Kurzweil K2700 sounds demo

[Jim Alfredson]

I hope this is okay to post here. Kurzweil asked me to make some videos for the K2700 and this is the first one. It starts with a little ditty I made up and then goes into individual sound demos.

 

Enjoy!
 

 

[ElmerJFudd]

1 hour ago, Jim Alfredson said:

I hope this is okay to post here. Kurzweil asked me to make some videos for the K2700 and this is the first one. It starts with a little ditty I made up and then goes into individual sound demos.

 

Enjoy!
 

 

You have a preference for what they’ve done here on the K2700 vs. the Forte?  I know you had went for the  the shorter Forte 7 I’m guessing for schlepping around.  

[ABECK]

I've had mine a few months now and honestly have not gotten through auditioning all the programs or multis yet.  The library is huge and very usable.  Between the AP samples, the EPs, FM patches and the VA sounds, there's SOO much to enjoy.  I'd like to explore the Pads and Hybrid stuff a bit more.  Seems like there's some great wavetable-like programs and other evolving, creative options to work with.  Programing is not for the casual user and I'm slooooowly absorbing how the VAST architecture works, but I'm having a hard time imagining a gig that this wouldn't be right for.  As far as wish list items, I would definitely like a user sampling option.   In the mean time, importing from my computer is a viable option, but there is something about sampling in the box that still appeals to me.

[Delaware Dave]

1 hour ago, ABECK said:

I've had mine a few months now and honestly have not gotten through auditioning all the programs or multis yet.  The library is huge and very usable.  Between the AP samples, the EPs, FM patches and the VA sounds, there's SOO much to enjoy.  I'd like to explore the Pads and Hybrid stuff a bit more.  Seems like there's some great wavetable-like programs and other evolving, creative options to work with.  Programing is not for the casual user and I'm slooooowly absorbing how the VAST architecture works, but I'm having a hard time imagining a gig that this wouldn't be right for.  As far as wish list items, I would definitely like a user sampling option.   In the mean time, importing from my computer is a viable option, but there is something about sampling in the box that still appeals to me.

I could gig with the PC3 singularly and cover everything.  I've even tweaked the on-board leslie sim to be usable, although adding an external leslie makes it more usable.  When I purchased my PC3 that was my intent, to be a one trick pony and I gigged that way for several years.  I'm back to two boards adding a 61 key controller (10 pounds) because now I've added the Gemini module.  Not sure I would need the Gemini if I had the K2700 or Forte (again other than maybe adding the Vent).  With the upgraded acoustic/electric Pianos and the Kore 64 upgrades already in the board I probably would ditch the Gemini module while just using the K2700 or Forte and my 61 key controller (only used to trigger organ patches with its more organ friendly keybed).  PC4-7 would also be a one-trick pony with its semi-weighted keybed, probably not needing the controller to trigger organ since the PC4-7 is semi-weighted.

[nadroj]

Organ in that little ditty at the start sounds pretty good! Is that a custom patch made by you Jim? 

[Jim Alfredson]

1 hour ago, nadroj said:

Organ in that little ditty at the start sounds pretty good! Is that a custom patch made by you Jim? 

 

Thanks. No, that's a stock patch.

[Jim Alfredson]

3 hours ago, ElmerJFudd said:

You have a preference for what they’ve done here on the K2700 vs. the Forte?  I know you had went for the  the shorter Forte 7 I’m guessing for schlepping around.  

 

I love my Forte7. The K2700 is big and heavy but damn, the action is fantastic (same action as the Forte) and it's nice to have the extra real estate. And the trigger pads and ribbon controller are super useful.

[Tom Williams]

8 hours ago, Jim Alfredson said:

 

Thanks. No, that's a stock patch.

Maybe this will put the "KB3 organs suck" myth to bed. 

[stoken6]

9 hours ago, Jim Alfredson said:

 

Thanks. No, that's a stock patch.

Once again, in the hands of a skilled player...

 

Cheers, Mike.

[pawelsz]

2 hours ago, Tom Williams said:

Maybe this will put the "KB3 organs suck" myth to bed. 

 

After I got PC4-7, I decided to sell my XK-1c. Yes, Hammond is better, more faithful in being a clone both sound-wise and UI-wise. But I realized that Kurz is really good enough for me as occasional organ player. And interestingly I prefer single-Leslie FX chains! Double-Leslies have too much wobble/gurgle/bubbling sound particularly on highest harmonic bars for me. Kurzweil organs definitely don't suck, but they have its own character as well as e.g. Korg or Roland ones. 

 

[Al Coda]

2 hours ago, Tom Williams said:

Maybe this will put the "KB3 organs suck" myth to bed. 

 

KB3 organs are very usable in a band context.

In the ancient PC3 the factory leslie chains sucked, the settings of overdrive/distortion, keyclick and the always mentioned "perc runs thru C/V" too and KB3 isn´t realy different in PC4 and K2700.

Perc. thru C/V seems to be still present but is truly a minor issue which is almost inaudible in a context.

It´s still not right compared to the real deal,- but sometimes I like it.

Overdrive/distortion and keyclick sound can be tweaked to an acceptable degree and the rotary parameters are tweakable too whuile doin´ the latter is very time consuming.

many parameters the average user has no clue about how they interact.

But w/ patience, also the so called "single leslie" can be improved,- but not so much it will be on par w/ a Lester K, Vent or the latest HX3 leslie sim.

 

But,- because of more DSP power now available in K2700, the freely programmable FX chains together w/ KB3 offers options which aren´t available in most of the better organ clones at all.

In the PC3, when I created a special organ sound, may it be w/ double-leslie or a lot of other FX like distortion, ringmod, wah, compressor, chorus, phaser, a single leslie or amp sim and aux FX,- that was it.

No more other sounds in a setup/ multi because of limited DSP power.

That limitation is now over.

 

I got nice Brian Auger type non leslie sounds from the PC3 as also these weird and experimental FX loaded organs.

So,- it´s welcome in addition to a pure "Hammond clone" too, especially together w/ the workstation type options.

 

☺️

 

A.C.

[Theo Verelst]

Long demo with lots of explanations. Some seemingly deep sounds, but once more the mix logic is pretty messed up, never much low end, no stereo accuracy ever, and that blasted surplus of mid frequencies and strange "talking" sound elements make the overall usefulness not very much, including the fact most sounds aren't super beautiful ever or in fact  super -anything with just few exceptions. Piano's to me are a waste because I get simultaneously sad and nauseous listening to them, and then bored like I don't feel like listening to anything again, really, though the playing is fine.

 

Theo V

[Tom Williams]

8 hours ago, pawelsz said:

 

And interestingly I prefer single-Leslie FX chains!

 

Same here, ever since I obtained BillW's Leslie settings.  If I want it richer (very rarely), I'll add a little reverb, which only takes up a couple of units of FX processing.

[Rackmount]

Jim - I am looking to map some wave files onto keys to trigger backing looped samples while playing. I've done this on my Kronos, Montage, and Stage 3 and am pretty sure I can do something similar on the Kurzweil K2700. My approach is going to be similar to making a drum key map, with the different sounds mapped to individual keys with roots of samples at the mapped keys. Setting up a Nine Inch Nails live performance of Head Like a Hole. I setup Closer on the three instruments mentioned above and was able to get it set so I could manually retrigger samples and also play individual notes while maintaining the tempo by having samples trigger on beat 1.

 

I plan to use other editing software to get the samples fixed at the correct loop lengths so I won't have to tweak them using the Kurzweil interface. I am curious if you are aware of any higher level support for this type activity (i.e., some website that has power users who tweak the heck out of their tools and are willing to share their experiences)? I would be happy to contribute my own efforts on such a site.

 

If my approach seems cumbersome and you have an idea of a better approach, love to here it. Thanks in advance and keep on jamming!

 

Rackmount

 

[ABECK]

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.

[Dave Weiser]

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

 

[Rackmount]

On 4/23/2024 at 12:51 PM, 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 response and the information. Greatly appreciate it.

 

Rackmount