Kurzweil PC-88-MX

First something very important: ASK YOUSELF: FOR WHAT USE AM I GOING TO USE THE PC-88mx?
I bought it for this reason: I had recently purchased an Emu Protues 2000, which is a sample-based sound mddule. It has some very powerful filter, controller etc capabilities which can be changed in real time, therefore I was looking for I good masterkeyboard (76 or 88 keys, at least semi weighed) with sliders and knobs etc to control my sound module.
Extremely easy to use, in my opinion. After a half hour demo of this machine, I bought one month later and I had it up and going with my Proteus 2000 in no time. Considering how advanced and powerful this synth is, is really easy to use.
The manual is actually well written, even some subtile attempts on humor..

I dont need to list all the specs, just look on the others..
but it is all I need from it.
Only drawback is that it is not able to, when you create multisetups, to select bank with cc-00 AND cc-32 at the same time.
My Proteus 2000 uses both 00 and 32 bank change commands. 00-commands, I think, select sound rom, while 32-commands changes bank. It can have up to 8 sound rom sources (factory+user in 4 diff. in 4 different soundroms ) and 11 or so banks in every ROM. needles to say, it can be confusing to get the P-88mx to select the right sound from the right bank in the right sound rom. (luckily, the proteus also have multisetups, so it is not a real problem for me, but for others maybe..)

Piano: Excellent. I would like a little bit more filtering when playing light notes. the patches cannot be edited.
Strings: In layer modes, they sound excellent. Not too good for solo.
El.piano: okay sounding. reminds my of late 80's music, so not very exciting or new.
As for the other sounds, I'm not intersetd in them, so I wont evaluate them.
But based on my use and expectation of this keyboard, which makes use of its pianos and strings, I'll give it a good score.

only had it for a few weeks yet..

Absolutely worth every penny! Again, it depends on what you expect from it!
It's optimal use, in my opinion is:
Masterkeyboard to control other modules/synths AND use its pianosounds.

v1.0
presets are very realistic
editing is relatively simple and quick. Over the past few years I have programmed about 90 midi set-ups / patches. (dont know, havent got one)
manual was slow at first as they always are but i havent referred to it now for about 2 years.

generally 16, but you can set up just a piano sound as 32! keyboard action is outstanding, just like a real piano!
I already have the mx board installed and don't know of any other upgrades (please let me know if you do!!!)
midi spec is outstanding, from key pressure, after touch, weight, right up to 16 track multi timbral.
no on board sequencer, but an amazingly useful programmable arpeggiator (why does every synth need a sequencer?)

With the exception of 2 naff electric guitar sounds, the other 300ish programs / sounds are outstanding, and this coupled with the weighted action and 88 keys is the reason i bought one!!!!! I use it live with a rock band, and in the studio to record everything from orchestral / pop / country / jazz.
The on board effects are so simple to use and are very quiet (no noise!)
Keyboard can be set up for different applications i.e. string patches can have a light touch for fast runs and trills etc. and piano patches can be set up as hard as you like!!!
aftertouch is a godsend when you're playing four sounds at once and one is an oboe or trumpet with a delay vibrato applied with aftertouch squeeze.

In 5 years it has let me down once at a gig (the scanners had gone crazy) and apart from not being able to buy a spare mains lead for about 18 months (thank god I bought 2 originally!!!!) There have been no problems.
9 out of ten because of the mains transformer packing up!

Never dealt with company just the shop it was bought from.When I needed it repairing they reccommended a very helpful man.

I have actually sold 5 PC88MX's whilst gigging as people have been so impressed with the sounds (and of course my playing!!!)

I'd definitely buy it again and is worth every penny.
I've been playing profesionally for 35 years. I'am playing with The Dakotas at the moment and also use a K2000 live and in my studio. It's always handy to have different sounds at hand and the K2000 I use to create the "icing on the cake"

Pretty straight forward. Internal sounds selected by panel buttons 1-16.
Midi "setups" selected by same. Can switch between four zones/banks for midi setups
which is how you access GM soundset and special64 voice sounds. Navigation
is simple and straight forward. (assuming you've read the manual at least once!)
Overall a very easy to use keyboard

Polyphony is 32 for most sounds but the MX model has some 64 voice sounds.
Keyboard action is excellent, includes velocity sensitivity and aftertouch.
(primary reason for my buying this board)
Built-in reverb, chorus and delay. Very limited and not very good sounding.
No rotary speaker emulation, only chorus which doesn't cut it
No expansion capability if you have the MX model.
No sequencer
Full midi implementation with the ability to control up to four other midi
devices via "zones". Again, pretty straight forward and easy to use.
I have experienced some inconsistencies using this board to actuate sounds
from my Ensoniq TS-10. Sometimes when selecting a midi setup that uses a TS-10
voice. The PC88 does not always select the same bank/location. Not sure why
this is happening.

Piano sounds are good although they aren't really any better than the
piano sounds in my TS-10. I primarily bought this instrument for its
controller capaibilities. In general the piano and e-piano sounds are
very nice. Nice vibes. GM soundset ok. Organs bad! Strings bad! synth
sounds bad! I play mostly R&B and practice classical to keep my chops up.
I enjoy playing this instrument.
Effects are limited in functionality and poor sounding in my opinion. (I'm spoiled
by the effects capability of my TS10 which is very strong in this regard.)

Haven't owned it long enough

No contact with them yet

I compared this board before purchase with several other digital pianos like the Roland RD600, Yamaha p200. I liked the Kurzweil best.
Disappointed with the effects. Other than that I am very happy with this board.
If it were lost or stolen, I'd go through the whole review, play, analysis process again.
I love the action of this board. I hate the weight. This sucker is heavy!

Pretty straight forward. Internal sounds selected by panel buttons 1-16.
Midi "setups" selected by same. Can switch between four zones/banks for midi setups
which is how you access GM soundset and special64 voice sounds. Navigation
is simple and straight forward. (assuming you've read the manual at least once!)
Overall a very easy to use keyboard

Polyphony is 32 for most sounds but the MX model has some 64 voice sounds.
Keyboard action is excellent, includes velocity sensitivity and aftertouch.
(primary reason for my buying this board)
Built-in reverb, chorus and delay. Very limited and not very good sounding.
No rotary speaker emulation, only chorus which doesn't cut it
No expansion capability if you have the MX model.
No sequencer
Full midi implementation with the ability to control up to four other midi
devices via "zones". Again, pretty straight forward and easy to use.
I have experienced some inconsistencies using this board to actuate sounds
from my Ensoniq TS-10. Sometimes when selecting a midi setup that uses a TS-10
voice. The PC88 does not always select the same bank/location. Not sure why
this is happening.

Piano sounds are good although they aren't really any better than the
piano sounds in my TS-10. I primarily bought this instrument for its
controller capaibilities. In general the piano and e-piano sounds are
very nice. Nice vibes. GM soundset ok. Organs bad! Strings bad! synth
sounds bad! I play mostly R&B and practice classical to keep my chops up.
I enjoy playing this instrument.
Effects are limited in functionality and poor sounding in my opinion. (I'm spoiled
by the effects capability of my TS10 which is very strong in this regard.)

Haven't owned it long enough

No contact with them yet

I compared this board before purchase with several other digital pianos like the Roland RD600, Yamaha p200. I liked the Kurzweil best.
Disappointed with the effects. Other than that I am very happy with this board.
If it were lost or stolen, I'd go through the whole review, play, analysis process again.
I love the action of this board. I hate the weight. This sucker is heavy!

Great Piano, Electric Piano, Basses. Terrible Leslie effect on organ sounds - Brass not that effective. Very good manual.

64 voice polyphony with mx - Keyboard action great for piano - but too hard for organ. Midi capabilities are fantastic - a great master controller - has mono pressure. No sequencer, but an arppegiator on board.

A good selection of your basic sounds, again the pianos are great, very good for rock or classical, you can play a gig using just this board, but additional modules are a good idea.

Never had a problem yet.

I had some problems saving presets & setups to my sequencer - and kurzweil got back to my emails right away. Although I found that the problem was that you should not have the midi in connected only the midi out with Motu performer, it seems thst the playthrough feature messes up the sysex recording.

It is a bit heavy to haul around, but I do it anyway for that authentic piano feel and sound, any other keyboard just doent compare. I wish there was a Unisyn profile for this board to create midi setups, a much better B3 and Leslie emulation, and 15lbs-20lbs less weight. I would buy it again.

Basically, the PC-88mx was never ment to be made. It's the normal PC-88 with the VGM board built in. If you don't know what this is, it's an potion that the PC-88 has that gives you about 200 more sounds, 64 note polophony on certian sounds, and some extra performances (setups) I've found the PC-88mx to be very easy to use in the internal voices mode, (the part that is identical to the normal PC-88) all you have to do to access a sound is to choose what type of sound you want (a piano for instance) and then which one (like stage piano, or Bright piano), but all the types have their own button, so it's all right there in front of you. This is geat for performance. However, the other two banks, from the VGM board (which make up two hundred something sounds) must be accessed by bank number, then by sound number via the number pad on the right. These are pretty hard to get around on and remember because in the midid bank, strings might be #30-35, but in the expansion sounds bank, they'll be 43-50 or something. The manual is ok, it doesn't have you doing some of the setups and stuff right away, it took me all of one day to learn the thing, but once you learn it, it's great. It does have a feature that makes it much more user freindly; the intuitive access. Bassically, if you want to ajust the modulation wheel, just push the controlers button and move the wheel and it takes you right to the mod. wheel menu, so you don't have to scroll though pages of menus.

The polophony in 96% of the keyboard is 32, but there is a bank of about 20 sounds that has 64 voice polphony. It's mainly just pianos and strings. It has three effects which are very easy to acces, they each have their own button, reverb, chorus, and tone (bright, normal, warm) The aftertouch is very good, you can assign anything to it, even pitch bend! The pitch wheel is very good, it goes up to 127 half steps, I'd guess it has around 50 increments up and the same down. The feel is the best offered in my opinion. The arpegiator is very good, though there are not a ton of variations you can do on the actual arpegiation, if that's a word, there's a lot you can do in conjunction with it, like using the pedals to hold the notes you want arpegiated while playing normally over it. There isn't a sequencer, but there is a mode in the arpegiator that lets you sequence single notes for a couple measures, it's good for making a bass line to play along with, but that's about it. It has four zones to work with in the midi mode, this is a great feature for performance and practice bacause you can have for intsruments doing whatever you want all at the same time.

The piano sounds are among the best available, only Korg's new full size compares, the organs are so-so; the rotary speed is ajusted with the mod. wheel, but it sounds more like vibrato than rotary speed. The E-pianos are pretty good, though I like the ones on my Roland XP-10 better, the strings are very full, warm and realistic sounding, the guitar sounds are quite good, especially the fluid guitar, the bass sounds are lacking, and the drums are good, but the bass drums lack bass! Most of the rest of the sounds on the VGM board aren't really impressive, though there are a few exceptions.

It's been very reliable so far, though it has locked up in live performances or caused my XP-10 to do so a few times, and sometimes a sound won't come on just by the push of a button in the midi setups, sometimes something needs to be ajusted for it to work. Nothings ever broken.

I've never needed it

I love this keyboard for what I use it for- the piano. It simply has no superior in this area. It is relatively light for what it is-54lbs and it has a very large variety of sounds that can cover most gigs, however this keyboard is not a synth at all. Nothing about the sounds can be changed besides reverb and chorus. I would recomend using it in conjunction with a good synth. If I had another chaance to buy a full size, I would get the normal PC-88, because the mx does not add enough usefullness to make it worth another 300 bucks, but its a great board it you want to use just it and not another synth or something. If that's your posistion, get the mx, other wise, don't. I compared it to the Roland RD-600 and the Alesis QS-8. I found that the Roland was good, but it only had 40 sounds and the feel was really fake to me. It doesn't have the capability to have four zones or parts, whatever you know them as, going at the same time, and it's heavier. I did like it's organ sounds better, but not the piano and strings. The QS-8 didn't impress me at all with it's feel or sounds. One other thing that is not well known about the PC-88 is that you can plug 6 controlers into it (2 switch pedals and 4 normal foot controlers) it has four assignable sliders, 3 assignable buttons, plus the mod. wheel and the pitch bend. This is a God send in live performances!

Piano is excellent. Organ patches thin in upper registers. "Rhodes" patches thin in upper registers although very good in middle register.

64-note polyphony. Action started out to be the best - more on this latter :( . Effects are good and easy to access. No expansion available for the mx model.

I have had this instrument for 15 months. 7 keys are making serious noises. I have contacted Kurzweil and so far, no offering has been made to repair the instrument. The instrument has been treated very, very well. I am not a heavy-handed player and typically will avoid any type of heavy-handedness because I know these actions are not made to withstand such. I am very disappointed in the Fatar action and can only hope that Kurzweil will see fit to help rework the action. It is faulty at best. I had a Roland A-80 controller and used it for 5 years and only had to have one key worked on. I rest my case.

Am currently trying to get Kurzweil to help me with the problems in the action.

I'd buy this keyboard 100 times over if I was certain the action was going to hold up. I visited the SONICSTATE website and found others who were having similar problems as myself and were totally disgusted. Wish us luck.

Although it takes a while to chew through the manual (esp. when creating MIDI setups), once the basics are learned, making new setups is fairly easy.

It has basically 32-note polyphony (64 with some dual setups). The keyboard feels great and has adjustable velocity action. The individual sounds are not editable. The main strength is the MIDI capability with very flexible routing and lots of programmable controllers (4 sliders, 2 wheels, 4 switch pedals, 4 CV pedals, 3 panel switches). All this makes for a terrific master keyboard in any MIDI setup. Effects are limited to reverbs, delays, and chorus.

The piano/electric piano sounds are first-class - I tried just about every electronic piano around and Kurzweil has the best. Most of the other sounds are good, but solo orchestral sounds are a bit off, and the string sounds tend to get louder with time, limiting their usefulness. The ability to edit sounds would be very welcome. Layering sounds tends to cause a bit of lag when playing from the keyboard, but the response from a sequencer is fine. I give this keyboard high marks primarily for the piano sounds.

After 2 years, the keyboard has been quite reliable, although it never has been taken on the road. The only quirk I've noted is that on rare occasions, I can't access the MX expansion banks.

Never had to obtain repairs or contact the company

I use the PC88MX as the main piano sound source and the master controller in my MIDI studio, which has 8 other synths. I also use it as a standalone practice keyboard. For these purposes, it's great. It would also make a fine gigging keyboard. Its piano sounds are unmatched, but I wish I could edit the non-piano patches. If you want a great piano/controller and can live with the lack of sound editing, the PC88MX is hard to beat.

I love the setup and, with a little look at the manual, i was getting around on the 88mx twice as fast as I can on my Roland. Presets are solid, and the expansion sounds and MIDI setups really add depth to any multi-tembral venture.

It seems an arpeggiator is a forgotten virtue in today's keyboards, but the one on the 88mx is wonderful. Fully programable and easy to use, it is one of the main reasons that I chose this board over all other comprable others. 64 note polyphony is hard to reach when performing live, but I wouldn't count on it in the studio.

No other keyboard that I have ever played is as sensitive and well weighted as this one. It feels just right, and I can close my eyes and see myself playing on a nine foot Steinway instead of a two-foot deep Keyboard. Great bass, organs, and decent strings are useful, as are other sounds like guitar harmonics and guitar fret sounds. The orchestral solo insruments are somewhat weak, but if your looking for a great piano, this is the one. I would be careful trying a glissando, though. This is not a good board for glisandos.

I have never had a problem, so not much here. I've had to move it without a case, and it did just fine, though I would recommend getting a case.

My correspondence with the company is limited to asking for another manual, and it was provided by mail.

This is my all-time favorite board. I toured Russia with it, and it is really a great live piece. It is not very heavy, which is a big plus over the Yamaha, and it is a breeze to set up. It is the primary controller in my studio, controling ten modules and two other controllers. But my favorite thing is the value. A Kurzweil Micro Piano and this and maybe one other module will give you a well-rounded and versitile studio. Go and get one; the deal is too good to pass up.