Kurzweil PC2X

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.

OS Version: 3.00

The presets are very good. That very important also because, apart from being a masterkeyboard, it is a stage piano for playing presets. Only very limited editing is possible.

The manual is good. The only part that wans't clear from the manual, for me that is, was the MIDI receive mode. I found "The PC2 Made Easy" helpfull for this and explaining how best to use with an external sequencer.

Polyphony is 64.

I like the keyboard action. The keys are quick to raise again, which I like. With the standard settings it very easy to play to loud. I really don't think I'm that hard a player, but I normally use either the Hard2 or Hard3 (max.) touch setting. Perhaps even better is using the Cos+ velocity curve for a slower initial increase in velocity together with velocity scaling depending on the global touch setting (120% for Linear to about 140% for Hard3).

Has two built in effects processors, one is reverb only. As with all keyboards I know they are not as easy to setup when sequencing.

The acoustic and electric piano sounds are very good. Electric ones could perhaps be a little better on the high notes. Most sounds are quite good I guess. I don't really like the guitar sounds. Percussion is great. Pads are good, as are the strings.

Built in effects are very good.

Once I adjusted the velocity sensitivity as mentioned earlier the keyboard responded nicely to playing. Aftertouch is good also.

I use it at home only. Some keys make a clacking noise as if the key is hitting the casing. Apart from the noise they work fine. The supplied sustain pedal works, but it is not a very good one.

Haven't had to deal with customer support yet.

If it were lost or stolen I probably couldn't afford a new one as they now cost double what I paid for it (bought it in Germany).

The Yamaha S90 has a more solid feeling action. I like the PC2X's action better, apart from the noise. Compared to the S90 I like the ease of use of the Kurzweil as a master keyboard. The Kurzweil's user interface somehow feels more professional. The buttons, sliders and dial on the PC2X are also better than the S90's. The S90 has more sounds, a sequencer and a graphical display, but there something about the PC2X that makes it classy. It does what it does well. In the end you really mostly use the piano sounds.

Software version 3.0 (it took a couple of tries to install the upgrade but it wasn't a major hassle).

The manual is middle of the road - fairly readable, but not organized very intuitively. It also has some noticeable gaps in content (like architectural details for half the ROM patches!).

The patches are organized into groups of 128 patches with each group further broken down into 16 banks of 8 patches each. Each bank contains patches from the same "family" such as pianos, brass, percussion, etc. There are three 128 patch groups installed in ROM and 2 more groups on the orchestral expansion. Two more groups are held in reserve for a yet-to-be-released 2nd expansion board and the remaining 128 patch group is for user patches. There are 16 buttons that enable you navigate to an 8 patch bank within the current group. The buttons are labelled for the "family" groups in the 2 primary ROM banks. Unfortunately, the families are different for the orchestral expansion. The orchestral expansion ships with an overlay for the buttons with updated labels, but it would be easily lost, especially on a dark stage.

Navigating through patches is a pain. The organization described above has several annoying drawbacks. For example, there are 32 piano patches in ROM spread across two groups and 2 banks within each group. If there's a particular patch that you like you need to remember which group it's in - you can't just press the "piano" button and instantly have access to all piano patches. Also, the distribution of patches across groups doesn't always match your preferences. For example, some sythnthesized instruments such as strings are with synths, others with pads, and others with their acoustic siblings. The sixteen labelled buttons are a good idea, but the user should be able to group patches within those buttons anyway s/he wants, even putting one patch under multiple buttons if appropriate.

In fairness, I dislike the patch selection/navigation methods on most complex keyboards including the Yamaha S80 described in more detail below). But the PC2x seems more annoying than most. Programming is easy for some tasks and hard for others. There are special modes that enable you to build layers and splits with very few button presses - very handy for building quick patches on the fly. Modifying effects and scrolling through parameters is also relatively simple. When doing more detailed programming there are some shortcuts that are very handy once you learn them.

The most frustrating part of patch editing is with synthensizer patches. You can tell there's a full-blown synth engine buried under the hood but the user interface doesn't provide you with direct access to it. From the editing menus there's no way to control which synth modules (e.g., filters) are linked into a program and you can't tell which MIDI controls are linked to which parameters (e.g., cutoff frequency). You have to find a program that's sort of set up the way you want and then experiment with different sound sources and MIDI control settings. The manual only documents the architecture of half of the ROM programs and then only in summary form. This is definitely not the board to get if you're into building/tweaking modular synth patches.

In contrast, KB3 mode (Hammond B3 emulation) editing and control is a breeze. You have direct control over all 9 waveforms in real time. You can control voice (slider) volumes, effects, and percussion with dedicated buttons and sliders. LEDs on the buttons give you instant feedback as to what's on/off. A dedicated switch toggles the four sliders between B3 voices 1-4 and 5-8 (the mod wheel controls voice 9). The sliders reverse their orientation to match a real tone-wheel orientation - you pull them down to increase voice volume. Some serious thought and design went into the performance control aspects of the B3 organ emulation with excellent results.

Polyphony is 64 notes and you usually get all of them in contrast to some other boards. However, KB3 mode eats 56 notes of polyphony so building layers with the KB3 organs is limited. There are some good non-KB3 organs that can be used in layers without eating lots of polyphony. There was a 128 polyphony expansion that was marketed briefly but I haven't seen mention of it in press or anywhere else for quite some time. That silence makes me think that there were serious problems with it - ones that aren't likely to be corrected in this model.

There are an ample number of controls and the board is well-suited to controlling other keyboards and sound modules. The MIDI implementation is extensive and control is straightforward. The keyboard can split into 4 zones controlling any combination of internal or external sounds. The selection of onboard effects is good though figuring out which MIDI controls control which effect parameters isn't always straightforward.

The power supply is the "lump in the line" variety - a minus in my view.

There's a very usable arpeggiator.

The keyboard is weighted action though it definitely leans toward a "synth feel" - light and springy. I don't like the action but then I'm used to acoustic pianos and my heavily weighted Yamaha KX88. Other people who've tried my board like it.

The unit only comes with one pedal and it's very cheap. I invested in a double switch pedal unit and a heavy duty continuous controller pedal. They're necessary investments if you'll be using complex patches on stage. There's an optional music stand that's good-looking but pricey and a bit flimsy.

I own 3 Kurzweil 1000 series rack modules and have kept them all of these years due to their high quality samples and overall sound quality (they live at home, the PC2x lives at the practice room). The PC2x sounds are significantly better than the 1000 series sounds, which is high praise. The quality of the acoustic samples ranges from good to outstanding.

Strings and pianos are the strongest sounds though there are very few disappointments. The orchestral expansion is now standard in new units (I bought mine as an add on) and it adds many more acoustic sounds. There's an entire symphony orchestra in the unit and many more sounds in addition.

The synthesized sounds are also of high quality though lack of editing/control limits your ability to tweak them to your taste. The organ sounds are awesome - better than any of the dedicated digital B3 simulators that I've tried of late (e.g., the VK8). If you need a stage keyboard that's strong on organs and pianos this is the unit for you.

The effects are strong and there's a large section of them. The quality is more than adequate for stage, though not always up to studio recording standards. There are several "combo packs" designed for organ with rotary speaker and amplifier overdrive - very convincing simulations. I especially like that you can control low and high Leslie rotation speeds and the realistic ramp time when switching between speeds.

I've had mine for 9 months now with no problems. My 1000 series modules have had relatively few problems, though 2 of the 3 have needed minor repairs (they were built in the late 1980s). Kurzweil was bought out by Young Chang in the early 1990s so I'm not sure that experience with older units is a valid guide to expectations for new units. The case is sturdy and the controls feel solid. There are no protruding knobs or other obviously disaster prone aspects of the unit. So far so good.

I've never dealt with them directly. I have used their web site quite a bit and it's relatively good. I downloaded and installed a software upgrade with minimal hassles. There's an excellent tutorial on-line that's a must read for anyone who wants to get the most out of the board.

I've been playing piano for almost 40 years and have been playing in various bands for almost 10 years. I'm primarily into live performance though I also do some recording and composing. I needed a unit that could do multiple things well and that could be my only stage unit for at least a year. My band plays 1960s through current R&R with an emphasis on 1960s through early 80s "classic" rock.

I tried out quite a few boards over several weeks before purchasing this one in June 2002. The competition quickly narrowed down to the PC2x, Yamaha S80 (now the S90), and Roland RD700.

The S80 is a better synthesizer and a bit easier to use than the PC2x. I also liked its keyboard action better than the PC2x. There are also, quite a few expansion modules available for it. However, it's not nearly as good of an organ as the PC2x, primarily because it lacks all of the performance control aspects of KB3 mode on the PC2x.

The RD700 is hurt by weak organ sounds, lack of programming/editing flexibility, and relatively low "bang for the buck" compared to the other two. It would be best suited to folks that are happy with the sounds in the unit and who do minimal layering and patch editing.

My ideal unit would have excelled at acoustic instruments (especially piano), B3 organ, and synthesizer sounds. None of the units that I tried delivered on all three. The PC2x won out for me due to its strength in acoustic instruments and organs. The Yamaha would have won out had I been more concerned with synth sounds and less with organs. I decided that it'd be easier to find good synth sounds in an add-on module or second keyboard (e.g., a Roland or Waldorf) than to find a good usable organ in an add-on module or 2nd keyboard. I have a Waldorf Q16 on order to fill in the synth capabilities that the PC2x doesn't provide.

OS Version 3.10. The PC2X is a relatively straight forward keyboard. I've had it over a year now and use it live and in the studio. Most presets are usuable and the pianos are fabulous (which is why I bought it). I haven't attempted to edit any of the sounds as of yet. The manual is o.k. but could be a little more "down to earth". I wish some of these electronic audio companies would write manuals like Mackie or at least E-MU.

I have the black PC2X with 64 voice polyphony which is upgradable to 128 if you have an extra $379 US. The effects are nice especially the reverb. It pays to listen to this keyboard via the digital out cable and at 24 bit Pro- mode. I missed this feature during the first few months of ownership and was very pleased at how much better the sound was when this change was made. This will help your studio recordings 100% better from this board. I also purchased the Orchestral ROM block recently...nice percussion, strings and choirs. My next update to this keyboard is the Polyphony expansion board. 64 voices may sound like a lot, but when sequencing numerous sounds I need that extra breathing room.

I mainly bought this board for live performance of piano sounds and a controller. So, it has definitely come thru on this. The onboard effects are really top notch for a keyboard. The keys are not the best I've ever played but haven't stuck on me yet and react nicely to velocity and aftertouch. There are some issues with a clanging, metal type, vibration when hitting some of the keys hard. I tightened up the screws on the bottom of the housing and it helped some but there is still some noise in this area. This hasn't been a real big issue for me but just so you will know what to check for.

I've had a few issues here that are worth mentioning. First, uploading a new software version to the PC2X was not easy for me. I was not successful using my MAC but was successful using my PC (which i hate to admit). I really believe it had alot to do with my MIDI interface rather than the keyboard. I have since purchased a new MOTU midi interface to hopefully remedy this. Just so you know, the updates are loaded into the PC2X via MIDI. There is no floppy drive. My main complaint is: THE POWER SUPPLY IS RETARDED! It has a flimsy connector to the keyboard and this huge wall-wart looking thing in the middle. I was forced to buy a new power supply after only 6 months of use when my keyboard kept shutting itself off during rehearsals and PERFORMANCES. This is not acceptable. I bought 2 more power cables (at $55 each) from Kurzweil just to have some backups. So far with the new power cable the problem hasn't surfaced again. Hopefully that is the end of that nonsense. A word of warning: Make sure that big blob in the middle of the power supply cord is UPRIGHT and in a decent ventilated area or it may heat up and go out on you without warning which will either bring out the "showman" in you or leave you looking like a deer staring at an automobile's headlights. I survived. My lower reliablity rating is based on this issure alone.

I have made a few phone calls to Kurzweil. The parts dept. has always been helpful. The email support is slow. My price paid includes the Orchestral ROM and 2 extra power cords.

I really like this keyboard and would buy another one. The failure of the power supply really bummed me out though. I know "these things happen". So I would be willing to give it another shot if this one disappeared because the sounds are that good.

version 2 and i'd like to point out that many of the problems these people are submiting are bugs related to version 1 software. the manual is a little complicated but if you actully read it (unlike the first guy who obviosly did not because he faild to notice there are six sliders in kb3 mode not 4 sliders) then it is actully quite easy to use even when playing live.

64note polyphony. great weighted action. 150multiple effects and 30 reverbs all editable, what more could one want? the guitar sounds are a little weak, but they're great considering it's a keyboard and ambiance can be added with the right effects and eq. i'm also a melodic percussionist and it is my opinion as well as the others i play with that this is the closer to (if not better) than the sound of the melodic percusion instruments. and is certainly the best we've ever heard in any keyboard. every sound on the board is outstanding in my opinion and the fetures (if you read the manual) are very versatile.

see above ^.

if read some of the other reviews and must say if u treat any insturment poorly it's going to work poorly. i haven't had this board long but it's built like a tank and i would certainly use it without a back up.

outstanding, i would recomend this board to any experienced muscian looking for great sounds and a midi controler. let's not even bring korg, anyone stupid enough to use korg is hardly a muscain (possibly a rapper!) i chose this board for it's outstand fexibilty, sound quality, reliablity, and overall supiorarity in the keyboard feild. there are somethings i wish i had for it, and hopefully will get in time (more pedals, controlers, ect..) this board makes making music fun and easy with all the sounds it includes and the ease of tailoring them to your needs. and is considerable less money than other fully weight 88key boards with the sounds,control, and quality this thing has. i'd also like to share to those who have complained so much to get off their lazy arses and read the d*** instruction manual,stupid!!

OS version 2.10

The interface is pretty intuitive, I haven't had to use the manual all that often honestly. The KB3 mode was a bit confusing until I found out where all the buttons were (for percussion, chorus/vibrato and leslie sim), but after I read it in the manual I noticed all buttons were labeled, heh.

it has 64 note polyphony, expandable to 128. Great built in effects, expansion capabilities (but I have little use for the orchestral card or the polyphony expansion). I like the action. No sequencer, but I use this thing mainly for live and have no use for it. One thing I would love however is if they had 8 sliders instead of just the four, as on the K2600. This would make playing in the kb3 mode a little easier. 9 would be even better.

The pianos are incredible for live, the samples sound beautiful and cut through very well (main reason I bought it). The kb3 / hammond is okay. The Rhodes and wurly samples are not the greatest, but usable. I use a rhodes stage 73 and a wurlitzer 200 live when I can, but when I have to use the Kurz instead I don't grit my teeth too bad, heh. The clav sounds alright (though I'm on the hunt for a D6 right now).

The controller is made by Fatar. Fatar made the controller in my last road keyboard (Ensoniq ks-32, heh). It lasted 8 years and was knocked around quite a bit. Of course, by the time I finally retired it a bunch of keys were dead and several keys were no longer velocity sensitive, but the hell I put it through it's amazing it didn't spontaneously combust. I like the way fatar's feel. And if the pc2x lasts 8 years, I would be thrilled. By that time I'm sure I will have purchased a new keyboard anyway. I have gigged moderately with my pc2x for about a year (2-3 times a week) and so far the only problem is the plastic covering on the wires coming out of the power supply has worn off and some of the wires are visible (though the shielding on the individual wires is still intact). I hate the "lump in the line" style power supply, I already bought a spare because I know it's just a matter of time before the thing tears up. Other than that though, everything's gravy. Interestingly, after hearing horror stories about reliablity on this board I made sure to test the model I was buying in the store. This had the black finish on it, played great. Then they called me back saying that a church had ordered the black one, there was a mixup and asked me if I would kindly exchange it for a purple one. Being the nice guy that I am, I packed up the board and took it down to the shop. Tested the purple one, it had some sticky keys. Naturally I kept the black one. I know that the black ones are newer than the purple ones, and now I'm curious if there was any change in the manufacturing process.

never had to deal with them

I love the pianos on this keyboard, which is the main reason I bought it. There is no other keyboard on the market right now that I would rather have for live use. I love the way it feels, I love the fact that it's about 20 pounds lighter than the k2600x and a great deal cheaper too. I like the fact that it has exactly the features I need for live and I'm not paying for anything I won't use in terms of both weight and price. I would highly recommend this keyboard to a friend, but I would have them make sure they play it before taking it home to make sure it works well.

Nothing else on the market compares to the PC2x in this catagory.

I bought this board primarily for it's control functions. Pianos and electric pianos are the best on this one.

The keyboard needs to be resigned, with RELIABILITY as it's first concern...not last. Clunky keys, two keys that lost their control ability and only played at FULL VELOCITY no matter how hard or soft I played - are the two biggest complaints I have.

After playing Kurzweil products for 10 years and after reading all the various opinions today - I've concluded that buying a Kurzweil PC2x is a roll of the dice. For all the great features, MIDI capabilities, and sounds - there is the bigger picture of lasting quality, and responsible investment. The church I played for bought this one for me to use - and now I am in the market for a controller for myself. At about two thousand dollars - I'm having second thoughts about investing in a Kurzweil PC2x soley based on reliability.

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.