Kurzweil PC2X

This is Duane Garvin, the Kurzweil service manager/ head tech/ warranty person. I did speak with MR X about the problems with his PC2. I believe it was almost a year out of warranty. I told him it was probably a bad cabe (pin 1) and to tell the service center to look at that specifically.
I am usually easy going and helpful but if a unit is almost a YEAR OUT OF WARRANTY then I cannot pay for the repair under warranty. All I received from MR X was that he wanted it covered under warranty and tried being forceful about it. If you take a poll of service center satisfaction from the service I have provided, I am confident I will receive a high mark.
I happened to come across this thread and was compelled to give my side of the story.

I'm using software version 3.10. This board is very easy to use and program.

The keyboard action is unparalleled. Very quick and agressive for the ultra-fast player (like myself).

Expressiveness is great and onboard effects are wonderful.

This is where I have had problems with this board. I was at a big gig last night and when I plugged the Kurzweil in, all of my programs had been erased. None of the presets that I had spent hours programming were there anymore. I have no idea why this happened but playing the gig was next to impossible and I don't think I can rely on this board in the future because of this problem.

Can't get any response from Kurzweil customer service.

Good features on board, but totally unreliable and poor customer service.

Having used keyboards since the early 80's, they all have challenges learing a "new" operating system (new to the user). This one is fairly straight forward - it's all in the manual - that is actually pretty good

ployphony 64 - fine with me (don't program w/this board). Excellent effects, excellent as a controller, great feel to the weighted keys.

Fantastic - enough said

Here's why I'm writing this review. I've owned this board for about 2 years. It's NEVER had any issues. I upgraded the operating software last year (easy), and have done 40+ gigs, and 50+ practices (moving between locations). No problem. Last weekend (7/31/04) we were playing a show and the stage collapsed. My keyboard fell 6+feet to the concrete floor - and kept working. One key popped off (high C), but the board stayed on, and still works. It's now bent, scratched, and dented - but still playing. Thats a good board.

Never needed it

Love it - am about to buy another one (read above - the bar's insurance carrier will be paying for it!).

The PC2x is reasonably easy to use. Navigating the menus wasn't too difficult. The manual is not perfect, but is passable. Basically, I bought the synth so I could have good sounds to use with Band in a Box. My main instrument is bass. What made this keyboard difficult to use was that it wasn't working properly, and emails to tech support went unanswered, see more below.

This board has great sounds, aftertouch, super configurable MIDI, etc. It has expansion capabilites, but I left mine stock since it does what I need it to do (except that it works intermittently).

Sounds are awesome. When I bought it a few years ago, I thought they were some of the best on the market (for my price range). The effects are okay.

I cannot depend on this keyboard, and I would never use it on a gig without a backup. It seems to be built like a tank, but I have been having intermittent MIDI issues for a long time now. The power supply connectorseems that it would be a likely candidate for failure.

If you are thinking about buying this keyboard, you may wish to reconsider. I have NEVER received an email reply from their customer support (support@kurzweilmusicsystems.com). Since I work during their business hours, this needed to be my main form of contact with them. After some time, I eventually called them and got clearance to take it into the shop. Not being the MIDI-type, I did not know exactly what was wrong, but I was seeing some MIDI problems, as the MIDI diagnostic would fail. So, I took it into a Kurzweil-approved shop, and they could not reproduce the problem. Being newly armed with the knowledge that my keyboard was supposed to be "fixed", any new behavior that I discovered while getting to know the 'board I figured must be my misunderstanding of how to use it. In hindsight, I realize that this was another manifestation of the intermittent problem. After some more time trying to get it working, I gave up and came back to it later, figuring I just didn't know the software I was using (BiB). When I returned to get it working, any new emails to Kurzweil went unanswered and eventually my warranty expired. Had ANY of the emails I sent been answered, the intermittent nature of the problem would have been discovered. Kurzweil completely blew the oportunity to help me out. I have since been trying to get Kurzweil to honor the warranty, but they refuse to do so now that it has expired. Actually, they are not explicitly refusing to do so, they are just ignoring my calls and emails. When Kurzweil DOES actually respond to you, Jean is fabulous. He knows the 'boards inside and out. He admitted that they have an aggressive email filter, and so my emails may have simply been filtered out. Umm, okay, so the "PC2x" in the subject got filtered out? This seems a little strange. I suggested that they mention this on their support webpage, but they have not done so, even though this easy fix would avoid many problems. Jean referred me to the Service Manager, Duane Garvin (Duane_Garvin@and-music.com, 253-589-3200 x104) for the warranty issues. Duane was defensive, combatitive, and completely unhelpful from the start. On a few occaisions he said he would call back and give me an answer "tomorrow", yet it never happened. In fact, I do not believe that Duane has ever done what he has told me that he would do. I am still waiting for a reply on the last round of emails.

The one thing that I wish this keyboard had was a company to back it up. I am sure that Kurzweil makes a great product, but I am not going to support the livelihood of a company that ignores their customers, does not do what they say they will do, and does not seem to care one way or the other. As it is, I will probably donate it to a church that doesn't need the MIDI, or just take the business loss.

I'm using 3.1. The presets sound pretty good out of the box. Editing doesnt appear to be too easy. Keep in mind I come from a Korg/Roland background and this is my first Kurz. The manual doesnt make a lot of sense to me, as Korg (triton) seems so much better laid out, but I've plowed through it and come to understand enough. It has three basic modes, Internal/Setups/KB3. The B3 mode is interesting, offering realtime control, but I own a Roland VK-8M that absolutely smokes the organ sounds here, I suppose it would be impressive to someone coming from a regular synth organ background, but to me it falls flat. Midisetups allows you to do layering, splitting and multi-timbre type work. Its somewhat confusing the way the board is laid out. Effects are good. It took me a while to figure out how to write an effect to a sound. Its 64 polyphony in the first to settings but in KB3 it becomes 40. This board seems to be designed mostly as a controller, but sounds are not an after-thought. You can edit the sounds, the touch keyboard isnt too bad. Its pretty easy to use if you're not going to go in depth, but I found myself somewhat frustrated by the seperate modes.. most of the switches change function depending on which mode you're in so it gets confusing. It doesnt help either that I'm colorblind and I cant see much of a difference in the lights which go from green to orange depending on what mode or their function is. Even so its complicated.. more complicated than it needs to be. It doesnt do enough to have that many buttons and levers. Getting into editing is tedious without a touch screen.. or a bigger screen even.

64 polyphony which is enough.. the keyboard action is pretty good actually. There are many effects, many different reverbs and choruses up to two at a time plus master EQ. The board is also expandable. It includes the orchestral ROM which falls flat compared to Edirol's software, but Its better than Korg and Roland. Kurzweil does best in this area of acoustic synths, but even so for me its just not practical to try to imitate a symphony... because it still sounds canned on a keyboard. I suppose the orchestral would be passable on a live gig.. maybe buried in a mix. Midi capabilities are great here, and the board makes up for things here. 4 basic zones with lots of editing possible, its somewhat confusing at first but it gets better. This thing is a good controller. It has a digital Out.. 24 bit spdf.. I used it and decided I liked the sound analog better.. its warmer.. still not warm enough. But better. I bought it because of the digital output.. but I noticed no improvement.. maybe it went backwards in quality. It has onboard EQ.. of course when you EQ a sound it applies to every sound on the board, so you're stuck with it. I did bring down the mid range and I did get slightly better results.

The triple strike Piano isnt happening for me. I come out of a jazz/R&B/Pop playing background and I suppose this board might be ok for a church or school, but for a pro who wants a real expressive sound.. its just not that cool... boring. The mid range seems dumpy to me.. muddy.. and the lower range isnt consistent. The piano cuts through a mix well though because it has an edge to it that is anything but mellow, there are shrill over-tones that bug me. Even so the sound is very even.. almost too even... it lacks something indescribable... its warm in the higher range. The higher range is great actually.. but the mid range seems to suck. I come from Korg..(Triton's have an awful piano sound too.. but I owned a PRo-x which was great) You go with what you're used to and I just cant get used to this.. so I'm gonna take it back. The KB3 mode is good.. but it doesnt come close to Roland's VK series or Korg's CX. Its too clean.. everything on this board is too clean... so clean you can always hear the decay, and hardly ever feel it. I cant feel the music on this board. THe electric pianos are good.. the clavs are actually very good.. the Take 6 samples are the best part of this keyboard, but not overly practical. It has one good lead sound, and the acoustic bass is the best I've heard. Drums are good.. big kits though.. out of date. Everything on this board feels out of date--soundwise. Totally awful for pop sounds and modern R&B. You can get a vintage ROM but those sounded too clean to me. I couldnt find distortion effects or Tube. If you're in a church I suppose this board will work ok since most church music has gone to pot. The orchestral ROM is passable.. better than a lot of other boards out there.. I will give it that.. but it pails in comparison to Edirol's Orchestral softsynth and others like it. With Editing its passable.. buried in a mix. I'd say that applies to everything on this keyboard.. it will sound ok if its buried in a mix.. but it wont knock people out.. and if you're a pro in this business you know your sound has to be on the money. This just isnt.. for me. No offense to those of you who like it.

Its built real well. I'm sure it would hold up. Kurzweil is the best in the business for reliability.

I bought mine from Sweetwater and they have a no hassle return policy I'm gonna take advantage of.. I highly recomend Sweetwater if you buy this keyboard!!!!

I'm taking it back. I've owned it for 2 weeks.. its not happening for me. But it could happen for other musicians who dont require something so expressive. If you're into classical music you might appreciate this synth more.. or if you need a good controller.. but there are far cheaper controllers.. if you like the sounds on this you might as well get the PC1 which has the same sounds and effects and is 1000 cheaper. If you like it as a controller you might as well buy a Studio Logic. This keyboard doesnt fit well into any niche from what I can tell. The controller guy who wants OK sounds could live with this I guess. The controller guy who wants GREAT expressive sounds might better buy something else.

It's been quite awhile, actually, since i experimented with a PC2X. I was inspired to write a review after reading several others. I bought one sight unseen, ear unheard, on the strength of online and Keyboard Magazine reviews, and my previous experience with Kurzweil. I was so disappointed with it that I sent it back after one day. This review mainly concerns the sound quality, so the other categories are merely my best recollections.

As i recall, the board is very straighforward to use.

Keyboard feels nice and as a controller, it has a ton of features, many more than most "digital pianos."

Here's where the board failed me! I bought a PC-88MX some years ago, and enjoyed it thoroughly. I never thought the piano sample was the best on the market, but the ensemble of sounds certainly was. I also own an SP-76, which i can easily throw in the car for jam sessions. So I have been quite pleased with Kurz gear in the past and fully expected (and wanted desperately) to love the PC-2X. But I didn't. It was the "acclaimed" triple-strike stereo grand piano that I just couldn't get used to. The old PC88 piano sound lacked expressiveness, in that it was a single layered sample (with a pretty short decay!) but it was a very serviceable sound, with a very uniform tone from top to bottom. Not as "realistic" as the
best Roland sounds or Yamaha P-series, but very playable. The PC-2X was supposed to change that, with a multi-layered version of their flagship piano sound. But...it sounded to me like they just didn't get it right. I noticed, when playing it, that everything from Middle C up sounded OK, but below that, there were very jarring tonal differences from one key to the next! I tried playing a chromatic scale with very uniform touch to be sure, and it was definitely there, not an artifact of my playing. I hooked up my SP-76 and A/B'd the two instruments, and there was no mistaking it, the SP-76 had a much more uniform, much more natural tonal variation from top to bottom.

I truly, desperately wanted to like this keyboard. But I just couldn't get accustomed to the weirdness in the piano samples, so i sent it back.

IN fairness, I must say that some of the other sounds are definitely better than the PC-88, in particular, the Rhodes. I have a RHodes 73 set up right next to my digital piano stand, so there's no fooling me.

Only had it for a day or two.

I had no trouble returning this board, since I got it from American Musical Supply and they took it right back, no questions asked. But I will relate that my PC-88MX flaked out after about 4 years of use, and the local "authorized repair center" couldn't fix it. A friend of mine who is an electronics whiz, and a producer/recording engineer offered to help me troubleshoot it, so I called Kurz to see about getting a service manual. They said no dice, you not a dealer. I said, i tried going to the dealer and they failed me, why can't you just sell me the d*** service manual so I can at least TRY to fix it. They said no way. The combination of the PC-88's untimely demise and their lack of sympathy for my plight was one factor in my recent decision to buy a Roland instead.

It's really not a bad board, and as MIDI controller i'm sure it's one of the best out there. But since it is highly touted as a digital piano, and I bought it for that purpose as I am a piano player, I found the quality of the piano sample to be distressing.

Software Version 3.1 (and the LCD display conveniently mentions this at power-up)
Presets are mostly great. I make Gigasample libraries for a living and still consider most patches on the PC2X very usable. The Orchestral expansion voices have good responsiveness and excellent ensemble sounds. (Solo sounds suffer a bit in comparison to really large premium samples) The Acoustic pianos are good enough for "Live" usage and KB3 Hammond organ emulations likewise.

Editing patches is straightforward enough, but this keyboard is primarily a Preset User's machine IMHO. The FX stages are extremely good; very realistic Rooms, lush Halls, some very spacey Flanges. Rotary and Distortion fx are a bit less satisfactory, but one rarely hears any better except from high-end dedicated rackmount FX. I find the "wetness" adjustment via Sliders 1 & 2 to be rather annoying , as a single touch on a slider instantly activates the FX bus to a much wetter condition. To be fair, most factory settings are already quite decent BEFORE a slider is touched.

The Manual: Extremely good. This is a mother-controller keyboard with a lot of extra controller capability. Features are clearly understandable for a veteran midi-user. I have been able to find out about any feature I wish to implement without much difficulty. There are addendum manuals that correct a few errors in the primary manual and explain add-on expansion (e,g, Orchestral or RAM upgrades).

I give the PC2X a 10 because it allows multiple Foot controllers, Ribbon controllers, etc. It is overkill for Control features. If I based my opinion solely on sound expansion capabilty, the opinion would be much lower.
Stock Polyphony is 64. Keyboard action feels better to me than current Yamaha S90/Motif or Roland. This is for PC2X88 weighted keys.(the black PC2X)
Velocity curve adjustments were easy to find and I feel that this keyboard is a better overall choice than the dedicated pianos mentioned as being more responsive to classical piano style. As an all-purpose Midi controller that needs to be just as responsive on bass/drums/strings etc. I think the action is most suitable although I sympathise with acoustic players who want more dynamic responsiveness. (If ya want acoustic, play yer Steinway)

As mentioned previously FX are pretty darned good.
FX stages (2) Stage 1 is multi and 2 is Reverbs only. Both stages may be used together (including two separate verbs, example= Hall on Stage 1 and Mic Ambience on Stage 2)

Expansion capability: PC2X88 comes standard with Orchestral ROM Expansion card already installed. One ROM expansion slot available (but no existing expansion ROM library available at this time.
RAM expandable to allow 128 note polyphony. 64 is fine unless using this unit as a primary sequencer sound source. Note-stealing characteristics are not noisy/noticeable in single voice "live" usage even with lots of Sustain Pedal piano.

No On-Board sequencer. No sane person uses on-board sequencing when computer screens are so much easier to deal with. You might care if you want "live" sequence playback capability. I use portable computers for "live" sequence control.

The onboard sounds are as good as any I have heard in a Controller oriented keyboard. Very usable for most varieties of music. Outstanding for film/orchestral composition; pianos and organs good for jazz/rock/blues. Sounds disppointing for Tech/Dance?Trance, but Drum kits are better than most. Synth sounds and analog-style pads a bit generic, but good quality.

Velocity response= fairly adjustable. I previously played non-weighted keyboards for years. Transition made easier by good velocity curve presets.
Aftertouch= way more responsive and useful than what I get out of Yamaha or Roland keys. (Part of this is simple patch programming, but Yamahas feel excessively prudish to me and allow expressiveness of Afterouch only on really grinding down on keys; Rolands a bit better but Kurzweil feels natural)

Dependability= Probably.I give it a seven, with some reservations. Construction quality is very heavy. The Fatar keys are Fatar's top grade, unlike the less solid Chinese mechanisms now being used in many keyboards. (Korg et al) I have known Kurzweil K2000's to have life-expectancy issues using Fatar mechanisms, so I keep my fingers crossed on this area.

I would use this on a local gig without a backup but take two if you go on multi-city tours for 6 months. (and pay the roadies extra.this honker weighs a lot.)

Have not tried formal service calls. None needed. I do know people working for all the major keyboard manufacturers and feel it might be easier to deal with Kurzweil than the larger companies. All manufacturers genuinely try to have good tech support. If I wanted great tech support I might have bought a Korg, but then I would probably need it!

Repairs/upgrades...Just for test purposes I've Reloaded the OS and also replaced standard patch bank with a free online bank. Both operations accomplished easily via Midi connection to a Windows XP machine with Delta 10/10 midi i/o.

I would definitely buy this keyboard again. Pro musician since 1972.
I love the fact that I bought this as a weighted-key controller and did not much care about on-board sounds..and then found myself creating new music because the onboard sounds are good enough to be inspiring.
I really wish that this unit had 300 gigabyte storage because hardware is often easier to use than computer-based sample-playing. Even the most expensive hardware workstations are wayyyyyy behind on storage space and many lack the great controller features of this simpler keyboard.
Until keyboard workstation sample storage and quality match soft-sampler level, I'll stick to a capable midi controller that feels good rather than going for Tritons, Motifs etc with their small samples.

Easy...but, I used the PC88mx for 8 years prior.

Keyboard action is good. It's not as cool for piano as the latest Yamaha or Roland progressively weighted boards. But, those progressively weighted boards SUCK for playing anything that's NOT a piano...so that's IMO, a decent tradeoff.

The controller sliders feel like higher quality than the PC88mx...and there are breath and ribbon controller inputs as well as programable buttons right above the Mod wheel...on appropriate synth sounds, this defaults to turn the arppegiator on and off--neat.

64 voice is fine for now. True Polyphony and all...option to expand to 128 is nice, though.

The digital out being locked at 48khz sucks, but the D/A converters sound great...even comparing with my outboard converters @48k...so, it's no biggie as long as you have good cable and A/D.

No sequencer. No sampling.

OK, here's the deal. This is a PLAYER'S board. The pianos are great. The last review mentioned how they don't sound that different. While I see his point, a player will know that the subtlety of timbre and response makes a big difference going from track to track.

The orchestral sounds ROCK. I replaced a Gigastudio system with this. Mind you, I didn't have the newest uber libraries, but these orchestral sounds have something the BEST Gigasamples don't-PLAYABILITY. They add vibrato with aftertouch...ensembles swell...as to having too much rosin (stated earlier), I say that's what makes them good. I actually had to drop a string arrangement from my last CD, because I didn't have enough "sharp" cellos in Giga to play my idea. And, IMO, this orch brass is the astounding.

The electric pianos are great. This was a shortcoming of the old Pc88mx. They're here now, old, grungy, pretty, and funky. I don't think I'll even need to boot up the computer to use EVP88 on this next project.

The KB3 is better than samples, and is preset to my Voce MidiDrawbars...but, not on par with the latest dedicated emus- Roland, Korg, Hammond, and my fave- Native Instruments B4.

The synth sounds pretty much suck. But, I rarely use synthy sounds, and have dedicated units when I do.

In 8 or 9 years, I had to fix the weights on 3 keys of my PC88mx once...that's not bad for 8 years of hard playing.

Emailed them a question about one of the EP patches...got nothing but an automated response. Not a good sign.

I would buy it again. I'm anxious to hear what they have planned for the second expansion board...

I was operating with the 3.1 version. The manual is not very much help. Didn't really get a chance to edit any patches but it looked pretty self explanatory.

The keyboard action is one of the best I've experienced. The effects are somewhat limited due to one of them being simply reverbs. It is not very expandable. It is however a very flexible midi controller.

Some are really good and some are really bad. Too many piano sounds that don't really sound that much different. Some of the string samples have a bit too much bite to them. Guitars are not good at all. The arpeggiator is useless without preset patterns and being just an everyday basic arpeggiator. Some of the horn, oboe, flute, clarinet, and bassoon sounds are unbelievable replicas. This board would be great for movie scores but not much else. There are a limited number of synth sounds and some are not very good.

Having only spent a little time with it before I sent it back, I am not sure about reliability but I have heard others with problems.

Forget it. They don't care about their PC2X buyers. Just try to get an answer from them.

This keyboard is way over priced. Some sites offer it for about three hundred dollars more and I can't imagine paying that. Some o.k. sounds but some not so o.k. sounds with a cheap arpeggiator and things are not well organized on the board itself. Not a very good investment.

Read the manual stupid. You will discover that if you read the manual, most (if not all) of the things people say this keyboard won't do, it actully will do. It's Heavy, so it's hard to move, but what do u exspect if what quality? For a controler and using with multiple midi devices it does quite complicated, and manual explenations don't offer much help. But generall easy to use, and edit will preforming live. Because of the ease a 10, but down to a 9 for the lack of definition in the manual.

What will this thing not do? Not much. It's loaded with controllers, and ports to accept more controllers (breath, ribbon, peadels, ect...) Nice touch weighted keys. Plenty of output ports, tons of sounds. Lots of programable midi setups, easily recalled. I give it a 10 in this department.

Sounds are simply unbeliable. No it would not sound good on a bad amp, stupid so for those of you who think it sounds bad go get a better amp. i use it on a fender 60w kxr. If you think korg sounds better you're obviously not a very expreienced and/or talented artist, maybe you're a rapper or something. The ONLY weak sounds i've heard on this keyboard are the guitar sounds, but do u kno any keyboard good at guitar sounds? This keyboard sounds better than many aucostic pianos i've heard. i have a baldwin upright, 125th anviversy, mint condition. this keyboard is loaded with sounds, two backs 0 and 6, for those of you who are too concieted to read the book. The sounds get a 10, because there is no subsitute for true guitar sounds so get over it, kurzweil did an outstanding sound job here.

Here's where the real fun comes in. You idiots who buy from a store whose intials are "gc" (not gonna say any names), need to realize something, you're getting a downgraded version. How else do u think that particular store can have a "once in a lifetime sale!" every week? I bought this board, brought it over 300miles to an out of state home, 300miles back to this home. Then brought about 100miles to a nearby city for a gig, 100 miles back. Then to another one 50miles away, and back. And there were plenty of practices in between there, so i would say this keyboard has traveld about 1000miles, spent hours after hours on stage and at practice, and have never had ANY problem with it. The board is still in mint condition, and works just like it did when it was new. Oh and by the way, some of you need to do ur research, ur problems are the result of the old OS, upgrade to OS2 and you'll be fine. This boards gets a well deserved 10.

Haven't needed it.

This board is loaded with great sounds. Easy to use, extremely reliable, and generally outstanding. korg is quite frankly, pathetic, if you're considering korg you need to realize korg targets two markets:rappers and students who don't kno what quality is. kurzweil is less money for a superior board. many people haven't heard of kurzweil, u know why? they're the best. hands-down.