Kurzweil K2vx

My Name Is Marc Foster, I currently Use the k2vx! It's great! I traveled all over the world on tours and everything with this instrument and it has proven to be very reliable! And the sounds are great, but the thing I like best is the sampler! I've managed to max out my memory in my keyboard, so basically I can do anything with this instrument! I have, Korg Trition Sonds, Roland Fantom Sounds, Motiff ES Sonds, and plenty of live horns, guitars, etc. So as far as I'm concern this is a very good instrument to obtain!

But always keep in mind it's a matter of personal preference!

Not easy at all compared to other brands. I have owned this synth for years and I still don't know how to do many things...

A nasty kind of 80's Eurotrash New Wave Band comes to mind, though I very good sounding version. Very good wide variance of sounds...

I owned this for years before I had problems. In the last 6 months, it has started to need a hard reboot every once and a while, which is not the greatest thing...

The manual is god awful, you need a degree from MIT to get through the first 5 pages, Kurzweil's support is less than legendary. They haven't released a new OS in years, and they are notorious for angering dealers to the point that they no longer sell Kurzweil merchandise and you may have trouble finding someone who does...

I love the sounds on this thing and the ones available on CD ROM. To be honest, the sound building I've found to be less easy to use than other brands, and the quantizer sucks, so you may find yourself playing riffs over and over in the sequencer. All in all, if I had to go back, I'm not sure I'd buy the same piece, but I have produced much of my best music with this sucker as the sonic foundation.

As with it's cousin, the K2000, the setup for accessing the many settings and menus is simple and logical. It only took me a few weeks before I could get anywhere I wanted in the synth in just a few seconds. With the 3.15 OS and beyond, the disk system and the new sequencer have made this K2XXX series into an easy to use workstation. My model does not have the sampling option, but I use externally made samples frequently by importing from my AKAI S2800 and recorded .WAV files from my PC. It takes a bit of extra work to make a program out of a sample or sample set when compared to my S2800, but the K2vx is so much more powerful, that this is taken into account when I plan on using a sample for the Kurzweil's immense modulating capabilities. Making a drum kit also takes much longer with this synth than my Akai sampler, so I mostly use samples for "synth sounds". The disk file system is easy to use, albeit a bit slow. Don't expect to load a 2 meg sample set in less than a second. Try about 15. The sequencer by far succeeds at ease of use. Aside from a weak visual interface(ala point and click), I can set up short sequences in a small fraction of the time it would take with Cubase or Cakewalk. And the K2vx's sequencer has almost the same amount of programming power as these. Lastly, the program edit section is fairly easy to use, considering how sophisticated it is. I used to own a Korg X5, and comparing simplicty of patch editing is like night and day. Considering the K2vx comes with 600 programs already in it, it may be as simple as taking one of them for a template, and altering it from there. It is very intuitive once you get the hang of it. I don't program setups(combinations), but it looks simple enough. One of the nicest things about it is the ability to go between modes while a song is playing, including editing a program. Be warned, you will often get slowdown(and lose sync) if you tweak parameters anywhere while a song is playing. The manual is well written, and even though it's huge, it is very helpful and informative. It's comprehensable to even a MIDI newbie.

Up to 64 MB sample RAM. Comes with fully expanded PRAM for program,song,setup storage. V.A.S.T. synth architecture rivals the best synths today, and still cannot be matched in terms of versatility. I especially like the filters, and the distortion and cross modulation are favorites too. 24 voices, with up to 4 ocs. per voice, but only if you use a sine,saw,or sqaure along with the samples. You can layer 3 voices per program. Voice stealing is very well implemented. There is only one drum channel in this Kurzweil model(K2500 has 8), which allows you to layer, like 24(maybe more), sounds in any configuration across the keyboard. Drawback on this one is a drum channel will only work on one selected MIDI channel in your multitimbral setup. And drum programs are hard to edit, having to scroll through two dozen layers just to change one of the sounds. Use of the SCSI port for samples, song and program access/storage to disk. I use it with a ZIP drive, and it works well. Big warning here is that if you put the Kurzweil in a SCSI chain with your PC, you're bound to get all kinds of SCSI artifacts, so try to leave it independent. The disk system is logical and useful, with my only complaint being it is inconvenient to name files(or anything really) with a number pad. The sequencer is very powerful and useful, with many features found on a good computer program, like event editing, step sequencing, note transposing, track bouncing, track muting, and the very handy audition after each take. You could hold a pretty good size song in the memory. You basically get 16 tracks. The K2vx comes loaded with the Contempory and Orchestral ROM blocks, but not the newer 4 MB piano in the K2500. Thus, the K2vx is able to utilize many of the programs found in the K2500, and thus the 600 programs to choose from. It uses an old Digitech chip for the effects, with only one send bus(even for multitimbral), so as mentioned by others, the effects are the weak point of this synth. The reverbs and chorus are acceptable, but not very full or rich. They help some of the programs, but most stand well on their own, so you could substitute your own processor and acheive superior results. The delays are very sad indeed. It uses a five octave light-weighted keyboard with mono pressure. The keys feel alright to me, and don't hinder my playing, so I use it as as controller, as well. They are not piano-style weighted, but some people don't mind. Controllers include pitch and mod-wheels, and one data slider which defaults to MIDI data controller, but can be changed to send any MIDI controller messages. The MIDI implementation is as immense as the program possibilites. Almost any paramter than can be controlled by modulation routings can be controlled by MIDI data, including clocks. Most people like this synth for it's abilities as a sampler. Even this model without the sampling option still allows RAM expansion and complete use of imported samples. Besides .wav files and AKAI samples, it can read Ensoniq and Roland disks. I have also used Ensoniq files before, and while much of the programming from the Ensoniq samplers is lost, there is enough of it left to make sample sets quickly. I found, unfortunately, that ensoniq sample sets don't keep their loop points as reliably as AKAI sets do. You may have to do some adjusting for them. There are four outputs total, one L/R stereo pair that includes the effects send, and the other pair that is always dry.If you want more, go for the rack mount.

From the moment I heard one, I was hooked. I've owned it for almost three years, and I still keep coming back to it, which is why it's still my master controller, as well. It's so dynamic sounding, and the filters and envelopes are very smooth. Many of the presets are useful, and well done. Not so many stinkers like on a Roland, Korg, etc. Sounds of note, are, of course, the analog pads and basses, the electric basses, the brass instruments, the string ensembles, and most of the drums. The piano is a disappointment, but I have a sample set of the Sound Canvas piano, which suits my needs, and sounds better(to me) in the Kurzweil. There are some programs that are long and evolving, similar to a wavestation, but not so animated. Some programs may sound too muddy because of the bad effects processor, but you can change the wet/dry level of any program quickly and use your own processor. Many programs I've downloaded off the internet have this problem. But once I set them a bit dryer, they sounded fantastic! I've gotten some programs off the internet that rival the matrix 12 and jupiter 8 in quality. You can make great stuff with samples for electronica and industrial just by playing with the alogrithms. To me, no other sample playing device comes close. The emu series would be second place for me. From the analog days sound to a modern electric orchestra, the Kurzweil does it all, and rarely fumbles. Minor complaints about sounds: You can get aliasing in high notes, especially with the generated oscillators(saw,sine,sqaure). Better use real analog for high pitched effects. The 96 khz limit: I've had to resample some of my AKAI programs because the Kurzweil will only transpose samples up about an octave for 44.1 Khz samples. But you should hear it transpose samples down!!! It's quite a stunning effect compared to most samplers. It must filter them as the pitch gets lower, because it sounds so much better than most samplers.

Sometimes the buttons have to be pressed firmly and not at an angle, but the rest of the controls are glitch free. I've never had it break on me, and the only time I had to do a hard reset was when I loaded a corrupt setup file off the internet. It came back without any problems afterwards. As far as sturdiness and stability go, how's this for you: I got in a auto accident with my Kurzweil in it's case in the bed of the truck. The case and the bottom of the Kurzweil were punctured by the stand leg, and it was tossed about in the bed. After checking everything, I powered it up, and not even a hiccup! I have to wonder if all synths could have survived an impact like this. It still operates flawlessly to this day, and that was almost two years ago.

Kurzweil support is not as great as I would like it to be, but there is so much third party support, that unless it breaks, you may never even need to call Young Chang. It's especially nice to just get good quality programs off the internet for free, and the sample library is probably bigger than any other synth there is. Sweetwater sound has outstanding support for it.

My favorite quote to describe the Kurzweil is "This is all you need". It was worth every penny, and has brought joy and enrichment to my collection for several years now. It's boundless versatility makes me rely on it without hesitation. There is very little to expand upon with this synth, and I think the K2500 has covered all those issues. If I could afford to get one, I would. It is still my favorite synth of all, and I will never get rid of it, even if I sell all of the rest of my gear someday. But I probably won't do that either, seeing as how most people regret such a fateful decision.