Dave Weiser

The Wurly is a 200, not the A. It plays like a dream and has a natural distortion that just purrs. Here's a post with a few clips of it in action.

The latest I've heard from my friends at Kurz R&D: They hope to release by early fall, possibly earlier. The 61 will have a Fatar TP9, and the 88 will have a TP40L (same as K27). Both units will have an internal power supply and built in ribbon. They've said that the sound set will include old K2000 programs and will be synth-heavy. Otherwise the spec will be just about the same as PC4 - polyphony, sample memory, MIDI control, etc. Note I no longer work for Kurz and don't speak for them. This is just what I've heard - the ETA could change. Hopefully we'll get some more official news from Kurz over the summer.

That's the good stuff right there!

Here's my usual work setup, with Kurzweil K2700 and PC4 up front, minus the laptop that's usually on a stand right in front of the rack. Highlights include a Kurzweil VA1 along the far right wall, and a JX-3P with a Retroaktiv programmer in the bottom right. (BTW For anyone with old analog Roland modules and boards, Retroaktiv programmers are the bomb. Totally changes the 3P into a tweaker's delight.)

Nice to see your rig in action - love it!

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!