Customer Reviews

Kurzweil PC1se Performance Controller Keyboard with Sounds

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I had a rare opportunity to spend several days with several different Kurzweil models: the K-1000 series (going back to 1990 and the Japanese-made Kurzweil), the SP-76 (light and handy for those big band gigs but somewhat of an ornery, stubborn little critter to program for MIDI use), the SP2 (finally, Kurzweil made it possible to split the keyboard without velcro-ing tone generators to the keyboard, etc., though I haven't managed to transpose the best bass sounds into a playable range without shifting the upper register up an octave as well), the PC-88, PC2 (the slider switches and "instant" splits merely added to on-the-job stress), and finally this PC1se. I'm generally unimpressed by all of the sampled sounds and demos (the all-important one--acoustic grand--was really as good as it gets with the introduction of the K1000 twenty years ago). But the PC1se has a demo sound called "Symphonica" that's simply unbelievable. Wagner, Richard Strauss, Ravel--eat your hearts out. The strings, the tympani, the brass, the soprano voices, the ensemble sound, all of it swelling from ppp to wall-shaking fortissimo (try the instrument in stereo mode)--they were all simply spot on. To the casual listener, it's perhaps not all that impressive because the assumption is that the sounds are recorded by a symphonic orchestra and stored on a memory chip in the piano.

But for those who know the real scoop, what I heard was enough to convince me I wouldn't realize advantages by going any higher (the PC3 is the newest). Any more realism than what the PC1se is capable of and you may as well plan on orchestrating, performing and conducting your own Ring cycle. I'm from Wisconsin and would be sensitive to the slightest hint of cheese, but there was none being emitted by this keyboard. I previously would not have thought an instrument such as this capable of approaching verisimilitude in representing all of the timbres of a symphony orchestra. Pianos, basses, flutes, yes--but this instrument, providing it has the right programmer and player, is simply, to use a few overused phrases, awesome, incredible, mind-blowing. Actually, I found it singular--and that goes for the weighted action as well.

Unfortunately, now comes the major challenge: configuring it play for the job tomorrow night at a night club, a nursing home, the VFW, the Pfister Hotel. Somehow Kurzweil always figures out how to frustrate the player who's in a hurry, just wishing to get a couple of good bass sounds in the left hand with piano, Rhodes and B3 in the right hand, plus reassuring control of volume levels and sustain. I suspect that the instrument is less at fault--all of these keyboards use complex circuitry--than the manuals, which range from quirky to impenetrable. (I'm always looking for programmers to pay simply to configure the instrument to my performing needs, but so far only two takers, and both frankly gave up on the project. If you believe, as I, that this instrument offers the player the equivalent of a keyboard--whether piano, organ, vibes--plus resonating sounds coming from an acoustic bass onto which a shimmering ride cymbal can be layered, then you'll understand my frustrations in not being able to realize the possibility. (It happened with one of my K1000s--before I wore out the instrument.)

Oh for a quick and accessible set-up sheet, or a simple tutorial (Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, etc.,--how to program your Kurzweil when you don't have a bass player or drummer and simply want to play the instrument while walking bass lines accompanied by a ride cymbal. Apparently in Kurzweil's case, that's asking far too much.