Kurzweil EGK Ensemble Grand Piano

The keyboard couldn't be easier to use. It's very straightforward. The presets range from "fantastic" to "not so great". I think this is true of most keyboards. You can change the parameters of the presets, but I have never been much of a tweaker, so I can't comment that much about editing. The manual is typical of a keyboard in this price range: it includes some very useful info and then wastes space with some suggested techniques. They even include the sheet music of some traditional songs with their sound patch recommendation. I guess this isn't the most "professional" of keyboards.

One great thing about his keyboard is that it has on-board speakers. That is one reason I classify this board as "semi-professional". It has stereo outs and MIDI connections. The keyboard also has a headphone jack, which is useful, and jacks for a sustain pedal and sostenuto pedal. The sostenuto pedal jack can be programmed to be a soft pedal jack. The keyboard action is very good. It has 76 pressure sensitive, plastic keys that are only semi-weighted, but they are very durable and cut down on the weight of the instrument (55lbs). The keyboard is "multitimbral" and up to 24 notes can be played at one time. Of course, there is a transpose function that is very easy to use and two tone wheels: "pitch bend" and "modulation". Also, there are on-board effects that are fairly useful: chorus, vibrato, and tremolo. Being MIDI capable, I guess you could say that it is expandable, but not in the sense that most modern keys can be expanded. There is no disk drive or swappable software or hardware that I know of.

I bought this keyboard in 1994. It was used and I got a pretty fair deal. I bought it for the piano sound...it is fantastic. I think it sounds better than many keyboard presets sold today; very usable for the stage or recording. The keyboard boasts 10 piano settings, 10 strings settings, 10 choir settings, 10 brass settings, 10 woodwind settings, 10 organ settings, 10 vibes settings, 10 bass settings, 10 synth settings, and 10 drum settings. The piano is certainly the best feature of this keyboard. The flutes and clarinet is nice also. The bass settings are cool; the keys are split with different basses in the lower register and different pianos in the upper register. The vibes sound terrific and so does the klavinet (very Stevie Wonder). I find the organ settings lacking, but that may be because I expect something different than what they were trying to achieve. The electric organ, rock organ, and jazz organ are great if you add a bit of distortion from an external box. I have an old guitar pedal that I use for this and it works fine. The Ensemble Grande has a very decent rhodes piano (not the best, but good). I do have to say that this is a keyboard that is for a piano player, not a synth-tweaker. It has no "dance" application at all, but there are plenty of processors for that kind of thing. Overall, this is the perfect keyboard for me: relatively lightweight with on-board speakers and a great piano sound. And it is definitely a stage piano. The only reason I don't give it a 10 is because I realize that this keyboard is pretty old. I think it came out in 1990, so I imagine digital sampling technology has advanced a bit. But I guarantee that you will be pleased when you hear the preset voices on this board.

I have gigged without a backup. I give it an 8 because it has two distinctly annoying traits. First, a couple of the keys, at different times, have seemed to lose their sensitivity. They probably just need to be cleaned and serviced. Anyway, it has never been a real problem in practical, everyday use (the board has also never been serviced, to my knowledge). Second, the keyboard totally cuts out when you play too vigorously ("too vigorously" = bang the keys as hard as you can in the upper register). It hardly ever does this...I have probably adjusted my style over the years in order to twart the event, but it is annoying. You may ask yourself: "Why is this guy giving an 8 in Reliability to a keyboard that cuts out on him? Again, I have to refer to the age of the keyboard. It is pretty old and probably just needs routine servicing. I would hate to give this board a bad rating just because I'm too lazy to get it serviced, but I did think to mention it.

I have never dealt with Kurzweil / Young Chang. I do know that this is a product that came out after Young Chang bought Kurzweil. I imagine that I will take it to a local guy for service. I couldn't find mention of this keyboard on the Kurzweil website. I would like to know more about it.

I think this keyboard is fantastic. It does what I want it to do and, today, would be a guaranteed bargain. I haven't seen many of them on Ebay, etc. But I'm sure one could be tracked down. About a year after I bought it, I saw Danny Gatton's piano player / sax player (with the crazy pompadour) using it on Austin City Limits. It sounded great on the show in a very professional application. The piano sound and action alone are worth what I paid and I have had it for years. I hope to have it many more. I run it through the p.a. or my Jazz Chorus 120 (another great value). I did compare it to other keyboards when I bought it. Even back then, there were better (more expensive) keyboards that were more flexible and expandable. But considering the price, the simplicity, and the sounds, I chose the Ensemble Grande. I do wish that it was easier to switch between useful sounds while on stage (perhaps with assignable buttons), but I think my technique will have to share some of the blame for that shortcoming. Overall, I highly recommend this keyboard.