Kurzweil SP-76

First off, I am a guitar player and I don't know crap about MIDI and such. I just needed a good sounding piano with less then 88 keys, and a somewhat piano like action. Kurzweil filled the bill perfectly. This has to be the best playing keyboard I've ever touched. Perfect blend of hammer/synth action. I love the pianos, both acoustic and electric, and the piano/string 2 preset was worth the cost alone.

The keyboard action is the best I've ever played. The effects are nice and lush and most of the presets have a slight amount of ribbon control to them, very subtle, but very usefull. I plan to add a Korg X5D module in the near future for more sounds, but the ones this has already are very, very nice. I'm just learning about MIDI, so I don't know what the MIDI capabilities are. No sequencer, don't need one.

The pianos and strings are great, the organs are lacking, but with the ribbon control leslie speed changes they are passable. I think this should be in every home studio, it's a great keyboard right out of the box, and the action makes it the perfect MIDI controller. The keyboard not only feels great but the aftertouch and responsivness to how fast you hit the keys is right on the money.

Don't know about reliability yet, I just got it.

Don't know about Customer support, hope I never have to.

I would buy another one of these, just to have as a backup if I could afford it. I'm not a keyboard player, but I have learned more songs, and written more stuff in the last two days than I have my entire musical life. I've owned a lot of keyboards through the years but this one makes me want to play, and that's 99% of the game.

I am Alvin English. I would like to correct a statement made in my 01/20/2004 review of the SP76 Kurzweil Stage Piano. In my original review I stated the velocity curves are limited to 5, but the SP76 is actually limited to 8 velocity curves.

I am Alvin English. I would like to correct a statement made in my 01/20/2004 review of the SP76 Kurzweil Stage Piano. In my original review I stated the velocity curves are limited to 5, but the SP76 is actually limited to 8 velocity curves.

I did not purchase the SP76 for it's sounds. This stage piano has 32 basic sounds consisting of acoustical piano, electric piano, organ, and strings. Being a stage piano it is no surprise the acoustical pianos are the best sounds of the lot. The builtin sounds are easy enough to access. Editing may require a lot of button pushing to get the parameter you want. You can only do basic editing such as reverb, chorus, and very limited velocity curve changes. You can't "mangle" the electric piano sounds - no phaser, wah, etc. And the two organ sounds are nothing to write home about. The manual is very poor.

I purchased the SP76 for the EXCELLENT semi-weighted keyboard action. The action is identical to a Baldwin console piano I used for many years. The effects are limited to reverb and chorus. You can't expand it - think basic stage piano. It can be used as a midi controller for piano sounds only! See my comments about velocity curves in the following section. The SP76 does not have the velocity range of the PC2 which is a true midi controller. Selecting external midi programs is slow and cumbersome. The ribbon controlers are easy to use, but they offer no visual clue as to their setting. On the other hand, I can't speak highly enough of the Kurzweil keyboard action.

The acoustical piano sounds are very realistic. Is it the perfect piano sound? I don't believe any two people would agree on what is the ideal piano sound. The acoustical sound is better than many of the acoustical piano sounds I have heard. I prefer the upscale Yamaha piano sounds, but do not like the Yamaha keyboard action. The Kurzweil piano sound can work well with classical, jazz, and pop. The organ sounds are bland. The electric pianos are uninspiring. I purchased the SP76 for the natural piano action. The on-board effects are very limited, but that is ok for a dedicated piano. I hoped to use it as a midi-controller, but the SP76 has a limited velocity curve selection, only 5 predefined settings, fine for piano only. This keyboard shines as an acoustical piano, but it will not work well as midi controller for a synth module. You can't get the synth dynamics with out a good velocity range. I discovered this when trying to get phaser effects with the electric piano sounds on a couple of my external sound modules. The rhodes, wurlies, and clavinets on both my Roland VX3080 and EMU Vintage Keys were very static no matter which velocity setting I chose on the SP76. I eventually purchased a Roland A37 synth keyboard for the synth, organ, and electric piano sounds on my external modules. The Kurzweil is still my favorite piano, because of the keyboard action.

I only use it in the home studio, but the Kurzweil's metal body could take a lot of abuse. The quality of the workmanship is very high on the Kurzweil line of keyboards.

Customer support helpful, when you can reach them. There seems to be only one person manning the phones.

I am an amateur musician and have been using the SP76 for two years. I prefer the sound of the Yamaha pianos on their upscale keyboards, but don't care for their keyboard action and price. I have not found another keyboard that quite matches the semi-weighted feel of the Kurzweils. This stage piano is well constructed, reasonably priced, and has a decent acoustical piano sound and feel. I was hoping it would be both a piano and synth keyboard, but the 5 predefined velocity curves are too limited for my use as a synth midi controler. Besides you really need a separate synth weighted keyboard for those synthy sounds. As a low price acoustic piano, (IMO) you can't beat the SP76.

Yes, I would purchase the SP76 again - I love the action on the keyboard.

Some my other equipment is Roland XV3080 sound module, EMU MP7 sound module, Roland A37 synth weighted midi controller, MIDI-MAN midi controller, assorted computer sequencer and recording software, misc studio gear.

It's terribly easy to use in terms of choosing sounds and playing them. As a midi controller, it's a bit peculiar--a skimpy digital-watch-style window shows precious little data, but the well-written manual mostly makes up for that. It's programmable and tweakable; but it's a bit like editing a submarine sandwich with a pair of tweezers.

Honestly, I don't use it for the sounds, so I don't know how the polyphony is. The effects, as I recall, sounded good. The fact that it is so programmable makes a huge difference to me--that and having two zones per controller preset. Not back for such a cheap keyboard.
As far as I know, it does not transmit pressure.
One thing that's crucial if you're flying to a gig: this thing weighs VERY LITTLE. 27.5 pounds, if I recall correctly. One of the main reasons I bought it was to go play a showcase in Canada, and I needed something that the Airline people wouldn't raise a big stink over. This keyboard plus an SKB rolling case kept the whole package under 55 pounds. Righteous.

I didn't particularly like the piano sound, but that's a very subjective thing--I'm of the Roland SRX-2 camp, and I've never been fond of Kurzweil's pianos or electric pianos. The strings, surprisingly, are lush and gorgeous.

This thing is rock solid. I've dropped it, it's fallen off a keyboard stand, and I beat the living crap out of the keys at a couple of gigs where I lost my temper. The only thing that happened is I knocked a couple of the metal weights out of the keys, but after opening up the keyboard dumping the little metal weights, the whole thing was good as new. Except for the unweighted coupla keys.

I've retired it from my road rig because I got my Roland A-90's keyboard replaced. I prefer weighted keyboards, and this just wasn't weighted enough for me. That said, it's a great flying keyboard if you can't rent something where you're flying to. I'm amazed that it's held up to the abuse I've hurled at it--my hat is off to Kurzweil for the sturdiness of this board, and also for the well-written manual. They did good.

This is an addendum to the review I submitted yesterday:
There is a stupid quirk that affects all of the internal piano sounds:
namely, if you play very soft notes (with a velocity of "1"), the piano will not make a sound at all. This is not true for the EP's, Organs & Strings, just the ac pianos.

Another perhaps important thing to know:
As I mentioned in my other entry, it is very difficult to achieve velocities of 127. When I changed the "touch" parameter, I noticed that the upper velocities were quantized to 115, 119, 125, 127. (In other words, 116-118, 119-124 and 126 were unattainable.)

I wish a manufacturer would specify in their MIDI specification that certain output velocities are omitted.

Basic use of the rig is easy and self-explanatory. For editing, the user-interface is not so elegant, this is due to the minimal display elements and lack of cleverness in how they were employed. There is a 3-digit numeric display, a vertical row if LED's, and a few other status LED's. To access the 30-some edit parameters, you must select columns & rows (if the LED flashes it's one parameter, if it's solid its another). I think with a little more thought, they could have made it less messy. The manual does a mediocre job of explaining it. Suprising for Kurzweil.

BASICS:
Sturdy build, 76-semi-weighted keys. 30 lbs. Sleek design. Small footprint.

RELEASE VELOCITY:
I love having release velocity. When I set the release velocity to control release times (in my external synth module), I found it very satisfying to use.

THE RIBBON CONTROLLERS:
I didn't think I'd like the ribbons, but now that I've messed with them some, I like them. There are some cool things you can do with them. Pitch bending can begin from non-centered points. You can lift your finger and the pitch "snaps" back to center. You can tap the ribbon to get trills (of whole chords). Tapping in a certain spot will give you ethnic sounding micro-tonal trills. The "mod" ribbon is two separate controllers; i.e. the upper half of the ribbon works separately from the lower (except that pressing the center zeros both halves).

OTHER CONTROLLERS:
The volume slider is an assignable controller. There are two jacks on the back, one for a switch (which is actually a stereo input which can accept a double-switch pedal), and the other jack is for a CC pedal. (the manual kindly gives the specs for the pedal). I don't think I'll miss the aftertouch. On other keyboards I've had, I've generally had to turn it off because of all the unintended aftertouch triggering.

PRESETS/USER:
You can make some basic edits to the internal sounds. And you can create MIDI presets for controlling other synths. It's pretty basic. You can assign controllers, but you can't change ranges, etc. It's a very basic controller.

THE INTERNAL SOUNDS:
The piano is very nice. On a real piano, the low notes have a longer release than the middle notes. You can hear that the low notes tend to cut-off a little too fast after release. The top notes have the appropriate damperless decay.
The organs are ok. The EP's have that 80's FM/tine vibe, usable, but not so hip. The "hard EP" has more growl. Basic String Ens. sounds. Some pedestrian combos (org+pno, str+pno, etc).

THE ACTION:
I like the feel of the semi-weighted keys. They have mass, tight springs, but none of the floppy hammer dribble. The velocity response of the internal piano sounds feels pretty close to a real piano. There are both "touch" settings and "velocity curve" settings (for internal sounds). Unfortunately, there weren't enough choices of "touch" settings to solve this issue:

With the default "touch" setting of "3": really soft playing easily creates velocities of 1, values from 2-20 were harder to generate, and if I hit the keys with all my might, the velocities would barely pass 120. Using an easier "touch" setting of "2" made it more difficult to control the lower velocities and 127's were too easy.

Still, the action & feel are much to my liking. I'm not sure how I'll resolve this issue. I may just need to live with it.

I've owned other Kurzweil gear which has always been pretty reliable. The SP-76 is very solidly made with a metal case, and solid-feeling keys & buttons. Some don't like the wall-wart thing, but I'm pleased that they put in a strain relief loop, and the adaptor is a common rating that is easily replaced.

I've had good experiences with Kurzweil's customer service in the past.

SUMMARY:
I bought this rig as a MIDI controller. I looked at the Roland A-37 and A-50. The Fatar/Studiologic boards all seemed pretty shoddy. The other options were the Roland A-70 or the Kurzweil PC-2. The sp-76 had the size/weight/action/price-point I was looking for.

The clumsy interface is not much of an issue, because I expect I'll get it set-up and not change it much. It would have been nice if they had provided a short-cut to change the output channel (like pressing and holding enter while pressing the up/down buttons, for example).

I love the feel of the keys. I love that it's solidly built. Having some decent internal sounds is an added convenience (which I will probably use often).

The velocity range issue is my biggest disappointment. I really want the keyboard to have a nice wide even range. With normal playing, this rig is linear from about 20 to about 115. I guess that's ok. But I have lots of custom sounds with velocity triggered layers (i.e. some sounds are triggered by a velocity of 127). I'll have to reprogram my sounds to accomodate the limited range. I'll need to determine how much of an issue this is going to be.

Would I buy it again if lost? Probably. I don't think I can afford the more-expensive alternatives.

As a matter of personal preference, I'd rather support Kurzweil than Roland.

If you have any questions about the sp-76, you can contact me at
stubbsonic (put the "at" symbol in here) then... you know... at the old "hotmail"
"insert the period here" then "com".

This keyboard is plug n play easy! The presets are good. There isn't any onboard editing except for layer or split. The manual is alright...not great.

The keyboard action is great - very close to a piano. It has fx but they are mostly chorus and reverb.

The instruments are very realistic. The acoustic piano sound is awesome! Very inspiring! The organs are pretty good but not as good as the Emu PK-6 which I also demoed. The electric pianos are pretty good but not oustanding.

I think this product is very reliable and gig-worthy!

If you want an acoustic piano with a few other decent sounds this is a great product. I wish you could edit the sounds a little more and there were more fx. I would add a little distortion to the Rhodes and a little rotary speaker sim to the organ. Otherwise quite a good thing!

Very easy to use it. But sometimes is not so easy change some parameters on stage. For the simplicity they using only Leds to show status and paches so is dificult to see the signs on the keyboard panel on stage!

The keys are very good and make easy play the piano. The organs effects are not so good, could be better, the MIDI capabilities are perfect for a controller.

The piano sounds are great, the organs could be better, I use these sounds alive and studio performance and always I use other modules as sound generator. The keys are very sensitive and good for play alive.

I have just this one controlling other sound modules alive and I fell secure. This keyboard have only a serious problem on stage - the external power supply, too fragile!!

I just choose this one because I need only Piano, String and Organ sounds on stage and I need a piano keyboard like on road!

VERY easy to use, well that's probably because it's a stage piano, not a synth ... just the way I like it.

It's good if all you want is monophonic. I wish I can do split and layers on it. And 4 zones instead of 2 would be nice ;)

It's practically perfect for what I need, namely a piano. All the patches sounds fine to me, but then again I'm not a professional.
The piano sound is good in a mix, but Rolands and Yamahas are better for solos I think for their ticker/richer sound and longer sustain. One thing bothers me about the piano sound. I noticed that nobody has mentioned this, so here goes. I think the patch between middle E and G# are awful ... and it's right in the middle of the board! To see what I mean, try playing "Mary Had A Little Lamb" in the key of E, middle E that is. It sounds so synthetic! But play it one octave higher and it's all fine.

Dunno, have had it only for 3 months.

Never dealt with them.

At the price, I think I've made a good decision. Nice piano, and pretty good MIDI controller function.
I haven't found any competition around the price. It's one of a kind really.

Its Pretty easy to use the internal sounds. Just turn it on and u have ur presets right there. The midi setups ive never used. It has editing features and stuff which are easy. The manual is nice.

It has 32 internal sounds. The polyphony is 32. The action is semi weighted (witch i think is ideal for a keyboard)Keyboards with fully weighted action are too heavy. It has midi setups that i never used so i cant rate that. All and all i wish there was more internal sounds. But im too cheap to buy a mod. I give the features a 10 because if u want more sounds thats what midi is for!!!

THE SOUNDS RULE. Kurzweil piano is the best out there. I played a korg trinton at the store and the piano sounds SUCKED compaired to this. They were too tinny. Its good for everystyle of music. the effects are standar and i love the action. It gets 10 for the amazing sounds.

yeah i can depend on it. its amazing. My backup is a shitty yamaha. i don't use a backup because what there to go wrong. ur not gunna break a string.

haven't had it long enough to rate this.

I would buy this again in a flash if it was stolen. i love the sound. Ive been playing piano for 10 years and own alotta gear. I love this keyboard sound and action. i dn't hate anything i just wish i had a midi mod. The piano sound is better than the korg trinton. I almost bought a korg sp 500. but the sound of this one is amazing! i wish it had a spilt with bass and piano but ill buy a midi mod. for that. Buy this keyboard its a great bang for the buck.