There is much here that is familiar: a high‑density floppy drive (positioned to the left of the keyboard) for storage of patches and songs, an alpha dial for data entry, a numeric keypad, a combined enter/escape key and navigational controls to the right of a centrally‑positioned LCD. Indeed, the Equinox's predecessor, the S2 (reviewed August 1992, followed by the rack version in March 1994) earned notable praise from reviewers at the time. I think this GEM will forever banish any misconceptions that a successful home keyboard company can't produce professional synthesizers. A metal base supports the blue‑grey plastic torso, while the front panel is turquoise, fading tastefully at either end. With its smooth, rounded edges, chunky pitch bender and modulation wheel, the Equinox feels both friendly and substantial. When the manual did arrive, I was pleased that it was ring‑bound, making updates easy to insert. The Equinox's OS is flash‑updatable, so bug‑fixes or new features are installed simply by popping a disk into the floppy drive and letting it carry out its own installation. Fortunately, as you can probably tell by the length of this review, it was all pretty intuitive, but I was helped in no small measure by Generalmusic's excellent web site, which yielded the basic manual plus an additional manual listing enhancements added since the first version of the operating system was released.

Initially, the review model also lacked a manual, so I just had to switch it on and see how far I could progress before getting stuck. When the Equinox arrived, I knew only that it was a 64‑note polyphonic workstation with master keyboard facilities which was also capable of importing samples. Packaging the right bundle of features for every occasion whilst keeping a firm hold of the price tag is a delicate business, but a smart new contender, the GEM Equinox, is ready and eager to mix it with all comers. The idea of performing on stage or recording complete tracks with only a single keyboard is appealing to many of us and for a variety of reasons. Italian firm Generalmusic have made their reputation in the home keyboard market, but their new Equinox is an extremely well‑specified professional workstation.

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