Kurzweil PC2X

I want to post this update to my previous review. I did not mention a way to expand the range of dynamics on the PC2X.
Mike Martin, the Kurzweil Rep, was very patient and helpful in helping me to discover the following solution:

Expanding the Dynamic Range on Kurzweil's PC2X Piano:

Here is a setup to expand the reaction range of dynamics from soft to loud on the PC2X piano patches:

Velocity Scale: 100%
Velocity Offset: 0
Velocity Curve: "Sin+"
Global "Touch Setting": 7 Hard 3 (to compensate for the "light" Sin+ curve)

Thanks to Mike Martin, the Kurzweil Rep, for taking the time and making the effort for his customers. Other companies do not provide such hands on support.

Now is there a way to edit so the timbre (tone) quality changes more
dramaticly from vey soft to very loud? It sounds a little "boxy" : )

Vesrion 2.0
The "Rhodes" samples sound like shrill digital squeaks in the top two octaves.

The mechanical key action is comfortable. It is made by Fatar and feels like a Fatar weighted action. Some black keys "clack" as if they are knocking against the inside of the housing. The PC2X accepst expansion boards, but in two years all they have come out with is an orchestral expansion.

The range of dynamic reactions on the Kurzweil PC2X 'Stereo Grand' is limited.

I have spoken to many fellow keyboardists who agree with me and report the same situation of experiencing a limited reaction range of dynamics on the PC2X's triple strike "Stereo Grand 00" no matter how the the velocity curve and touch settings are tweeked.

Yamaha Clavinova series digital pianos and even the Roland Rd series do not limit the reaction range of dynamics as does the Kurzweil PC2X digital piano. Those other digital pianos enable a much more reactive range of dynamics thru touch. The Yamaha Clavinovas and Roland RD700 enable a skilled classical pianist to play from a very soft triple pianissimo then easly thru a dozen different dynamic levels all the way up to a thundering triple forte.

I have been playing the PC2X for about 3 to 4 hours per day for the past two years. Before that I played a Fatar 1176 with a Kurzweil Micro Piano for three years. The Fatar with Micro Piano suffered the same limited reaction range of dynamics, which is why I sold the Fatar.

Tweaking the presets of any of the PC2X's three velocity scales and seven touch settings does not enable the PC2X "Stereo Grand 00" or its other acoustic piano patches to expand their reaction ranges in response to velocity touch. Rather it just shifts the reaction range up or down the velocity scale or in some cases compresses it further than the default Linear curve.

Fatar actions are rather delicate and wear out quicker than other brands. I base this on word of mouth and having owned Fatar controllers in the past.

Kurzweil staff and sales reps do not care to acknowledge problems or weaknesses in their products.

I'm using this keyboard both live (in small group settings), as a practice instrument, and as a MIDI controller for computer-based sequencing. I'm still using OS2.1, although I understand there's an upgrade available now, which I will get when I add the orchestral ROM that's finally available.

The manual's just OK. The downloadable tutorials were more useful for me.

Presets sound good and are very usable with little or no tweaking, especially live in an ensemble. Editing and saving patches/presets is possible, and I've done it mostly to take best advantage of controller pedals (I'm using two CC and three switches).

Keyboard has the best piano feel of any (many) I tried. It feels weird to play Hammond parts or synth parts on it, but what are you going to do if you only want to carry one keyboard? I will certainly be adding the orchestral ROM, and may add the voice expansion at the same time, although the voice limitation only kicks in when I'm using a sequencer to get a lot of parts out of it at once.

I'm seriously tempted to try the ribbon controller accessory. It's really cheap and if it works at all (which I bet it does) it could be a lot of fun.

The sounds are the best in class. It was the sound and the keyboard feel that put it over the Triton ProX for me. It needs graphic EQ in my opinion, however, to balance out the sound from top to bottom.

I use it for orchestral, rock, and jazz sounds and it always gives me something usable. It's not going to retire the Steinway B (or B3) at home or in the studio, especially when you're going to be unaccompanied, but you'll probably end up leaving the rhodes or wirlitzer at home when you gig.

I've been gigging on it regularly without a backup and have had no problems other than one location with flaky older AC. The PC2 kept resetting during setup until I found a new circuit to plug it into.

No problems thus far, thus no experience.

I think of this as my "swiss army knife" keyboard, especially playing live in small groups. I use it when I want to take just one keyboard that will almost certainly be able to cover whatever is called for. I started playing professionally in the late 60s and I have, or have had, pretty much every keyboard there is at one time or another. Most (but not all) have been "the best" (better than the PC2) at one or two things, but never with the extended flexibility of the PC2. If you only need to sound like Jimmy Smith all night (and have two roadies to help), take the B3 and leave the PC2 at home. If you need a wider variety of sounds and expecially if you are tired of moving and setting up a ton of keyboards,look at the PC2.

If I lost it, I would seriously look at a Kurzweil K2600X for the added sound and programming options, but as soon as I picked up the K2600 in a case, I bet I would go back to the lighter PC2X. Life is full of compromises; the PC2X is an acceptable one.

Version 2.10, upgrading to 3.0

Probably one of the best designed keyboards around. In a nutshell, the PC2/PC2X is a fantastic controller keyboard with a reasonably large set of sounds.

Most other keyboards today have samplers and sequencers included.
The PC (Performance Controller) name is perfect:

"PERFORMANCE": This is meant to be the primary keyboard you play in the studio or on stage. While it does not have as many "patches" as other keyboards, the ones there are fantastic. The keyboard has been designed to support real-time performance. For example, it is very easy to create keyboard zones and setup sounds for each zone.

"CONTROLLER": This keyboard was designed to control and integrate well with other equipment (other keyboards, sound modules, sequencers, etc.).

The manuals are easily the best in the industry. You can download .pdf versions of any Kurzweil product manual from their website (http://www.kurzweilmusicsystems.com). For the PC2, in addition to the "normal" manual, there is also a second resource, the "PC2 Made Easy" manual.

If you read reviews about other products (such as the Yamaha Motif), you will notice that people really complain about how difficult the product is to use. The PC2 is very easy to use and extremely well documented.

Polyphony: 64 Standard, 128 with Polyphony expansion option.

Action: Fantastic!!! I specfically purchased the PC2X to get 88 keys and a piano touch. I tested a number of other 88-key keyboards, and the two I liked the best were the Yamaha Motif8 and this one.

Effects: There are over 100 preset effects, very easy to use. The effects are of the same quality as found in the Kurzweil K2600 series.

Midi capabilities: It does everything. For real-time midi control, the PC2X has two wheels, and supports a number of options including various pedals, a breath controller, and a ribbon controller.

Sequencer: None. Remember, this is a controller keyboard. I don't miss it, because nothing can compare to a computer based sequencer (I use Cakewalk's Sonar).

The PC2 has a good selection of fanstastic sounds, what I would consider to be "bread and butter" sounds. There is a new Orchestral ROM board available which adds some additional great sounds.

I would not rely solely on the PC2 for sounds (it really wasn't designed that way). You might consider combining the PC2 with a sound module (such as the Roland XV-5050) or a sampler (such as Gigastudio) to round out your sound palette. I am lowering my rating in this category only because I wish it had more sounds.

Expressiveness: Extremely expressive !! Remember, this keyboard was designed first and foremost to be a PERFORMANCE controller!!

Although I have only had this keyboard for a weeek, it seems very sturdy and substantial to me. Having said that, it might be a heavy beast to take on a gig (I am just a home-studio musician).

I have only sent in two email questions, and both were answered by Tech support within two days. I know others reviewers have been disappointed, but my experience has been great!!

BUY IT AGAIN?: I would definitely buy this again.

COMPARISON TO OTHER PRODUCTS: I wanted an 88 key keyboard to be my primary studio keyboard. I already have a Korg Karma (62 key), so I did not consider the Triton ProX (because it has the same sound ROM as the Karma). I picked the PC2X over my other finalist the Yamaha Motif8. I demoed both keyboards at the store (2x for 1 hour each), and I reviewed their product websites, read various online reviews, and downloaded and skimmed the manuals for both. While the Motif had more sounds, I did not feel it was worth the extra money. As a controller keyboard, the Motif is poorly designed and difficult to use. I think the controller aspect of the Motif was an afterthought, whereas, in the PC2 it was a critical design element.

MY GEAR: I have a Korg Karma (light touch keyboard, unbelievable Karma function), Roland XV-5050 sound module, a BOSS DR-770 Drum Machine, Gigastudio, TC-Helicon VoicePrismPlus (4-part voice harmonizer and voice modeler), Midiman Midisport 8x8 (multiport midi) and an Aardvark DirectPro Q10 sound card.

Very intuitive learning curve. I bought another PC2X for a spare after about a month. I edited a setup that uses the four sliders for controller #7 (midi volume) and the CC pedal is set for controller #10 (midi expression). This way, I can set the volume on the sliders and use the volume pedal to fade the whole balanced sound. I am also using Voce's drawbar system to run the KB3, and it works like a champ.

The piano sound is the best I have played for exposed parts in a band or solo venue, but it sounds best in stereo. Mono is terrible for the KB3 sounds (the leslie sounds too fast and dopplery). The workaround for me was to leave the keyboard in stereo and run out of the left side of the keyboard to the mixer, but leave a cable plugged into the right side of the keyboard going to nowhere. That way you are only hearing half of the leslie effect and it sound normal.

I notice that when I have four zones active in a setup, that the notes flam if I play too fast or with too many simultaneous notes.

I like the action's feel, but after working at Guitar Center for a while, I have heard of numerous complaints of broken keys by heavy-handed players. Use good technique and this is not an issue.

I use the PC2X for jazz and I use it in a contemporary praise and worship band. Lot's of organ, piano and synth pads.

One of my units started locking up (no sound) for no reason at all. I have to re-boot it to get the sound back. I suspect that I impart a static electrical charge to the keyboard when I walk across the floor. But I have been using it for about a year before this started to happen.

Very prompt to email back. Slow to send parts to a repair center though. It seems that spare parts are always on back-order.

As I have said, I bought two PC2X's, mostly because I love the pianos. I have a K2500RS and the PC2X pianos sound better to me, better than the K2600 also. Yamaha come in second in the piano catagory, followed by Roland, then Korg.

Este piano usa el software 2.1 de la Kurzweil.Los sonidos son lo mejor del mercado y apesar de que es un MIDI CONTROLLER tiene muchooooos sonidos.La percusion es real y los drums tambien.Suenan como si los estuvieras escuchando al lado tuyo.Debido a que el manual es en inlges se me hace un poco dificil entender cada funcion de los botones.

La accion es formidable!!!!!!!!!!!.yo he tocado pianos de cola y no hay mucha diferencia.Es hammer-action y es biennnnnn real.Los efectos son faciles de programar pero como dije anteriormente el manual es en ingles.Tiene para expandir a 128 voces polifonicas y para mas sonidos.No tiene sequencer.

Todooooooooos se escuchan reales.Funciona para todo tipo de musica desde clasico hasta rock.Esta BRUTALLLLLL.Tiene buena respuesta a los dedos,es casi igual a un piano real.

Este piano yo lo uso para todooooooooooo.

Todavia no he intentado comunicarme con ellos.

Pase lo que pase este piano lo volveria a comprar 100 veces mas pues es lo mejor.LO que me gusta de este piano es todoooooooo.Para yo hacer esta compra busque muchas marcas y estilos de piano y precios y este fue el MEJORRRRRRRRRRRRR.

I have just bought this board and did my first gig with it last night (3 days after having it). It performed brilliantly! Version 2.1 software was pre-installed and the presets are fantastic. The piano sounds are the best there are (having stuck to Roland religiously before this - they are good, but the Kurzweil sounds and feels like playing a piano). The big bonuses with this instrument were the electric pianos and KB3 organ mode. You don't need anything else! Editing patches was easy as this isn't a full synth and being able to tweak the pianos to your own personal taste, so I have recreated some of the Roland piano sounds I liked (as on the FP3)and also have much richer piano sounds which this board provides. Haven't used the manual much at all - just got straight into it, however the downloadable tutorials will be more helpful than the manual,I feel.

The keyboard action is certainly different to the Roland PA5 action that I was used to. At first,I thought that the Roland action was the best there is, but I did find it hard to play (cut my little finger 3 times !). The Pc2's action is so easy,in comparison to the Roland that I thought it was more a synth player's action. BUT - at the gig, I also played a Steinway grand and I have to say that the Kurzweil's action was much nearer to the feel of this!
It has all the features you could want.

The sounds are very realistic - I've even found a brass sound that works in the mix! I felt that this instrument became a part of me as the gig went on and I found it to be a very expressive instrument.

I had read many horror stories about this instrument from other users on this site and was a little nervous about taking it out. My fears have, so far, been unfounded.

Customer support was a very important issue for me, living in the U.K. The shop I purchased the instrument from will collect my instrument and supply another whilst repairs are made under warranty. So I was completely satisfied with this arrangement. Upgrades are downloadable from the net which is another great feature.

I'd be heartbroken if it were lost or stolen and I'd buy it again - QUICKLY. It was definitely worth the money as I feel I now own a truly PROFESSIONAL instrument, which the Roland never quite seemed to be.

This keyboard is very simple to operate. The sound banks are set-up in a very user-friendly, easy-to-access format.

The keyboard action is terrific.

The sounds are amazing... the pianos are incredible (very realistic). The effects are amazing! I am very excited for the new expansion boards to come out.

I have only owned it for a few days.

I would definitely buy it again if it were lost or stolen. I have been playing keyboards for over 10 years and have owned the following: Ensoniq EPS, VFX-SD, Korg T-3,Kurzweil K2500X, Yamaha s-80, Roland JV-880. Kurzweil has the BEST sounds by far!! The only issue with the PC2X is that it does not have an onboard sequencer, HOWEVER, I don't like onboard sequencers.. I am looking to get into Cakewalk on the computer... The PC2X is the Perfect controller for this.

This is an update on my previous review from about a year ago. I now have if boxed and ready to ship to a buyer in Houston, so I thought I'd put out another review explaining why I changed my tune on this board. I have now done about a year and a half of twice a weekish gigging with this thing as well as studio work and I have some new observations.

I'm now using version 2.1, which I downloaded off the kurzweil website. If you haven't done this, you really should. It's a bit of a pain to do it all, but you'll get a whole new bank of sounds and some improved features. More on this later.

The presets sound pretty darn good right out of the box. However, patch editing is really not something you should attempt on this thing. It takes some serious time and mind twisting to create a new patch on this thing. First of all, you have to find a sound that has similar architecture to the one you want to make, because you can't edit anything like stereo or mono, what filters or eq's or whatnot to use, etc. Then, most sounds have 2-4 layers, each with it's own parameters that you can't change except for number values. Yeah, it's quirky. The frustrating thing about it is that it's very obvious that the people at Kurzweil have total control over all this stuff with their computers or whatever. All the new sounds in 2.1 are testimony to that. So how come they make the keyboard able to be edited at a deeper level but don't let anyone else but them do it?! Hey kurzweil, how about a patch editor program? That would double the value of the keyboard.

The manual is informative and clear. It's not interesting and enjoyable like some of Korg and Line 6's stuff, but it's helpful.

64 voice polyphony. Ooo. Ahhh. DON'T BE FOOLED! Most patches contain multiple layers, so divide that number by 3 or 4 sometimes. There is an expansion board which increases it to 128, but it's bucko bucks. No thanks man.

The effects ROCK. Sweet reverbs, chorus, flange, delay, phaser, laserverb, compressors, distortions, combos, you name it. This is one area that really shines. Editing them is usually straitforward, but to this day, I still can't figure out the delays. There isn't a plain, normal, basic delay effect in there. Everything else is good. So good in fact that it gets annoying to only be able to use one at a time. TWO EFFECTS PROCESSORS? Well, yeah, but the second one only does reverb. So, if you want a midi setup with a B-3 using the rotary-speaker effect and a wurly using the e-piano distortion, your out of luck. But hey, just pan em apart and send the wurly through your POD, right? Doesn't work, you can't pan the organ or something like that, it's quirky.

Expansion... Ahhh, if only... BUT NO. "But wait!" you say, "On the box it says 'expandable to 64mb of sound rom!' " Yeah, if they would ever release the expansion cards. I've been told a couple of times by kurzweil sales reps in the last year that they're comming "in the next month or so." I'm waiting guys.

MIDI capabilities are absolutely fantastic, suffice to say there's not much you can't do. Control, control, control. So much that it's easy to accidentally mess something up in midi setup mode if you don't know what every parameter does and how it effects the others. I had a couple giggin disasters while hurdling this mild learning curve, but it wasn't long before I had it under control. You'll be fine, I promise. If you have a specific question, e-mail me.

No Sequencer,

In order of importance to me:
Piano- 9
KB-3 mode-7
Wurly-7
Rhodes-7
Clav-8
Strings-6
other organs-5
synths-6
Bass-6
Drums-8
Vibes-8
percussion-8

Overall the sounds are quite good. After some time, the KB-3 mode started to dissapoint me. The rotary simulation eats it hard in mono, but its actually pretty good in stereo. (I'm extremely picky about this) The chorus/vibrato scanner simulation is so so. Overall, it just doesn't have the rawness of a real B-3 like the Korg CX-3 or the Nord Electro does. Granted, this is a super-multi-funtion keyboard and with that considered, its good. But on it's own, its just ok. From a performance standpoint, the weighted keys REALLY get in the way, I bled a few times from glissando wipes. The drawbar system is slow, but I'd rather have that than a bunch of presets. Also, the lag between all the other sounds and the KB-3 is substantial. If you need a piano on a verse and a organ on the chorus, you're gonna be hitting the chorus late. Yes, you can use the KB-3 in Midi setups, so you could have the organ on the top and the piano on the bottom, but this gets to be a pain very quickly if you start editing, there's some conflicts between the KB-3 and everything else in the keyboard that slow things down alot.

Though the pianos are good and the action itself is good, their marriage is not a good one. Something about the trigger points really screws me up, and I'm not the only one. I notice it mostly when I'm starting songs, which is also the most noticable part of my performaces! It's hard to describe, but it's something like this: The volume dynamics of the actual sound are not that great, so when it's just you, you feel like you're playing to loud, but you can't play any softer. Plus, the trigger points on the keys are very high, so every touch of the key makes a sound, and not a soft one. It's somewhat better if I turn the volume down, but then I start triggering the medium or high velocity samples, wich are melow sounding like the way that I'm playing and I also get the sound guys telling me to stop changing my volume. Though it seems nitpicky, it was actually hindering me from establishing a solid rhythm for the singer I play with to sing to. I've been playing piano for 14 years and keyboard for 6, always under constant study and practice, this shouldn't be a problem with my playing. I was telling a friend about the problem one day and there was a real piano near by. To show him my problem, I played the exact same piece the exact same way on the piano. To my surprise, the problem was gone, the rhythm was easily established. So, it's deffinately the keyboard. You'll have to try it for yourself to see if you experience this same problem.

I was happy to have wurlies on this thing, there's really only two patches in this category in which an attempt at realism was made. They are very good, I really enjoyed them. The crossover points are REALLY obvious, but I usually added a little overdrive anyways, so it was alright. The rhodes are almost as good. The clavs are cool, one has a really nice wah-phaser effect on it. There's actually an audible sound of the hammers comming back down if you listen for it. Try this-hit one note on a dry clav sample and hold it till the sample ends, then let go and you'll hear what I'm talking about. Nice touch.

Strings are so so, don't buy the keyboard for them. Drums are very usable, especially with a sequencer. Basses... well, I just can't stand a fake bass sound, so I've always either played it on a real bass or done a moog drone sort of thing from my korg electribe. Synths are alright, but the editing fiasco really hurts here. They sound cool, so you want to mess with the cutoff frequency and the resonance filter and the envelope and ring mod and sync and LFO and on and on. But you can't really. What you hear is what you get, for the most part. You can get around on the lowpass filter, but it takes some work. The vibes are re

Never had a problem except once. One time I played an outdoor gig, and the people ran the whole show on one outlet, lights, amps, mixers, everything. VERY STUPID. The voltage was really screwed up and the keyboard would literally lock up if I played too hard. At one point, a big chorus hit came and I did a big organ and piano hit and it froze on that huge chord while the rest of the band played on. Nothing worked, not the volume, nothing. Meanwhile, this huge noise is continuing to eminate from my part of the stage as I freaked out and turned blood red. The best I could do was turn it off and on again at the end of the chorus. DO NOT DEPRIVE THIS THING OF VOLTAGE!

For the most part, kurzweil has been fast to respond to me e-mails and usually helpful and informative. However, they've been acting like they're expansion boards are about to come out for a year now. Also, they kinda screwed me on the resale of this thing. It now lists for $1750 ish. Well, they're selling refurbished ones with a full warrantyt for $1350. So, if I want to appeal to buyers at all, I gotta start at $1150. I complained about this to them, and they said that they usually don't do that and that there's not many of those and blah blah blah. BUT, I had 3 out of 3 buyers quote that price to me. That's how I found out about the refurbished thing at all! I'm shipping mine to Houston for $1125 and I'm paying for shipping. I'm sorry, but I don't appreciate that Kuzweil, my love affair with you is over. Even if none of those buyers could have gotten a refurbished keyboard, that price is out there, complicating the market for used PC2x's, making it even more of a headache than it already is.

Good board, but not for a gigging musician. I'm selling mine for the negative remarks I mentioned above plus the fact that it's 60 lbs with its gig bag and its a monster of a keyboard in size. I wouldn't dream of flying with it, it could be 100lbs with a hard case. NO WAY! For a home/project studio, it's a dream come true for the most part. But as a performance synth, it's just too heavy. Some of you avid kurzweil fans might remember seeing a silver, 61 key version debuted at a music NAMM show sort of thing in Europe. The PC2M. Wouldn't it be lovely? Well, they're not going to put it into production. They don't think people would put up that much money for a 61 key keyboard when the 76 note version isn't that much more. There's always the PC2R, but then you don't get all the midi control. I was pretty negative in this review simply because there's not too many negative reviews on this thing because it is, in all fairness, a good board, and there are several things about it I will miss. But I won't miss the weight, the size, the weird piano/action thing, and the quirky editing.
The big question with this is "PC2, S-80, or XV-88." Well, if a good B3 simulation is high on your list, the PC2 is the best. The piano on the S-80 is really really good, maybe better than the PC2, I dunno. The S-80 really has the keyboard-sound connectiong nailed better, that's for sure. Plus, you have way more editing on that thing. The XV-88 is cool and all, it's really expandable, it makes sound if you wave at it (yippidy skip) and it's a Roland. I dunno, to me, Roland in the antithesis of personality-less musical instruments these days. But, if you like Roland stuff, then maybe you would like that thing. Keep in mind, sample playback is all it does. The PC2 does the organ simulation and the S-80 has a deep synthesis architecture. The XV-88 is... canned keyboards. But, it does sound very good, and Butch Taylor (Dave Mattew's keyboard player) uses it, so, I could be wrong. Although I never really like Butch's work that much.

As you can see, I can talk about this thing forever, so e-mail me questions, I'll give your more information than you really wanted to know.

I found the manual really easy to read and understand, especially the PC2 Made Easy manual. Any new equipment takes time to adjust to and understand fully. I would say the learning curve for this machine is about 3 weeks. The preset sounds are great, of course its a Kurzweil. Especially the pianos and organs (they are for real). It's a snap to edit sounds via endless digital effects and layering and splitting is quick and easy. I don't mind using the sliders versus knobs, since I have my setups ready for live perfomance and hardly find it necessary to tweak sounds all that much during perfomance.

Poly is 64, plenty...but I plan on purchasing the 128 expansion soon. Like I said before, effects are endless and easy to use. It has to expansion options, not yet released by Kurzwiel. MIDI in/out/thru, great controller, I don't use any other board, just MIDI everything to it mainly because the weighted keys are the best I've played on a synth and I have pretty heavy fingers. I can pound away on this board and get the same expressiveness as if I was on a grand. Plus Kurzweil will throw in a free piano type sustain pedel to boot.

This is where this board really shines. Best piano and organ sounds out there. I've played everything under the sun, Roland, Korg, Yamaha etc. and still haven't found anything comparable to the sounds on this board. The strings are very rich and it has some great pads too. The Wurly and Rhodes are top quality too, but I don't use them much. I play mostly layered piano (dynamic stage piano-the best)with strings or pads)I couldn't be more pleased.

Actually I did have a sticky key, but it worked itself out due to my excessive use of the machine (5 hours a day). A couple of the keys started to click one day, so I scanned my memory and found an article I had read about fixing this problem by just tightening the screws on the bottom of the board. Problem solved.

Haven't used it yet, but did download a new manual online.

If it were lost or stolen I would definately buy it again. I don't think I could play anything else now. It was definately worth the $1600 I paid for it, I know it was a steal. It has everything I need, I use my Motif for putting everything together as far as composing goes, but all my piano layers and organ sounds come from this board.