FROM: Phil O'Keefe
 SUBJ: Alesis D-4 defects and info   DATE: 13 Jan 92  22:40:00

     I spoke with Alesis today for about a half an hour about various
things. Here's the lowdown on the D-4. It seems that a batch of them
were shipped without having a "hard reset" done on them. Hard reset
restores all of the ROM data to the factory specs, and is similar to
re-booting your computer. It is NOT recommended that you store any
edited data that you have done, rather, you should write it down. The
reason is that if you store the data and Hard Reset, then re-load the
data, you'll probably just be re-loading corrupted data. Anyway,
Alesis has spoken with several people with the note stealing problem,
and so far resets have helped in all cases. Here's the proceedure:
 
         NOTE: DOING THE FOLLOWING WILL RE-SET YOUR D4 AND ERASE ANY
EDITS YOU HAVE DONE! WRITE YOUR DATA FIRST!!!
 
         To Hard Reset the D4 - Power down for a few minutes. Then hit
the "voice" and "output" keys at the same time, and hold them both
while you power up. This will re-set the D4, and should clear up any
problems.
 
     Another bit of interesting info: Per Alesis, ALL D4's HAVE THE
DEMO! Also, there are indeed two different ROM versions out there
already. I jsut remembered that I forgot to ask if there is a upgrade
available to owners of the earlier version, but I will check on it.
The difference in the ROM versions is in the trigger section of the
software. ROM version 1.02 has the added control features for the
trigger in's. How do I check which version of the ROM I have? Well, if
your D4 came with a manual addendum covering the triggers (A
replacement for chapter 5 of the manual) then you have the new ROM
version. Here's a way to get your D4 to display the version of the
ROM's:
 
          Press the drumset key. Let go. Then hit BOTH cursor keys at
the same time. The ROM version will be displayed for a few seconds.
 
     I hope this info proves useful to some of you out there...it sure
did to me. I was pretty bummed out when I couldn't use my hi hats
along with a snare sample! Turning the unit off seemed to clear it up,
but just to be sure, I did a hard reset. It works fine. If anyone is
still having problems, the customer support number at Alesis is (310)
836-7924. Enjoy!