Dave Weiser
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Posts posted by Dave Weiser
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2 hours ago, J.F.N. said:
And still no news...
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.
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On 3/8/2023 at 8:49 PM, jazzpiano88 said:
I had to go listen to the B&D "decoder ring" album that got the attention of Harrison and Clapton.
"Rollicking" is right. I think this cut is one that epitomizes Elton's attraction to Leon:
That's the good stuff right there!
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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.)
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On 4/20/2024 at 7:28 PM, Delaware Dave said:
Lately ....... PC3 over a Forte 7. PC3 triggers a Gemini module. This essentially gives me two Fortes since the Gemini sounds are similar to the Forte but the PC3 is semi-weighted while the Forte is weighted. Compliment each other nicely.
Nice to see your rig in action - love it!
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8 hours ago, ABECK said:
Forum member Dave Weiser offers Kurzweil programming lessons as a service. His site is: https://www.weisersound.com/
He used to work for Kurzweil and knows his stuff. Also, if you are on Facebook, the following group is pretty useful: https://www.facebook.com/groups/kurzweilk2700group/
Your approach to the above scenario sounds correct. Start with the samples. Load them in (8 or 16 bit), create a keymap, assign the samples, create a program using the keymap.
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
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On 4/10/2024 at 1:32 PM, Baldwin Funster said:
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.)
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17 hours ago, Jim Alfredson said:
Mike D is a good drummer. One of my favorite cuts back in the day (high school) was this jam.
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.
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I love so many things about this one. Can't believe I hadn't seen it until recently.
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22 hours ago, mate stubb said:
I almost always take my daughter to see the Mummies when they pass through. Getting too old to stand and boogie for the entire show though.
That right there is some damned good parenting. I salute you!
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13 hours ago, ABECK said:
Mummy funk - now I've seen it all. At least they don't have to spend time worrying about what to wear on gig nights.
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.
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These guys have it all.
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On 3/19/2024 at 8:22 PM, felis said:
I didn't want to be the first to say it, but I agree.
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.
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Your best bet is to ask in the PC4 Facebook group.
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On 3/6/2024 at 5:22 PM, Mididude said:
I watched this clip recently. So neat that Burt Sugarman and the Midnight Special people uploaded this. I don’t think there’s like a ton of filmed or videotape footage of him, so I think this is really neat, that it’s available to watch. Love that distorted tone of his Rhodes through the amp/s. His playing ‘feel’ is great too.
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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.
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1 hour ago, niacin said:
Thanks for posting, enjoyed that, but as Sean M.H. suggested you may need to look elsewhere for "the edge of what is humanly possible." Without getting into music as competitive sport it might help if such claims were toned down. There are recordings of Ellington, Fats and others playing some pretty happening stride, and no doubt someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Art Tatum's Tiger Rag is the commonly referenced benchmark for "the edge of what is humanly possible" if we're going to talk about such things:
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!
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The second half of this thing is bonkers - seems to be at the edge of what is humanly possible!
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6 hours ago, Threadslayer said:
I think the "grungy" aspect smooths out some of the rough, harsh edges of the Hohner. I had one in the early '70s that I played through a Kustom (Tuck 'n Roll) bass amp, and it didn't sound anything like this one.
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)
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6 hours ago, Shamanzarek said:
I am a big Pianet fan having played one through most of the 70s. One of my favorite Prog bands Rare Bird had David (Viv Savage) Kaffinetti doing amazing things on the Planet which inspired me to get one. Unfortunately Pianet sounds are not found on most keyboards these days. Nord has one in the Sample section but not in the Piano section. Kurzweil seems to be the only choice. Pianets can be quite noisy so are probably difficult to replicate. The Beatles Anthology version was officially released in 1996.
I was in a band in the 2000s that did the song and I used a Wurlitzer sound on a PC2 to cover the part.
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.
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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.
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On 2/15/2024 at 9:50 AM, eric said:
I thought the forum might appreciate this story. It's one that I've heard about most of my life, though only recently some more of the details came into focus as we are working to move my dad out of his house into a senior living facility. My dad will be 82 this year and is still quite lucid mentally, though he has lots of physical/mobility challenges.
As we've been clearing out his house, lots of memorabilia bits have been found, and it has generated new interest and recollection of stories from the past.
My dad is an accomplished pianist, having earned a music degree and some post graduate work back in the day. He was my primary inspiration as a young child when he would play piano daily as I played with my toys and rode my rocking horse. He was mostly a jazz guy and had the Dave Brubeck Time Out repertoire committed to memory.
Anyways, in 1960 my dad auditioned for the chance to perform with Liberace, who was doing a thing around the US whereby he would travel to state fairs and put on a big "Piano Pyramid" show where 50 pianists were playing grand pianos on staggered platforms, with Liberace at the top platform leading the whole thing. My dad was one of the 50 pianists in Kentucky to perform in the 1960 Kentucky State Fair with Liberace. As we were clearing some closets out, we found a signed Liberace print that had been rolled up in storage, and also have tracked down the local newspaper with a picture of my dad on the front page with Liberace.
I found all of this to be very interesting and plan to have the signed print framed and put alongside the Kawai grand piano my dad has just passed along to me as part of the moving process. It would be really cool if there was a recording available.
I attached a few pictures. That's my dad on the right side next to Liberace.
That right there is a cool signature. Wow!
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14 hours ago, ASCAMP said:
The bottom line for me is, does Product X solve a real problem or set of problems I have? The answer is a resounding and continual “Yes!” with the K2700. That said, from the first I would have preferred similar technical capabilities in a 61-key form-factor. So I’m very interested in this K2061 but stymied at getting any info on it.
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.
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On 2/8/2024 at 3:19 AM, mvshb said:
I am new to kurzweil. I cant understand their product lineups.
On the website SP7 have new ATST engine, while K2061 have VAST.
Is there any reason to wait for K20xx series.
If SP7 and K2088 is same price which will be better and what will be I loosing over k series.
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.
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10 minutes ago, poserp_returns said:
Oh hey people, some may know me from other places. As my username says, I have returned. I think my old username (poserp) was used by me in the past but associated with an email address that's no longer active, so it is now orphaned.
Anyways, so a thing that VAST does (kinda where I left off before I fell into the timewarp (pun intended) of learning to play drums) is allow a control source to set the sample start point. If said control source is KeyNum, you can effectively use arpeggiators, sequencers, and other things to "play" a drum loop back at whatever tempo, without changing pitch. IIRC I was in the middle of figuring out all the math for that, along with how to set up FUNs to do it. So basically while it'd be cool to have, there are (per usual w/VAST) other ways to accomplish the same thing. It's not as elegant as, say, the Akai-inspired method of mapping a loop across pads. But, when you have 127 different "pads" generally there will be some key/note num that corresponds to where you want to play within a loop. This can be combined with another control source, such as a knob/fader/the ribbon, to fine-tune how the loop is "mapped" across the keys. I have a K2700, so I am also going to work this out with the pads to do some of the Akai-style sample manipulation stuff with those.
I will probably switch over to a K2061 at some point, I'm a big fan of synth actions as opposed to piano actions and losing the pads and audio interface bits aren't a huge "loss" for me. Plus, I like the overall look of the knobs/sliders/buttons on these new boards.Hey PoserP - great to have you back!! Sending much love from Boston!
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Dig My Rig--Let's see your setup!
in The Keyboard Corner
Posted
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.