Dave Weiser

Thanks for the shout! Note for any K2700 and PC4 owners here - feel free to shoot me an email and I'll send you my custom sound set, free of charge. It includes gig-ready pianos, more/better EPs, lots of analog synths, basses optimize for multis and a few programs that I made for Brian Wilson and The Who. weiserdav@gmail.com

I'll have whatever he's having! I'll bet he's a fun hang - the guy seems genuinely full of joy. (And of course I'm a huge fan of his playing and singing.)

I may or may not have killed a lot of brain cells while listening to this album in college. This one and Paul's Boutique are still big favorites.

I love so many things about this one. Can't believe I hadn't seen it until recently.

That right there is some damned good parenting. I salute you!

The funk is strong with them, love the music. The bari sax is a freaking treat. But mostly I'm just so tickled that they go the extra mile for the gag.

These guys have it all.

My friends at R&D told me that these were in fact hand built prototypes. Based on how the PC4 and K27 turned out, I'm optimistic that these new units will look cool when they're released.

Your best bet is to ask in the PC4 Facebook group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1541708299314501

That Rhodes sound could make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window! Thanks for sharing. My only complaint is that he didn't take a rippin' solo.

Fair enough - I stand corrected. Tatum was a beast! I also just checked out some old Fats Waller clips - glad to have a reason to revisit that stuff, so much fun. Nothing like a good Youtube rabbit-hole!

The second half of this thing is bonkers - seems to be at the edge of what is humanly possible!

THIS. The many layers of analog goodness through which the Beatles' Pianet signal traveled makes me shiver. Preamp, compressor, mixing board, tape, etc, all contributed to it sounding so damned good. The clip you posted shows a nice contrast of what you get when you don't have the signal path of analog sweetner. (Very cool to have that clip though!) To get the murk and the grunge on the Kurzweil preset, I actually ran it through a Leslie effect on slow (possibly at 50% wet?), with a bit of overdrive and the high freqs rolled off. For the warble (the Pianet's vibrato), I just used an LFO in the synthesis engine to mod pitch slightly. Also, I found another clip with the exposed Pianet for Getting Better. Again, I think it's such a pleasing tone - I could listen to that sucker all day. (Pianet at 10:48)

I had no idea that Viv Savage was in a band!! I'll be checking out Rare Bird later tonight. Thanks for mentioning! When I was new at Kurz, they gave me the task of recording the Pianet samples with a 24-bit DAT machine. (It was 2001.) We usually recorded 4 takes of each key, but went with 8 for the Pianet because the notes could be so finicky. Later on, getting to create presets out of the processed samples was much more fun.

Thought you guys would get a kick out of this - the isolated Pianet (with guitar) track from I Am the Walrus. Back when I worked for Kurzweil, I spent a million hours working on a Pianet preset for this song, and holy sh*t I would have loved to have had access to this audio! (Instead of listening to the opening few seconds on infinite repeat.) The Pianet bit starts at 8:10, but the whole thing is awesome.

That right there is a cool signature. Wow!

The K2061 spec is identical to the K2700's, minus the drum pads and audio interface. The action has not been decided. My guess is that it will be TP9 or TP8 synth action. The K2088 action will be TP40L, just like the K2700.

The SP7 is not related to any of Kurzweil's pro products, and was not designed by their main R&D team in Boston. It is not compatible with and cannot load files from PC4, K27, PC3, etc., the way the SP6 could. It's been plagued with bugs and has been a bit of a flop. Kurzweil is not alone - plenty of companies make similar missteps. While the SP7 was a disappointment, the PC4 and K2700 seem to be going strong and have been well supported with OS updates. I was happy to see their showing at NAMM this year, as the K2061 and 2088 appear to be winning products that showcase the company's strengths.

Hey PoserP - great to have you back!! Sending much love from Boston!

The ultimate interpretation of the song in question has already been released.

I'm envious that you got to play the 61! I wasn't at the show, but I spoke to Kurzweil's head of software, who was at the booth. He told me that while the K2088 action had been decided (TP40L), the 61 action had not yet been chosen, so I'm hoping that the stiff action won't necessarily show up in the final product.

I was working at Kurz R&D when the PC3 and Artis 7 were developed...no one on our end added springs or modified the TP8. That's just how it came from Fatar as far as I know. I know that you and a few others didn't like the springs, and I can sympathize. But do keep in mind, literally thousands of customers were/are fine with the TP8 as it is in the PC3 and Artis 7 (and the old PC2 and K2600). Finding something that pleases the majority of end users - or that doesn't bother any end users at all - is a tough challenge. Of course there's a whole separate crowd that prefers fully weighted hammer action 76 actions. (Big shout for my old KT76 from the 90s!)

The Forte's factory KB3 programs are basically broken - be sure to hit me up for my custom sound set, I've got a set of much better KB3s, including the "double Leslie" programs from the PC3/PC3K. Glad you like the EPs! Those are mine - that was one of the most fun projects I've ever worked on. But I made lots of improvements to the touch/feel of them, new versions are in my custom set. Anyone with a Forte (or any Kurzweil board) hit me up and I'll send you my sound set! weiserdav@gmail.com

I suspect there will be movement in the other direction - I think the K27 will go up to $3500 sometime soon. Its current price of $2999 is a good bit below that of other flagship workstations. I believe Fantom 8 is $3999 and Montage 8 is $4499.

As far as I know, the action for the 88 is definitely Fatar TP40L. Action for the 61 is undecided/unknown.