This
is ancient blah, blah, blah, but it was nice when it came out in all the
music mags, some time around 1998.
Scroll down to read about how the ad came about.
Keyboard Magazine Alesis Ad
You Don’t Know Wade Preston But He’s Working On It
Column 1: (Under the picture of the CD.)Wade’s self-produced, self-distributed album No Present Like The
Time. Recorded on ADAT. (Under Chameleon)
Working musicians have to adapt to their
surroundings. Wade might play a bar mitzvah on Saturday and an arena on Sunday, so his
keyboard has to handle any job he takes on. With thousands of onboard sounds and
open-ended expandability, the QS8 can roll with the changes, making it perfect for
everyone from studio cats to lounge lizards.
Column 2: He doesn’t have a day job. This is it. Night after night. Six hour sets.
Usually without a break. From beach bars packed with joyously drunken fans to the martini
crowd at Jimmy’s in Beverly Hills.
He’s got heavy hands. Beethoven meets Jerry Lee. But his QS8 not only
stands up to the beating, it sings. There’s been music for commercials, film scores,
as well as backup for
recording sessions. He even did some tours with national acts. But the clubs still feel
like home.
He had his band going, but the bass player went back to New York. So did the drummer.
Added an Alesis sequencer and SR-16 Drum machine. The gigs continue: private parties,
outside, in parks, backyards, and party yachts.
Eventually builds up enough work to hire a new band to play with him.
The labels think he’s a marketing risk. Too eclectic. So he records his own CD on
ADAT. Sells it at clubs. One copy at a time. Already made back the recording costs.
He’s in the black. “Alesis deserves a lot of credit. The products are within my
price range and they sound great. Had the stuff not hung in there with excellent
reliability, I wouldn’t have been able to keep going for so long. And hey, maybe
it’s not the big time. But I’m thriving as a full-time musician on my own, and
that’s what really counts.”
Column 3: (Under picture of piano key action) Lesser keyboards haven’t been able to
handle Wade’s boogie-woogie left hand rhythms and blistering leads. But the
QS8’s robust, fully-weighted, piano-action keypad feels great and holds up under the
heaviest of hands.
(Under QS8) In addition to being one of the
best-sounding, feature-packed keyboards available today, the QS8 is lighter and smaller
than nearly any other 88-key weighted synth. Even with its metal chassis and oak
endpieces, you won’t need a roadie to get it to your gig.
Bottom: Get to know the QS8. At your Alesis Dealer now.
QS8 64 VOICE 88 KEY EXPANDABLE MASTER SYNTHESIZER
For more information on the QS8 88-Key Expandable Master Synthesizer, see your
Alesis Dealer or call 800 5 ALESIS
Alesis and ADAT are registered trademarks, QS8 is a trademark of Alesis corporation.
Alesis Corporation
1633 26th Street
Santa Monica, CA 90404
800 5 ALESIS
alecorp@alesis1.usa.com
www.alesis.com
READER SERVICE NO. 42
A note from Wade
This is not part of the advertisement:
Alesis was also kind enough to mention me in their First Reflection Magazine, aptly titled "Who Is This Wade Preston Guy, Anyway?" There isn't a copy of it on line anymore, and I didn't have the foresight to post it on my own website. Oh, well.
How this ad came about:
Some
time ago, Craig Devin of ALESIS suggested I write an article about how
ALESIS had affected my life. I eventually got around to it.
One day Craig walked into the Lighthouse in Hermosa
Beach where I had played a steady solo gig on Thursdays from 6 till 8pm for years. (I
don't play there anymore.) We'd been aquatinted for years. I'd always found him to be very
pleasant and a cut above the rest in the intelligence department. He has a gift for
inspirational, thought provoking conversation. His vocabulary makes you wish you had a
dictionary handy, but never in a condescending way. He's a really
nice guy. But on that day he confided in me that he had never seen a pianist quite as
"violent" as me besides Keith Emerson. Naturally, I was immediately flattered
upon hearing my hero's name used in the same sentence with mine, although I wasn't really
sure if he meant it as a compliment or not. He then asked me if I'd like to take one of
these new ALESIS keyboards and beat the hell out of it for a month or so, then show them
the damage I had done. Well, the synapses in my brain were working that day and I said
yes. It turned into a lovely relationship between manufacturer and local not so famous
but constantly working musician. We both benefited. They took care of me as a beta
tester. They helped me when I was in a panic when I erased all my sounds by accident. They
helped me program new sounds. They listened carefully and patiently to my suggestions.
And, finally, they periodically opened the keyboard up in amazement at how one man
could do such damage with just his fingers. It's the only time in my life where I was made
to feel good about being so heavy handed. There are piano tuners in the world who despise
me.
I was duly impressed by the B3 samples, something I wished I'd had long before, apparently sampled directly from Keith's C3. I love that the drawbars are on the left hand side, so I could hold chords, like I would on a Hammond, and mess with the drawbar configuration. I could use the second pedal input as a leslie switch! Why hadn't anybody thought of that before? I found that I was able to program the keyboard to do everything that used to require several components to do before. Less gear to lug about and set up, and then tear down. Could this be a dream?
I owe a great deal of
thanks to Jeff Klopmeyer who read the article I wrote about my own rocky career, and how
ALESIS gear and timing, from the digital technology of the Microverb and the HR16 drum
machine to the invention of the ADAT, had helped my career and saved me financially. The
article was called "Who The Hell Is Wade Preston? Or How To Do Almost Everything
Twice". (Maybe someday I'll post it.) He showed the article to some of the upper
echelon of ALESIS and they agreed that if they were going to look for a guy to do a
"life style" ad about, (which I assume means "he's not famous but he's
successful in his own way and people will be able to relate to him"), that this would
be the guy. Jeff called me and asked me if I'd be interested. I
replied, "Well, wouldn't I be foolish to say no?" He said, "Well...
yeah..."
Next thing I knew, we were doing a full blown
professional photo shoot for the ad. Jeff's wife, Anna, a Alumni of the early solo
Wadehead days in Hermosa Beach where I had a huge following, and an old pal as a result of
her interest in my music, was in charge of hair, makeup and morale. She was a regular
cheerleader, despite the fact that she had a terrible cold. I had a bunch of new and
freshly pressed shirts of different colors to appease the photographer's needs. Then I
just played for hours while they got all the shots they wanted. It was a lot of fun, since
I basically got to entertain my friends, which is all I ever really want to do anyway.
A lot of nice things happened as a result of this relationship with ALESIS. The great exposure, the free gear, the opportunity to contribute as a beta tester to the durability of the action of my main axe, the QS8 (I am indeed a very heavy handed keyboard player and ALESIS did change things in the action because of me, which I'm very proud of), the opportunity to open for Herbie Handcock at the ALESIS post NAMM show '98 (that was so cool), and these great color magazine ads to add to my promo kit! But now that this ad has been out for a while and has run it's course in a number of major trade mags, I must say that my favorite aspect of it was this; For months I got calls from my friends on my answering service that said, "You don't know Wade Preston... but I know Wade Preston!" That joke never got old to me.
Thank you so much ALESIS. Thank you for everything. Hope someday somehow I can repay you.
But...in the mean time... ya got any new gear ya
want me to beat the hell out of?
