EuroDance
(Z2)
Expansion card
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.
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 |
Links
| SITE | Type of resource | DESCRIPTION |
Alesis EuroDance Q card review with audio demo - November 9, 2008