

Alesis EuroDance Q card review with audio demo - November 9, 2008