I belong to a list devoted to Alesis and it has been very dead for a long time now, and so has this area.
However I think Alesis is a good product for the money ( I have a QS 6.1 ) and use sound bridge as well as other software to interface with the QS. That is one thing that I am still impressed with is that Alesis made their QSX.1 series very computer savy and it is loaded with outstanding features for interfacing with a computer and as a midi controller,etc..
Not long ago I bought a Roland XV-88 and have been very busy messing around with it. The Roland product is extreamly nice,keyboard action is fantastic, sounds are very good, but it does not feature the computer savy-ness or ability to store sequences on board etc, that my little Alesis QS has.
Otherwise I think the newer synth's out there have taken the spotlight away from the now "old" QS series machines.
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Ken D