General Music is no more, and will not return.

After their factories closed down last November there hasn't been found a company to take over ....


If you all wondered why there was no new arranger keyboard from GEM in the last 10 years, i have an answer..

Gem invested heavilly on a TOTL arranger that was supposed to have drake technology as its basis and the option to controll Vst's.

Seems they never got the product even halfway ready for release even tough spending their whole research budget over it in the last few years.


Sad thing, as their piano's based on drake technology where outstanding, and their WX2 was an awesome and inovative instrument back in teh 90's

Has Generalmusic also stopped production of the Galanti Church Organs?


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

Indeed, it's a shame.

The WX2 was about 5 years ahead of it's time, it absolutely blew away everything when it was released in 1993. It's a real shame that the WK series didn't continue the high standard it set itself with the WX/SX series.

Um... no, not quite.

Bachus, I mean no offense to you, just pointing out a few things.

Look, I have no love for the management of Generalmusic after the way I was treated by them. But as for the products and the design engineers behind them, I still stand behind everything I ever said about them; GEM was very innovative over the years, and I put my all into the position I had with the company. And by he way, the Genesys was introduced during the current decade and was the first arranger with an internal hard drive, the ability to record stereo audio files and burn those to the included CD-RW drive, 32 track very good sequencer, etc.

Regarding their present circumstances: Generalmusic and Ahlborn-Galanti are still owned by the Galanti family is it has always been. True, the GEM product line is on hiatus (and very well may remain that way, though I hope not). The Ahlborn-Galanti Classic Organ line is alive and well.

The planned follow-up to the Genesys had little to do with the present state of Generalmusic. The DRAKE processor has been around for a number of years at this point and has been through several design upgrades. Several years ago GEM introduced the RP-X Piano Expander Module and the GM-X General MIDI Expander Module, both of which contained a single DRAKE processor. These two modules came about simply because of the work being done toward using DRAKE in an arranger instrument. So basically what was left to do was to port the style and sequencer code into the DRAKE format and design a case to put it all in. That is way over-simplified I know, but the point is the product was being worked on and fairly far along in the design stage.

I am still very fond of Generalmusic products, I miss working for the company very much, and I still have hopes that some miracle will occur and things will turn around for GEM.

Dave McMahan

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Wm. David McMahan
LearnMyKeyboard
JazzItUp Band
The Modulators

[This message has been edited by WDMcM (edited 03-31-2010).]

Dear Dave...

I have allways been a big fan of the innovative GEM products... and the WX2 was 5 years ahead of anything else back in that time and therefore my all time favourite keyboard. I am even in the market for buying a 2nd hand SX3 right now.

GEMS real piano sounds based on the drake enigne where the best piano sounds early 21st century and everyone knew that.

Sad thing is there weren't any new major selling keyboards after the genesys line, and there where no real follow ups for their outstanding stage piano's

I am certain that the drake technollogy would have made the best keyboard available when released like 2 years ago, only it never got released.

Still i am a big fan of GEM and their innovative way of thinking. With the loss of GEM this innovative thinking has left the keyboard industry for now.

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And now back on the rumors, did or did they not lay off all their employers working in the production facillity where they produced their keybaords and amps? (GEM and LEM products)

As far as i know from people who visited the factory last januar and posted on a dutch keyboard forum, the factory was empty and the employers where all unemployed.

I have no information about the Ahlborn-Galanti part of their company and as far as i know these organs where never build in this facillity. All the person that visited ittaly learned from the local people is that the Galanti fammily is currently looking for someone to take over the brand general music (GEM)and its intelectuall property.

The longer it takes to find someone to take over, the smaller the chance it will happen. And according to the locals they allready accepted the fact that it probably never would happen.

This is a sad thing for the keyboard buiseness because as you pointed, GEM was allways innovative compared to the rest. And that is what this buiseness needs to survive.

Sadly as an outsider i have seen no reall inovation in the GEM product line over the last 5 years only a decline.


So please Dave, where is the good news, so i can jump up from hapiness?

I used to own the SK 76 arranger keyboard and I have to say that it was a few years ahead of its time. It could play wav files even before any of the others could and the sound would be assigned to each key with no problems. It was also one of the first arrangers with a 32 track sequencer built-in. Granted it was not without its quirks (Song Error 4--The most dreaded error message you could ever get from the keyboard---this meant that you're screwed---and that all the work you did on the song----is pretty much unrecoverable----unless you had divine intervention).

It the nicest sax sound at the time. And a large screen to boot.

I used to check harmonycentral every year during NAMM to see if they came out with anything new to replace the SK76 and they did with the Genesys.....but since then, nothing. I miss my SK (sold it) and it is a shame to learn that GEM could be no more. I hope it makes a great comeback like Alesis did.

Peace out
J I N X www.jinxchin.com


[This message has been edited by dongggoi (edited 03-31-2010).]

some months ago one of the members posted a link to an italian newpaper article which was translated to english which reported that the Galanti family was in trouble with the Italian government for improper trade practices. It was reported that government subsidies for employing workers at multiple locations were violated by GEM.
I was in Ancona, Italy back in 2002 as a guest of Generalmusic and I visited at least 3 factory locations. The Albourn-Galanti Organ factory is miles away from the factory/warehouse where the Genesis and audio equipment were manufactured.
The church my family attends has an Albourn-Galanti Organ and I hope service and parts will continue to be available if needed.

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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

I want to add my 2 cents also, although I have commented many times on GEM products I want to say that the WK8 was more than 10 years ahead of its time only imitated by many others, were can I begin? lighted buttons for all the functions? 3D sound processor? 200,000 note sequencer? Akai playback for sounds? VLSI chip technology and much more if you dig deeper into the keyboard, I still own the WK8 and turn in on once and a while or sometimes take it on a few gigs, and I was also looking into a new product from GEM but I guess everything today evolves around money and not the passion of a family owned business and their pride to bring out special and innovative products to the musician.

thanks
Vangelis