Product: Peavey Spectrum Bass II
Price Paid: 180 (EURO) used
Submitted
05/29/2002
at
02:40am
by
maik
Ease of Use
:
8
OK, very easy, but you just can change patches and set midi channels ;-)
If you want preset bass sounds, theres no better choice than this!
If you want tweakable bass sounds, get a peavey pc1600 and its easy enough for people experienced in synth programming.
But not as easy as, say, a nordlead (the structure is more complex).
the manual is gorgeous!
i think peavey was very underrated for their synth devices.
the bass II even can programm the pc1600 for you with the pathes to be edited with - someone thought about users, obviously.
so, read the rating with a grain of salt...
Features
:
8
255 patches, 64 of them user editable.
2 or 4 oscillator voice architecture,
4 filter types,
modulation matrix,
77 waveforms (mostly bass, but also standard (sine, square, saw, ...))osc sync,
4 envs,
2 lfos,
2 outputs (dang! should have been 4)
midi omni, poly and multi mode (all switchable at the panel)
6 sound multitimbral
editable via sysex messages (see above)
a lot of modulation possibilities, if you need them.
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
10
ah, the sound...
there is A LOT of bottom end without any muddy shit in the sound unit.
i really like the pure synth basses of the bass II, just put a sine and a saw wave in the path, maybe sync the oscillators, modulate the LPF and osc pitch via aftertouch and you got a monster razor sharp bass a korg prophecy will be ashamed of for...
but, also if you dont want bass this time but need some nice synth pad, maybe bandpassed, its easy if you dont need to many voices, since you got 4 oscillators for a single voice.
detune them etc - there you go
the "real" bass waves are very good (seems a little more warm and not as much hifi "in the face" than roland, for example, i like this better) and velocity switching makes naturalistic playing possible.
but you should know what you are doing...
Reliability
:
10
a black metal box with 5 switches and a pot.
sturdily built.
walwart - dont know if i like them, but its a 16V peavey unit, thats not so user friendly.
i'm expecting it to last longer than me.
use it to hit your bassplayer on the head ;-)
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
never dealt with them
Overall Rating
:
10
i had a spectrum bass (version 1) some years ago.
i liked it a lot but sold it at last to change my setup, what i do
once in a while.
then, i some day felt i missed the simplicity of the unit to get just some really convincing, powerfull bass sound for my music.
it was a pleasure finding a bass II at ebay for 180 EURO and i didnt hesitate a minute.
best is: it blows away version 1.
this one is a lot more versatile (it has RAM memories).
bt, i did not have the pc1600 back then, so if you just can get the old version, get it anyway...
i would buy it again with no thouts about that. i also would pay 300 EURO if i would need a synth (maybe better getting the spectrum synth, then).
maybe i should get the complete series...
