Kurzweil MPS M1

[UnderGroundGr]

https://kurzweil.com/mps-m1/

 

 No midi in/out...

[Delaware Dave]

It has USB midi, so there is midi functionality.

 

One thing that I've never quite understood is the acoustic piano that they've used.  Their most developed acoustic piano was put in the Forte, but subsequent keyboards, including the flagship K2700, use derivatives of the Forte rather than the full blown Forte piano.  There must be a technical reason for this and I'd love to understand why their most developed acoustic piano has never been used since the Forte. Makes me scratch my head.  Maybe @Dave Weiser  can help to resolve the mystery.

[BenWaB3]

Gotta say, the sounds, especially the Rhodes the duo started out with, does not make me want to rush out and buy this.

[jason88]

Curious on price point for this. I do like the Fatar TP110 overall, and the specs page says both USB midi and audio which is good. Never a fan of the wall-wart power supply. Agree on the earlier comment re: Kurzweil and their piano samples. My K2700 has decent pianos but none of them wowed me so thankfully was able to load my own samples.

[AnotherScott]

3 hours ago, Delaware Dave said:

One thing that I've never quite understood is the acoustic piano that they've used.  Their most developed acoustic piano was put in the Forte, but subsequent keyboards, including the flagship K2700, use derivatives of the Forte rather than the full blown Forte piano.  There must be a technical reason for this and I'd love to understand why their most developed acoustic piano has never been used since the Forte. Makes me scratch my head.  Maybe @Dave Weiser  can help to resolve the mystery.

 

Since the Forte had 16 gb of wave data (via flashplay), and the K2700 has 4.6 gb, and everything below that less, it's probably simply the sheer size, the best Forte piano is probably quite large. Companies employ different technologies, and I believe Korg is the only other company so far offering multi-GB pianos in any of their keyboards.

[Mighty Motif Max]

3 hours ago, Delaware Dave said:

It has USB midi, so there is midi functionality.

 

One thing that I've never quite understood is the acoustic piano that they've used.  Their most developed acoustic piano was put in the Forte, but subsequent keyboards, including the flagship K2700, use derivatives of the Forte rather than the full blown Forte piano.  There must be a technical reason for this and I'd love to understand why their most developed acoustic piano has never been used since the Forte. Makes me scratch my head.  Maybe @Dave Weiser  can help to resolve the mystery.

I find it frustrating because there's (IMO) a noticeable difference in quality between the K2700/PC4 and Forte - enough of one that I think I would be okay with a Forte for solo piano but, after owning a PC4 for several years, I can't say the same about the "optimized" samples the K2700/PC4 use. IMO one can clearly hear the differences in the video below.

 

 

[Jwave]

1 hour ago, jason88 said:

My K2700 has decent pianos but none of them wowed me so thankfully was able to load my own samples.

I’m curious about which piano sample set you loaded, as I’d love to load improved pianos on my PC4?

[ABECK]

14 minutes ago, Jwave said:

I’m curious about which piano sample set you loaded, as I’d love to load improved pianos on my PC4?

I've loaded the pianos below.  They are VERY different from the stock samples.  Super bright - lots of attack.  For live, I've found blending in these samples with the stock works well.  But sounds a bit unnatural (hey, it works for Elton John).

https://www.synthonia.com/marketplace/kurzweil-k2700-kw-edition-pianos-sound-bank-detail

[jason88]

41 minutes ago, Jwave said:

I’m curious about which piano sample set you loaded, as I’d love to load improved pianos on my PC4?

 

I actually bought the complete synthonia piano set, though only liked a few of them. Thankfully was able to tweak them: https://www.synthonia.com/marketplace/kurzweil/k2700/kurzweil-k2700-contemporary-complete-pianos-sound-bank-detail

 

Also using a Grandeur sample set that was made for the Kurz (I have NI Komplete) and that's my go to at the moment.  Still, would be a dream for Kurzweil to update the pianos for the K2700 but don't imagine that'll happen.

[AnotherScott]

37 minutes ago, Mighty Motif Max said:

 after owning a PC4 for several years, I can't say the same about the "optimized" samples the K2700/PC4 use.

 

 

Yeah... "optimized" doesn't mean better, it means "we did the best we could within the more limited resources available on this model." So it is optimized for the smaller available space, but still inferior to the full sample set.

[Adan]

I have to say that's one of the most charming promo videos I've seen.  Doesn't seem to have Kurzweil's best sounds or even close, but still pretty good for a consumer keyboard. I think this is the first time we've seen TP110 in a non-Numa keyboard, so that's a happy development, but it's still 39 lbs despite having an action that is compromised to lower overall weight, and that seems to be because it's got a fairly hefty internal speaker system.  Some people would say that's desirable if it means being able to play a coffee shop or small restaurant with no extra amplification.

[jason88]

14 minutes ago, Adan said:

I have to say that's one of the most charming promo videos I've seen.  Doesn't seem to have Kurzweil's best sounds or even close, but still pretty good for a consumer keyboard. I think this is the first time we've seen TP110 in a non-Numa keyboard, so that's a happy development, but it's still 39 lbs despite having an action that is compromised to lower overall weight, and that seems to be because it's got a fairly hefty internal speaker system.  Some people would say that's desirable if it means being able to play a coffee shop or small restaurant with no extra amplification.

Actually the TP110 is also in the Kurzweil SP7 Grand   I had two earlier this year but returned both because they had damage/issues. Ugh.  But I did like the 110 overall.

[Mighty Motif Max]

I'm thinking I should start a current-generation Kurzweil piano sample thread since this discussion always comes up and veers into the PC4/K2700 samples regardless of the model at hand.

 

Edit: Done - https://forums.musicplayer.com/topic/186611-master-thread-third-party-acoustic-piano-sample-options-for-kurzweil-pc4k2700forte-generation-boards/

[Dave Weiser]

12 hours ago, Delaware Dave said:

It has USB midi, so there is midi functionality.

 

One thing that I've never quite understood is the acoustic piano that they've used.  Their most developed acoustic piano was put in the Forte, but subsequent keyboards, including the flagship K2700, use derivatives of the Forte rather than the full blown Forte piano.  There must be a technical reason for this and I'd love to understand why their most developed acoustic piano has never been used since the Forte. Makes me scratch my head.  Maybe @Dave Weiser  can help to resolve the mystery.

Good question - why doesn't the flagship K2700 use the full samples from the Forte? My educated guess is that they couldn't get 16GB to work with the K2700's 256 polyphony. I remember dealing with similar polyphony vs sample memory issues in product meetings back when I worked for R&D. I know that if they COULD have done the full sample set, they WOULD have. 

 

BTW anyone here can feel free to hit me up for my custom sound set for Forte, K27 and PC4. I've got some nice tweaks to the pianos, some for playing in a dense mix, some meant for solo playing. The set also includes more/better EPs, lots of analog synths, more/better strings and a few sounds that I made for big rock acts and Broadway shows. weiserdav@gmail.com

[Jwave]

On 9/14/2023 at 10:55 AM, jason88 said:

 

I actually bought the complete synthonia piano set, though only liked a few of them. Thankfully was able to tweak them: https://www.synthonia.com/marketplace/kurzweil/k2700/kurzweil-k2700-contemporary-complete-pianos-sound-bank-detail

 

Thanks, I think I’ll try a Synthonia piano - do you remember which one(s) you liked?

[jason88]

4 hours ago, Jwave said:

Thanks, I think I’ll try a Synthonia piano - do you remember which one(s) you liked?

They were all decent, but a couple I thought were too thin or had too much noise/hiss in the samples.  For me the Fazioli and KW sets were the ones I liked most. I think there are some decent examples of each on their YouTube to listen before you buy.  In general I think they all leaned to the brighter side of things compared to the stock Kurzweil pianos.

[Keyboardplayer]

Fun Facts About Kurzweil Music Systems: 

 

Founded in 1982 by Stevie Wonder (musician), Ray Kurzweil (innovator) and Bruce Cichowlas (software developer). Kurzweil was a developer of reading machines for the blind, and their company used many of the technologies originally designed for reading machines, and adapted them to musical purposes. Kurzweil's first instrument, the K250, was released in 1983. The company was acquired by Young Chang in 1990. HDC acquired Young Chang in 2006 and in January 2007 appointed Raymond Kurzweil as Chief Strategy Officer of Kurzweil Music Systems.  

HDC is a South Korean company, as is Young Chang. HDC started out as Korea Urban Development and the following year established Halla Construction that eventually merged with Korea Urban Development. They changed the English name of the company to Hyundai Development Company. In 1999, they separated from Hyundai Group. HDC has established several other companies over the years, the most recent being HDC LABS Co., Ltd. (Merger between HDC I-CONTROLS and HDC I-SERVICE) in 2021. In 2022, they had Assets worth (KRW) 2.3 trillion. They have an Operating Margin of 63.0%. An Operating Profit of (KRW) 37.5 billion. And a Net Profit of (KRW) 69.9 billion = $51,902,723. So they obviously have the financial resources to expand and improve Kurzweil Music Systems products, as evidenced by their newest Workstation/Synthesizer Flagship, the K2700 and the SP7 Grand/Stage Pianos & the PC4/76-key Performance Controllers. I'm looking forward to more great keyboard products from Kurzweil in the future. In the next iteration of the K-series, I'd like to see an onboard Sampler with an improved sample editing process. And please give it the best Ac. Pianos Kurzweil has to offer. Once Roland, Korg, Kurzweil, etc., hear the new Montage M Grand Piano(s) they're going to have to raise the bar on their own Flagship products in my opinion. Clavia too, most likely.