Atomicsynth

Layers is part of Sine Factory and yes, very nice. Vienna has Big Bang Orchestra and three other free instruments. Free ILok registration and authorized to machine, (no physical key needed). https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Product_Overview/Free_Instruments

I think it took around 10 days for free Discover to arrive in email. Project Sam has a free one too. https://projectsam.com/libraries/the-free-orchestra/ Orchestral Tools (Berlin) has a free orchestral instrument called "Layers". Scroll to the very bottom of the page. https://www.orchestraltools.com/store/products

You could start with the Spitfire BBC Discover Orchestra (which is the 1st part of their full BBC orchestra, 2nd part is BBC Core and the 3rd part is BBC Professional). The Discover Orchestra is either $49 or free ( check Spitfire's website) plus, even free it counts as credit toward the next two steps in BBC. https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/bbc-symphony-orchestra-discover/ It sounds great too. It, of course, doesn't have all of the BBC full articulations but it is very workable; and free.

Very cool!! I don't know the name of Keith's on road tech that night but I didn't see Will Alexander. (Which doesn't mean he wasn't there). At Birchmere for the KE band it was Keith Wechler (who I never met) doing FOH. I never once stood by the Leslies as you did. I did notice that night during the show (Black Moon tour) that Keith seemed to be using more high speed setting on them then I ever heard before (usually it was Chorale most of the time). But it was always an overwhelming experience seeing ELP live so it was hard to analyze anything during the show. No recording ever really captured what ELP really sounded like live, especially Greg Lake's bass with those huge subs onstage as part of his amps. Deepest bass I ever heard. The organ spit plenty at times during KE band though Marc Bonilla's guitar made the normal Keith presence in the mix different. His right hand was affected then by the dystonia and though he played great, I saw him shaking out his hand at times when I guess it cramped up. It was surely helpful to him to have Marc so he didn't have to carry everything, as he did in ELP. I think if the organ sounded somewhat different to me, it was due to the Leslie stacks and the Hiwatts being gone. He had those amps integrated in with those Leslies and not just for the L100 knife thing at Brain Salad. I've really felt the whole gamut of emotions I'd forgotten flood back during this thread. (I used to play Hoedown back in 2010 when I did a couple of solo live shows (bass and drums scored for sampler). I haven't played it in a long time and now and then when I'd tell myself I should re-learn it, I'd sometimes start to practice it only to become very sad and then just leave it be for another day that hasn't come yet)... Added: Thank you for sharing that great article, Jerry! Further add : I'm now concluding that the present day organ has plenty of drive, spit and heavy beautiful percussion after watching the incredible Rachel Flowers do Tarkus at Emeapp.

I read an interview long back describing the C3 as being rebuilt, chopped and ending up with a somewhat cleaner tone prior to the Black Moon tour. The organ does sound cleaner on the live tracks from the "Then and Now" album. I also talked with his tech during backstage aftershow at Merriweather Post Pavillion - Black Moon tour about Keith's equipment. His former stacks of 122's were slimmed down to two cabinets, built into a custom road case with mics now placed offstage, often in a dedicated room. Maybe that had something to do with it? I found this further detailed information about the organ (credit rrsignalguy) on another site: "The C-3 is connected to 2 GOFF Professional Leslie 122’s mounted in a special double road case. In 2019 this custom rig was sold in a Julien auction to EMEAPP. The C-3 cost $80K, the Leslie’s $18K, plus buyer’s premium so the total cost was about $125K plus shipping, making this easily the most expensive classic (tonewheel) Hammond Organ ever sold. The C-3 has fully adjustable Chorus / Vibrato that provides a range from straight organ sound all the way through a Wurlitzer heavy tremolo / rotary sound. It has a fully adjustable Percussion Booster that ranges from no percussion through 4X stock percussion max volume, and an adjustable high-gain spring reverb that ranges from no reverb through about 5-7 seconds reverb delay at high volume. The organ has a rebuilt AO-28 organ tube preamp with bass boost and other modifications, rebuilt tonewheel generator with hand-selected filter capacitors, rebuilt vibrato line box, generator shock mount kit, and other mods"

He built that long solo so meticulously. The big burst of feedback and then it starts with Lake and Palmer's quarter note triplet ostinato while Keith is on the drone oscillators, then playing The Minotaur in sine wave on top, then improvises Minotaur extended. He eventually goes to LFO vibrato on the now ominous sounding minor third interval he transitions with and builds into those high note glides saturated with LFO. Then suddenly the wide open filter and chromatic descent (patching to his brass sound) Reverb added in and then he sets up the climax when he brings in his C3, playing those almost unidentifiable (because the organ is so crazy overdriven) modal chords that are so Keith Emerson. Then he's fragmenting the Aquatarkus theme against those wild chords and finally envelope generator/sample hold diving pitch against rising chromatic motion and when it's finally all it can be he suddenly jumps back with Greg and Carl to the Organ/Synth Tarkus recapitulation and then those big grand pause repeated dissonant chords, setting up his pre-ending that resolves to upper and lower suspensions which introduce the huge brass fanfare ending derived yet again from the Tarkus theme. An absolutely stunning exhibition and is but one defining moment of why he remains the greatest rock keyboardist now and for all time. And after that exhausting Tarkus display, the very next song is Take A Pebble with solo extended, even including a jazz trio section before returning to the song. Total stamina. I'm also linking the massive Keith Emerson quote list compiled by ELP Digest. https://www.brain-salad.com/Emerson/quote-list.txt

Further regarding the Brain Salad Surgery tour, I saw it at the Capital Centre in Largo MD (venue since demolished). The Quad PA was causing bounceback, throwing them out of time. They ended up finally turning off the back speakers. Adding : Emerson's extended Aquatarkus solo as captured on the Welcome Back My Friends live album from that tour is, I think, the greatest synth solo Keith Emerson ever played! The C3 at the climactic point took it to beyond! His C3 was hot-rodded by Al Goff. Beefed up percussion, modified preamp and Leslies. Keith referred to it as "tacky and spitty". His later C3 was cleaner, regrettably. That first organ sounded better than any Hammond I've ever heard. His Modular had 901 series oscillators, which were prone to drifting but had a superior sound vs Moog 921 VCO's (which held tune much better).

That's great! I looked at audience videos and there were some low wattage questions asked. It all seemed like ego filler to me, but I could well have had a different experience had I been there.

Yeah, he used it on "Benny The Bouncer".

Palmer rushes. He did it on his ELP Legacy thing too. I was 8 feet from him (stage front table) at Rams Head Onstage in Annapolis. The drum machine programming on the Emerson Lake tour was terrible, re-mentioning. I'm not at all surprised Greg Lake told Palmer to slow down. Probably happened a lot. Hoedown and Tarkus were insanely fast. Emerson's choice or Palmer? Who knows.... Emerson liked to play fast and was firing on all cylinders on the Brain Salad tour, but Palmer rushed awkwardly at times on all ELP tours I attended. (He's not my favorite drummer in the least). In contrast , Cozy Powell was tempo steady on the Emerson Lake and Powell tour. And regarding Carl Palmer, he said a number of critical things about ELP's final performance, headlining the High Voltage Festival. He felt the group wasn't up to standard for ELP to continue any longer. The least significant member. My opinion.

That's great you got to play Birchmere! Keith played very well when I saw the KE band there and was in good spirits after the show (signed lots of autographs for people)! Tempos for Tarkus and Hoedown were slower than the past but nothing wrong with that. I was seated close and clearly saw the "tone" (dystonia) in his right hand. Aside from the cancellation even had I bought tickets for E&L, I knew they were doing an onstage Q&A during the show which I knew I would have had absolutely no interest in. I thought of it as filler. (Greg did an onstage Q&A also at Birchmere for his solo tour which was another no for me going) Did that Q&A take up a lot of the show? Great that they did Tarkus and Pirates!

Me too! I saw Weather Report in Pittsburgh 1973. Amazing! Regarding "Mysterious Traveler" Zawinul, never at a loss for words, called that album "the baddest shit on the planet". I love "Nubian Sundance", personally.

I hope you feel better soon!

Joe Zawinul played on "Bitches Brew" and in later years said he didn't like the album. The first two Weather Report albums were ground breaking. "Live in Tokyo" (edited version on "I Sing The Body Electric") be it fusion or whatever one calls it, stood on a level beyond anything else at the time. Quote : Zawinul - "We always solo but we never solo" And it was Miroslav Vitous, not Jaco Pastorius then. I have the later albums also but honestly, Zawinul ultimately pushing the band into funk was disappointing compared to what they were before. Added : "Bitches Brew" was a weird record in that the producer, Teo Macero, created it from edits and splicing a lot of tape together to form those pieces which in its pre-produced state was disjointedness. I confess to really not liking the album.

I agree. I liked "Taste Of My Love" too along with the other songs. It just wasn't what ELP fans wanted because it wasn't Brain Salad Surgery II. If Asia had done "Love Beach" it would have probably been accepted with much less disdain. It's a much better record than "In The Hot Seat".

Many fans disliked "Love Beach" and "In The Hot Seat". ELP owed one more album to Atlantic Records and recorded the above former to satisfy the contract. Certainly it's not equal to their classic albums but Ahmed Ertegun had been pushing for an album that contained lighter hit material so they tried to give him what he wanted. It is by no means a bad album in and of itself. It just didn't make the diehard ELP fans happy because it lacked their past. The song "Love Beach" had hit potential, but not with ELP doing it. Too many critics who always took shots at ELP even in the supergroup days. I liked "An Officer And a Gentleman" very much and "Canario" was certainly a Keith Emerson showcase. "In The Hot Seat" included a re-make of "Pictures" with digital technology. My first thought was why and the second being it wasn't even close to the original live recording in terms of sheer power those early times displayed. "The Blues Variation" portion of the original live album was amazing. Emerson was virtuosic with only the Modular and his C3. When Emerson put together "3", the emphasis going in was to do radio friendly hit oriented songs, but Keith could not cease being Keith so the songs were too often long with extended progressives ("Desde La Vida)". Robert Berry was a really good singer for them though! "Black Moon" was troubled at the onset because Emerson and Palmer were fighting with Lake because they wanted producer credit also. Egos flared from the two and Lake was alienated as a result of the fighting. It was decided to have Mark Mancina step into the role. Greg Lake had produced every successful ELP album prior to this. Mancina promised a return to the epic days of ELP's sound in interviews prior to the album release. He did not succeed in this regard. It is not a bad album. It just held no trace of classic ELP. I had considered buying tickets for the Emerson & Lake club tour ala the badly programmed drum machine but decided not to. Just as well because it ended up cancelled, scant hours before showtime at The Birchmere due to a blowup between Emerson and Lake. Nor did I choose to attend Lake's " Songs From A Lifetime" solo tour where he employed ELP backing tracks. Had I known then that it would have been the last time we would ever see Greg Lake, I'd have been there. May they both rest in peace. God bless them.

Keith Emerson's left hand was so good it's frightening, the relentless octave ostinato on "Bitches Crystal" - tireless and blazing speed. "Tarkus" was an amazing display of the independence of his hands. "The synth solo in "Trilogy" along with the preceding piano solo was stunning. I attended the "Brain Salad Surgery" tour in the 70's, which arguably was ELP at their peak. "Emerson Lake and Powell" was Keith Emerson's leap into digital. He toured it without his C3 and Modular. Many Kurzweil K1000 rack units and his beloved GX-1. He also used Yamaha KX-88 midi controllers. He couldn't duplicate the immense richness of the Album live but he put it all out there. Greg Lake was yet in very good voice and Cozy Powell drove that band with force. His drums sounded like cannons both live and on record. They did feature a great deal of ELP material on that tour. We had aftershow passes but only saw them getting into a Limo 150 feet away and departing. Backstage aftershow for the " Black Moon" tour. Greg Lake was a really nice guy. He observed Keith's keyboard tech asking me about the balance of the racks in the mix. I answered by telling him exactly what parts I could and could not hear. Keith was listening and I committed the big faux pas by saying to Keith that he really didn't need all that stuff, to which Keith immediately said "That's enough" curtly and walked off. Greg Lake came over to me laughing, we got a drink together and he put his arm over my shoulder and said "Oh don't worry about him, Mate. He gets like that". This girl was taking pictures later and said come over for one with Keith. I was nervous but it turned out ok. (I said nothing but thank you"). Carl was entertaining a group of people with random stories. Greg Lake was a true Gentleman who made you feel as if you were an old friend. I was struck by and never forgot his graciousness. It was a real treat to have seen the club tour of "Three". Keith opened with "Fanfare". It was the first time I saw the Modular up close. Took my son to see ELP opening for Jethro Tull. Backstage, my then 10 year old walked up to Ian Anderson and asked him where Greg Lake was. Ian told him he thought they had left already. Saw ELP once more in what was the formative of "Crossing The Rubicon". They still had it! Saw the Keith Emerson Band on a club tour. We had a front row table. Keith signed an autograph afterwards for my son who asked if he could take his picture with his Dad. Keith said sure, looked over, looked back at my son and said "That's your Dad ?" I hung out briefly with Marc Bonilla at the bar and talked to him about getting Keith to get in touch with the great pianist, Leon Fleisher, at Peabody in Baltimore as Leon had benefitted greatly (regaining playing use of his right hand) from a rolfing protocol combined with Botox injections for his own focal dystonia. Marc said he would definitely tell Keith. Keith was the greatest ever. Truly.

Hi Stephen, I really appreciated your substantive reply (I'm not at all adept with doing multiple quotes on my phone). I'm truly a big fan of Kurzweil anything as I love my 2600 both as the great midi controller it is and for what can be achieved in it. I used only my K for a couple of solo live shows I did a decade plus ago along with bass and drumset backing tracks I prepared and played back from a desktop I dragged along. I don't think I could have accomplished this with any other synth to the level of what I was able to do. If I had a K2700 back then I wouldn't have had to beg indulgence while I cleared and reloaded samples six times during a 3 hour plus continuous performance, (yes I was crazy). It would have held everything I needed in generous non volatile memory). So my initial post was assuredly not to criticize a company I have such high regard for, but rather to express hope that the K2700 reaches it's full and untouchable potential. Referencing another reply/intent to investigate of yours, Poly Portamento is not present on K synths (nor the K2700 to the best of my knowledge). However, there are a small group of programs in the K26-K25 line under the name "Pseudomento" that fake it well using a chain of FUNS. I was mostly interested since you have a VA-1 if they in fact accomplished a true poly portamento there and if so maybe it would eventually make it into the K2700/PC4's VA. I cannot imagine the business end of developing a synth. They have hit an amazing price point with both the PC4 and the 2700. I certainly can imagine the development costs to re-invent an established system knowing the market for such is ultimately niche. It seems to me that the PC3 line and onwards had a focus on going mainstream, so to speak. The Rom programs became quite direct in imitative naming associations to well known recordings plus Instrument Category buttons were added. It presented an outward user friendliness and projected, I think, a certain emphasis as fulfilling a role as the defacto cover band synth while retaining and yet developing the rocket science - (Dynamic VAST, more effect units and a brand new steep learning curve). You mentioned the Fantom's development. I agree with you but I am not a fan of the Roland subscription cloud they associate with it. I've never run out of sounds to modify from Kurzweil Compatibility and farm files. They are free to users. And yes, total agreement here over the striking development even from the K2500 to the K2600. Plus they even brought a full VAST engine to the Forte in an update. Thank you for verifying that a disk volume was present when connected to your Mac. They have a windows driver on their download page so all signs there are good. I appreciate your in process investigation of large sample load- association times and direct to computer transfers. (I keep a dedicated XP PC with an Adaptec card just to transfer my 2600's internal hard disk to and from). Eras have come and gone. Who knows what the future holds for keyboard workstations? I remain hopeful. I've used freeware sample trimming/looping/crossfading software that worked well. Still, it remains appealing to me to have those tools integrated into a workstation and not outsourced. Certainly, recording samples into a DAW in lieu of an on board sampler is not unreasonable in this day and age. But I still like dedicated samplers. In regard of your comment questioning the relevance today of an onboard sequencer, I never really learned the one on the 2600 as I was more about tracking with the synth. Others extol it though I opt for DAW. I am often torn with my own weighing of what the latest and greatest may offer against my personal disdain of the throwaway society. Thank you again, Stephen. -------- I'm adding a link from the "Mastering Vast" forum where Brian Cowell has been covering the K2700 in great detail. I asked Brian's permission before sharing here his "Migration from K2600/K2661 to K2700". It shows what has been gained in the K2700 and what has been lost. It's necessary though to register for a free account to view. https://forums.godlike.com.au/index.php?topic=6907.msg59861#msg59861 Brian, with Kurzweil's help, also wrote a more modern graphical version of the K2700 manual which is only available to Mastering VAST paid subscribers, so I can't post that one here. But it is there and it's very good.

Strings are excellent on the K2600. There are many variations both existing and possible because of the immense programming depth of the instrument. I have yet to exhaust the possibilities in VAST. The new " divisi strings" sounded great in the K2700 (and PC4) from videos I've watched. The pianos, both electric and acoustic, sound amazing on the videos. I love that there are now new unlooped pianos though I hope nothing is lost audibly in the now optimized versions in comparison to the Forte. The addition of a 6 operator FM synth able to load and edit the DX7 library plus integration into VAST is a great feature! Backwards compatibility is a good thing as Kurzweil has a very deep sample library and I very much appreciate that the older sounds are still there. The generous amount of non volatile sample memory is a huge selling point for the K2700 and is a feature that I would definitely make use of. I failed to make note of the fact in my initial post that the sampler (which I have and use a great deal in my 2600XS) was then an option for the 2600 line so not having one is by no means a deal breaker for the 2700. But I do want to see graphical editing of samples return. My earlier remark regarding the K prefix has more to do with it being essentially the same synth as the PC4, adding a metal case, increased sample memory, an internal power supply, TP/40L action, an audio interface, pads and a ribbon. I was surprised though when I learned that new sounds which I had initially assumed as exclusive to the K2700 are able to be loaded into the PC4. Kurzweil workstations, to me remain incomparable in their sound and depth.

I realize Kurzweil brought a great deal forward in updates for the K2600. (I have one). KDFX V2 and Triple Modular Processing arrived in their version 4 update. However, in the present state of the K2700 there is no dedicated sampler and no graphical editing of loop points and related sample editing tools. It's a glaring omission. So much so that to me, it may be prefixed as K but is it really? I don't know if polyphonic portamento was ever implemented in the VA-1 but I'd really like to see it happen in the K2700's VA along with the possibility you inferred of faster envelopes extending into VAST because the K2600's envelopes are just not snappy. It's my understanding that KStart is not present in the K2700. It is an invaluable parameter for taming DSP's such as Shaper and Wrap on the K2600. I've also read concerns regarding what is considered as a poor refresh rate in the K2600 and hope this will be addressed in the K2700. I'd also like to know what you experience in large multisample load times when you check it out as I've read it's slow in assigning into keymaps, and thank you. I'd also like to know if the synth can be loaded and backed up to and from PC without needing to use a flash drive as a go between. If it's fully USB class compliant one should be able to. The manual for the K2700, in addition to stating the need to refer back to the K2600's manual too often, now describes non VA VAST as being not recommended for audio use. It's concerning. I think the question is how much one is willing to bank in faith on development through future updates and if what isn't there now will end up happening or not and if it ultimately is tied by how old an architecture VAST is. Does this then limit what really can be done regarding updates? I am definitely in the watch and wait camp presently. I also agree with your wish that the display was larger. Thank you for your ongoing review.

I do. I started at age 10 with a great teacher.for 6 + years. I still have the same 60's Ludwig Super Classic set and Zildjian A' s. Photo https://www.instagram.com/p/BxbnLuUhY5p/?igshid=11u7vj6mainq Every so often I review. Actually playing really set the foundation for programming. I even multi-sampled them a few years ago into the K2600 XS for midi use in scoring. Ex : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lLKUTE8xQA7-aw2zDWgZS5f0fFZRbkpl/view?usp=drivesdk Footnote : Learned in traditional grip. Only matched on Timpani and Mallets. Dropped Percussion major in early 70's for Music History and Composition because the Percussion professor insisted on Snare matched. It was ruining my technique. Rolls became horrid in matched, like I was back in Elementary School. We had quite a few arguments over it all because traditional was perfect for me, but it was "his way or the highway" so I changed majors. I detested him.

Then the rhetorical golden question, Is it worth ripping out the Dmux board to check the entire commutator chain of all those caps replaced on the Moog autotune update and then the Common Analog board to chase a phantom on a vintage synth from the 80's when all six voices are tuning? No. Especially since mine from day 1 before and after the autotune update along with everyone else's I've ever heard of (save now for "one"...) drifts from the nominal hex and will be different on each power on plus change as the synth stays on. Mine stays in pkaying tune now but again, I don't bother with or even check the software tuning routine anymore.

I hear you Chuck. I don't think the heat is abnormal (and it's hard to define appreciable). It's near non-existant with the unit open but if you close it up for 30 minutes or so and then open it you'll definitely feel it on mine before it quickly dissipates. BTW that heat can not be felt from outside the unit when closed up - even at the vent panel. I have heard others mention not using the tuning software but I guess I'm stubborn and trying to see how close I can get it to optimal values. The drift I'm seeing in these values is up to about 10 counts in either direction depending on which oscillator (some don't drift at all). It does not affect the sound and like I said it will still autotune. I think I've rid the boards of any shorts as I had a couple that caused some havoc before removing them. But yeah, if problems persist I'll keep that in mind. I was actually working on that yesterday Richie. IIRC I still owe Mike Martin audio samples from when I posted about repairs 3 years ago. Mark, As long as it's autotuning ( how that word has become ruined) you're ok That Hex drift is why I stopped using the C7 routine. It is a software flaw, I believe. I have audio samples of mine on my instagram. Some are audio direct, others through a small desktop practice amp while I was working on it) https://www.instagram.com/p/6YG_1gKQyx/ https://www.instagram.com/p/6EQQXxKQxr/ (Power supply leds glowing) https://www.instagram.com/p/59H7s_qQ1o/ https://www.instagram.com/p/59DlaiqQwu/ https://www.instagram.com/p/5aha7bqQ_v/ https://www.instagram.com/p/7GdaJFKQ3P/ This is from a recording of mine in the 80's. The solo is on the same MM in Mono mode, which stacks all six voices (18 oscillators) on one note. https://www.instagram.com/p/_0o3aIKQ2q/ _______ https://www.instagram.com/p/5aha7bqQ_v/ (Power supply led glow photo, and that glow is the only way you know it's on because there's no noise anymore as the fan is gone as it is no longer needed with Heinz's supply. https://www.instagram.com/p/55B71LKQ9H/ Photo of Heinz''s supply which he installed into a Jupiter 8. (It also is adapted for Prophets, Chromas, Oberheims and Polymoogs, among others). https://www.instagram.com/p/BACs1qvKQ0d/

(I can't help but say that I don't miss Sonikmatter in the least as you remember it too). Heinz's supply is all SMD and he solders it by hand with an ordinary Weller he's used for at least 30 years. His workmanship is amazing!

18 VCO's stacked in Mono mode sounding through those over driven 3080 OTA's always won. It still does.