Modler

I have just been fighting a ghastly loop noise in my setup, with the two keyboards (PC4 and FA-06) both MIDI'ing to the laptop via USB, with the Roland also functioning as audio interface for the software. The solution however was simple; balanced cables out from BOTH keyboards and the noise became unaudiable.

Great question! When it comes to organs, I think it's mostly a matter of tradition. The grand piano happened to have one manual from the beginning, and so all the music and playing techniques for the piano evolved around that single manual. Whereas many of the styles and techniques on the organ was originally developed on two manual instruments (or more), first in classical music and then later in all the early gospel, soul, jazz, blues, etc. Keyboard players in rock music has been more inclined to adapt to single manual organs, as they typically don't need more with the guitarists taking up most of the band's sonic space. So why did two manuals never catch on for synthesizers? I think that a lot of it has to do with the fact, that early synthesizer technology could barely support two-manuas in a way that made sense. Especially polyphony was very limited and to have synth voices enough for two manuals, you had to have quite a bit of analog circuitry going on, which was expensive and often also unreliable. There were a few of such behemoths made; the Yamaha GX-1 comes to mind, but such instruments were impractically heavy and much too expensive for the vast majority of musicians. Later on I think MIDI has satisfied most players needs for having mulitple manuals. In the occasion you need another manual, it's merely a matter of connecting another keyboard with a cheap cable. Also given the extra cost and the extra weight, it all makes two manual synthesizers very much a niche product. I don't think it would be possible to make much money on a modern two-manual syntheizer, the customer base for such an apparatus is to small.

Yes you're completely right. Sorry for the confusion :-)

If you start with 'Clear Multi' none of the controllers will be assigned. But in 'Default Multi' they are. One problem to be aware of though is possible conflicts between the different zones assignments to knobs, faders and switches. I would recommend you to save your own default multi with all the controllers set as you like them, and use that as a template whenever you want to make a multi.

The PC4 has Quick Access mode. It is integrated into the program/multi-modes via a soft button. The interface on this K2700 looks very similar to the PC4.

Negotiating about playing songs that doesn't have any keyboard parts has always been a recurring challenge. But I am quite happy with the band I'm currently in, as we only have one guitarist and he is not an arcetypical "rock guitarist" but more a "general musician and arranger"-kind-of-type who happens to play guitar. Which means he appreciate the keyboards doing all kinds of cool stuff in the songs and his playing is usually economical and restricted to the most relevant guitar parts in the songs. That's sweet heaven for a keyboard player. I have only ever left a band out of anger or frustration on two occations: The first time was a band that was dominated by an old drummer who thought he was a professional musician because he had played on some unknown single record back in the 70's (he was posting the cover of that record on FB on a regular basis, to remind everybody about it...). He was constantly at odds with our female singer/songwriter/guitarist and I eventually got tired of listening to their frequent quarrels. I don't want to spend my spare time watching grown up people fight over nothing. The second time was a rock cover band that just wouldn't lift off of the ground. Everytime we were about ready to take jobs, someone left the group (usually the drummer). After several years of idling in the rehearsal room and after af period where the bass player AND another drummer quit within a couple of months, I finally threw in the towel. There was something inherently wrong with that band that just couldn't be fixed. Also, the two guitarist usually made an enormous wall of sound, and the bass player was mostly plucking deep root notes (I don't he ever went above the 7th fret on his bass). I never really understood why they needed me on keys...

I also bought my FA-06 before the FA-07 was a thing. It is a rather uninspiring keyboard in many ways and with a pretty bad action, but few other keyboards boats the same level of all-round practicality with the studio sets, keyboard switch groups, MIDI-control features, vocoder, sampler, USB/audio-interface and ultra light weight construction. It can't easily be replaced by something different and an 07 is indeed a lot of money just to get a better keybed. I use mine together with a Kurzweil PC4, and before that with my old PC3X. The light weight of the PC4 has been a huge blessing, but it has yet to see a live show though. Recently I've also introduced a laptop running SampleTank 4 to the rig, with both the PC4 and the FA sending MIDI to the laptop. I use the PC4 to send all program changes to the FA as well as SampleTank, while the FA takes care of the USB audio I/O for the laptop. Works fine so far.

I'd say the Medeli in the PC4 is a whole lot better than the TP100. Less noisy, much more comfortable and it also saves more weight. I have only tried the TP100 in an Artis though, so I don't know if it feels different in other keyboards. I generally don't miss the TP40 in my old PC3X when I am playing the PC4, except maybe the aftertouch which works a lot better on the TP40.

Learning how to tame a Kurzweil can be daunting and frustrating at first, but you will be very happy and satisfied when you succeed, and you will never be intimidated by any other keyboard again.

True. Combining factory programs in multi's on the PC4 will mostly result in a slight drop out in sound during transitions. But you can often make totally smooth transitions if you remove the effect blocks that you don't use, save effect chains and programs as user objects and use them instead. Many of the factory programs has effect chains with maybe 8 or 9 blocks, but you will typically only need half of them.

You can easily arrange lists of programs and multi's (in any combination) on the PC4 using its Quick Access-banks, where you can put them in order, edit them, etc. You can switch between them using the numeric buttons or a pedal. The only limitation is that each QA-bank only contains 10 program/multi's, so to make a full setlist you would probably need to use 3 or 4 QA-banks for a full show. But there are plenty of them available.

There's a guide to that on Kurzweil's website. They haven't made one for the PC4 just yet, but you can look it up under the FAQ-section for the Forte, which works almost the same as on the PC4.

The vocal mic is normally off. I switch it on for the few songs where I need it (I'm trying to keep my vocal duties to a minimum, as I'm a terrible singer). The vocoder mic is always on, as it won't make a sound unless I have a vocoder patch active on the Roland. The trick is to route the mic input on the Roland to the sub out rather than the main out. The sound from the mic will still go to the vocoder effect which will be present at the main out, but the direct signal from the mic itself will mute when I switch away from the vocoder (given that I leave the sub out unconnected of course).

It was an idea I got from a rig rundown video with Spike Edney. But the results I have achieved so far has been... mixed. By using an ensemble-type vocoder (string sound as carrier) at moderate volume, sometimes with a bit of a choir-sample mixed in, I can make a "synth backdrop" for the backing vocals that makes the whole thing sound bigger. The problem: if one of the singers are just sligtly out of tune, the pitch-perfect vocoder exposes it very clearly.

Yes, I am using the FA's vocoder on a few songs. Sometimes to support the backing vocals, sometimes just as an effect for the fun of it.

My setup resting in the band's rehearsal room.

Very, very generally speaking and only based on keyboards I've owned and/or tried in the shops: Roland: Pretty "flat" and neutral sound, tends to sound a bit "boxed in" (especially the old JV/XP/XV-stuff). Generally versatile but typically weak organs and orchestral sounds. Excels at EDM and 80's pop/rock. Easy to mix in a recording but can be a bit difficult to cut through in a loud band setting. Korg:: Quite bright and "shimmery". Typically weak mid-range. Amazing for huge sounding pads, great for leads. Has some of the best sample-based organs, but the acoustic piano sounds always seems to be lagging behind the competition. Great for 90's pop, eurodance and modern hard rock and metal. Yamaha: I won't say too much about Yamaha as I haven't played one for a very long time. Warm and "natural" sounding, less hi-end than Korg but not as flat as Roland. Kurzweil: Often sounds a bit dull and nasal in headphones compared to other brands, but excels at high volume where it cuts through loud guitars brilliantly with a strong and punchy mid-range. Really good for classic rock/pop and especially prog rock. Not well suited for EDM.

Not necessarily. If you're having a lot of trouble using your PC4 and you are looking for support and knowledge from other users, the PC Series group on fb is great. But there is not a lot of sounds/programs sharing going on in there, as it's difficult to keep track of such things on a fb-page. For more in depth discussions I'd say this forum here is arguably better.

Feel free to check this out. I don't know if it's closer to the sound you want.

I played in a band once were the other guys insisted on doing a mash-up with Cocaine and Jolene... yes... The fact that neither the drummer nor the bass player had any sense of groove or any idea of how to play blues, didn"t make it any better. Stuck in the Middle with You. Same band. Again: blues without the slightest amount of groove or rhythmic feeling.

I may be wrong about this, but these buttons seems to be of the same kind that is used for trigger pads, for example on Roland workstations, Akai MPC"s, etc. In that case they should be able to withstand quite a lot of abuse. The pads on my FA-06 has been very sturdy. My Mininova has similar buttons too and I"ve had no problems with that one either. I have, on the other hand, had some problems with the normal small 'clicky' buttons on most of the keyboards I"ve owned, with text wearing off and buttons that stops working due to bad switches. So I am curious to see how the squishy buttons on the PC4 are going to hold up.

Well, I won't say it is less cool than a Forte. It all rather depends on your needs. For me the PC4 is actually coolest keyboard I can think of to fullfill my needs as an amateur playing in a rock cover band. Compared to the PC3 the PC4 has definately retained the Kurzweil DNA, but it also feels a lot more focused and fine-tuned towards gigging musicians I think.

I have a lot of motivation to play music but I have never enjoyed making music on my own that much, so having all band activities put on halt feels very weird. I pulled the trigger on a Kurzweil PC4 about 3 weeks ago - this had been my plan for a long time. I have spend quite a bit of time getting it ready for the band, preparing sounds for the different songs, loading in programs from the old PC3X, etc. The PC4 is a great instrument and I am itching to debut it in the band But that probably won"t happen for a long time to come. Even though the Corvid19-situation is very much under control here in Denmark and it wouldn"t be illegal to do band rehearsels, but at least one of the other guys in my band has special health issues to watch out for, so we are not anywhere near resuming rehearsals. So in short: I"ve got a great new keyboard, I have a lot of motivation and energy to play music, but I can"t make much use of it right now (other than practicing songs on my own). In terms of rig planning the PC4 might have made things a lot simpler - maybe even a bit too simple. I"ve used the PC3X together with my Roland FA-06 for several years, which has worked out relatively well as most of the weak points of the PC3X are strong points of the FA and vice versa. But the PC4 blows the FA completely out of the water in almost every aspect, so now I am basically down to just one keyboard, possibly with the Mininova on top for the odd vocoder or wavetable sound. So now I am saving up for a keyboard that would complement the PC4 in a way that makes sense...

I think they made the update a couple of months ago.

I am currently up saving up for the PC4, hopefully I'll have enough money around may or june. But there seems to be a weird lack of excitement around this instrument - not that people are talking bad about it, but... it's seems to have flown a bit under the radar somehow. Very few people have reviewed it, many of the demos on YT seems oddly uninspired, sound examples from the new FM-engine are very sparse, etc. So yeah, any feedback from PC4 owners would be very welcome indeed, as my excitement about the PC4 isn't quite where I wish it would be.