Kurzweil SP-88

My daughter can use it and shes 11.

effects and midi channel select are ok.

Great. You can't beat kurz. triple strike piano. Sound better then alot real samples. I'm mean Stevie Wonder help design kurz.

no problem yet, had it almost 1 year.

never had to call.

great stage piano for church or basic set up.

No trouble here... Idiot-proof.

A handful of different sounds, pedal effects, blah blah blah

Hmmm... This keyboard is NOT made for gigging musician. It sounds terrible through large speakers or PAs in conjunction with other instruments. They laid the reverb on so thick that the keyboard clips out and sounds awful at loud volumes. No reverb control either. Ugh.

88 keys, semi-weighted, sounds like a piano through headphones, sounds like crap through an amp. Hmm...

It's simple to get to the sounds, Piano, strings, E-piano, organs, pads.. . It's a great control keyboard, once you master which button to press at which time. All in all, very good.

Unlike others, the polyphony has never been a problem for me, and I'm a classical piano graduate. What are you doing with it if 32 polyphony isn't enough?!
It's a simple unit, best used as a control keyboard, so if you want sequencers and huge libraries of sounds, look else where. This has a just the basic piano, organ, strings, e-pianos, pads. One or two of each.

I have enjoyed owning this instrument, and it can be very expressive. I think some people are a bit harsh on the pianos. Yes they're not the real thing, but they pass fairly nicely. I think the Kurzweil does well. E-pianos not that great however. The strings sound awesome.. I used them in a recording for U2 Beautfil Day, and they sounded like the real thing. The organs are nice, they have a small leslie tremolo emulator which sounds cool in recordings. You won't be dissapointed with the expressiveness of this instrument.

No problems. It's fairly strong , and looks great. It's purple! The only issue I ever had with it was that once it screamed at me when changing sounds.

I bought it because it looked exotic, and not many people have them, and I wanted something really great. I'm satisfied with it, have used it many times gigging, and in recordings.
If you're looking for a good, reliable, sturdy, expressive piano/control keyboard, this is the one for you.


**Buy with confidence, it's a great instrument.

This thing is pretty straight forward, actually. Being a simple model, that is to be expected. The manual is alright, I suppose. The presets are annoying. The reverb is on by default for the pianos, and it muddies the tone up. It was hard to figure out just how to cut that effect. Other than that, patch editing is fairly simple. There's not much to this 'board.

The polyphony is a dismal 32 notes - even worse than the K2600XS' 48 notes. This is just not gonna cut it these days, particularly for a primarily piano-oriented keyboard. Runs up the keys cut out noticably in the middle. The thing has rudimentary MIDI functions, and no expansion capability. There is no sequencer. The keyboard action is semi-weighted. This is explained in detail in the next section. The effects are decent at best, and are not too terribly difficult to use.

Let's get it out of the way straight away - THE PIANOS SUCK! It is interesting to note that this opinion is shared by several of the people in this thread, yet almost all of those who reviewed the upscale models (K2600 and all of its variations) rated the piano sounds very highly. THE PIANO SOUNDS ARE THE SAME IN ALL MODELS! I was particularly thorough in my discription of the piano sounds of the K2600XS, therefore my comments here will be similar. The sampling is simply bad, there is no other word. The sounds start off with a harsh and unrealistic digital-sounding attack, followed by a body of absolute mush. The notes are not consistent; there are some notes that stand out from the others. The extreme low-end range is actually pretty good, but it can sound mechanical at times. The ranges just above, however, are totally indistinct, and have an annoying and unrealistic tone quality. The midrange in particular sounds like there is far too much mid-EQ. No amount of adjusting can remedy this. The ranges from the Bb above Middle-C to the extreme high end ranges have attacks that are far too sharp and piercing, and also offer that irritating timbre mentioned earlier. The highest notes sound like a toy piano. I really don't know what piano they sampled this from, or how many samples they actually took, but they did a very poor job. It sounds like about three notes were sampled, and judging by a simple mathematical calculation, I may not be too far off the mark. On the K2600XS, there are somewhere around 450 stock sounds crammed onto 4 Mb (or 4096 Kb) of ROM. This equals just over 9 Kb per patch. Considering that the SP-88 is a budget model, I highly doubt that the patches are UPGRADED from the flagship model. Indeed, as mentioned before, the are exactly the same (as Kurzweil proudly proclaims); the K2600XS just has more sounds. By comparison, Roland generally uses about 1 Mb per patch (the RD-170, for example, has 64 voices and 64 Mb of ROM, plus a GM kit which takes up a negligable amount of space), and Kawai uses just over 1.5 Mb for its premier piano patch (21 sounds and 32 Mb for the ES3). 9 Kb is just not enough to produce a decent sound, though it is amazing that they were even physically able to pack the patch into so small a space. See for yourself - the Digital Piano Shootout website (www.purgatorycreek.com/pianocompare.html) is a very informative page which consists of a large collection of mp3 samples from a wide selection of brands and models. There are several Kurzweil pianos there, including this one. Kurzweil's piano sounds are supposedly sampled in several different velocities. This is almost hard to believe. The "hard" tones sound like mf notes cranked up to ff volume, and the other dynamics sound like the same sample with the highest EQ cut. The velocity transitions are sudden and abrupt, and the medium to soft dynamics are fuzzy and dull. Also, the decay times are WAY TOO SHORT! The Middle-C on an acoustic piano takes 10 seconds or more to decay. This keyboard takes about half that to die down, and this difference is proportional throughout the entire range. Now for the action - it is similar to that of the K2600XS - totally unresponsive. Indeed, it is EASIER to play particularly fast selections (the middle section of Fur Elise, for example), but this is not realistic in the least. There is no feeling of control whatsoever; the action feels loose and flimsy. I got no drive to improvise from this thing; the sound, the other shortcomings, and the bad action impeeded my creative energy. This keyboard is useless for classical use, particularly practice, as one cannot really improve on the action, or develop any expressive powers. It is also useless for gigs, as the sound becomes even more thin and indistinct through wide-broadcast amps and as a result of the mellowing effect of large acoustic spaces. The other sounds on this instrument are sub-par at best. The strings sou

As I understand, Kurzweil gear is a mixed bag - some people say it never failed them, but a lot of people had problems as well. We used the SP-88 once before buying the K2600XS - it worked alright, but it sounded like $#!+. Much like its big brother...

We never really consulted them on this keyboard. See my response to this for the K2600XS.

I didn't buy the thing, my choral director did. We acquired the thing without any knowledge of its sound - bad idea. If it were lost or stolen, it really wouldn't matter - it serves as backup, anyway. We certainly would not replace it, or miss it much. Having played for five years, but with the improvisational skill and drive of any of the greats, I stand by my assessment of this instrument - get something else! This instrument, even more that the other Kurzweil models, is primarily a piano emulator. Insofar as this, it is totally inadequite. I personally like Kawai, both for the sound and the action, but Roland and Yamaha have turned out some pretty nice gear both in the past and as of present. I have played several Rolands and Yamahas; they are high quality instruments, each with their own characters. Kurzweil just does not compare. "What a hunk of Junk" sums it up pretty well.

Pianoman's dream as far as out-of-the-box and plug 'n play. Use a good high quality amplification system, fullrange and stereo. Piano sounds just ok by itself, quite usable, but what knocked me out was hearing the playbacks of a few live shows with it. This thing was internally EQ'd to FIT into a modern combo mix! And it does. There are several cover tunes where that rather cheezy sounding organ patch actually sounds beautiful at playback. Even the bandmembers asked what made that organ sound. But by itself alone in a room things sound a bit on the thin side, like a recorded piano. Listen to it in a mix with the rest of the band, it's a winner. Editing patches is not all that hard, there is a tutorial on the Kurzweil website that is a LOT easier than trying it the first time with the manual. The manual is usable, though. I've seen worse.

Polyphony is listed in the specs as 32, I'm 52 years old and been playin' Jazz, R&B and Rock for about 30, the piano works for me, extreme multi-note glissandos don't come around all that often in my world. Built-in effects are 'verb and chorus, no great shakes here, there are better to be had but it's a nice thing to have 'em included at the price. No expansion, none wanted here. Love the feel of this little piano, BTW, it will not tire you out, even in the worst of long gig situations or jam sessions. Nice, light, responsive, touch-sensitivity can be preset to different curves to suit personal tastes. Versatility is in the mind of the end-user. My end-use is as a piano alongside the B3. It works very well for that in many different situations, had it for two years now.

Like I said above, the Pianos sound VERY realistic when heard within the context of the mix. The sound out front from a dedicated onstage stereo system is very believable. Good workingman's piano keyboard. Onboard effects are OK, there are better, but these won't get most players into trouble, either. Feels enough like a piano and sounds enough like a piano to do the job at just about any gig. This thing enables me to finally leave the Rhodes Suitcase piano at home for all but the discriminating fusion gig, and I might just get lazy and use it there, too, the EP sounds are quite usuable to someone who has experience with a real Rhodes. Try 'em with an outboard chorus. No aftertouch, but I don't really view this thing as an out-and-out synth controller although I do have a few outboard modules that can be controlled from there. I like the touch strips, and feel that they are more robust in a day to day situation than some of the other contraptions, only takes a few minutes to get used to 'em if you have to use them. The velocity sends very nicely, and really puts the piano FEEL at your fingertips. Definitely experiment with the different settings to find your own sweet spot. I'll vote for a Pristine sound quality on this instrument because of the way it sounds with the rest of the bands, after all, I don't think that this thing was really designed for solo work or classical pianists. I have used it standalone for a bit of jazz ballad work with singers, and again it sounded quite superb at the task. Never attempt to amplify it with a guitar amp, get a good fullrange sound system, preferably stereo, and it will sound good.

Like a rock for two years. I am NOT unrealistically easy on my gigging equipment. Matter of fact, been using a simple padded gig bag and just place the thing on the back seat of the Sport Trac. Of course I'm using on a gig without a backup, what, you think I'm gonna carry a redundant piano to a union gig? I did temporarily lose the wall wart power supply one night. Took five minutes to open the thing up and attach two wires behind the jack, then powered it with a 12V battery from the truck that night. Put it back together when I got back home and that's that.

At that price, who cares? If it breaks, I'll open 'er up myself, if it's too far gone, then it's time to buy something else.

If it were lost or stolen, I'd do what I've always done, namely hunt the #^%$* down and get my stuff back. Would I buy another SP88? At that price, it's a bargain and a half, sure I would. I've come to love just about eveyting about it, including the purple, it ain't that bad under stage lights. Compared it to just about everything that was available at the time, was prepared to spend three times what it cost, but didn't. No reason to.

This is a good solid value, something you don't see all that much anymore. Kurzweil claims that the piano samples are award-winning; I didn't really put much stock in that until I heard myself on the recordings. If you are a working keyboardist in need of a piano, then you are also in need of frugality. This unit fills the bill and provides prety darn nice quality of sound and is fairly robust to boot. It does not sound like a real piano, it does not sound like a real B3, nor a real Rhodes, and I wouldn't really expect it to. What it does sound like is a RECORDED piano or organ or strings. And it only weighs 30 lbs? Wonderful.

Common changes to tuning, stereo to mono, FX is a bit painful; need to concentrate on which column and row the selector is in (whoops, accidently passed it; keep pushing through to get back to the right row).

Polyphony is eaten up sometimes by the fact that the sustain pedal will 'catch' notes in decay and continue to sustain them at a lower volume. Creates a nice resonance though

All piano sounds are nice with the exception of the E, F, F#, G, and G# just above middle C. These have an unpleasant, elctronic, artificial, harsh, metallic sound completely out of balance with the rest of the board which has realistic and pleasant sounding tone (Why can't all the notes sound good!!!!!?). This for me has been the greatest dissapointment. That range of keys is used constantly. Very ugly.

Seems very sturdy.

I paid my money and took my chance. I feel I'm stuck with it now. Hopefully it will not offend my listeners and will prove a useful controller in the studio. Too bad there's no aftertouch, though.

This keyboard is not expandable. The only preset that sounds great is the piano. I've searched many keyboards over for a piano sound (that I like) and the sp88x has it. The roland sounds are weak or not eq'd correctly. Yamaha, Korg, etc just didn't do it for me. I've heard that the sp88x piano sound is identical to that of the Kurz micropiano kmp. If I didn't already purchase the sp88x and knew that it doesn't have AFTERTOUCH I would've purchased a better midi controller and the micropiano module.

The action is fine, a bit lighter than Rolands acclaimed great hammer dammer tendon tamer. The effects are basic and there is very little cryptic navigation of menu's, etc. The internal set up of this keyboard is easy. You pull it out of the box, plug it in and you've 80% mastered the internal set up. Kurzweil boasts what a great midi controller it is with 2 assignable ribbon controllers and another slide controller which acts as the internal volume knob. These controllers don't work for the internal sounds but "Midi setups" let you pre-program 32 different midi setups such as channel and volume assignments. However, I cannot believe Kurzweil left out such a basic and important midi function - aftertouch. There is no AFTERTOUCH on this instrument. The manual speaks of a pressure controller which can take the place of aftertouch "...which the keyboard lacks." How can you boast a midi controller that doesn't have aftertouch capabilities? Bad.

Piano sounds are great. The tone suits my style of playing which is melodic and jazzy. For more Chuck B style, boogie woogie, or NOLA grooves I'd look for something more meaty sounding.

Did I mention there is no aftertouch? If you're looking to midi control a cool synth module remember, there is no aftertouch on this instrument. I wish someone would've told me.

If I lost this instrument and was somehow reimbursed, i would be glad. I bought it to use as a piano/midi controller but without the AFTERTOUCH capabilities it is very frustrating. I like it as a piano but need to reconsider my entire setup due to the shortsighted engineering of Kurzweil.

(In Portuguese)
O SP-88 e um piano digital muito simples de ser utilizado... sem muitos segredos para a operac?o basica, ficando um pouco mais complicado apenas o controle dos efeitos, mas nada que uma boa lida no manual n?o resolva

A polifonia de 32 notas e suficiente para a func?o que o teclado desempenha, n?o ha qualquer problema quando a isso, o mais interessante e que quando voce segura as notas pelo pedal de sustain e ultrapassa a polifonia maxima, o teclado automaticamente cancela a primeira nota tocada, sucessivamente, evitando que o som seja interrompido abruptamente, o que e magnifico durante as execuc?es...
o teclado n?o possui expans?es, mas mesmo assim da conta do recado...

Os timbres de piano da KURZWEIL sem duvida s?o os melhores e mais realisticos que ja pude tocar, os timbres de org?o s?o muito bons, ficou faltando apenas um "church organ", que completaria a galeria muito bem, alguns timbres s?o meio repetitivos, muitos pianos acusticos e digitais com sons parecidicimos que n?o faz muita diferenca no palco... os strings e os pads s?o fantasticos, os sons n?o saturam, assim, se voce toca numa banda, n?o tera o problema de ter que tocar na parte aguda do teclado para n?o embolar com o contra-baixo, pois a definic?o dos sons permitem que voce use todo o teclado sem embolar com os demais instrumentos da banda...

n?o ha como fazer backup de sons, os efeitos gravados na opc?o MIDI SETUPS ficam gravados na memoria, sem afetar os INTERNAL VOICES, timbres originais

Aqui no Brasil a Kurzweil n?o possui um distribuidor muito bom, d?o apenas quatro meses de garantia e n?o s?o muitas as assistencias tecnicas capazes de mexer no produto.
Here in Brazil , the KURZWEIL distribuitor isn't very good, they give just 04 months os guarented and don't have many tecnical assistences with habilitation to open the product... (excuse me the bad english)

Um excelente instrumento para execuc?es no palco, com timbres excelentes, boas teclas, mesmo sendo semi-pesadas. O sistema de polifonjia do teclado n?o permite falhas e interrupc?es no som caso a polifona seja ultrapassada.

Very simple out-of-the-box playability. MIDI editing may take a little digging through the menus, but is pretty straightforward. I wish it had a bigger display, but for the price I definitely won't complain.

I have to say that a major reason I bought this board is for its action. I played for years on a very light Baldwin console, so the semi-weighted action is perfect for me. I can't speak for everyone, though. Most players I hear want heavier action. The 32-note polyphony isn't very limiting; I can play runs and still hear every note. No expandability. Decent MIDI features, but no MIDI thru. Major bummer. But again, a great feature-to-price ratio.

I hate to debate in this category. Some say good, some say bad. After using its on-board sounds for a year, I have a mixed opinion. The pianos are okay, not much sustain on the samples (But this only is noticeable during soft or very slow playing.) EPs are very clear, but dated. Strings are mostly good, I really like the slow ones; they sound like they could come from a soundtrack. Organs are pretty bad. Effects are okay, not spectacular. Velocity response is decent, although I tend not to use the standard linear curve. Decent sounds for the money. At first, I thought the sounds were great, but the more I use them and compare them to what's available, they get more and more dated.

Gigged for a year heavily without a backup. Worked flawlessly. Haven't had any problems so far. Solid steel construction; I think I could drop it without serious damage. Love the reliability.

Never had to worry about it, but I have heard that customer support in general isn't stellar. I'm not worried.

If it were lost or stolen, I'd cry but probably opt for something a little more robust in features. Probably a PC2 or some other good controller board. Love the action and reliability, hate the lack of features. I did a ton of research, and decided that this board was the best full-size under $1000. The action was the major selling point for me, because I knew I'd be using it as my main controller for a long while.
Sounds are an okay thing to fall-back on, but I try to use outboard sounds when I can. I really wish for a MIDI thru or another out, but hey for $700 new what the heck? This thing is built for making music, not tweaking endlessly. If you need a simple board with bread-and-butter sounds, go for it.

This is quite an easy keyboard to use, because it's mostly a stage piano and MIDI controller keyboard. Editing the MIDI functions is pretty easy once you get the hang of the layout. One problem is that the dark color of the writing on the keyboard can make it hard to read the parameters when there isn't alot of light (like on-stage!).

For the cost, this is a very good MIDI controller keyboard with some decent sounds. I have the 88x model with weighted action and it feels quite nice -- better than the Fatar (Studiologic) controllers (even though they also make the action in this board). I bought it mostly for the feel of the weighted action. It's a bit lighter than a real piano, but also has a good cushion to it which prevents fatigue. Effects are very limited but decent reverb. No expansion. MIDI capabilities are pretty good, too, but it doesn't have a MIDI Thru jack, which is a drag a cheap way to cut corners. Once you make your MIDI presets (for controlling other boards), they're quite easy to access. Very few bells and whistles. This is a pretty good MIDI controller keyboard for controlloing other synths (which is the main reason I bought it). The ribbon controllers are OK, but I'd prefer a traditional lever for pitch bend. Ribbons are cheaper, which is why they're on this board. One feature of this board is that when you switch patches the sustain of the previous patch continues (no sudden drop of already sounding notes). That is very cool and allows for some very expressive patch changes during live performance. This keyboard uses a wall-wart power supply, which kind of sucks. I hate to imagine losing it right before a gig or rehearsal. I'd rather have a dedicated cord and have the board weigh one more pound.

The sounds on this board are pretty limited and of pretty average quality. I bought it for it's action and MIDI Controller capabilities, not necessarily for its sound. However, some sounds are decent enough that I've used them for recording and live playing. The piano sounds are decent (but a bit shrill and flat). A couple of the elec. piano sounds are decent, but others are really bad. There's no Wurlitzer-type elec. piano sound, which is a drag. But if you want that cheesy DX7 rhodes sound, then you'll be happy, but I hate it. The organs are decent in a pinch, and the strings are OK (especially the slow strings). But the sounds are basically just OK, and nothing that will drop jaws. The reverb is decent, but not the best. There are different velocity curves to match your playing style, so you can get a nice dynamic interaction with the sounds.

This is a pretty solid keyboard, though not too heavy. For a weighted keyboard, it's quite portable (which is one reason I bought it). It feels like it will last quite a while. I've had no problems.

Never had to use it.

I'm not sure whether I'd buy this again, but I'd definitely consider it. It's a good value for the money. I love the feel of the keyboard and it's portability. The sounds aren't great, but they're not horrible either. As a MIDI controller, it's got alot going for it.

Mostly simple to use. Some people don't like the hassle ofprograming the ribbon controllers. Very straight forward.

Its good for a stage piano. That means no expansion, no sequencer, basic poli. Action is good, a little less heavy than a piano action. It is a little bulky compared to others (P80, SP100).

Ok, here I'll disagree with some other posts. I checked it against Korg SP100, Yamaha P80, Yamaha S80, etc. I believed my ears (took the care to test under same conditions, amp, speakers, etc). SP100: don't like the pianos (unrealistic). P80: a little tood dark (almost dull), no matter how much brilliance you added, eps not so good. S80: well this is apples and oranges, but lets say S80 is very good but I liked the Kurz pianos better. The Kurz cuts much better through a mix. The only contender (to my ears) in the piano/action arena was the XV88, but that one costs more than twice than the SP88.

Well, I heard stories about previous models but I think they have improved. Looks and feels very sturdy.

No need yet, and expect not to have to.

Lost or stolen, I think I'll get it again. Have been playing for 12 years. Spent a lot of time listening what was available and could not find anything as good within the price range, even if I added $600 more. Probably the workstations (K2600, Triton expanded, Motif) may sound better (I wonder how much better) but would end up more paying more than twice the price for a truckload of features I don't need. That would not be wise.

Playing the presets is very easy but as soon as you dig into programming midi setups to use the SP88 as midi controller it can be quite confusing.

Keyboard action is a quite light-weighted action but I like it very much. Effects are not that great but you can get along with them.
Midi setups can be used to control external synth modules.

I'm using the SP 88 and Yamaha Motif 7 live on stage and the SP 88 controls some rack synths. One problem is that you cannot send a midi bank select event (only program change). That can be very annoying from time to time.

Programmable ribbons are a very cool feature!!

Pianos are good (Motif's are a little better), EPs are great, rest is OK. All the sounds are based on Kurzweil's Micropiano!

I use it mainly as a controller but it is a great sounding board if you consider its price!!

No problems yet, looks very reliable, feels good BUT has an external power supply - and I hate those ;-)

no problems yet

I like the SP88 very much as a controller keyboard. The action is great for me but not very good if you compare it to a real piano action. I can use the ribbons to control Motif 7 which unfortunately hasn't got ribbon controllers!

Negative:

- external power supply
- only one foot control input
- 3 digit LED display only

I bought the SP88 from my local music store at a very special price and I would certainly miss it if was stolen or lost.

The SP-88 is very easy to use strait out of the box. My only complaint is that editing the patches can be a task without reading a lot of the manual. The buttons can also be cumbersom at times.

The keyboard action is fantastic. This modle has 32 note polyphony. The built in effects can be lacking at times, but are decent for the most part. The SP-88 makes a great MIDI controller.

The grand piano is very realistic when put through quality speakers. The EPs are exelent. Organs aren't the best, but can still be used. Strings are also very good on this unit.

Very reliable and sturdy.

Nothing has ever gone wrong, so I've never dealt with kurzweil.

I very much enjoy this unit and i would replace it if it were lost or stolen.

TURN IT ON AND PLAY JUST DON'T TOUCH ANY PADS WHEN RED LIGHTS ARE BLINKING UNLESS YOU HAVE READ THE MANUAL
I LIKE A DEEPER SOUND I TRANSPOSE IT -12 FOR MY PIANO SOUNDS
CHECK OUT THE KURZWEIL WEB SITE FOR TUTURIOL HELP !!!!
THANKS KUIRZWEIL FOR THAT THE MANUAL STINKS
THE EFFECTS LEVELS NEED TO BE TURNED DOWN ON EACH SOUND

CONTROLER CAPABILITIES BUT HAVE TO BE PROGRAMED AS A SETUP
THE ACTION CAN BE CHANGED AS A GLOBAL FUNCTION I FOUND THE #2 SETTING MORE TO MY LIKING
THE EFFECTS COULD BE A LOT BETTER BUT ARE USEABLE WHEN THE WET DRY LEVEL IS LOWERED

PIANOS,EPS,STRINGS (GOOD) REALLY GOOD JUST PLAY THEM THROUGH A REALLY GOOD AMP OR A GOOD PA
I USE A CRATE KX220 AND PEAVEY KB300 ANYTHING LESS IN THE AMP DEPARTMENT WILL LEAVE YOU DISATISFIED
I LEFT THE ORGANS OUT ON PURPOSE YOU READ BETWEEN THE LINES
VELOCITY NO AFTERTOUCH

NO PROBLEMS
MY SUSTAIN SOMETIMES DOES NOT SUSTAIN AS IT SHOULD AND CUT OF MUCH TO QUICKLY

KURZWEIL DOES ADDRESS IT MANUALS SHORTCOMING ON IT WED SITE

I CAN RUN TO THE MUSIC STORE WITH THIS KEYBOARD UNDER MY ARM AND STILL HAVE ENOUGH BREATH TO TALK TO A SALES PERSON. IT IS WORTH THE PRICE. THE SETUPS TAKE SOME TIME TO SET UP RIGHT AND THE PROBLEM WITH THE SUSTAIN BUG ME BUT THE MORE I PLAY IT THE MORE I LIKE IT
I'VE OWNED IT ALMOST A YEAR THIS IS MY SECOND REVIEW
WHEN I PLAY THE SP WITH MY KORG N364 I FIND THE SENDS ARE NOT AS HOT
AS THE 364 AND HAS TO BE COMPINSATED FOR. THE S80 YAMAHA IS THE ONLY BOARD I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE AS A REPLACEMENT IF THEY MADE IT IN A LIGHTER PACKAGE THE S30 DOES NOT HAVE THE SAME SOUND OR SOUNDS AS THE S80

Easy to use, great preset control over external modules. I think this is a great low-cost controller for the money I paid for i new.

A perfect board to take out. Great semi-weighted action in a reasonably light and compact unit (considering that it's 88 keys)

Again, IMHO great unit for controlling external modules. Somebody else said they didn't know if they'd like the ribbon controllers (unit doesn't have actual wheels), but found that they really did. Me too, never used them before now - totally cool. Great action for its price, good transmitted MIDI velocity response, allowing fine expression when using external modules.

2 zones, with overlapping ability, for external modules. Can transpose each zone independently. etc etc.. Assign up to 32 "presets" for performances like this. Again, for the money a GREAT controller.

I have to say that I almost rarely disagree with the consensus opinion of the reviews in Harmony Central (when there are more than one or two responses), but I just can't see all of you good folks saying such good things about this thing's sounds. C'mon you guys, give me a break! All of its sounds blow. BUT- I am happy to know that they're there as a "disaster recovery" fallback should either of my two main external modules fail in any way. I've got a 12 year old Roland U220 module (that uses 12/16 bit samples) that kicks the crap out of this thing's sounds. If I had to fallback to the SP88's internal sounds, I'd hear about it later from the rest of the band. Hmmmm......

Can't say yet

No experience

I've been thinking about buying a second one as a backup. I got mine for $475 US (NEW!). If you can, get one - at anywhere within a $450 - 500 price range, because you will not (!) find a better controller in or anywhere near that range. But, you best have some of your own external sound modules...

Changing patches is quick and easy. Editing seems a bit cryptic at first but after 10 mintues with it you'll be flipping thru it like a breeze. I didn't know if i'd like the ribbon controllers but i love them! Very respnsive and intuitive.

I have the 88X with weighted action. 32 note poly, chorus, reverb, pianos, epianos, organs, strings... you know the list by now. This board is made for piano players, not for knob twiddlers, so has just what it needs to do that well.

The 2 main reasons I bought this were a) piano sounds and b) action. I've been playing a PC88 at church for the past few years and fell in love with its tight, quick action and great pianos. Since I didn't need all the PC's MIDI functions I went with the SP. The piano sounds are THE best, period, hands down, make no mistake. Any other reviews here that say otherwise are probly running the SP thru a two-bit, dime-store amplifier or headphones. All of the paino sounds are sonically rich but it takes a decent amp or sound system to bring it out. I've been playing for 30 years, electronics and the real deal alike and nothing touches the Kurz piano sounds. The SP88 patches are a subset of the PC88's. Same samples are used on both. (this verified twice by Kurz). The elec pianos are superb and cover a wide array of types. You already know the acoustic pianos are tops...

Also, a couple reviews mention the samples being short, with short decay times. All i can say to that is... H U H ? ? If your SP is short on decay time, you'd better get either it or your ears in for service because that is simply insane. Does it resonate as long as a real acoustic piano? Of course not! But the decay is so long that it's more than any human would need or want anyway.

Given the above 2 facts plus a full set of velocity/effort (touch) ratios, the SP, like the PC88 is unbeatable for expressive playing. The action is quick and solid. The heaviest hand to the most subtle nuance can be captured. The patches respond perfectly to your touch.

If I had to complain, it would be about the organ and string patches and a bit on the FX. The organ samples are usable but could be a bit better. The string samples are a bit raspy and unreal to me, but are again very usable. The chourus effect could use a bit more savvy than just wet/dry and the reverbs are a bit on the cheap side. The 'room' verbs are quite good though, and all the verbs in general are usable.

Ask me again in a year or 5.

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For the money, you flat out will not find a better board. Actually, for 3 times the money, you're gonna be hard pressed to beat it for simple, playable functionality. If you need industrial strength MIDI control, get PC88 or PC2. If you are a piano player and not a knob tweaker, want great sounds and great action, this board fits the bill.

the presets are good and easy to navigate, editing is easier than ensoniq, which I owned before.
the manual is short and consise.

when I do glisando it failes the polifony....
I use the effects for editing some pianos that sound a little thin
it ghas no sequencer and the keys are ok.

the acoustic pianos are thin, but if you give them a little of chorus they get better

the incredible thing about this keyboard is the weight only 13 Kg.
I owned an Ensoniq TS 12, (great but very heavy) and difficult to transporte. the Kurzweil SP 88 is only 7 cm. longer than the ensoniq,and wheights half of it.

I thought it was pretty easy to figure out the layout; it's all presets with a couple of splits and layers, and you can also set the wet/dry on the effects. I own a Kurz K2000, so this was pretty simple comparatively. The manual tells you all you need to know. Some folks complained about the LED readout. Chances are that once you've saved a couple re-edited patches, you won't be doing a lot of editing at the gig. Basically, if you can drive a car...blah, blah, blah.

To answer an earlier reviewer, the polyphony is 32 voices. I've never run out of voices. I love the action on this keyboard and it's the main reason I bought it. I gig a lot and do a lot of switching from Hammond to piano. The semi-weighted action makes the transition a lot easier and it still has enough spring to let you know you're playing a piano. Full-weighted pianos tire me out after a 4 hour gig (I know, whahhh!) There aren't a lot of 88-note semi-weighted's out there - this might be the only one. Overall, I think it feels pretty damn good for a piano that weighs ONLY 30 LBS.!!! 2 independant MIDI outs and 3 ribbons (God, I love ribbons); not too bad for a medium priced controller. The effects are merely OK; if you're a purist you'll want to use something outboard.

I think the pianos sound good; the EP's are especially good. I used to use a Kurzweil MicroPiano module, which I liked. Kurzweil basically took the MicroPiano and tweeked the sounds and then added a keyboard for the SP76/88. Sure, I have 32Mg sampled pianos on my K2000 that are sonically better, but the SP88 seems mainly designed for Rock & Jazz performance. Classical musicians, as a rule, aren't looking for pianos they can tuck under their arm and throw in the back of their Honda. All the sounds are the usual high Kurzweil quality. I have to wonder what kind of amps some of the other reviewers were playing through.

It's got a metal shell. 'Nuff said.

I've always had a good relationship with Kurzweil and Sweetwater Sound. No complaints.

I'd certainly buy another one. I've been playing 25 years; I started out bloodying my fingers on Fender Rhodes action and since then I've owned 'em all (MiniMoogs, Hammond C3, Yamaha CS80, Wurlitzers, DX7, etc.) Currently I gig with my SP88 and a loaded Kurzweil K2VP played through a Barbetta Sona 32c.
I think that this piano does an excellent job of doing what it's designed to do. A lot of the above complaints seemed like the SP88 was being compared to keyboards that were not in it's league. Kurzweil themselves make better controllers (PC2), but of course they cost more. All of these things being subjectable, there are better piano sounds available and maybe better actions, but you'd be hard pressed to find them on an 88-note heyboard that only costs around $700. Did I mention that it only weighs 30 lbs.?

It only took a day to get into most of the workings. As a stand alone it is simple- just choose your preset, and set the effects if desired. It seems like all the midi controller functions are present, but it can be a real click-a-rama to get to them all. The manual is clear and sufficient for the more experienced, but a midi beginner will have to get more info elsewhere. The 8 rating is due to the use of the 7 segment numeric LED display for alphabetic info, necessitating one to grok cryptic glyphs. It seems like a 60's atavism. Although it is easy to see in the dark, it couldn't have been that much more costly to incorporate an alpha display.

The action is standard plastic-fantastic synth keyboard. I have played acoustic piano mainly, but don't require a keyboard that is not an acoustic piano to feel like one. The use of weighted action is, in my opinion, over-rated, especially if you intend to lug 88 of them around. This one weighs only 30 lbs. The licks and chops come through just fine as it stands, with plenty of sensitivity.

The sound module is not multitimbral when controlled by a sequencer.

As a controller, one can split the keyboard into overlapping layers. One feature that I found interesting, was the possibility to cross fade velocity controller information between two layers. This should make it possible for anyone to get precisely the feel they want. For most uses, it should have all the midi features needed. There are 32 programable midi setup locations, each one easily accessed in performance.

The effects are reverb and chorus, which can be set to any level for any preset, and saved for the future. There is no option for any expansion. There are three ribbon controllers that can be sent to any location, although the internal sounds do not respond to pitch bend.

Overall, very good quality. I did an A-B test in the store with a PC88MX, and found the two to be virtually identical in piano sounds. Again, as an acoustic player, I know there is no way to recreate the effect of 400 pounds of a Yamaha Conservatory's wood and steel. The piano sounds like a good recording of a piano. It will demand the best speakers to make the best results.

The rest of the voices are like a class reunion for all the keyboards I have owned in the past. The Hammond sounds are great, the Fender Rhodes is excellent, and the DX-7 ep also. Strings are good. Happily, no harpsichord 8>), but they stuck in a tack hammer piano instead |>( . For the 32 presets, there are only a few that I would never bother with, which is a high percentage in my experience.

The velocity control is quite sensitive, and is also user adjustable.

Just got it, so can't say. My only concern is that it is made in Korea.

It is definitely worth the going price. I paid a bit more out here in the Pacific. I got into electronic pianos when the first Yamaha Clavinova came out, as there was difficulty keeping up my acoustic. I quit the Clavinova after a short time as it ended up sounding like buzz saws- very fatiguing. Same goes for the DX-7. The FM synthesis I find to be generally tiresome, save for the Rhodes-like patches. So far the SP88, while not a concert grand, is very clean sounding to my ear. It doesn't pay to be too critical however, because everything will have a flaw that can be made to stand out.

Initially I was going to go the controller/module route, but after playing this one in the store, I found I liked the sound and the light weight sufficiently to walk out with it. I looked at Yamaha also, but the price on the SP88 was lower.

It makes for a good musical experience, especially the Rhodes preset. I will be getting a sound module of some sort, and with that it should provide all I need for the jazz/fusion style I play.

Well if you are just using the internal settings and patches its pretty easy to use. If you are trying to figure out the midi patching its a little more complex, but after a day I figured out the logic behind it and it made more sense. Still the 3 led display is a bit slim on info and looks like its written in klingon at first glance.

It has lots of polyphony and the keyboard action is between synth action and piano. Its like a stiff synth action keyboard. If you're a piano player you won't like it. The effects basically run from less reverb/chorus to more reverb/chorus. But then again its a stage piano.

The organ, strings and electric piano sounds are standard. They sound good but are overused. The acoustic piano sounds are the real drawback to this thing. basically there is very limited sustain/release. It feels as if they sampled middle c and didn't bother to add any looping to the high end to keep the sustain/rel going. It just cuts off after about 4 seconds. Granted this is not a real piano on which a note will sound for a good 10 seconds or more, but come guys. Ram for storing samples is cheap these days... add some to sustain to the notes. I find it amazing that a Kurzweil, the maker of some of the finest synths and keyboards in the world, would put out something this limiting. If you are a composer or pianist you will hate this keyboard. Infact for any serious composition it's just plain useless. I supose its fine for a midi controller, with the exception of the lack of actual control wheels, but its more expensive than the 88 key Fatar controller. Buy the Korg piano or buy the fatar and a good piano module.

Seem reliable and rugged. The case is metal and its nice and sturdy.

Do no buy this keyboard for anything other than a midi controller or electric piano/organ. I own a korg polysix and a korg ms2000r and a basic midi controller keyboard currently. Not good for composition or playing as a piano.

Very easy to use the basic features and select patches. Setting up MIDI ranges is a little trickier...you have to use a succession of multi-functional keys. I haven't done much with this as I'm using it primarily as either a straight-ahead piano or a controller. For both purposes, it's a snap to use.

The keyboard has 64-voice polyphony and I haven't noticed any dropouts, even when playing complex piano music with a lot of pedal. The action is excellent for a semi-weighted keyboard -- in fact, that's the main reason I bought it. I've been uniformly happy with the keyboard's playability and responsiveness, and the bend-strip controllers are also very nice to use. I honestly can't figure out where the guy with the negative review is coming from -- I wondered if he was talking about a different keyboard with his comments on the "poor action and lack of velocity sensitivity".

The on-board effects are limited and I am not really using them. They're OK for basic ambience. There's not any expansion, but as a controller it doesn't need it. I was annoyed to find that the keys don't send MIDI AfterTouch, and in fact this is the most negative thing I'd have to say about it. There are some good MIDI-mapping functions, though, and you can split the keyboard for live performance. There is no onboard sequencer.

My opinion about the sounds varies...sometimes I really like the piano sounds, but more often I find them a little thin. There is definitely NOT enough decay in the acoustic piano patches, which is particularly noticeable when playing classical music. However, the electric piano sounds are very nice and rich.

As I mentioned above, for the most part I've found it more than usually responsive and I can get expressive results. As a controller it performs well.

I haven't had it for long enough to say for sure, but it feels very solid and I've given it some good hammering.

So far I've been pretty happy with it and I think I paid a fair price. The competitive price and the action were the main purchase points for me. I wish the piano sounds were better, but realistically I know no synth piano will ever stack up to the real thing, and this falls a lot less short than many I've heard. The important thing for me is that the action supports my playing without making me tired, and the sounds are good enough not to be distracting. By the way, I've been playing about 20 years and my other gear includes a Yamaha DX-7 and an Alesis QS8. This is my first 88-key controller.

If it were lost or stolen, I'd certainly consider buying one again, although I'd also want to compare it to whatever else there might be that's new.

Note: if you want to contact me you need to substitute "@" for the [at] in my email address.

Easy to set up ... easy to play ... actual access to parameters is a bit confusing as the buttons are multi-funtion ... the display is also limited ... the presets are excellent ... my only complaints are that the piano sounds don't sound at extremely soft touch, and the organ sounds are a bit loud and steady volume

the action is good, but a little too springy to be excellent ... the built in effects are great ... no expansion except for midi in and out

all the sounds are great, but I would have to admit the grand pianos are a bit dull (there is a brite but it's too brite) and the strings are a bit cheesy (although I haven't found a synth where the strings were otherwise). But overall the sounds are better than most

Feels very solid

This is the first keyboard I've bought in a while - the price was nice and I wanted less but better quality sounds in a full size keyboard. So far I am pleased with this. When I get tired of the sounds I will probably use it as a controller and in this case it's a good value ...

Accessing the different sounds is very easy. There is a panel of 16 buttons, and each button has two sounds.

Adjusting effects and midi parameters is a bit more difficult. The interface is designed to run on four buttons, probably for price's sake, but that makes it difficult to use. You're probably not going to be using this much anyway, however.

I can't figure out the polyphony. I haven't run out of notes yet, but I can't find the specs in the manual. I'm guessing 64, but I would't be surprised if it's only 32.

It has built in reverb, and that's about it. The reverb is pretty terrible, but you need a little of it or the patches sound very dull. I don't think there are any other effects.

It serves fairly decent as a midi controller. Once you get the ribbon modulators set up (I'm not sure if I like these yet) it works like a good controller. No aftertouch. The action is pretty lousy though, so it's not the best idea for controlling a piano.

It comes with a pretty nice sustain pedal.

No sequencer, and no expansion possible.

This is what really gets me. This keyboard has EXCELLENT electric piano sounds. Some of the best I've ever heard. The organs and strings are good too.

But most people would buy a keyboard like this for the PIANO sounds. And those are for some crazy reason just plain BAD. Kurzweil has some excellent piano sounds in their other keyboards, which makes me thing the sounds on this thing were intentionally toned-down, to make it more of a budget-model. I can't think of any other reason.

As I mentioned before, the reverb is very lousy. It's noisy and poorly defined, and there's only one choice for it. Unforunately the piano sounds NEED, otherwise they sound even worse.

The action is mediocre, which results in a pretty unresponsive keyboard. It doesn't react to high velocities, and it'd hard to play softly. You're pretty much stuck with loud and soft, all with the same tone.

What's worse, the volume control is a total bust. Any volume settings under the halfway point are useless, because the sounds cut out after 3-4 seconds of playing. It's as if cutting the volume in have just uses the lower half of the sound's sustain and amplifies it a bit, resulting in a sudden cut-off before it's through decaying. Unbelievable.


If it were on electric pianos alone, I'd give it a 9.

I would depend on it. But I'm not going to take it out of the house, because the minute Guitar Center gets more Kork SP-100's in stock I'm exchanging this thing.

The volume knob can be pretty funky, though.

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I would NEVER buy this again. I can't wait to exchange it up to the Korg SP-100 which is WAY better, even though it's a bit more expensive and heavy. The only reason I bought this one over the Korg was the price, the weight, and the fact that the store I was at didn't have the Kork in stock.

Do yourself a favore and do NOT buy this keyboard. Plus it's an ugly Purple, and unless you're a Prince fan like myself you'll find pretty sickly. And it has this tacky feature list on the keyboard, which is in really poor taste. The more I think about it the more depressed I get.

I suppose if all you want is electric pianos, this wouldn't be a bad deal. But I wouldn't buy it, because the fewer units this thing sells, the sooner Kurzweil will end this sick experiment. You'd be better off with a Korg SP-100 and a decent tone generator.

Eewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

While some of the controls are a bit counter-intuitive, this is basically as easy as it gets. Basically, just sit down and start playing.

This keyboard has nearly every effect I could dream of. I did not get this for its features, but they certainly don't hurt. The weighted action is a little on the springy side, but very nice. The effects are very good, ranging from extremely subtle to hazardous sound-altering.

This is why I got this keyboard. I wanted a keyboard that could simulate a piano as closely as possible. And this keyboard does that beautifully. The basic sounds are just variations on piano and strings. But they all a have a warm, wonderful quality to them. The main grand piano patch feels and plays and sounds like a quality grand piano. It reacts to velocity perfectly.

I can't really say... I haven't had it very long.

If it were lost or stolen... I'd definitely want to buy it again... but I'd need to save up for awhile. I'm really ecstatic about this keyboard, and plan to use it for years to come.

Very easy to use. It's easy to navigate around all the parameters once you learn the layout of the keyboard. And the manual help alot in learning that. Read the manual cover to cover a few times and you're golden.

32 built in sounds, all of them up to the normal Kurzweil quality. Master controller capability, 88 semi-weighted keys. Very easy to use. And it only weighs 30 lbs! Can't ask for much more than that. Actually, the only drawback is the damn wall-wart adapter. When are companies going to realize that we'll take a couple extra pounds in the keyboard if we don't have to deal with that lump!

All instruments are excellent. Pianos are top notch, Rhodes are great, strings are wonderful. The only things missing are Wurlitzer electric pianos, and Clavinet sounds, otherwise this board has it all.On board effects are a little raw, I turn them off and run everything through an Alesis Nanoverb. It fits in well with all musical styles. I use in in a blues/classic rock group to push a rig consisting of a Roland MKS-20 digital piano module and a Roland JV-1010 (for Wurlitzrers and Clavs).

Can't comment, as I haven't gigged out with it yet.

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For an 88-note keyboard that only weighs 30 pounds, I'd definitely buy it again. A few more sounds to expand the range of styles, and Kurzweil would have a top-of-the-heap instrument on their hands.