Kurzweil ExpressionMate

If you don't understand midi, you will by the time you work with this for a few days. With a good understanding of midi, programming is easy enough. I found the manual to be very helpful. There's so much beneath the surface of this thing. The programming possibilities are vast. As one reviewer noted, scrolling through the dozens of pages can be time consuming and can try one's patience at times.

I won't try to summarize all the features, as that has been done below. The main point to having this thing is, of course, the ribbon, which can be used as one very long controller or split into three. If you split it into three, you might find yourself wanting some kind of physical separator between the sections, so your finger knows where to start or stop between zones. I suppose one could jury-rig this (rubber bands as a low tech solution?), but it would have been nice if Kurzweil had provided some specially designed clips or something.

I find the ribbon to be nicely reactive. Why would you use a ribbon? One reason might be that its so easily manipulated on the fly. If your playing along, thinking about the music, the notes your playing, what your feet are doing, etc., it can seem too much trouble to reach over, find an itty bitty knob or slider, and tweak it just so. Much easier, less distracting, to reach over for a ribbon. Also, ribbons are uniquely suited for jumping fron one value to another without going through the incremental steps. I have found that once I get accustomed to using it in live performance, I don't want to be without it. How frustrating then that sometimes I have to (see below).

The expressionmate has such a plethora of midi functions. It does much more than you think. If you think of it as just a ribbon+ controller, it may not seem such a bargain. If you use it to its full capacity, it certainly is.

Sure, it seems reliable. Seems well constructed. The ribbon itself is fairly sturdy. The obvious thing is to velcro the ribbon onto your keyboard somewhere. Some keyboards lend themselves to this, others don't. Best to think about that before you buy. Wall wart means risk of failure. I'm not big into "backup" equipment, though having a spare wall wart seems a very wise move, because its not a question of whether they will fail, only when.

Dunno

If you need this sort of thing in your rig, then this is just the sort of thing you might need. Again, $400 may seem like alot for just a ribbon controller, but there's so much more this thing can do.

My frustration thus far has been this: the Expressionmate is 3 pieces of equipment 1) ribbon 2) hardware box, and 3) wallwart. My rig setup is complicated enough even without it. Adding the expressionmate increases my setup time, which typically I have precious little of when my band is one of 2 or 3 on the bill. In addition, finding a place for the box that makes ergonomic sense has been difficult for me. These considerations are obviously going to be different for everybody. But I would recommend thinking about just how this contraption will fit physically into your setup.

This is a quick few addition to other posts

If you are familiar with Midi this things is a breeze to program. Did my basic setups for live use in 30 minutes. However menues are very long so for more complex use you might find yourself wandering around if you don't do things in the proper order.

It does lot's of stuff very well. see other reviews. you can plug in more controllers than your body can possibly move... and thinking that you can cascade arpeggiators is already wild.

The bit of disappointment came from the ribbon itself, I am used to the Korg type which responds to pressure and responds as soon as you touch the ribbon. Instead on the Expressionmate you have to press a little bit in order to make contact with the ribbon, but one learns this very quickly.

Solidly built.

They were very nice, answer within the 2 days of my email.

The only mistake Kurzweil made was to build the default setups based on GM modules. It makes absolutely no sense, as the best use of this monster is either live or for experimental player which I don't think would use that much GM modules.... You can always overwrite them.

Thought about returning it after 2 days because of the complexity and poorly written manual. After two weeks, I'm thinking about buying a second one.

Ribbon rates a 10! The arpeggiator is useful, but could have been better.

The ribbon controller is a very expressive controller for your MIDI sound modules.

I'd definately gig with it.

Always wanted a Moog Ribbon Controller. This device fills that desire. Bottom line is the ribbon is fantastic, the arpeggiator is ok.

1.01 software
Patch editing is good for this kind of box - the LCD interface is a nice touch
and it comes complete with a flexible midi monitor so you can verify that your
patches are producing the data that you intended them to produce - great for debugging

Still, as is the problem with this kind of interface, programming the "relationships" among
controllers is complex. Hopefully a computer editor will become available - the sysex implementation
available on kurzweil's site details the necessary information for external editing of the box.

Ok - the expressionmate is not a synth, but it does do what its name implies - it
increases the expressiveness of any controller, or can be used as an independent controller
What is it:
A ribbon controller - about 2ft long (60cm)
A control box with mapping software, 3 arpeggiators, 2 midi mappable buttons and 2 foot switches
A midi merger/splitter
Special midi features:
The ribbon can be treated as one long controller or split into 3 independent sections
The buttons, foot switches and controller can be mapped to midi controllers, notes, aftertouch
and sysex
The two midi input can be mapped and merged to any of the two midi outputs
Incomming midi and internal controllers can be mapped to the arpeggiator or control other selected internal paramters
3 logical zones are available - the output of a physical controller such as the ribbon can be independently defined in each zone - so that means one ribbon can generate nine (or more) independent events
Controller values can be scaled and transformed as desired
There's much more -

It's not a pv 1600x or a knob and slider control box - It is based on the k2500 ribbon controller, but much more powerful
It is essentially a musical instrument, both with modern capabilities and reminiscent of the ribbon controllers of the past.

The box is designed for expression - you need to customize it to your style for maximum effect -
for example, I was able to set up patches that made my fs1r dance in ways that I have never heard before.
However, as with any musical instrument, it takes time to learn the advanced stuff

Software is very stable - quality of construction is quite durable. The ribbon
is on a long metal base and appears to be designed to stand up to abuse

Kurzweil has always given be great support - they tend to upgrade their products rather than
abandon them

This is a unique instrument - it's advertised as a supplement to a keyboard
synth, but it is an instrument in its own right. I would buy it again, in fact
I would buy 2. For controlling instruments like the k2000/2500/2600, it is ideal
since the software architecture integrates well with those instruments. For boxes
like midi controlled analog synths or the FS1r, it allows a level of expressiveness
that is amazing.
I compared it with the knob/slider controllers but it makes no sense - this box is
really at its best as a performance instrument and is not designed for editing or mixing
sounds - actually the best setup for controlling a synth module is to combine the expressionmate
with a midi slider box (like the pv1600 or kenton) and using the devices together.

I'm sure that a wish list can be made for this device (i.e. cv outputs - continuous controller
capability on both foot switch inputs - not just one, etc) but I think that I rather have the simpler
form of the device as it stands now and learn how to make the most use of its current capabilites - it's enough
for me