PEAVEY PARADOX
The Synth that Was Not
Features:
Polyphony:
Monophonic
2 VCOs – triangle, saw, square. + sync
SUB OSC
2 LFO
Sample/Hold
VCF – 4 pole lowpass, 2 pole lowpass, high pass, &
bandpass)
VCA
NOISE
EXT IN
GLIDE
ARPEGGIATOR
4 MODULATION ROUTINGS
AUX ENVELOPE (ASSIGNABLE)
RIBBON CONTROL (ASSIGNABLE)
ANTENNA (ASSIGNABLE)
PATCH MEMORY 120 RAM/120 ROM
MIDI IN/OUT/THRU
(LFO, S/H, and ARP all can be synced to midi clock)
1U rack space with desktop
controller. Sturdy and well built
(metal chassis). Hip glossy red and
black design. Great knob layout. Smallish but sturdy pots. Has quite a lot of features making it
excellent as a live performance synth. With
each patch you can set up and save ribbon, antenna, & arpeggiator
settings. Sound: Oh, heavy duty basses! The sub bass is way over the top. The pulse width waves are the best I’ve ever
heard. It’s got a very in your face
sound. I liken it to a cross between a
Moog Voyager and an Oberheim Matrix 1000.
It CAN have a slight canned sound at times. Yes, pun intended. It’s
modulation routings allow for very complex sounds. This thing is unbeatable for generating bizarre sound effects on
the fly. It also has a nice data entry
dial which makes for editing patch names and modulating routings quick and
easy. I especially enjoy the momentary
glide button. You can play a riff and
toggle the glide to accent here and there.
Very clever! The antenna and
ribbon controller? No, it’s not just
for pitch, you can assign it to control any number of things! Control itself is not limited at all. For example the pitch bend can go from 1
semitone to 4 octaves!
There are only 4 of these in
existence. From what I can piece
together, Peavey showcased these at the 1998 NAMM show. The original box mine came in had “NAMM”
scrawled on it. (It was also to include
a PC editor) Apparently there was some sort of production problem: a certain section had to be hand soldered
and Peavey decided that it was too labor intensive for them. Unfortunately they pulled the plug. This is by far the most interesting and
capable of new analog synthesizers. And
it was made by Peavey????
I suspect that, Peavey with their
reputation for “heavy metal” amplification would have a hard time selling
synths under their brand name. It
really is too bad. From my experiences
with the PC1600, the 5150 amp, and the Paradox, I am convinced that Peavey
really does put out quality and innovative stuff. I think they get a unfair bad rap.
There is one major drawback to the
Paradox. It is everything you could
want in a performance piece of gear, except that its rack + controller makes
for awkward handling. If peavey melded
these together into a 3 or 4 octave keyboard synth, they’d have an instant hit
on their hands. Oh, I hope someone
from Peavey is listening and takes note.
Questions?
Contact: mailto:reactionoid@yahoo.com
MP3 sample sounds (raw – no external processing)
peaved (a short corny song – multi-tracked Paradox)
