Hello, I just bought one of these. I bought it on faith ... and for all it's features which include... you know... the sequencer, grooves, sample reading, Arpeggiator and I'll use it as my basic studio controller... all for a whopping $695 delivered. I'd have paid more than half of that just for a basic controller with no sounds or features really so I saw it as a bargain.
BUT...
I'm pretty frustrated about finding the new OS for it.. (the GEM site has a dead link for this!) I have the Equinox.lz3 file for the OS now that came with it... Is this the current OS??
Someone from Gem attatched a file to an email called Equinox.lz5 but this caused a warning and aborted the OS update... so I'm sort of confused.
I can't find out anything about upgrades (like the 8mb Battery Backed memory, the SCSI kit, Hardrive kit...)... except for ONE store (Sound Logic) or whatever it is, online that has the 8mb ram for $144!
That seems high, man!
Also I can't believe that there isn't one good piano patch on this keyboard. (The GM1 "Piano 1" is the only piano that even comes close.) In fact hardly any real sounding instruments at all really. A French Horn here and a Flute there, some elec. piano's and organs... but not much "real" instruments to work with. A virtual cornucopia of pads and airy sounding synthy things. The "voice" patches were not good, not choir like. I'd have felt bad if I actually paid what other people were paying for this only a few months ago.
It seems to have plenty of drums sounds and a few more kits than some keyboards. They do seem a little dated as drum sounds go but I think they'll be useable though.
Utilizing the drawbars and the organ sounds might be the way to go with this keyboard.
It seems the other real value will be the loading of new samples and sounds, available in many formats.
For this the hard drive and/or SCSI port would really come in handy.
I'm new to this GeneralMusic world. Can anyone point me in a good direction or input some germane advice?
For instance can I substitute a generic or 3rd party harddrive or scsi kit in this Equinox?? Where can I get the upgrades at all for that matter?
I thank you, Karl

[This message has been edited by BossX (edited 01-22-2002).]

Your right about the Equinox, but....
You should get to know it better I guess. The GM sounds seems pretty lame, but do not forget this synth was filled with basic the sounds of the WK4/8 series, and a few extra sounds. I am talking about the factory sounds, and not the patches which are divided in Bank A, B etc.

The piano sound problem was "solved" by putting the PRO samples on a HD and selling it with backed RAM. This piano in combination with the new DamperEffect (ProFX) does improve the piano.

The synth sounds are .... GEM. When you look at the S-series it is the same thing. A general good sounding synth (in comparision with Alesis, Korg etc); no. A unique synth with very fat sounds; yes (IMHO)

My last point is, the Equinox is a instrument on it's own, and you have got to get to know it better. It's the inside what counts! The effects provided can make the basic sounds much better. The Drawbar is very good. The DrumKits are natural, the dance a bit less, but I use DanceKit samples.

Do you have a internal HD with it? It is a must. I am the proud (!) owner of a Equinox PRO 88, all extra's included except vocalizer.

My advice: kick the Equinox in musical way through the room. You'll get used to it, and love it...

Substitus for expensive Hard Drives and SCSI kits: The SCSI kit is AFAIK special for GEM. The Hard Disk is standard laptop IDE harddisk 2.5 Gig. You'll only need a HD fitting kit with some screws etc.

I heard that in Germany add-ons for GEM keyboards in general are cheaper than eg in Benelux. I have no URL for you, just the hint...

URL List for Equinox: http://www.meter.net/gem_download.htm = GEM download free stuff
http://web.infinito.it/utenti/e/eq_mmps/links/links.htm = Equinox forum etc
http://www.sospubs.co.uk/sos/may99/articles/gemequin.htm = Equinox review
http://support.peavey.com/~generalmusic/guests = peavey GEM forum

Have you found more URL's? Please, could you share them?

greetings

Joost
Holland

Thanks, Joost for the info and links. I bought the EQuinox to replace an Ensoniq ESQ-1 which was my main controller in my little studio. I know the Equinox is a big step up from that. I had a very small budget to work with and was glad I found this at a low price. The SCSI kit or hardrive I know I'll need for any serious sample reading. With this company in a flux right now it seems, I don't know where to get these items. One store I've found and that's it. I want to see if there's any competition price wise for these items.
Anyway I've read somewhere that the EQ will be able to use some of the WK4/8's... something! I don't know if it's the patches or sounds or ...I hope.. it's styles.

The Equinox can read directly
WK4 sounds
WK4 patches
WK8 Sounds
Wk8 patches (?)

when you convert WK4/8 songs to the Midi standard used by GEM, the GMX standard, you will be able to import the songs with the same sound of the WK4.

No styles is unfortunatly not possible.

If you want to share samples of Equinox Stuff, please mail me at joostje@bigfoot.com

greetz!