Using beams of 2~at 291 and 392 MeV and 12C at 300 MeV the inelastic excitation of collective modes in SSNi has been studied with a Q3D magnetic spectrometer. In the analysis different contributions are unfolded from the spectra: 1. single lines, 2. the inelastic continuum, 3. the three-body continuum, which mainly originates from onenucleon pick-up to unbound states followed by the nucleon emission. Special care was taken to calculate the spectral shape and strength of this process. The population of unbound 21Ne-states is measured in a neutron-2~ coincidence experiment. Coupled channel calculations have been performed to extract the deformation parameters for the inelastic states, including mutual excitation. For the giant quadrupole resonance 70 ~ of the energy weighted sum rule is found. The excitation of higher multipoles is calculated and extrapolated to higher incident energies (50 MeV/u). The importance of the inelastic excitation as a "doorway process" to more complex interactions is discussed. It is found that especially the excitation of the projectile (2~ takes a large fraction (20-50 ~) of the incoming flux in the first step,