| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: has anyone tried or use GEM pro mega series? | |
| kensuguro -- 09/10/2007, 08:52:52 -- #36960 | |
| Just curious, and wanted to hear true impressions from my truested jazzmen. Seems to take an interesting approach to creating piano sounds. Some sort of dynamic sample generation based on a database of sounds, which eliminates sample switching. (continuous change in timbre across all velocity zones) It's big and bulky, but just wanted to hear impressions before I ran out and tried to find one to try. | |
| Whacky -- 09/10/2007, 09:01:11 -- #36960 | |
| I was about to ask the same question. I ran into another pianist this weekend who touts it greatly. Of course the only way to judge is to try it ourselves, but I would love to hear about anyone's experience with these rascals. | |
| jmkarns -- 09/10/2007, 11:57:26 -- #36960 | |
| Various reviews here: http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Keyboard+And+MIDI/product/Gem/Pro-Mega+3/10/1 I recall something about mediocre support from this U.K. company. | |
| Jazz+ -- 09/10/2007, 15:43:16 -- #36960 | |
| 'It's a sweet sounding, sparkling piano sound... but with no body or warmth to it. I'd classify it as a good sample whose technological time has passed - reminds me of the old discontinued Roland FP9 model. If I'd heard it over a year ago, I would have been impressed. Now, A/B'ing it with the NEW Roland FP4, FP7, RD-700SX the GEM sounds the way a real piano might over the telephone - the new Rolands are that much better.' | |
| kensuguro -- 09/12/2007, 20:16:08 -- #36960 | |
| wow, that good eh. I agree rd700sx has got great pianos. Just wished roland built their stuff to be a little more controllable like promega. Of course, promega's controls are a little overkill, but they do seem much more heavy duty. "seems" like it, anyway. Anyway, can't say 'till I've played the promega. It's just strange why roland's so far ahead in the game. They're very advanced in terms of samples and also functionality, that's for a fact. | |
| DrJazz -- 09/20/2007, 16:08:06 -- #36960 | |
| I tried the ProMega 1 and was impressed until I played it on a gig! It's true, the controls are more user-friendly than the Roland's digital menus, but IMHO it remains an unsatisfying keyboard for live performance. I believe GEM are an ITALIAN company, not British, hence the alleged poor support in the UK (I've heard this too). I heard there was a newer model out (the PM2) which is supposedly much better, but these 'boards seem to be hard to find.... | |
| docz -- 10/01/2007, 15:04:57 -- #36960 | |
| I've played that board on a couple of gigs. It sounds good, once you get it set up right. I think it's a better tool if you get arround to tweak all the settings to get it to sound the way you want it to. I'm a big Yammie fan myself, and I've found that almost every Yammie has great piano sounds. But all of this is offcourse only, my own subjective opinion. The best way is to try it out, not just listen to demo's on the web, really play it. Doc-Z | |
| Paul -- 10/05/2007, 10:36:32 -- #36960 | |
| I borrowed one and Check it out: recorded "The Girl From Ipamnema" Check it out: www.elgrupocache.com It records great but when I heard my friend play it live (outside with a roland amp) it was just OK. Persoanaly, I'd go with a Yamaha. The Roland piano sounds just don't do it for me but lots guys love them. | |
| Jazz+ -- 10/05/2007, 22:11:16 -- #36960 | |
| All stereo digital pianos will sound pretty bad through a single mono amp. For the stereo digital piano waveform samples to sound good, they must be amplified in stereo with good full range speakers. Roland keyboard amps are not a very full range amp and they are mono. They are also famous for sounding poor with digital pianos. A Rhodes sound is a whole other thing, it's much more forgiving, and can sound good in mono with most amps. | |
| Jazz+ -- 10/05/2007, 22:14:45 -- #36960 | |
| The newest and greatly improved Roland piano sound in the FP7, FP4, and RD-700SX are a whole different species from the previous Roland piano sounds. | |
| spfldpianist -- 10/08/2007, 16:20:35 -- #36960 | |
| I play a first generation gem (about 5 years old) in church. Even though there are many good sounds, most of the depth needs to be controlled by a good stereo amp. We play it through a Peavy sound system and it is still a little "thin" by my way of thinking. Out on gigs I play a Yamaha through a Yamaha PA and much prefer the piano sound. | |
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