Generalmusic Equinox 61

There is only one current software release. I found that the manual is easy if you take time to read through it before attempting the programming.

The presets are great. Because of the ability to be able to message the sounds it makes this keyboard very flexible.

Editiung patches becomes more and more easy as you do them. No real problems

The manula could be a litle more user friendly but all in all not too bad as manuals go.

The keyboard action is as all synth type feel. Typical solid action with aftertouch feature.

The built in effects are superior. The adjusting on the fly is excelent.

There is a ROM expansion and a hard drive expansion.

MIDI is incredable especially the fact that I used many external sound modules from variuos manufatureres with no problem.

There is an on board sequenso that allows for self accompanyment during play back.

This keyboard/workstation is not for novices but with a little work can be very useful to a novice to teah application and performance methodology. I belong to a working band that lists various types of songs and venues of music. It worked perfectly in all musical selections we perform.

The aftertouch is caomarable to most all synth type 61 key workstations.

This is a very dependable keyboard. I have had no trouble with this workstation. I use it for live performance as well as studio and lessons.

Customer support is good. It took a while to find the right people to talk to but once iwas able to connect they were very helpful. In the beginning i had a issue with moving into presets and stroed sounds. The problem was a lower release of software. I upgraded and problem solved. I also had a display issue. This support group sent me a repalcement immediatly and I repaired the keyborad myself with their on the phone assistance.

I am currently selling this keyboard for a more expensive model 88 version. I have been playing music since I was 7 years old I am 53 now and still in it up to my neck. Until my hand refuse to do what my mind wants,I will be performing still. There is not much that I do not like about this equipment. I checked out Yamaha, Roland and Hammond. For the money and the versitility this was my choice of performance keys. I do wish there were upgrades to improve the sound richeness in the horn sections.

I would recommend this keyboard to anyone who asks.

I've had 5 of these over the past 5 years so you get to know your way around after that. For a novice, the manual makes no sense.

1200 internal sounds, with each having the capability of being modified by the user under several parameters. Best Leslie simulation on the market.

You cannot find a better keyboard, soundwise, for the money. The only weakness is the accoustic pianos but heck, there's about 50 of them in the sound bank and if you can't bend and shape the one you want, then it's YOUR FAULT. Besides, the 3.5" disk allows you to bring on any sampled Steinways, Yamahas or any other grand piano you want.

Only had one problem out of 5 keyboards and 5 years of using. The contact got bad under the middle C note. I sprayed tuner cleaner into it which, as my repair guy said, wrecked whatever material is used on the contacts. Anyway, $280 later, I learned my lesson.

Don't expect any response from the crazy Italians that make this KB. I think their CS department was laid off about 4 years ago. The schematics are pretty basic for the keyboard so any reputable electronic repair facility should be able to fix your problems

The General Music Equinox is the world's most underrated synth. You should be able to pick up a used one on Ebay auctions for under $400 which is about 1/5th the retail price back in the late 90's. The Hammond organ sounds with the Leslie effect are unmatched in the industry--at least, at this price.

I brought my Equinox brand new from Hermes Music in San Antoniofor $545.00 -- it retails for $1995 -- Hermes sells the 88 note version with a huge hardrive; sample read memory maxed to 48MB; SCSI option etc. for only about $1100.!!! As I began to use the keyboard, I found why it was so inexpensive -- many operating system glitches -- but the software upgrade makes things a little better. I recently got the software upgrade and the slow scrolling has stopped and it hardly ever locks up anymore. Sample translation is still a bit slow and if you store any sound above user location 6 (1-5) the keyboard will hicup or lock. The presets are o.k., but if you go in and tweek the sounds to your liking you will soon see the true power of the instrument. But for those folks who are novices; if this is your first workstation, it will seem a bit difficult to program. This keyboard's particular operating system is not conventional and will almost force you to relearn sequencing methodologies and the like -- the operating system is nothing like a korg, yamaha or roland keyboard. They dreamt this stuff up all on their own.

I dig the keyboard action; it compliments my playing feel. The built in effects are fairly powerful and allows several routing schemes. The sequencer is phatt once you figure it out. Saves a number of songs internally through battery backed memory; 250,000 notes etc., I expanded the ram memory to 40MB. I plan to get the SCSI and additional 8MB memory options. It reads WAV, AIFF, AKAI, and Kurtzweil sample formats. I really don't dig how it implements MIDI -- that's probably because I haven't figured it out on this particular keyboard yet. But Keyboard Magazine, Sound on Sound, and Electronic Musician say it has "overwhelming controller capabilities". I've yet to see this come to fruition through my attempts to use it as such. I also dig the groove library it has onboard (huge!). The arpegiator is o.k.. I've yet to figure out how to utilize the arpegiator within a sequence. On my XP60 it's rather simple to accomplish. Overall, lots of features; check out the Equinox's spec sheet, but ease of use isn't too "easy".

I dug the sound of the patches. It sort of has that Ensoniq vibe to me. If I heard it with my eyes shut, I would think it was an Ensoniq. I think the board would serve any mainstream musical endeavor well. The preset's have an 80's vibe -- but like I said earlier, if you tweek them to your liking you'll be pleased.

I used it during a gig and it performed well (without using the sequencer). Using the sequencer -- you might not want to utilize the "performance mode" to play along with a sequence. It will crash on you if you use too much polyphony -- trust me. I'm forcing myself to learn this keyboard so I can get my money's worth -- the sequencer is reliable from a stand-alone perspective. Play over the Equinox sequence with a second keyboard -- no midi connection between the two.

Customer support was great for me. The cat helped me out with every glitch and question I had. Some folks have complained about their customer support. The dude that helped me was a customer rep in Dallas TX.

THe thing is powerful; closest thing to a Triton or Kurtzweil you'll get for the price I paid. If you could sample on it -- it would be the bomb. The user manual is weak. Which is why I would say it isn't for the "first time" workstation buyer. But for cats who have been around for a while you'll find it worth the money. I was about to buy a Triton LE, but then read the spec sheet on the Equinox and saw it was $500 cheaper -- I jumped on it. I use it to gig. If I would have known in advance the systemic glitches I encountered -- I would have bit the bullet and brought the Triton LE. It really ticked me off to buy a brand new keyboard and encounter all the glitches and crashes -- but all in all -- it's alright. The more familiar I become with it, the easier it is to use. But I'll never buy another General Music product.

I'm using latest OS 11/10/00 - seems quite good; not much bugs left (sometimes display freezes; after scrolling or pressing button its gone) Some functions are slow - needs to be fixed; manual is shit; just the basics, if you KNOW what you CAN do it's perfect - its a MUST to check all the possibilities for the machine. some points are still stupid when editing; I loved my S3 which had a MUCH bigger display and nasty functions (shortcuts for often used menues etc.)
the sounds are still georgeous: i love the all - due I'm mostly doing trance, electronics and techno-stuff; i love to th edit every single function - GEM biggest problem is to get a machine fixxed; the ideas the put in every Synth is woooo! fantastic!; but as with the S3, the doesn't really finish them - thats the ONLY point.
Sound programming is easy; its differnt from other Synth, but what you get with 16 MB is really really perfect! all the stuff you need: big basses, huge sweeps and strings, coool FX-sonds, and they performances are the best I#ve ever heard - everything on this one is editable!!

The keyboard is not light wighted an on the S3 which had a much better one - i miss it, but its ok to use - standard.
the FX are big big big - chain them, misuse them, thats all I say!!
will add SCSi and a HardDisk soon; Disks are always slow and unreliable; if you can get a SCSI-option for about EUR 80-100: buy it! Connect it to JAZ or ZIP (SCSI HDs are NOT supportet!) - the only way to get your files (MIDI, Sysex WAV) fast. Sequenzer: don't know, havnt used it pretty much; the S3 was perfect - no need for a PC or Mac; some say Seq. is still buggy; have to check it...

Piano is dead (just like the S3), I had a SoundDisk for S3 with really good Pianos; edit them yourself (3 Layers and more); the Trance & techno-Stuff is very good, I even like the Strings and orchestral instruments - very realistic (in my ears). all Presets are perfect for me, if I'll need more Sounds I edit them easily. endless storage for them. Vel & aftertouch are good.

It would gig on it, yes. Still dont know if I would use it as a master with the on board Seq but shurely for the most Sounds, yes!

forget it. NO Support (for that machine). Thats why I did my own site with manuals, tricks, cheats, stuff, sounds and MIDI. never seens such a poor support from GEM; even the net is wiped off, almost no sites with really good stuff. don't know how many EQ the've sold, maybe just a few hundered, the marketing was stupid -since announced on NAMM 98 i was waiting for reviews; the first I've read (end 99) were *+#oAl'+*; saying dont buy this machine (cos of the ealy OS). so if you need info, check out my web site http://www.equinoxxx.com. I'm in contact with some tuff guys in Germany and Holland - they KNOW what they do.

yes, def. I have it know for 2 months and I'm happy with it.
they need to update it finally (which is sadly not mentioned)
again: BIG machine if you're willing to edit, if you're stand-alone Entertainer: no, get a Kurzweil. its a pretty hatemachine, you can get much more than it seems (so the S3), but there's poorly help online; don't forget http://www.equinoxxx.com - seems to be the last site on the net about the EQ; the others went down.

Relatively easy, in a couple of days I learned to use the main features and create my own presets. The manual is not its strong point (it should be updated, in my opinion)

No keyboard is perfect, but certainly this one really has a lot of features for the price. You can't pretend more. It is a synth, a drawbar organ (cool!!!), a groove machine, a sample player, and it has an arpeggiator, a sequencer and a lot of internal effects.
You can look at the specs on the web page: http://gem.generalmusic.com/equinox/home.htm

It has a lot of sounds:
- organs, strings and pads: very good
- brass, reeds, bass: good
- piano: so and so - I had to buy a GEM PrP7 stage piano, because this one was not satisfactory for my purpose

I have used for 4 months, and I have had no problems.
I have heard that some people had problems with the sequencer: I can't say anything about it, because I do not use it.

Fantastic. I contacted them by e-mail for some info before buying it, and they sent me a detailed answer within the same day.
Last week I had a small problem with the battery, and they suggested me the procedure to solve it in half an hour (and it worked)

It is a very good keyboard and it perfectly satisfies my needs, together with a stage piano (in my case the PrP7).
It is definitely worth the price I paid.
I would recommend it to all people who cannot afford a more expensive workstation (however try it, before buying).

Just to ammend a few things i commented on in my first review, After having some time to spend with this synth,i would like to ammend some of my earlier(innacurate)comments.
The problem with storing a voice has been rectified by reinstalling the operating system.It now stores edited patches without locking up.
Also some features explained in the manual are not the same on my model and this due to operating system revisions,the manual relates to the (i think) very first operating system.Gem should really update the manual as applicable to avoid confusion. Setting up for an external sequencer can cause some headscratching,but once familiar with how it all hangs together it works without any problems.

As before.

As before.

Never as yet used it live so cant comment.

Still the same opinion, Forget about any support for this synth.

As mentioned previously, i think it is better to stick with the more well known manufacturers,mainly because of the support thing. But it is a shame because with the right and continued support this thing could be fantastic.

When i have edited a sound and try to store, It often locks up on me and have to switch off and on again so i dont bother anymore.Using the latest "operating system". The manual is not very good at explaining things in detail. Some presets are very good but,as with most synths,some are awfull. Setting up for use with an external sequencer is a nightmare and gets in the way of the music creation process.

64 note poly which is good for multitimbral work. Effects are generally good but not as generous as far as the ammount that can be used simultaneously compared to other synths.On board sequencer is a joke as far as reliability goes. Some of the features , such as effects record and physical damper record , do not work.Would not dare rely on it for live use.
Comes supplied with 2mb of sample ram for loading samples and are retained on power down which is excellent! Can be upgraded to 8 mb non volatile ram and up to 32 mb volatile ram. Also scsi port and internal hard disk can be fitted.

Some very good presets, gorgeous saxes,The electric pianos dont fare to well though and the distorted guitar patches are awfull. Nice accoustic guitar patches. Most people dont like the accoustic piano patches but i think they are not to bad. In comparision to other synths i own ( Yamaha) i find you need to attack the keyboard with a sledgehammer to get max velocity out of it! The aftertouch is good but overall i did not like the keyboard action, very plastic and "cheap" feel to it.

Have only owned it for 3 weeks now and have decided to part with it. Would not dare to use it live!

Customer support is zero. There is a peavey/gem forum but there are questions unanswered from as far back as 1999! Forget it.

If it were lost or stolen i would not consider gem, or peavey for that matter, ever again. I have been playing for almost 30 years pro /semi pro and have never known anything as unreliable as this. This is a shame as with a better op,system and customer support it could be a worldbeater. This was my first departure from the more mainstream makers like roland ,yamaha,korg etc, My first and very last! Curse the day i bought it. I find more and more features every time i use it that do not work! Dont know how they manage to get away with it under trade descriptions!

I've got the 76 note version. The following applies to all models.

The Equinox has Flash RAM, so new OS's can be downloaded, which gives it a lot of flexibility. It's a bit hard to get your brain around the sound structure, which can have up to six sound sources, including samples. In this respect, a software editor would be great, but there's little chance of seeing one of those. Once you know how it's done, editing is a breeze, although there is a lot of button pushing. The manual is brief, but OS upgrades have additional information in PDF format. The basic unit has over 1000 presets, and almost endless user storage.

Polyphony is huge: up to 128. This is reduced with layering and performances. The keyboard is high quality non-weighted with little bounce and proper aftertouch. The effects are exceptional. There are three types: reverbs, delays and ProFX, which does a lot of serious processing. These can be used in series or parallel.

Expansion is one of the reasons I bought it. Internal RAM is expandable to 32 MB volatile and 8 MB battery backed. All it needs for an internal hard drive is the drive bracket and cable and a 2.5" IDE drive up to 2 GBytes. That's a lot of storage. If you like, an external SCSI interface can be fitted.

The MIDI, as usual is capable with two MIDI groups, and even has a MIDI merge for the two ins. Nice. There is aftertouch and three pedal inputs which can be assigned to almost anything. A PC port allows direct connection to a serial port: i.e a laptop. The Equinox also has eight sliders which can be assigned to any controllers, which is also why I bought it. More on these later. The sequencer is very powerful, and ideal for gigging. I've heard it can lock up, although I haven't had problems yet. OS upgrades should hopefully cure this. Another fun feature is the Grooves. These are a load or preset patterns, riffs, runs and licks which can be integrated into your masterpiece. If nothing else, they're fun.

With 16 MBytes ROM, don't expect realistic, although some of the sounds are very good: just get in there and tweak. Throw in your samples as a sound source you can do almost anything. Alas, the acoustic piano is awful, and I do wish manufacturers would do this properly or not at all. The Equinox is an all-rounder and perfect for gigging. The sliders can also be used for on the fly tweaks of envelopes and filters. They have yet another trick, only found here and on the Kurzweil 2600: the sliders can also be used as Hammond organ drawbar sliders. Another reason why I bought it.

GEM pro keyboards are built like a brick toilet. You can backup any data on the inbuilt floppy, and if you have SCSI or an internal IDE HDD, it can be dumped here as well.

Customer support is good. The OS upgrades, and other funky stuff can be downloaded. There are a couple of good (non-hysterical) user groups, and since Peavey are now in a marketing tie up, things have just got better.

This is the poor man's Kurzweil 2600. It has most of the features for around half the price. You can pick up a IDE drive and a couple of 16 MB 30 pin SIMMs for a song, and the hardware upgrades are good value. It can load Kurzweil, Akai and WAV files, so there's plenty of scope for expansion. There are four outputs and even two inputs. GEM is bringing out an external audio processor which will let you do even more, such as sample recording and vocal processing. In short, the Equinox offers astonishing value for money.

I had the GEM S3 Turbo, and good though it was, it was slightly dated. I bought it on a whim and loved it. Because of its shortcomings, alternative replacements were the Korg Triton and the Yamaha EX5. The Korg is a Korg and sounds like a Korg. I have an N1R for that noise. The EX5 offered good value, but i've never been impressed with Yamaha's VL or XG, and its SCSI performance is apalling: only twice as fast as a floppy! The Equinox is a good compromise. No synth does everything well, but the Equinox manages to pack a lot in one box for very little money. I needed a good workhorse synth with sampling capabilites, and the funky Hammond and neat effects is a bonus.

Every OS version brings new goodies for free, and as yet, few manufacturers have a Flash OS. GEM keyboards are highly underrated and they spit on the competition. If you're drooling over the Kurzweil 2600, this does most of what that does for half the price, and the sound quality is excellent.

That's another reason why I bought it.

Using latest (May 99) O.S. Well, I've had this keyboard for 8 months now and still think it's sorry! For loading standard midi files and playing, it has served me well and never glitched but programming my own stuff is hell. Have spent lots of time on the phone with very helpful dude from GM but he can't really solve all the software glithces in the OS and sequencer. Once you get use to the sequencing it's okay but I like Korg or Roland much, much better. Don't buy this keyboard!

Boasts the best features for the buck but dual sound engines in this thing always cross one another. I play a midi file, try to play along live and the sequencer goes haywire. Afterwards, all the effects are off and can't be restored until turning the joker back on.

sounds are pretty good. could have made less sounds with bigger sample size. don't know why anyone needs 1000 synth sounds at the expense of a couple of good pianos.

to play midi files, as stated it has been very reliable as long as I don't try to play along.

Nice people but they can't solve the problems. They promised new OS would solve them but I'm still waiting for that!

Would not replace it if lost. Would celebrate if stolen as I could buy a Korg Triton61. If I won the lotto I would burn the thing in a bondfire. Have owned Moog, Korg, Yamaha, Roland synths over past 18 years. Bottem line - They offered so much and delivered so little, the better choice would have been the Korg Triton for me. oh well. Live and learn.

The presets sounds great!!, editing patches is very easy, the manual is good, but i have some major problem!!!, THAT NASTY SEQUENCER, when i have produced some house music with a lot of copying in the entire song, (copy bar 1 to 8 to bar 9... etc,etc) i'm getting song errors!!!! with the number 4, 5, 7, 9 and 11!!! entire songs where ERASED!!!, memory dumps!!, system errors!!!, buffer overflows!!!, with songs of 50 bars!!!! @ 140 BPM, 1 minute??

New operating system doesen't matter at all!!!, re-installing the OS won't work!!!

The sequencer is CRAP!!!, SONG ERRORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :< :<

I am playing for 10 years, with a General music WS-1 Keyboard, the sequencer never had problems!!!!! (but 5 tracks and 20.000 events :<)

But the equinox have 16 tracks 250.000 events, but i can't record a song larger than 5 minutes ?!?@$^@^$#%!@#$%?

If some of you guyes having the same problems as me?, contact me by e-mail, i am talking with Generalmusic Italy to solve this problem with the Software-programmers/developers!!!,