Peavey DPM 3SE

it takes a bit of getting used to but once you've cracked it it's pretty easy to use.however you do have to study the rather extensive manual to achieve this.

the keyboard action is very good,it's very expressive and feels more like a weighted action than any other sprung keyboard i've played.i noticed that the keyboard itself is a fatar.(well it was in mine).the polyphony at 16 is limited.i thought the sequencer was quite good and the facility for loading samples and new banks of sounds from floppies ,though it was difficult to do when playing live (but not impossible if you're organised)

i bought this thinking it would be a bit like the korg m1 on the strength of some nice ethereal angelic sounds but found it didn't really have the sounds i wanted.there's only one piano sample and one string sample (which is awful-i always used the analogue strings);the brass is horribly unrealistic also.it's got good metallic synth sounds,a variety of good basses and percussive sounds(there are loads of bass & percussion samples-maybe they aimed it at clubbers)good feedback guitar and THE BEST sax sound i've ever found-eat your heart out roland yamaha korg etc.i wish i'd sampled it before it died.

i gigged with it for 6 months on a ship and despite the bass player's amp falling on it during a force 9 gale and smashing the floppy drive it lasted another 7 years.even the drive still worked.however it didn't survive the attention of roccos in paphos cyprus where it went after power problems and was butchered by their engineer.they wanted 20 quid for breaking it and wouldn't let me have it back.i can laugh now.oh...the buttons to change the sounds were a bit iffy sometimes

a very interesting original keyboard but don't use it as your main one as i did if you want good strings and brass.i'd get another just for the sax sound though!if anyone wants a load of setup and sample disks for one just contact me.

The software version I use is 2.2. Basic operations are simple. Sounds and drumkits are organized in banks and you can switch between banks fairly easy, so it's not hard to start with the presets straight-away. If you want to use all of its features you'll have take some time reading the manual though. If you don't have any experience with synthesizers the possibilities might seem somewhat overwhelming.

There are really too many features to mention them all. The thing I liked most is the flexible way you can modulate the sounds. There are 4 fully customizible envelopes, 2 LFO's, keyboard modulation like velocity, note position and pressure, wheel- and pedal modulation and of course external MIDI control. Pitch, level, filter and even the LFO's itself can be controlled by 2 of these modulation modules. The envelopes can be made pressure and velocity sensitive as well. This gives it very dynamic sound capabilities.
It has some sampling capabilities, but I've never used it because the sample memory (up to 1 Mb) was an optional feature that I didn't have.
It has 100 preset sounds you can overwrite with your edited sounds and you can expand this with an optional cartridge. You can save everyting on a 3.5" floppy disk with the built-in floppy drive.
It has a 9-track sequencer that allows you to record live or do step-editing. I hardly ever used it though, being used to computer sequencers which are so much easier to work with. In fact, it's one of the worst sequencers I've ever worked with.
It has a lot of built-in effects, but it seemed to me you can't use different effects if you're using different sounds through a sequencer. It always applied one global effect when I tried this. Maybe it's possible, but I wasn't able to.

The sounds itself are all sampled. Some sound somewhat realistic, some not, but the biggest problem always seemed that how hard you tried to modulate the sound, you could always recognize the original sample, so patched made with the same samples resembled each other. It has some analog-type waveforms as well and mostly I found myself using those.
The unboard effects are nog great compared to dedicated effect units, but if you consider the fact that this is an older all-in-one synth you have to admit they're not that bad. I've heard worse effects on modern synths.
The features I described earlier make it a very expressive keyboard of course.
The sounds are not very suitable for Dance and Electronic music. I would say it's best for Light Rock and Pop.

Funny thing. My DPM 3SE didn't work anymore until I wanted to write this review. It was stuck in some kind of permanent error.
Anyway, I wouldn't say it's very reliable. I've had it freeze on me a number of times. From time to time, the sequencer does some surprise remixes and one of the buttons is stuck, although I didn't use it that much. I hate to see what would happen if I used it extensively.
Hooking it up with my computer through MIDI didn't seem to work very well either. Maybe it worked the way Peavey intented it, but it sure didn't work the way I wanted it.
It's too heavy as well (14 kg/ 28 lbs). There's nothing unreliable about weight of course, but it makes it too hard to handle and accidents are likely to happen.

I've never dealt with them.

I wouldn't buy it again. It's too unreliable, but what's more; it's not what I want anymore. I'm more into analog an FM synthesis and I've moved my focus to grooveboxes. I could do with a MIDI-controller, but this keyboard doesn't qualify for that because it's too heavy and it didn't work the way I wanted when I used it's MIDI-features (maybe it could work in combination with other gear though and was the real problem the computer program I worked with).
The only reason I own it is because it was recommended and I didn't question this recommendation (it was 10 years ago when I wasn't that familiar with synths).

i'm using a v.2.3, which added some microtuning and effects parameters to the previous version. Editing patches on this is easy and powerfull. 12 patch edit buttons reduce the layer of menus. the Filter button, for instance brings up cutoff and resonance, which then can be controlled by lfo's, env's, aftertouch, etc. is a straightforward manner.

it's got a fairly horrible onboard effects section, a disk drive that reads windos disks and an memory card which doubles the memory slots to 200. <1MB ram for samples, which you must SDS over. a 9 track sequencer helps flesh it out. a shareware editor is available. The DPM was a early try at an all-in-one board. i.e: synth, sampler & sequencer that could always be upgraded. good idea, but it's not going to amaze you.

it's got a D-50-esq quality to it, but with a lot of grit, and no "sparkle." like there's not much above 10khz. running it through a BBE gives it new life. i could never get a decent string pad out of it, but it does well with rock, industrial, and odd sounds. good organs, basses, synths, oddities, ok pianos, vocals, and drums. it is very expressive, though, velocity & aftertouch are scaleable, an alpha wheel (aka data wheel), data slider and -/+ buttons & and the 3 pedal jacks on the back give you a lot of control.

it's been ok. it does hang every once in a great while.. once every several months of use, and the patches on the ram card have been re-written as noise. backing up of patches is easy and is a viable work-around.

i upgraded the rom chips. the techs were available and helpfull, although i don't think the dpm is supported anymore. :(

it's more than a useable live synth for a rock band. if you're on the solo/studio tip, you'll probably want it alongside some other gear, as it has a rather unique sound which you don't always want. i've been kind of hard on it, but i like this board. it's fun to play! it came out in 89, i think, and the general sound quality dosn't compare favorably to modern synths. it can make some of the sounds you want, but it can't make all of them. it's good for a live band, or would make a good controller.

Version 3.2 Presets are fair but no good for Techno. Editing patches is easy. Manual is Ok

16 voice polyphony. Key action is good. You can SDS "waves" for samples and use them in patches. 1Mb is max 64Kb is standard. Sequencer is good for being onboard loop functions and Seq to Song builds come in handy. It is not GM. Midi functions are basic and not buggy like some old midi devices can be.Uses Static Ram cmos chips Sony CXK581000P-12L for memory. The SE has two with two more slots open.

Peavey's sounds are "Meat & Potatos" Standard type. Make your Own . Onboard effects are good but I like to Bypass them for a flatter cleaner sound.

I would not gig with this alone. Make sure you have all your patch levels where you want them. It is built solid. Makes a good second Synth.

Peavey's Support is good . SE+ upgrade is very good and worth it.

I sold my DPM3 a few years ago . I missed it's sounds so I bought another recently. It is fun to create sounds on this machine. There are not a ton of patches out there for it. you can create some cool analog type filter sounds and emulate some M1 sounds. It has a disk drive which is very handy.