Kurzweil PC1X

Using OS v1.01

The presets are wonderful. I have changed very little thus far.

There isn't a lot of ability to edit patches here.

Manual is very good. I've still not learned all about this board, but whenever I need to learn how to do something, the manual explains it well.

Polyphony is 64, which is great. Holding the sustain throughout an entire song at quite a tempo never saw a dropped note.

The action is great. Lighter than the usual heavy feel of most weighted boards.

I have yet to buy the Classic Keys ROM, so I can't comment on that.

No sequencer, but I don't need one.

Here is why I bought this board. The sounds! All of the pianos are more than great for me. I rarely like electric pianos, but some of the ones on this board are really quite nice. Most of the pianos sound very similar, but in a mix you notice a big difference. I am partial to 007: Concert Grand.

The board has wonderful orchestral instruments. The pads are really nice and there a couple of good synth sounds, but too few synths. I like the brass sounds a lot. Guitars are better than on some boards, but they still aren't very good. The organs need some tweaking, but they're all right (would have been better with aftertouch-leslie).

This board would work well with most any style except for dance/techno.

Onboard effects are very good.

Preset velocity is great and you don't have to break a knuckle to get aftertouch.

Everything has worked perfectly for me. I would definately gig without a backup.

I haven't had to deal with the company at all and I don't forsee a time when I'll need to.

If it were lost or stolen I would definately want to buy another one. I rely on this for not only a keyboard but as my piano too. It is definately worth the money. Probably more.

I considered the Alesis QS8.2, having played it several times and having never played the PC1X. After overlooking the features many times, the PC1X was the clear choice and I am glad I made the choice. The Alesis have inferior sounds (albeit nice pianos) and no aftertouch. It also have a bit of a clunky feel and comes in silver, which is easy to blemish.

This is my composition tool. My everything when I'm composing.

I would definately recommend this board about any other board in the $1000-$2000 range. It beats everything else hands down.

Controls seem fairly well laid out and logical. I wish that it had sliders instead of knobs like my old Kurz PC88mx. With a little work I will be editing programs and making my own setups in no time. Should work fairly well as a MIDI controller.

For the price, the features are decent. 64 voice poly, 32MB of samples, 88 weighted keys, and TONS of good quality effects,aftertouch, GREAT EQ(bass,mid,treble)so I don't have to adjust tone knobs in inconvenient spot on my amps, ample MIDI capabilities. It's not very expandable, but I don't need it to be. I think the weighted keyboard action feels very good and very comfortable. The response feels right. Uses the exact same wall wart(same volts, same amperage) as the PC88mx, but the the prongs aren't right on the wart -- there are 2 equal lengths of cable coming from the wart. I don't like wall warts, but I'll put up with them if the keyboard is worth it. I like the big parameter wheel to change sounds and settings. PC1X Weighs 50 lbs. -- that's just a bit heavy, but I'll put up with it.

There are many sounds that are very good right out of the box. There are great acoustic pianos, elect pianos, & orchestral sounds. The 12 string gtr(acoustic & electric)are great, as well as classical gtr and harp. The jazz & distorted electric gtrs are somewhat lame, as are some other sounds, but I got them to sound much better after I went in and adjusted the effects. The 2 effects busses are very nice, and you can change the whole character of the sound if you experiment with these. Don't just stop with the preset sounds -- you can really expand on what the PC1X can offer if you work with the effects. As mentioned above, the keybd feels very nice. The hammond-style organ presets are ok, but I'm sure that they will sound much better after tweaking these sounds.

Seems fairly solid. No particle-board bottom. LCD contrast knob on back sticks out a little , so I'll use a little more caution. I hope it will hold up for years like my PC88mx. I can't afford a backup, so I REALLY hope it holds up.

Kurzweil is being taken over by Samick...only the shadow knows how this will turn out, but I hear that all Kurz divisions & operations are moving to California. I hope they do well, and hope that I really don't need their customer support. You can get OS upgrades via the web.

For the money, I believe that this is the best 88 key weighted kybd on the market. There are other more versatile and feature laden 88 key weighted kybds(S90, Motif ES8, K2600, etc), but the high q piano sounds, other decent sounds, and reasonably good features make this a great buy. It doesn't do everything, but it does a lot! And what it doesn't do, I have a Yamaha motif 6 to complement it.

The Kurzweil PC1X is very easy to use. The manual is put together very well.

For the price that you pay. I payed $1,195. You get alot of features. Comes with 64 polyhpony. over 500 sounds. Very midi friendly, A awesome 88 keyboard that is very responsive. The only draw back for me is the lack of a sequencer.

The piano sound is absolutly outstanding as is most of the sounds on this keyboard.
I love the string sounds, solo trumpet is very good. Flutes are wonderful. The onboard effects are outstanding. And the keyboard reacts very well to velocity and aftertouch.
sax sounds are just ok.
Drums are very good.
Gm patches are better than alot of keyboards.

I would think this keyboard would take a beating and keep on going.
Very well made.

N/A

If it were lost or stolen I would be heatbroken. I love this keyboard. I would diffently get another one. I have played and owned many keyboards and this one is the best.

? OS 1.0. Just bought it and it's brand new.

? Very little patch editing available (though there are four knobs which can be assigned for things like filter cut-off). There's an up-front EQ button which can allow you to boost an individual patch; great if you don't think that piano patch is cutting through enough!

? Manual is one of the better ones: clearly written with a proper index and complete and detailed patch descriptions

? I should say that I was able to start playing patches and switching banks without having to think about it as you can select patches with buttons, inc/dec buttons, AND a nice big datawheel. It's also very easy on the eye; a good-looking board (doesn't use that ugly orange display, either).

? 64-note poly. I'm hoping that it has the same kind of note-handling capabilities as my old PC88MX which was 32-note poly except in a few instances, yet never dropped a note!

Built-in effects are sweet and rich (I have come to loathe digital delays, but they're used judiciously here). Note, though, that individual patch effects are lost in multi-timbral mode (that shaves one point).

? Unit can be expanded with more ROM sounds via a single board. So far Kurzy has only released one board in a loooong time, the Orchestral, and since those sounds come stock in the PC1X, you'll probably be waiting another loooong time before (if?) another board appears. Yamaha, Emu, Roland, Korg (even Alesis) offer far, far more and far faster in this area, so Kurzy gets shaved another point just for that.

? The PC1X is a controller with a weighted, but not too weighted full keyboard. Piano tones feel right, but it's responsive enough for organ and synth. Aftertouch is perfect; you don't have to dig to China to get a response. All of the controls are well laid-out on the facia and they all make sense. You can split the keyboard into four zones; 2 MIDI Outs! Nice.

? There's no sequencer and no ability to play sequences.

? There's a bread-and-butter arpeggiator, not changed too much (at all?) from the PC88MX. It's too limited and too hard to get to and use so for me, it's like it's not even there. I must point out, too, that not all of the arpeggiated tones in the Setup patches actually worked (and I double-checked the manual to see why; they just didn't). Hmmm.

This does not have the organs of the PC2X, but they're decent organs. I don't know why aftertouch doesn't kick in the rotary effect. Who thinks it's a good idea to play organ one-handed so you can nurse the mod-wheel? LAME (and Kurzy is not the only one to make this mistake of logic and musicianship)

The EPs are gorgeous and the Wurlies not bad. The pianos are not what I bought this for (see final comments below), but they are pretty good. I feel they fade out too fast. That said, there's a lot to choose from, including a Rock Piano that solves an age-old complaint: IT WILL CUT THROUGH ANYTHING!

Orchestral sounds are mostly lovely, though I would hope Kurzy's eventual ROM board would add essentials like bass clarinet, contra bassoon, piccolo (!), alto and bass flute, muted brass (hand-in-bell Horns, for example), brass shakes and falls (etc.), muted strings, and the like. Hint to Kurzweil NO ONE ELSE OFFERS THIS!

Some terrific un-tuned and tuned percussion. Nice range of brushed perc; And the timpani are very aggressive and muscular. In fact, overall I'd say most of the orchestral sounds have a more cutting, aggressive quality to them than Roland's or Yamaha's.

Synths and pads are quite good (and there aren't enough). Solid basses (but all synths' basses are good). Acoustic guitars are wonderfully done, even though they don't have any of the velocity extras as Emu, Roland, and Yammie have now. Rock guitars just aren't good.

Drum kits are plentiful and fun to play with. Real care was given here.

The GM selections are a mixed-bag (flute doubles as piccolor, for example). Kurzy should have done an XG bank!

Too new to know. It's heavy and solidly built. Could probably stand up to some pounding.

When I had my PC88MX I found Kurzweil to be lousy. Absolutely the worst, which puts them right down there with so many other synth companies. But some companies are FINALLY starting to treat customers like customers (Yamaha) so I'll reserve judgment and hope Kurzy has changed. We'll see if I run into any problems or how quickly they come out with expansion boards.

The PC1X is advertised as a controller that happens to already have great sounds in it and there's no disagreement here. I had a Yammie S90 and liked it, but wasn't in love with it. I sold it in advance of getting a Motif ES, then when I had a chance to judge the ES, found it wasn't quite what I was looking for. The ES has an atrocious interface, sampling without crossfading, a sequencer I'll never use (etc.). The sounds ARE improved over my S90 (and the older Motifs), but aside from the Mega Voices for guitar and bass and a few Sweet Voices, I didn't think it was worth the money or learning curve.

Another consideration was Yammie's P250. Lovely board with great pianos, 128 voice poly, and modeled effects like keyboard resonance. But it's the size of a fussball game and costs $1800. In the meantime, I came into possession of a used GeneralMusic RealPiano which also has string resonance, pedal damping, etc., so why get a P250?

But I had no keyboard, so I checked Sweetwater for controllers. A top- of- the- line (but feature poor) controller was just a few hun less than this new Kurzweil PC1X (as I write this, October 2003, the PC1X has only been out about a week). Hmmm, sound-dead controller, or pay a little more for what is actually a BETTER controller that also has several great sounds.

Literally a no-brainer. I bought the PC1X.

Despite my quibbles, there's really nothing like it with 88 keys and this quality in this price range. Roland's RS9? Keyboard is non-weighted and the sounds aren't as good as the Kurzy. Alesis QS8.2? Old sounds and technology in a board that offers much less than the original QS8 from several years back. From there, we start going up quite a bit in price to the S90, Triton LE, etc.

I think the PC1X is going to see plenty of sales! A winner.

Oh, one final quibble and this is addressed at ALL manufacturers. The PC1X may be affordable, but it's still a professional keyboard, not a kiddie toy. Professionals read music and charts. So why, oh why does it NOT come with a stand for sheet music? Every real piano and organ I've ever seen comes with a stand.

How about it?

My other boxes: a Roland XV5050 (with string board) and SH-32, GeneralMusic RealPiano, Emu Virtuoso 2000 (with World and Protoza boards).