SUZUKI
Q CHORD
Owners Manual
MODEL QC-1
Page 1: ...SUZUKI Q CHORD Owners Manual MODEL QC 1 ...
Page 2: ...of these professionally produced optional song cartridges now enable you to have a truly heightened interactive musical experience right out of the box The Q Chord contains the latest technological advancement s that now enables everyone to play or create music It offers the ultimate combination of musical instrument and technology in a light weight portable and dynamic sounding package never befo...
Page 3: ...the 2 plastic tabs and remove the battery door Insert the 8 batteries included in the shipping carton Use the diagram on the battery cover to make sure you correctly insert them into the battery cradle If there is no power recheck to make sure you have correctly inserted the batteries and replaced the battery door 1 Press the power button 3 PLUG IN AC ADAPTER Plug one end of the AC adapter into th...
Page 4: ...th this Demo to get familiar with the sounds you can make as you strum the Strumplate in various different ways 2 Q TIP Later we will explain many fun and interesting playing techniques and set ups For example how to select and play one of the 100 different strumplate voices available plus different sustain settings and strumplate playing techniques Playing along with this Beatles song is similar ...
Page 5: ... beat of the music Play around using different finger and or thumb activity QTIP With the Chord Plus turned off you may want to actively strum or tap the strumplate to make up for the missing notes There are many different ways to play along with the band on this demo song You can play with any member of the Q Chord band or any combination of Q Chord band members Or you can play solo by yourself F...
Page 6: ...serted properly then the Q Card control LCD will not display any digits 2 Press the Play button Make sure that the Master Volume Knob is set to the 2 o clock position or higher You should hear your selected song 3 Strum or tap the Strumplate with your thumb or fingers Try taping your fingers to the beat of the music Play around using different finger and or thumb activity QTIP There are many diffe...
Page 7: ...ONE FINGER CHORD PLAY 19 MULTI FINGER CHORD PLAY 20 RHYTHM SECTION DRUMS 23 CHORD MODE ACCOMPANIMENT 28 PLAYING A SONG WITH THE BAND 30 ADDITIONAL FEATURES TRANSPOSE 30 ADDITIONAL FEATURES TUNING 31 ADDITIONAL FEATURES MIDI EXPANDER 32 ADDITIONAL FEATURES OCTAVE SHIFT 33 STRUMPLATE ADDITIONAL INSTRUMENTVOICES 35 MELODY KEYBOARD 36 SONG STYLE CARTRIDGES 39 MIDI 42 JACK CONNECTOR PANEL 43 STRUMPLATE...
Page 8: ...TEMPO Up Down Buttons 10 BASS PORT 11 FILL 12 STRUMPLATE VOLUME 13 STRUMPLATE BANK Indicator LED S two 14 STRUMPLATE LIGHT BAR SEGMENTS 10 15 STRUMPLATE SELECT BUTTONS 16 START STOP Master Control 17 STRUMPLATE SUSTAIN 18 SPEAKER GRILL 19 STRUMPLATE CHORD BUTTONS V 21 TRANSPOSE BUTTONS 22 CHORD BUTTONS 23 TUNE BUTTONS 24 MIDI EXPANDER CONTROL 25 OCTAVE SHIFT strmplt kybd 26 STRUMPLATE VOICE BUTTON...
Page 9: ...35 AUTO CHORD PLUS BUTTON 36 CHRD MANUAL CHRD BUTTONS 37 BASS MEL KYBD BUTTONS Q CARD 38 CHORD VOL DEPTH BUTTONS 39 AUTO CHORD PLUS BUTTON BOTTOM VIEW 40 BASS PORT 41 BATTERY COVER 42 IDENTIFICATION TAG W SN 2 4 6 8 7 5 3 1 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 26 28 29 27 30 31 32 33 35 36 37 34 STOP PLAY PAUSE V x 22 25 24 23 V V 21 ...
Page 10: ... hear the sustained chord of the button you pressed sound This basic set up is an ideal way to start playing a new song by first getting familiar with playing chord buttons of your selected song 2 Strum or tap the Strumplate with your thumb or fingers You should only hear the strumplate and the engaged chord button QTIP The EZ Play mode is an excellent function to experiment with the different sou...
Page 11: ...ill now hear a sustained chord of the button you pressed This chord sound is now Organ instead of the Strings voice that you heard when the Bossa Nova Style was engaged 2 Press the Rhythm Select buttons Up or Down and repeat step 2 Try the other Rhythm Styles to hear the chord sounds that are available 3 QTIP Some chord voices are repeated for certain Styles Some voices may sound better than other...
Page 12: ...m ADJUSTINGTHE STRUMPLATESVOLUME CONTROL Observe the StrumplateVoice LED light to distinguish which bank of voices is selected The indicator LED will show which left or right bank is selected For our example the left LED indicator is selected which means the left bank of voices is selected 2 Press the StrumplateVolume Up button until all 10 light bar segments are lit This is maximum strumplate vol...
Page 13: ...you will increase or decrease the LED light bar segment by one light bar 1 ADJUSTINGTHE SUSTAIN CONTROL The Sustain Control for the 10 control panel Strumplate voices is preset and ready to play However depending on the style of your strumplate playing you may want to adjust the amount of sustain to fit your individual and creative feel for the sound you have in mind Strum the strumplate with your...
Page 14: ...or each individual song Use your creativity and feel for the sound you want to hear and then attempt to achieve that sound through the expressive Strumplate and its controls Sustain Effects and the Pitch Bend Wheel TAP PLAY Using the tip of your finger s tap the Strumplate as you would tap a table as you listen to a song Use the same EZ Play set up as above Try using one two three fingers or thumb...
Page 15: ...umplate voice STRUMPLATE DO S AND DON TS QTIP Do not use your fingernails or any sharp object on the Strumplate A slight downward pressure from your thumb or fingers is all you need to activate this sensitive area The more familiar you get with the strumplate the more expres sive you will be able to become with the Q Chord We urge you to relax as you enjoy trying out the various control panel stru...
Page 16: ...ight bar in the Strumplate Voice section will light for two seconds to indicate the amount or depth of the Vibrato effect that is engaged Press the Chord ModeVolume Control after you select the Vibrato button You have 2 seconds after engaging the Vibrato effect to adjust the depth After that the Chord Mode Volume control will adjust the overall Accompaniment Chord Mode Volume Try different depth s...
Page 17: ...unces off the walls ceiling etc The Reverb effect is more subtle than the Vibrato effect and is most apparent when the Sustain turned down to one or two light bar segments 2 3 Strum the Strumplate Strum the Strumplate once with the Reverb effect engaged and once with the Reverb effect off to hear this subtle but important instrument effect We recommend leaving this feature on unless it interferes ...
Page 18: ... on a guitar for greater expression 1 Press a Chord button with you left hand You should now hear that Chord buttons sound 2 Strum the Strumplate and turn the Pitch BendWheel down You should hear the Pitch of the Strumplate lower or go flat If you strum the Strumplate and turn the Pitch Bend Wheel up you should hear the Pitch of the Strumplate raise or go sharp This feature is a fun and creative w...
Page 19: ...wn on the left press the corresponding Chord buttons Take your time as you locate and press the corresponding Chord Buttons of the song When the Saints Go Marching In shown to the left 3 PLAYING A SONGWITH CHORD AND STRUMPLATE Press the Start Stop button If you wish to stop the Chord sound press the Start Stop button and the Chord Sound will stop To reactivate the sound simply press a Chord Button...
Page 20: ...d the 7th Chord buttons together top and bottom rows For example if the music calls for a C Major 7th Chord you would press the buttons shown C Maj 7 2 Minor 7th Chord Press the Minor and the 7th Chord buttons together middle and bottom rows For example if your music calls for a G Min 7th Chord you would press the buttons shown G Min 7 3 Augmented Chord Press the Major Minor and the 7th Chord butt...
Page 21: ...yle As you continue to press the button you will notice that the indicator LED will switch to the other rhythm style bank The diagram on the left shows the selected Blues Shuffle Style set up Q TIP If you press and hold down the down select button it will swiftly sequence through the selected Styles Just release the button when you arrive at your desired Style Q TIP 2 The left LED Rhythm Bank indi...
Page 22: ...down volume control button you will change the volume level Every fourth time you press one volume control button you will increase or decrease the LED light bar segment by one light bar 3 Press the RhythmTempo Down button to decrease the speed of the playing Rhythm Style If you press and hold down this button it will reduce the Tempo swiftly Q TIP Fine Tuning Tempo control There are 40 Tempo sett...
Page 23: ...lected Rhythm Styles beat 1 Press the Intro End button while the Style is playing You should now hear the selected Rhythm Styles Ending Drum pattern 2 QTIP When you press the Intro End button the left indicator LED will pulse at a faster pace to ensure the user that the button has been engaged FILL PATTERN DRUMS ONLY To hear the Drums only Fill pattern of your selected Style press the Fill button ...
Page 24: ... of Bass Chord Accompaniment and Chord Plus tracks Each of these tracks volume can be adjusted or all can be adjusted at once 1 With the Accompaniment playing press the downVolume button This will lower all the Accompaniment tracks engaged bass chord chord plus The Strumplate s LED light bar segments will display the Accompaniment volume levels for two seconds after the Chord Volume button is rele...
Page 25: ... longer hear the additional accompaniment track You should now hear only the Chord Bass and Drums 2 Press the Auto Chord Chord Plus button two more times The Chord Plus LED will turn off and the Auto Chord LED should also now be off You should now hear only the Bass and Drums 3 Press the Bass button once The Bass LED should now be off and you should only hear the Drums Experiment with how things s...
Page 26: ... the different sound levels and combinations of accompaniment tracks while playing the same song 1 SELECTING INDIVIDUAL ACCOMP VOLUME LEVELS 2 Press the Chord ModeVolume Up Button to increase its volume level while the Strumplate LED light bar is lit up You will see the light bar segment increase as you continue to press the button or hold it down There are three Accompaniment levels that you can ...
Page 27: ...ed even if you remove you finger from it 1 Manual Chord Button Feature When engaged only the steady chord sound selected Chord is heard without Accompaniment What instrument sound is heard will depend on which Accompaniment track is selected Q TIP When both of these buttons are disengaged the Accom paniment tracks will play if selected but when you lift your finger from the chord button all Accomp...
Page 28: ...ed on this track Usually acoustic Bass Fretless Bass Slap Bass Electric Bass etc Q TIP If the Melody Keyboard LED is engaged then the function of the Accompaniment and Strumplate will be terminated unless the Demo or Song Cartridge functions are engaged The Bass feature is discussed below but the Melody Keyboard feature is discussed later in its own Melody Keyboard section 1 BASS CONTROL BUTTON ...
Page 29: ...y first want to get familiar with the 5 chord button posi tion that are used in the song F G7 C C7 Bb These Chord buttons appear above the lyrics and Melody line notation 3 Press the first chord button in the song on the next page F major When you are ready to begin press the F Chord button and begin to sing or hum along while you play Singing or humming along helps you keep your place in the song...
Page 30: ...elody and press the Chord Button listed above the words as they appear in the song Follow the simple instructions listed on the previous page I D LIKETOTEACHTHEWORLDTO SING in perfect harmony words and music by B Backer B Davis R Cook and R Greena way ...
Page 31: ...b Major Button to lower the pitch of the instrument will be raised by one cent Therefore if you press it 20 times the pitch will be raised by 20 cents Press both Bb and F buttons to return to perfect pitch 2 Transpose Example If the song you want to perform is in the key of E but you want to Transpose it to the key of G Press the Ab major chord button 3 times or until the Q Card LCD screen display...
Page 32: ... the unit is prepared to playback the MIDI data it will receive from the MIDI In port 1 TYPICAL MIDI EXPANDER SET UP Plug the other end of the MIDI cable into the MIDI In jack on the Q Chord 2 Q CHORD JACK PANEL Press the G Major Button one time The Q Card Control LCD will turn on and EP should be displayed The instrument is now in the Expander mode When the Q Chord is in this mode it can not be p...
Page 33: ... been raised one octave To lower the Strumplate Melody Keyboard by one Octave press the A Major Button 2 QTIP The Q Chord has three Octave settings 1 0 and 1 1 being the lowest setting and 1 being the highest The Octave setting will be displayed in the LCD window for 2 seconds time Be sure to experiment because different voices sound better or more realistic on different octave settings It will va...
Page 34: ... STRUMPLATEVOICES Press the F Major Button one time The Q Card Control LCD will turn on and the number 00 should be displayed for 2 seconds Also the Strumplate LED Light Bar will turn off This will indicate that the Q Chord is now in the additional Strumplate voice mode Q TIP The number 00 is for acoustic piano the number 01 is for Piano 1 the number for Piano 2 is 02 To see the entire list of voi...
Page 35: ...ber 06 is shown in the Q Card Control LCD This number 06 will be displayed for 2 seconds The number 06 is for the Harpsichord voice The numbered list of the 100 Strumplate voices is in the back of this manual titled Strumplate Instrument Voice List 4 06 Q TIP Remember you may need to adjust the sustain when selecting a new instrument voice because instruments have different textures and tonality H...
Page 36: ...volume control will adjust the Melody keyboard volume Because the Chord Buttons are now piano keys only the Drums and the Melody Keyboard can be heard when the Melody Key board LED is on unless a song cartridge is engaged or the Demo Button has been selected Therefore if you play an optional song cartridge you will be able to play the melody line on the Melody Keyboard with the full accompaniment ...
Page 37: ...ard in the instrument press play and turn your Q Chord into a live concert where you can produce the show by controlling the volume levels of each accom paniment track drums bass chords chord plus Open end of the song or style cartridge SONG STYLE CARTRIDGE HANDLING PRECAUTIONS Do not leave Song Style Cartridges in locations which are subject to excessive heat or humidity Do not drop Song Cartridg...
Page 38: ...ember not to force it but to push in firmly until seated properly 2 Press the Search Up button twice until the Q Card Control LCD reads 03 Then press the Play Pause button and you should hear the 3 song selection Remember that as you are listening or playing along with the song you can edit this song s playback Try eliminating the Chord Plus feature by pressing its button until its LED turns off Y...
Page 39: ...onal cartridges are available from Suzuki or from your local Suzuki dealer Q Chord Press the Search Up button twice until the Q Card Control LCD reads 03 Now press a chord button You should now hear the 3rd Style on the Style Cartridge playing Experiment with the different playing styles and Strumplate voices while you experiment with different musical configurations such as drums and melody only ...
Page 40: ...cks are located on the side jack panel with the AC adapter inputandtheAudiooutputjack 2 The MIDI IN connector receives MIDI data from an external MIDI devicewhichcanbeusedtocontroltheQChordssoundgeneration 1 The MIDI OUT connector transmits MIDI data generated by the Q Chord Thereforechordnotes Strumplatenotes MelodyKeyboard notesandother Accompaniment dataproducedbyplayingtheQ Chord MIDI The Q Ch...
Page 41: ...y set the volume controls on both instruments accordingly 2 TheQChordtransmitsMIDIdataontheMIDIchannelsshownbelow These are fixed preset channels of MIDI transmission MIDIChannel3 CHORDPLUS MIDIChannel5 AUTOCHORD1 MIDIChannel6 AUTOCHORD2 MIDIChannel7 AUTOCHORD3 MIDIChannel8 AUTOCHORD4 MIDI Channel 9 BASS MIDIChannel10 DRUMS MIDIChannel14 15 16 STRUMPLATE Y our MIDI device should have the ability t...
Page 42: ...X X Note OFF X X After Key s X X Touch Ch s X X Pitch Bender O O X X Bank Select X X Modulation X X Portamento Time X X Data Entry 7 X O Volume X X Hold X X Soft 69 O O Sustain 91 O O Reverb Level 93 O O Effect Level X X Data Inc Dec X X NRPN LSB MSB X X RPN LSB MSB Prog O X Change True X System Exclusive X X System Song Pos X X Song Sel X X Common Tune X X System Clock O O RealTime Commands O O A...
Page 43: ...xternal MIDI device 4 Headphone and Stereo Output Jack A pair of Stereo Headphones can be plugged in here for private practice or late night playing The internal speaker system is automatically shut off when a pair of headphones is plugged into the phone jack This is also the Auxiliary Stereo Output Jack This jack can deliver the output of the Q Chord to an external amplifier home stereo mixing co...
Page 44: ... STRINGS ENSEMBLE 2 SYNTH STRINGS 1 SYNTH STRINGS 2 CHOIR AAHS VOICE OOHS SYNTH VOICE ORCHESTRA HIT SOPRANO SAX ALTO SAX TENOR SAX BARITONE SAX OBOE ENGLISH HORN BASSOON CLARINET 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 ACOUSTIC BASS ELECTRIC BASS FINGER ELECTRIC BASS PICK FRETLESS BASS SLAP BASS 1 SLAP BASS 2 SYNTH BASS 1 SYNTH BASS 2 PICCOLO FLUTE RECORDER X PAN FLUTE BLOWN BOTTLE SHAKUHACHI WHISTLE OCARINA 72 7...
Page 45: ...D 3 POLYSYNTH PAD 4 CHOIR PAD 5 BOWED PAD 6 METALLIC PAD 7 HALO PAD 8 SWEEP FX 1 RAIN FX 2 SOUNDTRACK DRUM KIT SOUND FX Voice Name Voice Number 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 LEAD 1 SQUARE LEAD 2 SAWTOOTH LEAD 3 CALLIOPE LEAD 4 CHIFF LEAD 5 CHARANG LEAD 6 VOICE LEAD 7 FIFTH LEAD 8 BASS LEAD SYNTH FX SYNTH SYNTH LEAD ...
Page 46: ...r will then repair the product or return it to the QChord Network in California for repairs Upon completion of the repair the unit will be returned to the dealer freight prepaid This warranty will not apply to this product if it has been misused abused or altered This warranty is void if the product is opened Without limiting the foregoing bending dropping of unit or visible cracks and or scratche...
Page 47: ... Volume Strumplate Sustain Rhythm Volume Rhythm Tempo Bass Volume Chord Volume Chord Plus Volume Re verb Depth Control Chorus Depth Control Vibrato Depth Control Pitch Bend Wheel Transpose Tuning Octave Shift Power Demo Strumplate Voice Select Rhythm Style Select Rhythm Fill Rhythm Intro End Start Stop Q Card Play Pause Q Card Search Up and Down Stop 100 GM Instrument Voices Rhythm Fill Rhythm Int...
Page 48: ... Style 30 professionally produced styles QRC 1 Q Chord Accessories Name Model Q Chord Digital SoundCard Guitar QC 1 Moulded Case QCC A C Adapter QCA D C Car Adapter QCD Adjustable Strap QCS Stereo Cable connect to home stereo QCB Stereo Headphones QCH Amplifier 25 Watt with tone controls QCP Q ChordVideo demonstration video QCV Q Card Digital Song Cartridges Country Classics QSC 1 Great Standards ...
Page 49: ...1 Great Standards QSB 2 Lennon McCartney QSB 3 Strangers in the Night QSB 4 Pop favorites QSB 5 Holiday Song Favorites QSB 6 Pop Classics QSB 7 Childrens Song Favorites QSB 8 Religious Standards QSB 9 Q Chord Big Book of Songs QSB 10 ACCESSORIES ...
Page 50: ...________ _________ 8 _____________________ _________ 9 _____________________ _________ 10 _____________________ _________ Style Name Number 1 _____________________ _________ Favorite Styles From Style Cartridge 2 _____________________ _________ 3 _____________________ _________ 6 _____________________ _________ 4 _____________________ _________ 5 _____________________ _________ Song Name Number 1 ...
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Page 52: ...SUZUKI OWNER S MANUAL MODEL QC 1 QChord Network P O Box 571117 Tarzana CA 91357 1117 USA 661 287 3335 Phone 661 287 3339 Fax Copyright 2000 Suzuki Musical Instrument Corporation ...
