Am I the only one eager waiting for some Equinox OS update? Are there any plans for it? If there is anyone reading this and wanting to trade nice Equinox sounds, I have some very nice ones. joost.merema(AT)hccnet.nl

greetz 2 y'all

Joost

Hi Joost, No, i dont think that you are the only one eagerly awaiting an update! But i think that the chances of any further updates for the Equinox series are very unlikely to say the least.

Quite a shame, as with a reliable operating system this could be something extra special.

I have owned my (new) equinox 61 for just over a year now and it has been collecting dust in the spare room for around 9 months as it is just so unreliable and temperamental to take out on the road.

Not one of my wisest of purchases.

Mick.

Hi Joost,

At least I am also still hoping there will be a new release, fixing all the bugs....

Maybe we should ask GEM to release the sources and the development environment for the Equinox Operating System - so we can fix it ourselves.
I would like that - it seems that Yamaha has done a similar thing before.

Regards,

Equinox61_User

I think GEM devep's are too much busy with the new instruments OSes, so your idea is very good. Let us try to make the Equinox OS better.

Equinox goes opensource! Let's work on that!

This is an edited quote from the head of Generalmusic Professional Dept for the USA. "The Equinox OS of 11/10/00 is the final. The Equinox is no more. There are numerous workarounds for the Equinox, and when used properly it is stable. Ringling Bros. Circus uses them on tour to do circus music hooked up to a Mac laptop. I use one and have had only one bad crash, and that was because of bad RAM. The Equinox is a twin engine box that defies the logic of every other workstation you ever used, which unfortunately, as a simple wavetable lookup device is the most powerful unit around (not to be confused with the K2600 which is sonically the best unit if you have enough RAM). Roland, Korg, Yamaha, are all behind the Equinox. There are plenty of workarounds on my site. Also, everyone who owns an Equinox shold upgrade to the 8mb BBDRAM, which helps the stability, and they should turn off the "undo" feature because they crash when the buffer reaches critical mass. Besides, with 8mb you can load the cool Pro1/2 piano sounds." The site he was referring to is http:/home.att.net/~philgeneralmusic

Hope this helps.

Hi Paul,

Of course - I know that GEM will not release a new OS for the Equinox.
But they might consider releasing the source - in my opinion, such a move would make the products of GEM more popular.

We have to be realistic - even when GEM would release the sources, setting up the complete development environment with Cross compiler for the MC68360 will be a tough job.

Currently I am looking for possibilities to hack in the unzipped binary of the OS - there are some funny possibilities there, but not much and esp. not where it comes to
fixing bugs. Look at http://www.geocities.com/antheau/Equinox.html

Below there is a link to info about unzipping/zipping the OS.

Regards,

Equinox61_User

[This message has been edited by Equinox61_User (edited 02-14-2003).]

This statement is not that of Generalmusic. I would think that a lot of our current instruments are derived from this operating system and would be giving away too much of GEM knowledge to newcomers to the keyboard industry. The market is tough enough when competing with our competition, needless to say we don't need to compete with ourselves.

I believe hacking an O.S. is in breach of copyright laws.

PaulID,

Is the code based on MC68360? That is interesting. You can hire me since I have the strongest experience in real-time embeddied systems. I can work as a contractor for GEM.

SK880 user; maybe you can convince GEM of your capabilities by making a new Equinox OS. There is an old topic of me with some requests And about the 'plenty of workarounds'... That's not the way to communicate

Let's do it!
Joost

PS I thought GEM was Italian? So how come Paul and Phil Huston know for sure about GEM policies? Moreover, why isn't here anybody from GEM Italian who can spread the policies regarding Equinox OS updates.

PS2 No Flame intended, I can imagine that resources for making ProX and Genysis OS are limited.

You are absolutely correct, Generalmusic is an Italian company. Mr. Phil Huston and myself work for Generalmusic US, which is Generalmusic Italy. Mr. Phil Huston is the North American Professional Products Manager for Generalmusic. I am the DSM for the West. I make no policies for Generalmusic regarding these issues. Mr. Phil Huston on the other hand does. My message about the work around, were to help, not to flame.

The Equinox has been discontinued for sometime, and there are no plans to update the O.S.. This is from Generalmusic US, Italy. Generalmusic position is that this is a finish product, and when used properly it works correctly.

That being said, I am more than happy to try and help get things to work correctly for you, and any owners. I would need to know exact step by step problem or issues in detail.

Honestly I do not know what the code is based on. You are more than welcome to submit a resume' to Generalmusic you can email me if you need the address. I have nothing to do with the hiring process for Generalmusic.

Hi,

At least, in the service manual of the Equinox the microprocessor mentioned there is the "MC68630EM25" which is (as far as I know) the 25 mhz version of the MC68630.

I respect the Copyrights of Generalmusic - but if Generalmusic states that "The Equinox is no more" (or, better said, not delivering new fixes), then I (as a customer of a well-paid instrument) feel free to take action. (especially because there are many, many users complaining about the quality of the OS - Generalmusic just cannot simply say "there are workarounds!!")

Of course I prefer to discuss my problems with Generalmusic and wait for their fixes - I have done that many, many times on the Peavey board. At least there was "a listening ear" in the person of Chris Anthony, but most of the bugs I reported are still there.

If Generalmusic is willing to fix these, then I would really appreciate that, and I offer my help.
If not, I can not do more than make the best of a Good Equinox with a Bad OS.

And -- don't worry, I don't know anything of MC68630 Asm programming :-) (but I might learn....)

Regards,

Equinox61_User (a happy one, though!!!! I love my instrument)

[This message has been edited by Equinox61_User (edited 02-17-2003).]

Paul, this is the topic I mentioned before, with my list wishes. I hope this makes my request more.

Dear GEM, please...

[*]1 ADD an option to rename a block on the harddisk. There is now only a load, save and erase function. A rename function would be welcome.


[*]2 ADD an option to use a 'Sound' as source for a new template 'Performance', copying the settings of effects from that Sound to the new Performance. In that way I would be able for example to keep the strings effects, but put a nice piano on top of it, without making a complete make-over to keep that strings effect as in the Sound -> Hope it is clear what I mean.


[*]3 Optimise the sound loading proces. And I mean the loading of WK4 files as object of that. When loading WK4 sounds, 50% is corrupt, I get a funkgitar + warmpad sound mixed with the sample, without an extra layer in the Sound Edit menu (I tried if the Equinox added new layers with those sounds, but that wasn't the case.).

Cris replied to this issue with the following:



[*]4 Make the Equinox compatible with loading User Drumkits from Wk4 series. Now, I have a drumkit sound (it is being recognized), but the drumkit sound is empty, I have strange links to other sounds eg a C2 would be a bassdrum, but now it is a sitar sound?!

------------------
I think I'll stick with my Equinox and WK4 - www.jukeboxband.com

[This message has been edited by JoostMerema (edited 02-17-2003).]

Hi Paul, Joost, and others,

Here my list of wishes/bugs:

1. The biggest one: The Damper Phys. Modeling Effect (in the ProFX library) is not recorded when recording a song using the built-in sequencer (which is my ONLY sequencer, I don't have an external sequencer).

2. When programming a Drawbar perf, editing the values for each track, the 7th and 8th sliders behave strange. I don't remember the exact problem, I will check it out at home again. It's something like: you edit the values for the 7th slider and if you then move the 8th slider, it should go to the page of this slider but it stays on the page of the 7th.

3. When you are in the Tracks screen of a performance, tracks can be switched off and on by just clicking once on the respective button. I would prefer that it works a bit different - first you have to select a track, then the second time you press the button it will enable/disable the track.
Because you don't see all the tracks at the same time on the screen (only 4 of the 16), you sometimes want to only see a specific track.

4. There are several user interface errors, like edit fields which are too small (for instance, when editing negative values of a envelope).

But - I have to say, in my case the system has been quite stable at least, so no problems there.

Best Regards,
(I really hope you can do something for us, Paul!! I can understand you don't like my ideas in my previous posts, but I would like to see the Equinox having an OS that has the same quality of the OS the S2 Turbo had!)

Equinox61_User

Thank you both for stating your issues for me. Let me get up to speed with these issues. I will make a post about them in a few days. Your issues aren't falling on deaf ears.

Sounds Great!!

PaulD, you said you would come back in a few days... Is no news good news?

greetings from The Netherlands
Joost

I apologize, that I have nothing to report as of yet. I thought I'd let you all know that this hasn't been forgotten.

PaulD, thanks for letting us know you are still on the case. Keep up the good work!

greetings,
Joost

I have a responce of all your concerns, I tried to post them here, but with so many quotes etc. I found it a little hard to follow once I started the post. So I posted the reponce on the Generalmusic US forum under Equinox Support. www.generalmusic.us Then Choice Forum. Remember, please don't shoot the messenger. I will continue to try and make things right. I am unfimaliar with this instrument so I am at a dis-advantage.

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your efforts!

I will try again with the Damper Phys Mod effect, although I am quite sure it does not work as it should. I will come back on this in a few days. I have downloaded the file that was suggested on the GEM-US forum, so let's see!

Regards,

Equinox61_User

Hi Paul,

Unfortunately I cannot reply on the forum of the Equinox at generalmusic.us, so I will do it here. Hopefully you are still be able to help me.

I have downloaded the PHSTUFF.ZIP file and loaded it in my Equinox, to check the Damper Phys Mod Effect.
Unfortunately, also in the recorded songs, the DPM effect is not played back correctly.

I am not sure who answered the question, but please let him try the following:
1. Create a song with only one piano track.
2. Disable the Reverb and MultiFX for this track (SEND value to 0). Enable the ProEFX DPM effect for this track (SEND value to 127 so that it sounds clear).
3. Change the DPM effect so that it does NOT use the Reverb and MultiFX.
4. Make sure the song has Effect Mode "SHARE MASTER".

In this case, the only effect heard is the DPM ProEFX effect in its pure form.
Now, start recording, and of course use the damper pedal. This will go OK.
Now, stop recording and playback the song. You will notice that when the damper pedal was pressed, the notes are longer -- but the DPM effect is not heard!

Can you please try this? When I reported this 2 years ago on the Peavey board, there was at least one other Equinox user who could reproduce this so I doubt it is a exemplary problem on my Equinox.

Hope you can help,

Equinox61_User

You could not post? Did you register? I will submit the question to him (Phil Huston- Generalmusic's Professional Product Manager). Please let me know if you did register but it still wouldn't let you post... Thanks, Paul.

Hi Paul,

You're right - I had to register (of course). I have pasted the reply on the forum there as well.

Thanks!!

Equinox61_User

Most welcome, I think Phil himself will respond in the Generalmusic forum. Let you know this guy lives and breathes Equinox.