Gem Pro-Mega 3

Version 1.06. Most presets sound good and fit quit well in a mix. You can easily adjust reverb and effects levels and EQ to your desire. It is dead simple to play around with layering sounds, split, transpose in half steps or by octaves in order to create full and interesting layered sounds. You can easily change each individual sound (and its responsiveness) drastically by sliding the filter (SOUND - FLT) (see further). Most functions are just one or two button clicks away. Manual is very easy to read. I also have the 3 pedal unit that really helps to play piano.

Fatar keyboard: some find the action to light, others too unresponsive. I find it suits my needs perfectly; I tend to play with at a user touch (TOUCH - USR) at around 80 which I find much more responsive than the standard setting.
Two effect blocks: reverbs and others, all of which are very useful to change the sounds, though the wah is perhaps a tad cold.
320 note polyphony - who needs this you may say (nobody else offers this) but then again it may explain why you really hear a piano (damper off) when your playing.

Still unbeatable I think for classic or rock, pop, jazz, gospel, church. The pianos are wonderful and reactive; very dynamic on the standard setting. Vintage keys (rhodes, wurli, clavs, DX rhodes) are very good and easy to change how they sound.

While certainly not offering a lot of options or sound tweaking (it is not a synth), some cool sound sculpturing can be done with the few options given. One particularly useful feature is the filter. Turn it down on piano patches to give more woody dark sounds or a real piano (for solo pieces), turn it up and it becomes more tight and present like a yamaha (useful when playing in a rock band).

On the vintage keys (rhodes in particular) changing the filter seems to sweep between more noise and rumble when turning it down, and more warmth when turning it up: I like to turn it down a bit and then the rhodes sounds more like an old rhodes with more breath in the sound. In combination with a user TOUCH you can change the feel of the keyboard to make it very light touch to suit certain playing styles. I also use the filter to on some of the synth strings and voices.
Another nice thing is the transpose option applied to a sound such as e.g. a brass and then use as a second layer, this works very effectively on some of the patches to further beef up your main sound e.g. clavs or organs.

I did have problems with starting up one time during the first year. GEM repaired it under warranty in a few weeks (they actually replaced the motherboard!). I have now been playing with it for more than five years without any problems (touch wood - which is actually possible as it has wooden side panels).

See above.

GEM stopped production on this one but they still offer the promega2. I think this keyboard will become a classic.

Using software version 1.06.

Ease of use has got to be top-marks. The system of sound banks, controlled by rotary pots and sliders is childs play to operate. The effects implementation, is easy to apply and allocate to the sounds you are playing.

I can't think of anything that's difficult to achieve really - even naming your own user presets is a doddle when you type the name in with the keyboard (no fiddly cursors).

I noticed another reviewer noted that changing dome settings on the effects slider, perhaps for the midi commands or pedal allocation is a little precise. That is certainly the case, although (as the manual says) you can use the tune up/down buttons also to move step by step.

320 note polyphony is spot on and the keyboard action is very good. It's lighter and perhaps a touch more springy (I think) than the Roland RD-700SX, but I think it's a good balance - especially if you want to play the vintage boards.

The built in effects are great and very simple to use - select the effect, alter the depth and other parameters, decide how much effect over all you want to apply and then use the send button to tweak how much effect is being applied to each instrument - you can enable / disable the effects per zone with the ProEFX button in each zone. It's a simple system and works well. The Exciter and Compressor are very useful as of course are the the others - plenty of scope to tweak the sound (especially of the vintage instruments) using the effects and 8 band graphic EQ.

The 8 band graphic EQ is an enormously important addition - not just in getting the right sound in the mix, but also tweaking the feel of individual instruments. One weakness would be that you can't EQ different layered sounds individually. Overall though it's more useful than the 4 channel one on the Promega 2 and the EQ on the Roland RD-700SX.

It's not really expandable, other than through the use of external midi modules etc. That said, I think it delivers alot as a single package and if it hasn't got sounds you want ... well, it's easy enough to get a second board etc.

Midi implementation is OK - functional. It'd be nice to have a USB connection, but given that the instrument is now a few years old, it's not surprising that it is absent.

The manual says the board senses the pedals connected and sets itself up to use them. Although it works with the Gem pedals (and probably others) it didn't like my Roland pedals.

A limitation is the layering options - although you can layer either on the left / right or across the board, I don't think you can have the piano (for example) on the whole board and a bass coming through on just the left. However, a compensation is that each zone has independent octave up / down buttons, which is an important addition, especially for splits.

The top scoring instruments have got to be the piano and vintage piano sounds - they're very playable and respond very naturally to dynamic playing. As noted before, using the EQ and effects allows you to change the character of the instruments to a great degree - you can really go wild there. I've played other similarly expensive and much newer boards and they sound pretty sterile compared to the sounds on this board.

It's a nice board for classical material, although the keybed is probably a touch light. I think it really suits pop / rock / jazz
best.

The keyboard is nice and responsive - great dynamic response from whisper quiet to barking loud. After touch is a nice addition, although not many sounds on the board utilise it (the brasses do for example).

It's early days, but I'm hoping it is dependable. I think I would be heartbroken if it died. It's built well, although the knobs and sliders are maybe a little vulnerable to damage if you don't take care. A hard case is probably advisable for transportation.

Well, here's the thing. Generalmusic in Italy are OK, if you ring them. The current UK distributor aren't really interested in these older boards. Gem USA had a fantastic guy working for them (yes you, Dave) but not any longer, so I think they've lost a real customer service asset. So, I would probably say this was their weakest area currently.

If it were lost or stolen, I would scour the planet for another. Is it worth what I paid? More, I'd say. It's destined to become a classic I reckon.

It's the first (non acoustic) piano that really delivers and responds in the way I want - it makes you want to play and gets rid of the tetchiness of fiddling with the menus (Roland, listen up) to do relatively simple but important things.

Very easy to use however it unfortunate that one cannot have more zones/splits nor can this instrument play more than one sound per bank. So no organ and bass or rhodes and vibes. Presets are good if Italian sounding (if that means anything). dIVE IN AND MAKE YOUR OWN combinations of sounds. Manual is nice

Amazing polyphony............maybe overkill. yum yum
effects are rich and warm....great verbs and delays. Compresser is good too. no expansion.....just buy a Yamaha Motif ES rack and you're away. Good midi control with all the sliders and knobs. Could do with more zones though

Amazing Piano, very very playable. This is why you buy the Promega 3.
Nice strings, funky clavs (if a bit synthetic sounding due to the fact they are modelled not sampled). OK I have owned a few Rhodes pianos over the years and I have to say I don't like the Rhodes patches on this, they too are acousticly modelled not sampled. Same with the wurly. NO NO not good enough, better on Motif es and Nord Electro 2 which fortunately I also own. ORgans are not usable. Amazing to play very musical.

built very well
I gig with this and the Nord Electro but not as back up.

I emailed GEM in Italy for a replacement Knob that came off (my fault) and.............................no reply
oh well

If stolen I may get the latest Kawai MP1000 or what ever the new one is called. I would not play any of the sounds on it though. I would midi it up to a powerMac with Synthology Ivory and Scarbee VKC.

In use, this instrument is very intuitive. There are some character limits on some of the editing panels so you might have to look up what "FLT" stands for(for instance) but a quick glance through the manual and you are pretty much set. I'm not a programming type of guy but I find the features in this baby to be very easy to understand and use. It may not give you all the bells and whistles(MIDI wise) of some of the more sophisticated MIDI controllers out there, but it's obviously designed to be more of a performance based instrument - and for the guy who wants to use it as such, you will be rewarded with quick and simple editing/tweaking even at the gig. I'm giving it a 10 because I truly feel nearly all the features of this keyboard can be unlocked pretty quickly and efficiently without a high learning curve.

The presets are really good - just the types of sounds you would expect given the options available. There is a trem wurly, a phased rhodes, an old upright sound, a classic harpsichord, the bass & ride split with a piano, etc, etc, etc... Of all the instruments it emulates, it gives you the basic sounds most people use those instruments for. Like I said, the preset sounds are good but I personally prefer to tweak most of them just a tad - maybe slow the trem just a tad, switch the reverb type, and so on. You could probably not tweak anything and still sound better than most other guy's instruments.

I guess as keyboards go in this day & age it's a little on the limited side as far as MIDI tweaking goes, but this guy makes up for it with all the wonderful things it does that no other keyboard can.

The polyphony is really unmatched in this class of keyboard - I simply never run out of notes. The action is more than adequate for most keyboardists. Ultimately it's a preference thing like the neck of guitars - there is no right answer. It has a respectable number of onboard effects - I only wish you weren't limited by one effect at a time(in all fairness some "effects" are actually two effects patched together, but I want the ability to put any two or three together I want) - in the end thought it's not that important and I'm sure some of the ease of use would have been sacrificed if they had thrown in some of those options. There are also a whole slew of reverb types in here - a few are really good, but most are okay, and ALL are very useable live.

Okay, here is the meat of this review. I have owned this keyboard for about 4 months now. I think it's safe to say the honeymoon is over and I can give a fair review at this point. In short, there is no better board out there for a realistic piano - None!

The Stereo Grand is absolutely amazing - full, rich, and expressive. This is the patch I play on 80% of the time - it's essential. The rest of the time I like to use the Jazz piano, the upright(for bluesier & rock things), and occasionally the Stereo Grand 2 for a slightly more pecusive grand sound. The pianos here just lack the staleness of the sampled ones you get elsewhere. It's not the notes so much as what happens in between the notes - this piano is alive!

If electromechanical is your thing then your in luck as well. The Wurli here is fantastic - one of the best emulations I have heard. I like the Nord electro's Rhodes sound only slightly better, but the Promega's is right there so I really can't complain. The clavs are good - not my style but to my ears it sounds more useable than any other clav patch I have played with. The harpsichord is miles better than anything else I have heard - they even included the damper clunk! I generally don't use the orchestra/synth sounds - they aren't horrible, but they are only average. The organ sounds are good if maybe a little limited(look elsewhere if your really into the organs - why would you want to play organ on a weighted keyboard anyway?). I don't particuarly like the bass sounds except for the acoustic bass which is decent for splits. It also has decent Marimba & Vibes sounds - I could see them working in a mix.

It's built like a tank and weighs only slighlty less than one. I'll sacrifice the weight for the sounds - truly fantastic. It's about as heavy as my silverface pro reverb amp so if you ever lugged around an old Fender amp you know how heavy this guy is. The good thing about it's size though is it is clearly built to last. I can absolutely depend on it. When I got it(used), the package was all busted up and the UPS driver appeared to have had his way with it. The wood ends showed a few dents, nicks, and scratches but it worked perfectly out of what was left of that box. It can take a beating, but invest in a case if you seriously want to take this with you everywhere you go.

Never had to work with them since I got this instrument, but their US distributor seems to be very responsive(I asked a ton of questions before I bought this one) and I am confident they would treat me right.

I was fortunate enough to live in a house with a nice old baby grand for years until I had to move out. Ever since then I have been truly tortured by the lack of a good alternative in a more portable package. I went through a couple of keyboards in my quest and finally came across this guy. All the reviews seemed to rate it highly but I couldn't try it anywhere and I wasn't comfortable spending so much money on a keyboard I couldn't try first.

After months of waiting, I finally saw one on ebay(a rarity) and I got it for much cheaper than what they go new. I decided at a reduced rate I couldn't go wrong. I couldn't be more pleased and would have paid full price(and then some) if I had known just how mind blowing this instrument would be.

I was really looking for a keyboard that covered acoustic and elelctromechanical sounds well. I was considering getting a Nord electro and a Yamaha P-250 to cover the two sounds I wanted, but in the end the Promega was everything I needed for cheaper in one keyboard. I couldn't be happier. I know at this point if I want a better piano sound I am going to have to get a real piano because this is as good as it gets. The fact that's it's super easy to use only adds to it's appeal. I feel like I spend more time playing and less time monkeying around in menus with this keyboard - the way it should be.

If I didn't really highlight it enough earlier, I also want to point out that above all this keyboard is very expressive. I can't tell you how many times I have been dissapointed with dull, lifeless patches on other keyboards(especially after hearing this one). It's really in a class of it's own.

This is very easy to use and needs very little editing other than getting the EQ set to your ears preferences and speaker and room acoustics. The 8 band EQ is a definate help to get what you want from the various sounds. The manual is adequate , not confusing, and hardly needs any prolonged study

plenty of polyphony. Keyboard action has a good hammer action without being overl stiff and hard on fingers.
Adequate MIDI- I play the pianos much of the time through an A79 controller that is mounted above my C3 along with an EX5 (Great unit)
Has aftertouch and has capabilities as a controller. Can be very complete half of 2 keyboard setup.

The acoustic pianos are the best that any technolgy can currently produce. The method of sound production is the most realistic now available. It is especially satisfying as you get sympathetic resonance. Playing antyhing more than a single note gives you a real listening experience that no other technology can match so far.When you play a note you can hear the tone evolve and change- not just a plink of a sample. Has stretch tunings available. The reverbs are the right ones to enhance the sounds. Effects for the Ep's, Clavs, etc are good.
If you want an extra loud and good sounding note anywhere on the keyboard: hit it and you got it!
The EP's are good, but I'm very fond of what I have programmed into my EX 5, which has real capabilities to create enhanced EP sounds which go beyond whar a stock Rhodes or Wurly can achieve.
Some might complain the Basses are not exactly their top choice, but it sure is convenient to have them useable in splits. A couple of really tremendous sounding huge pipe organ sounds. Good vibe programs.
My favorite Acoustic piano sound is Piano 3, the "Pro 2 Real Piano", partly because it is an improved version of the piano in my old Real Piano Module, but hey there's 15 other choice,plus EQ and effects and layering. Where else fo you find this potential? Buy one!

The unit seems well built, hey it won't bend. Have had good stability, no bad glitches.

As wu ith most 88 note hammer action it is heavy. I don't gig but have confidence in thr unit.

I have gotten excellent email support for getting the most out of this great piano board. Very helpful in pointing me toward using the EQ to better advantage.
It is unfortunate that there are not more dealers for this product. I would expect some of their other keyboards would be OK too, but how can they compete against the barage of Korg and Roland advertising and dealer space limitations.
They have gone into direct sales- and you would pay the same price as Herbie Hancock!

In spite of a dislike of 88 note hammer action keys, I bought the Promega 3 bex cause what it does with acoustic pianos was essential to have in my home. It fills that major need well and really added to my C3 and EX5 and K2600R I don't really need to look for new products- these are tops!

Very easy to use. Just pick a preset sound and play it. Better yet, pick a basic sound from one of the sections and modifiy it with the EQ and/or effects to create your own sound.

320 notes polyphony. Keyboard action is very realistic. As a synth player primarily, I was spoiled by light springy keys. With this, I had to remember what it was like to play a "real" piano.

I ditched my beloved Korg Trinity to get an instrument primarily focusing on acoustic and electromechanical pianos. I could not believe my ears hearing how awesome the promega sounds for both electric and acoustic pianos. The 8 band EQ is awesome. (Forget the promega 2 and its 4 band EQ). The effects are very nice too, especially for the electric piano sounds. The acoustic piano sounds are so good, I just play them clean, with a touch of reverb . There are plenty of reverbs and effects to pick from, all of them can be individually altered. As the keys are struck harder, not only does that amplitude increase, but the timber changes as well........way cool

had it a week. so far so good.

The GEM guys have been very nice and have promptly emailed me with responses to a couple questions I had.

This is simply the BEST stage piano I have ever heard for emulating both acoustic pianos and electromechanical keyboards. It is very versatile and easy to use....no hidden menus (except for midi and stuff like that). So many other stage pianos are either flat sounding or offer little to no control over altering the sounds. Like I said, I am more of a synthesizer player; I am far from being a professional pianist, but playing synths has given me a healthy repsect for the joys in creating one's own sounds; the promega offers so much more flexibilty in altering the basic sounds.

This is a very easy board to use. Almost everything has a dedicated button/slider. Very intuitive.

320 note polyphony is more than enough, and it's doubtful you'll ever max it out. The action feels great, not like the sluggish actions found on, say, an RD600, but not as light as on a PC88. While it doesn't have the same feel as a MP9000/9500,it's still better than most, and some might even prefer this to the MP series because the action seems to be slightly deeper i.e., the keys have a slightly longer "throw" or distance they travel before they hit bottom. Effects are good for the most part, with EQ being a standout. Typical MIDI implementation, and everything is loaded via flash,w/a "standby" button doing double duty as a way to turn everything off and on with out waiting for ram to load. The Promega has TWO headphone jacks located on the front, and the well-written manual is only 45 pages or so. I hardly ever had to refer to it. Expansion in the form of software revs is available.

This is really where the PM3 shines - Quite simply, there is no better or authentic-sounding stage piano in the world. The first two pianos (I prefer #1) are amazing, musical, ballsy, subtle, and people whose ears I respect cannot tell the difference, especially when heard in the context of a recording. The bass is incredible, and the dynamic range is much more detailed than competing products. There are four main categories of sounds: Pianos, Vintage Keys, Orchestra/Pad, and Bass/Other. The Rhodes and Wurlys are great, to the point I'm thinking of selling my Mark 1 and the rest of the sounds are very usable. The clavs sound real, strings, bass, etc. OK but not on the same level as the pianos. Then again, it's the pianos (and vintage keys) you're really buying; the other stuff isn't in the same league, but that's because Generalmusic has wisely taken the "do one thing and do it well" approach to their instruments, and it shows.

This thing is built along retro lines, and I wouldn't have a problem with taking on a gig w/o backup. The motorized faders and knobs stick out more than on most synths, so the only thing I've done in terms of taking extra precautions in moving it is to put a big piece of foam over those parts, then zip everything up. Yamaha makes a case that fits it, complete with built-in wheels.

Customer support has been a pleasant experience so far, and I feel better about ever having to deal with them than other companies. What's sad is that this is really an un-freaking-believable digital piano that doesn't seem to have as much presence in retail stores as it deserves. However, people like Rick Wakeman, Herbie Hancock, etc. are playing PM3s, and this could change.

If it were lost, I'd buy another one in a heartbeat. If it were stolen, God help whoever did it, cause I'd come after them. The PM3 is destined to be a classic. It leaves the competitors in the dirt, and it's available, right now.

Just great. Stage pianos in general haven't too much to adjust. The few demo songs cannot be selected individually. But that doesn't matter. Weight 26kg. I do NOT recommend using an X-form stand. I'm using QuikLok's WS-550, but - although it is very stable in general and vertical oscillations do not occur - it is _horizntally_ not too stable, so not too suitable for too aggressive players. But that does not belong here.

I almost took away one rating point because the configuration of the (three possible) pedals is not optimal since you have to use a slider to select one of 128 values for a specific function. That is not too tricky, but also not too good.

I will not go into details here since these can be obtained otherwhere in a more complete form.

My piece of a Promega 3 has/had two flaws after delivery: the first one is a somewhat wedging key - depending on how the Promega 3 is placed on the stand. It seems to go away by the time, but we'll see. The second one is a badly tempered key: it plays significantly harder than the surrounding keys. I've got a somewhat bad feeling about that because I fear that this could be a sign for other not-as-badly tempered keys I cannot detect by now because my ear isn't too well trained.

The features are suitable for a stage piano. There are four sound blocks, each containing 15 more or less distinct sounds. All blocks can be used in parallel, keyboard split is possible (max. 1 split, as far as I know the split key is adjustable). Each sound block has its own octave shifter - useful for the split option.

There are also two effect blocks: 15 reverbs and 15 others (chorus, flanger etc.). Each of these two blocks can be activated (not configured!) separately for each sound block.

There is NO sequencer. The headphone amp is not powerful enough for my Sennheiser HD600 headphones (300 Ohms!), which means that it is enough to play, but not enough to get a distorted playback (You know what that means if You know the HD600 *g*). I have the impression that I get somewhat too less response for higher frequencies that way.

A plus point is that it has got an integrated equalizer. I don't use that for my rating, because I do not care for such sound-adjustments.

The hammer action can be adjusted in 100 steps. (from extreme hard to extreme soft)

Hmmm... I bought it as a 'cheap' replacement for a grand piano. And it comes pretty close (as far as I can tell...)! There are two very realistic sounding imitations of grand pianos (eg. you can hear the string resonance!). The Jazz piano is also very nice. The Rock piano sounds almost like a harpsichord. Some people may find the Upright imitation very useful, but in my opinion it just sounds like an Upright (wonder, oh wonder!). I personally just like the three (out of 15) piano models mentioned (and somewhat the Honky, eg. for Ragtimes).

Other noteworthy sounds:

Marimba, Church organ (Great realistic sound! Almost every church should use the Promega 3 instead of their real organs!), Jazz organ, Rock organ.

Of course there are also brass, strings, guitars, basses and a choir. There are only very limited drums.

Because it serves great as a stage piano/jazz organ/cheap (chameleon-like) grand piano replacement, I give it ten points here.

Don't know yet. It is relatively new. The case looks stable. But there are important knobs standing away from the case. They may be crushed away in some circumstances but I don't think any headbanger will use this instrument.

Still waiting for their call (Germany).

Cannot help myself, but I couldn't have made a better choice. If only their production control would be better.

Geez, I agree with everyone, this is almost too easy to use. Great thing is, if you are into tweaking, it seems pretty easy to dive in and tweak. You can even set your own temperment!

Incredible Stage Piano, no garbage cluttering it up. I love the action, very playable without the hassle of a wooden keybed. I give it a 10, for being what it was designed to be.

The most realistic Pianos you will ever hear. The technolgy is awesome, although I don't understand it, it has no sample switches... You can play a with incredible feeling... It's a freaky how realistic the pianos are. I agree with the guy on the upright piano... What a cool sound. The honky tonk is neat, although not a sound I would ever use. I love the bass sounds and some of the pads, but there are some useless sounds on the instrument. What the heck is up with the New Age piano? I rate is a 10, as this is an incredible piano and Rhodes.

I use this on gigs, and have for 3 months with no problems. I have had to flush the memory once, but never during a performance. BTW, this is a very cool controler as well, and haven't heard anyone mention that.

The local store was great (once I found one) but never had to deal with the company themselves. It has a 5 year warranty... Wow!

This instrument and the Kurzweil K2500 is all I need on stage. I paid around 3k for it, and would gladly pay double for it. It is the first time I have felt conected to the instrument, and felt I was actually making music again. It is a must for all Pianist! I compared it with everything, and really listened to everything out there, Roland, Korg, Yamaha, Techics, Kurzweil.... Nothing even comes close to this as a Piano. I hear people complaining about the weight.. geez, it's only 55lbs... The only pisser was finding a case to fit it, something with wheels. The instrument layout is taller than most keyboards.

I bought the GEM Promega 3 about 6 weeks ago. I tried new stage piano series of Roland, Yamaha, Korg, Kawai and Kurzweil as well. I have been playing the piano for 22 years .....

Let's start by telling you it takes approx. 5 minutes to understand how to use this instrument. It's quite simple: Turn it on, play and you'll enter a new world of digital sound-quality.

There are quite a few presets, but personally I bought this instrument to use it as a professional studio piano and/or rhodes, for both classical and jazzy purposes. They sound GREAT. There is a nice sounding Wurlizer and Clavi on board as well. Strings, pads and acoustic bass are fine as well.

The device is easy to edit, the possibilities are limited to some basic pan-, volume-, lowpass filter- and FX-editing. The graphical EQ is clean, dynamic and rich of natural-sounding impact. You can store up to 64 patches.

I think the manual is easy to read. But honestly, I didn't take a look at it.

Polyphony = 320! The keyboard action is satisfying, but the action of the Kawai MP-serie comes much closer to a grand piano. However, GEM Promega easily beats Kurzweil, Roland (too plastic), Yamaha and Korg. I think Kawai MP keyboard-action and GEM Promega 3 soundtechnology would be a very strong combination!

FX are strong! There is a built-in reverb unit and a built-in PRO FX-unit (like compression, flanger, phaser, wah-wah, delay, exciter). The Promega 3 offers 4 MIDI-channels and does not have an on-board sequencer. There is pitch-bend and modulation (assignable as external MIDI controller) available. The keytouch can be adapted to your style of playing (soft for keyboard players, hard for piano players). The instrument is heavy, so I leave it just where it is...

So now we get to the point: The piano sounds very realistic. The Promega 3 contains the best piano samples available today!
Especially the Stereo Grand 1 & Stero Grand 2 samples sound convincing to me. Also the Wurlizer and rhodes are masterpieces of work! The sounds work well for all types of music, especially classical and jazz music. It's really breath-taking as well to control a VERY dynamic range of grand piano samples, without noticing any possible predefined velocity zones. GOOD WORK GEM!

Just visit the website of General Music and download the mp3-demos available of the instrument. You'll be surprised!

I can rely on this heavy instrument soo far (6 weeks). I will leave it in the studio as well, I'm not going to use it on gigs.

Not yet dealt with the company, but maybe I will be dealing with them soon:

I am not sure about the reliability concernig MIDI. In general it works fine, but with some heavy editing & play on several channels at the same time, it looks like even the Promega 3 has some minor bugs.... Also one of the keys seems to make a 'cracky' noise once pressed.

The instrument is definitly worth the price. It's a true masterpiece of work. I own Roland, Kurzweil and Korg stuff as well.

I love the soundquality of the instrument, but I wish the keyboard action would be like Kawai MP 9500. It looks like the instrument comes straight from the '70-'80, by the way.

The reason I bought this instrument is the fact I have to make a lot of studio recordings. Due to some practical circumstances, I prefer direct good sounding quality over micing a grand piano. However, the Promega 3 won't beat an acoustic piano (and actually no digital device will EVER beat it, thank God).

GEM has been doing some very interesting research over the last few years. I feel satisfied, and I bet you will too!