Kurzweil Sound Modules - Help!
Anne Hyzer
Can anyone explain the differences / make recommendations between the
K1000 and K1200 line of modules? Please Help (in detail, I LOVE detail)
drmo...@best.com
In article <324E0E...@my.matrix>, Anne Hyzer <m...@my.matrix> wrote:
> Can anyone explain the differences / make recommendations between the
> K1000 and K1200 line of modules? Please Help (in detail, I LOVE detail)
As best as I can tell, the only difference between the K1000 modules and
the K1200 modules, is the fact that you can randomnly enter a preset
number on the K1200 sound modules but not on say a K1000PX. As far as the
preset sounds themselves....whether or not the samples are fundamentally
different? The answer is no. I own a K1000 PX and GX (Guitar expander) and
a K1200 Pro II Orchestral module as well as a K1000SE keyboard with the A
& B soundblocks.
A friend of mine used to write the manuals for Kurzweil equipment from the
old 150/250 days right up through K1000/K2000 series systems.
As for recommendations, the Kurzweil piano sound is about as good as it
gets from the rack mount point of view. I tend to layer and the K1xxx
modules weren't designed to perform from a "pop" point of view, more like
production stuff or just creative stuff in general. Highly editable synths
if you have the patience or a good editor. If you are mac based I
recommend Opcode's Galaxy Plus Universal Editor Librarian setup.
I personally combine the Kurzweil stuff with Proteus 1(with the Protologic
upgrade) and Proteus 2 orchestral sounds sounds and I get depth of image
and texture
Hope this helps.
Wendell
P.S. I love detail too! ;-)
Anne Hyzer
Wendell,
What does guitar expander mean (gx) ?
And, since you mention it, what soed px mean? I guess what I'm getting
at is; I'm looking to buy a fairly inexpensive module (under $600) and I
LOVE everything I've heard from Kurzweil, so I start looking in the ng
ads, and (run-on sentence, much?) I see a bunch of different K1000/K1200
varieties (K1000,1000px ,etc. What the hell's the difference, and which
one would you recommend?
Thanx
Mike Rivers
In article <324F3D...@my.matrix> m...@my.matrix writes:
> What does guitar expander mean (gx) ?
> And, since you mention it, what soed px mean? I guess what I'm getting
> at is; I'm looking to buy a fairly inexpensive module (under $600) and I
> LOVE everything I've heard from Kurzweil
This seems like ancient history, so I might not have all the facts
and models straight, but here's the general idea. There was an early
series of "expanders" for their first major product, the first decent
sounding electronic piano. The GX was the "Guitar Expander", which
contained a pallette of guitar sounds, HX was the "Horn Expander", and
I think there was also an "SX" (string expander). The PX was the
"Professional Expander" which combined the most popular sounds from
all the other modules, including the famous Kurzweil piano sound of
the day. It was one of the early (like 5-6 years ago) good sounding
general purpose sound modules.
> I see a bunch of different K1000/K1200
> varieties (K1000,1000px ,etc. What the hell's the difference, and which
> one would you recommend?
The K1000 was their first moderate priced keyboard synth, and it could
be expanded with "A" and "B" ROM blocks. The K1000 PX came out a year
or so later and it was the K1000 with all the sounds of the expansion
ROM built in. The K1200 was about the same as the K1000 PX but with
more keys.
I'd recommend a 1000PX or 1200PX if you want keys, PX if you're just
looking for a general purpose sound module from Kurzweil. The module
expanders seem to be going for under $300 these days, so I hope the
$600 price you saw was for a keyboard.
Incidentally, these were all built before the General MIDI standard
was adopted, so they don't conform to the GM patch numbers. That
shouldn't stop you, but it'll mean that if you're playing someone
else's sequences, chances are you'll have to do some fix-up work.
Also, I believe they were all limited to 8 parts multi-timbral, that
is, they can only sound 8 instruments at a time. Since GM calls for
16 (though they're rarely all used), that's another thing keeping them
away from the GM standard.
But even compared to today's synths, there are some really good sounds
in these boxes.
--
I'm really Mike Rivers (mri...@d-and-d.com)
Carl Ludwigson
There's the K1000, K1000SE, K1000SE/EXT, 1000PX, 1000PX Plus,
1000SX, 1000HX, 1000AX Plus.......and ROM upgrades KXA, KXA-SE,
PXA, KXB, KXB-SE, PXB, SXA, HXA, and AX. The K1200 and the 1200
"Pro" series have an equally bewildering number of configs.
Also, I believe there appeared a 1000 GX.
PX = professional; SX = strings; HX = horns; AX = acoustic
expander. Beats me what SE means. GX = guitar.
The PX has 5 more ROM synth programs than the K1000. Likewise,
the SX, HX, GX expanders add more synth programs (a sampled sound,
and a ton of effects added, etc.). Also Kurzweil before it became
Young Chang offered several diskettes with all the original, new,
sound block additions. They were available from At Work Software
in Tijeras, NM (505-281-2194), with KURLE, an editor.
Recommendations: Try to get the K1000 with the PXA and PXB ROM
upgrades (commonly known as a V5 K1000), and see if you can get
a copy of KURLE. The K1200 was around even a shorter time than
the K1000, and I think the programs in their respective ROMs are
VERY similar, so you may not get the extra mileage....
Hope this helps you in your choices,
Carl
Moron
Carl Ludwigson (crlu...@netcom.com) wrote:
: PX = professional; SX = strings; HX = horns; AX = acoustic
: expander. Beats me what SE means. GX = guitar.
I saw a GX module the other day at a local pawn shop. Any chance of going
into a little more detail about the sound architecture? Is this just a
standard "Proteus" like playback synth or is (considering its age) it a
unique and powerful synth?
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