Peavey Spectrum Organ

The Peavey Spectrum organ is deceptively complex. There isn't much you can control from the front panel, but what is there is useful: patch number, tuning, distortion, speaker settings, vibrato & chorus, etc. This is all easy and obvious (10). If your keyboard has assignable knobs/switches, you can control about 30 parameters such as drawbar volume, percussion pitch & decay, and so on. This is more involved, but not difficult (7). If you go so far as to get Peavey's PC 1600 Midi controller, you can control a LOT more than a real organ will let you manipulate (volume envelopes, rotary speaker speeds, etc). I have no experience with this, but I'd wager it's a much more complex affair. The manual is available on Peavey's site. It's helpful if not always straight forward. http://www.peavey.com/search.cfm?c=0&term=spectrum+organ

I'm a wannabe organist, so I'm often only using one hand. As such, I haven't run out notes. I've disabled the reverb and rotary speaker as I have a homemade leslie, but the built-in stuff is okay. They'd work in most situations where the band is going full tilt. A volume pedal is definitely suggested as it adds quite a bit to the expression of the instrument.

Most of what you'd do with this unit is call up a preprogrammed patch and crank. You can't save any changes in the unit itself, which is sort of a bummer. You can control 4 drawbars via MIDI. The reason you can't control an authentic 9 is because the Spectrum only implements 4. That is, a drawbar may be assigned a single drawbar sound, or it may represent several, depending on the patch. These cannot be changed, but there's enough versitility to take the bottom, middle, and/or top out of the sound if need be.

My guitar-playing buddy swung by to check the Spectrum and leslie out, and in his words "If I wasn't standing right here looking at it, I'd swear you had a big, beefy organ in the room!" I also got approving looks when playing along with 8 other guys in the basement. (There's actually a rule with the group that says "no flutes, no synths" but I somehow got this waived)

I haven't spent much time on a real Hammond, nor have I owned Voce, Korg, or others. As such, I don't have much to compare it to aside from the built in sounds of my (no kidding) drum module.

When I first got the Spectrum out of the box and ran it through my music room speakers, it sounded like 90 unexciting variations of "aaghh", but once I put it through something that really spun, I was much more pleased with it. The distortion is actually pretty decent, and I typically assign my Katar's control wheel to MIDI control 91 so I can adjust the distortion level quickly. I haven't spend much time with the chorus/vibrato, but they're there.

A lot of people mention liking patch 14 (888000000), but through my admittedly home-grown setup, I much prefer 37. With a volume pedal and a MIDI controller to turn percussion on and off, you'll probably only ever need 2 patches.

I don't play professionally much any more, but I'd take this out solo. There isn't much that can break in terms of tubes or controls.

Kudos for Peavey for having the manual available on the website. It's unfortunately a PDF made from scanned images, so you can't search the text, but oh well. It's still available after all this time.

I shopped for the better part of a year for an organ module. I spent a lot of time looking at Voce, but I couldn't justify spending $300-$500 on something I wasn't proficient at. I got the Peavey, a Katar 610 keyboard controller, and a Behringer Nano MIDI controller (for percussion, drawbar, etc) all for less than $200 on Ebay, and I certainly haven't outgrown the setup yet.

I mostly play bass and drums, but I've wanted a leslie for about 15 years because they sound so damn cool. I am happy just to hit a chord and make the leslie speed up and slow down most times. Having said that, the Peavey handles a lot of aspects of real organs: e.g. the percussion only sounds once until you release all the keys (or not if you configure it differently). If I ever get really good using the Spectrum, I'll upgrade later and I still won't feel bad for buying this unit.

There are a few nuances I haven't been able to replicate, and as earlier stated, there are some compromises in terms of control, but overall it is definitely worth the $.

Very easy to use, even without the PC-1600 controller. Just dial up a sound a crank.

Features are a bit spartan, but that's not what I bought it for. I have yet to fully exploit the MIDI capability, but it is easy to control from another keyboard, so that's great.

I'm inherently suspicious of Peavey equipment, yet I find myself with a piece or two over time. The Hammond sounds are outstanding IMHO. Coupled with my early vintage Motion Sound rotating horn, it is a great approximation of $8000 worth of B-3 and Leslie. Is it exact? Nope, but it sounds close enough to justify my $150 + $200 for the module and rotating speaker combination.

I have defeated all reverb (poor) and rotating speaker sim (aggregious), which can be defeated globally (thank goodness) and all is well.

Yes it has a wall wart and will be downgraded accordingly. With a backup power cord, I'd use it without a backup.

Dunno.

Yeah, I'd buy it again. A basic B3 ROMpler is what I wanted from it, and that's just what it is. Nothing more, nothing less.
I own mostly Roland gear, with some Korg stuff, but this is just what I needed. I didn't see an inherent advantage of the pricier stuff, like the Roland VK, or the Nord or the Voce, which all sound great, but not noticeably better than the modest little Peavey.

I have to start by admitting that I simply do not understand MIDI. However, the Spectrum is simplicity itself to use. Once favourite patches are identified they can be accessed very easily. I have the module mounted vertically in the rack so that my poor ol' eyes can see the numbers without crouching down. (And they allow me to fly passenger aircraft!)

As previously stated, I don't understand MIDI. I always thought Polophony was the playing of a Polyphone which I imagine to be some kind of trumpet.

I used to have some real Hammonds until the sound became insufficient for most bands. I still have my trusty A100 in the lounge but as it wont fit into my Saab, I looked around for a decent module. The Spectrum is just dandy. It has got most of the sounds that I use on the A100 and unless you actually listen to the two side by side, the Spectrum sounds the same. The overdrive varies from sweet to downright filthy and the percussion is just the cat's ass. In short, it is a B in a box. The leslie is adequate although the fast speed is just a tad enthusiastic. The ramp up and down is excellent.

Over most of last year it has performed just like it says on the tin. Most Peavey stuff I have found to be very reliable and this is no exception. My only gripe is that I can't figure out where to put the generator oil. It gets a bit on the warm side, but then so does our lead singer.

I have never consulted Mr Peavey so I cannot comment.

I would certainly look around for a replacement should some light fingered bastard have off with it. I have been playing for several decades and currently run Roland XP80, Roland JV30 through Studiomaster Diamond 8-2 into a Peavey 500 a side stereo amp and Peavey Hi Sys cabs.

Fairly easy once you get the list of patches, which I didn't have. Didn't take me long to find out that #14 sounded the best. Then I got the list and - - surprise, surprise - - turns out that #14 is 888000000, which you Hammond-heads will recognize as your basis rock and blues starting point. Would be nice to have a dial to change patches. Fairly intuitive though.

Usable polyphony (24 or 32 depending on whom you ask.) Has click, drive, speaker options, even fine tuning for when your guitar player can't find A=440 with a road map AND GPS. Too bad that the percussion is nested in the presets. Would be nice to hit it with a button, but alas, digital is digital.

As others have said, it gets more flexible with the PC1600 controller, but some of us make do without one. Enough usable patches for my purposes without too much tinkering.

This is pretty much a one-trick pony, but hey, if you do that one well, you're all right in my book. I use five patches when I gig (numbers 14, 4, 3, 12 and 18, roughly in that order.) I did a side by side with my Real Hammond (A-100) and Leslie 145, and it did okay, especially after adding a Digitech XP-200 to get a Leslie effect. Is it exact? No way, but it would have broken my heart if it was. And there's nothing like reaching up and grabbing a real fistful of drawbars. But for loading into the old Geo Tracker and heading down the freeway to a gig, it sure works for me. Beats the organ patches in my Roland, Korg and, ahem, Casio (relegated to my midi controller for this now.)

On the downside, the Leslies don't do it for me. I tried to like 'em, but the wind-up was especially cheesy. and the effect - - even in stereo - - just didn't come close enough. Also, you can't really distort this thing much. (Back in the bad old days I used to run a line out of my Hammond pre-amp, then through a Leslie Combo preamp, then to my Leslie on 10. Now THAT'S a distorted organ sound! . . ahh, but I digress into self-indulgent, drug-clouded memories.)

Anyway, it's a keeper for the money when you're doing down and dirty blues or rock and roll, and you have a separate Leslie emulator that sounds better. I don't think I'd try to fool anybody at my local full-on Gospel Church, but I don't have the chops those gentlemen do anyway.

Seems pretty bullet-proof to me. I bounce it around pretty good.

Have no idea. Get the patches from the Website (peavey.com; search in "manuals" option.)

Great Hammond substitute. Not-so-great Leslie substitute (see my Digitech XP-200 review, though.) Your back and wallet will thank you, and you'll get enough vibe to round out the band.

extreme easy you cant imagine

polyphony 32, awesome action. nice reverb overdrive rotary speakey like a real leslie, no expantions, but you can create any organ sound you name it, read perfect all sys ex midi, I have a 4 zone A 70 from roland and its just sweet i bouth it yesterday and i love it today

very good sound quality clic sound and percution its a real organ

definitive a need on my rack, and if i can find another one, I buy it

Peavey has been always very friendly to me I have deal with them and they are really good

yes I will buy it again, I been playin since 1987 and i have colected several modules and this one its awesome, I love the sound, and the real lesly emulation, it sounds like a really expensive module, u can edit the sound with any 2 zone to 4 zone controller and it rocks

This organ is very easy to use. The editing functions on the PC1600x allow you to control the leslie and reverb settings, levels, layers and the other normal stuff. But the best part is using the faders on the PC1600x as live drawbars. They work very much like the Voce or XB2 draws. The manual could be better, but the sounds are really nice especially with some minor editing and live draws.

It has built in leslie simulation and reverb. No expansion that I can find. MIDI in/out/thru. The effects can only be edited with the PC1600/PC1600x or with a supporting editor/librarian, of which I found several available including MidiQuest, Stienberg and others.

The sounds are GREAT. Having owned a Korg CX3 for many years, I didn't expect to find a rack mount midi replacement, especially at the price I paid. The reverb is nice and the overdrive is very good. The leslie works well and has plenty of adjustment to suit any taste with separate settings for drum and horn speeds and rake. The key click, percussion and tremelo are all very nice and realistic. All are editable with the PC1600 or ed/lib.

The unit seems to be durable. Peavey is known for durability in most of it's products, with a few exceptions. I have had no problems with this piece. The only possible situation I see is the walwart. It's a 16v unit which would be hard to replace in smalltown, USA.

Peavey has info and help on their website for this and other units they have made. They were also helpful in returning email info to me on this unit, including a descriptive list of presets.

I would definately buy this piece again, especially for anywhere near the price I paid. It's only competition is the Voce, Hammond and Oberheim (if you can find one). Try buying one of those for less than $100 (even used). I paid another $200 for the PC1600x to edit it, and have found multiple uses in my MIDI setup for which to use the editor/controller functions it has. Money well spent.

I'm using a Kurzweil PC-88 to access the presets in the unit, so I can't do any editing to the sounds themselves. This is a single rack space unit with buttons to change effects such as reverb, rotary, click, etc. As long as the unit is right next to you and you've got a free hand, it's fairly straightforward to use. Owner's manual is pretty pathetic, geared more towards people using a PC1600 to control the unit (which I am not).

128 presets; receives and sends up to four midi channels; midi in, out, and through. Each preset is programmed with settings for reverb, rotary, speaker, click, vibrato/chorus. These can be changed by using the front panel controls, but any changes are global, affecting all voices. Polyphony is a problem. I use the Kurzweil to transmit on four different channels and have programs set up to layer different sounds or the same sound at different octaves, much like a real organ. When I do this I often have notes dropping out. This happens even if the different channels are accessing different presets, because the presets may be using the same wave sample.

This is mainly geared to B-3 sounds. Lots of presets for those sounds. The manual doesn't even list what the presets are supposed to be, but I got Peavey to fax me a sheet with thier descriptions of the presets and equivalent drawbar settings. Some of the presets that are labeled as pipe organ are bizarre and sound nothing like pipes. Some of the presets are limited to how high or low they go on the keyboard and have octaves that repeat. Quite a few have different sounds on the upper and lower part of the keyboard, splitting at middle C/C#. My favorite sounds are the Farfisa's. Some good cheesy sounds there. This unit is basically a cheap way to get a lot of Hammond sounds. I was actually after pipe sounds so I was bit disappointed that there weren't more of those.

No problems.

Since the manual was so useless, I had to contact them to get a list of the presets. They faxed it to me a few days later.

I don't know if I'd buy this again. At the time I bought it I didn't know much about midi and sound modules so I didn't know what to look for or what else was out there. At least they're cheap compared to other sound modules. A cheap way to get a lot of B-3 presets. Just don't expect it to act like a real organ.

This unit was designed to be used with the Peavey PC1600, and has extremely limited functionality without it. The manual is pretty awful, and mostly useless, although it does give a nice listing of all SysEx command formats. Patches cannot be edited without the PC1600, but there are some global parameters with 10 levels + preprogrammed settings for Leslie type, speaker cabinet, vibrato/chorus, release click, and overdrive. These are not easily settable in live performance settings without a MIDI controller. The presets are very good, however. There are 128 presets, covering most B3 sounds, CX, Vox, Farfisa, Metal, Pipe, and Combo organs. There are enough presets to cover nearly any requirement without using an editor.

The unit is four-voice multitimbral; it can accept inputs from 4 consecutive MIDI channels and assign them to different voices, useful for setting up multiple 'manuals'. I'm not sure what the polyphony is; I do know I haven't run into any trouble yet, so >24 note. It is not expandable, and while it remembers global parameter settings it does not save the edit buffer on power off. This may be inconsequential with the PC1600, but as I don't have one I'm not sure. It has MIDI in/out/thru, and accepts a momentary rate switch for the Leslie simulator and CV input for volume. I've found that the overdrive changes with increasing volume, when using the pedal, which is a very nice touch.

The sounds are very good; excellent for what I used it for. I've compared it to the Hammond XB-2, and found the sounds to be comparable (although the control interface isn't). Percussion on organ sounds can be mono- or poly-phonic, the key clicks are realistic, and the overdrive is nice and sweet. The preset Leslies are nice, separate rotor and drum speeds with separate acceleration rates. They sound too fast for some people, but that's personal taste. The speeds cannot be edited without the PC1600, so for me there's no option to change them. As of 8/3/99, the Peavey site had a listing for this at http://www.peavey.com/division/mi/keyboards/spectseries/specorgan.html

It seems reliable, but gets fairly hot when playing. No problems yet. The wall wart for this is a 16VAC wart, not easy to find a replacement for, so this category gets a 7.

Never dealt with them.

If this were lost/stolen, I'd get something with built-in real-time control like the Voce V3 or similar products. This was a good low-budget (used) organ module with a leslie emulator, which is what I wanted. The sounds are very good, controls not so good, but the control problem can be solved by getting a better controller than the DX7 that I use with it.