Kurzweil PC2X

2.10 software version, presets sound great, manual is pretty helpful

Polyphony is 64, Keyboard action is good & effects are good

Piano sounds are some of the best I've heard especially for classical. The onboard effects are also very good. It takes a little while to get use to the touch especially if you are used to playing a real piano all the time.

Can't say I had any luck in this area. This is my 2nd Kurzweil PC2X and I 've had trouble with both keyboards. I will always carry a spare keyboard (Yamaha)when gigging with either of my two PC2X's.

Customer service is helpful, however I did get a run around trying to get to the right person.

If it were lost or stolen, I might buy another, however, I'd definately look into other products. I have been playing for 25 years. Mostly classical, jazz & musical theatre. I think the piano sounds are some of the best I've heard compared to Roland, Korg, Kawai, Ensonig, Alesis, etc. I own 2 other Yamaha keyboards and are very happy with those, especially for the gigging dependabilty factor. I like the piano sounds on my Yahama keyboards but I must say the Kurzweil pianos are my favorite, just wish Kurzeil would get their act together and make a more dependable unit.

Acquired v recently as an up-grade to my Yamaha P80 digital stage piano, after testing a Yamaha S90 and Roland RD700SX (just out) - this PC2X kept me interested with it's functionality and quality of sounds. The keyboard action is light - which suits my playing style (Roland was probably more like the 'real thing' re: keys action to be honest, but more basic in function; Yamaha S90 was great, but quality of sounds not up there...and I'm a Yamaha fan, so trying to be objective, here.)
Initially very easy to use - you can get instant results, but I need to spend less time with my intuition and more with the manual - which is well laid out. Presets sound cool - strings and orchestrals some of best I've heard (and I've heard a few....). KB3 organ mode is good for my (prog rock) purposes.
Already own a Korg Triton Studio, so in terms of programming - it's quite intuitive, but I need to dig deeper.

Keyboard action just right for me.
Built in FX are awesome - enough said.
Would like to get the Classic Keys exp board in due course. Only able to have 2 exp boards, but - again - for me - no probs.
Arpeggiator seems limited (esp compared with the Korg) but I didn't buy it for that anyway.
No on-board sequencer/sampler - get the (very heavy) K2600X if you want all that -or the Krg Triton Studio. I did not buy this as a workstation.

Orchestral/strings/piano/organ - excellent. Other synth sounds seem to almost have an analogue warmth which is difficult to describe, but they do not have that fizz or harshness you can sometimes get with synths -to me the sonic quality is top notch because of that.

Too soon to say but no problems yet!

Lars Karstensen, Kurz Europe - very helpful. Helped me to check that the Kurz warranty was def in place before I put a penny down. Was very open about the past corporate issues Kurz have had which they're coming out of. Make yourself aware before you buy a Kurzweil, just so that you buy 'eyes open'.

I'm not a 10/10 merchant as I always believe that you can get more, but...I have to give 10/10 for value as RRP #2200; Internet #1800; face to face in shop #1600 - but I found this superb deal at #1200 brand new. Yep - I'd buy it again - it complements the Korg Triton Studio workstation - I feel I have the best of all worlds with both units as the Korg has those more cooler/colder 'digital' sounds if you get my drift, whilst this is 'warm'in essence.
To be honest - these days the quality of the Roland, Yamahas, Korgs really is superb, but this just stood out as having that certain sonic 'je ne sais quoi' - I always say - okay, read reviews but at the end of the day there's only one way and that's to get in the shop and test the keyboards. You know what you are after from a board - all I can say is that when I did that - this was the one for me - and I'm delighted.

OS fine, stock standard with it. i'm a little buggered with the setup features cause i'm finding it hard or immpossilbe to get any other sounds into a pedal change in a setup cause it only reads 0 to 127, and it seems to be only the internal list A, which is annoying when you want to change from organ or lead to pizz. strings or something. manual is fine, getting everything out of it that i need except this one problem

Polyphony is fine, loving the keyboard action (as i came from a measly technics P-50(obviously you can see i'm jus starting)). the effects are easy to get to, simply push channel A 'select' and your there, but i think it needs more distortion effects and things for Leads and rhodes, i play in church and its not really cutting it when i want something beefy. Orchestrial ROM is great and all, i dont use like 95% of it, (and because i'm in Australia prices are higher, and Kurzweil parts are harder to get ect ect..) i just want to try out the vintage keys EX board, cause that may fix some of my problems, but there aint none here.

loving it here, have played with Triton LE's, Rolands and all, but some of them just seem to be littls boy's toys when it comes down to it. the sounds here are absoultly fine (strings could be a little warmer and more Leads and Pads would be great) but i'm happy with this purchase. the response is great for anything i need, jazz sounds great with the rhodes (Serious classic) and the piano (any of the 20 odd ones you can find lying around in various groups) is great. the velocity features are great when you want layering and such with songs, (to define a sound to come in at a certain velocity helps heaps in some songs)

No problems here at all mate, but when i play, church, band or by myself, i have no worries about it dying.

have had no need.

if i lost it, i owuld get another one cause it plays very well. been playing for 10 years (i'm 19) and this is a great step forwards from little stage pianos and what-not. Wish it came with a music stand so i didnt have to wait for one to coem from America (Has taken 5 months so far, still waiting for equipment (Kurzweil pedals too) from nearest Kurzweil Dealer. bar that, its great.

I too have dealt with Duane Garvin through Kurzweil Service and I as well as another friend with a Mark 150 series were treated EXTREMELY RUDELY and received NO HELP or service. I wasn't given any info as to any probable cause to my problem and after talking to Mr. Garvin, I fealt 10X more frustrated with his lack of help and my decision to purchase a Kurzweil. VERY dissappointed with the service. I will think about that in the future when I'm choosing between a Roland or Kurzweil keyboard.

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.