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Promega 2 stage piano - $400 (Westwood Blvd)
Westwood Blvd
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In 2015, a little-known Finnish company named Soundion grabbed the synthesizer community’s attention by announcing its intention to re-release the Elka Synthex. It was able to do this because, following the closure of General Music and its eventual bankruptcy in 2011, Soundion had purchased the rights to its Elka, GEM and LEM brands. It was a bold move but, while the announcement caused a few ripples, it caused fewer than the company had hoped because the crowd-funding campaign established to raise the necessary funds fell short of its target. However, unbeknown to most outside the company, Soundion had also been working for more than a year on an update to GEM’s ‘DRAKE’ DSP technology, which had formed the backbone of its Promega stage pianos. While the sales of these pianos were low when compared with alternatives from the likes of Roland, Yamaha and Clavia, the Promega 3 (2002) and the cut-down Promega 2 (2008) were valued by players such as Herbie Hancock, Rick Wakeman, and Keith Emerson, and this proved to be a key element in Soundion’s decision to buy the rights and then hire members of the original team to develop a new version of the technology (which they christened UpDRAKE) in preparation for the rebirth of the Promega.
At first glance, the Promega 2+ is similar in design to the Promega 2, but it has been revised in numerous areas. Some of the updates, such as improved D/A converters and more memory for OS upgrades, are hidden from view. More visibly, the control surface has been updated with an OLED display that, in addition to showing which Performance has been selected, provides information about the split point, the transposition, the statuses of the pedals, which MIDI connections are active and the master tuning. A new keybed has also been adopted: the Fatar four-zone graded hammer-action TP/40GH that’s used in the Nord Piano as well as some Doepfer and Studiologic MIDI controllers. Around the back there’s the welcome addition of optical and S/PDIF digital outputs, and the antiquated RS232 and Apple mini-DIN connections have made way for USB interfaces. Finally, the new version is said to be somewhat lighter. It’s still a hefty lump, but any improvement in manageability is to be welcomed in a stage keyboard.