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Kurzweil Music Systems is a company that produces electronic musical instruments for professionals and home users. Founded by Raymond Kurzweil, a developer of reading machines for the blind, the company made use of many of the technologies originally designed for reading machines and adapted them to musical purposes. They released their first instrument, the K250 in 1983, and have continued producing new instruments ever since. The company was acquired by Young Chang in 1990, though recent financial problems put the company's future in doubt.

Kurzweil's products are widely regarded as high quality, but their high pricing in a competitive market has prevented Kurzweil from gaining widespread adoption.

Products

K2x synthesizers

The company's flagship line of synthesizers, the K2x series, began to make real headway with the K2000, which introduced the company's acclaimed VAST (Variable Architecture Synthesis Technology) engine. Throughout the 1990s, updates and upgrades to the K2000 (and eventually its successors, the K2500 and K2600) ensured that the K2x series was regarded as one of the most powerful and best-sounding synthesizers/samplers available.

The K2000 was released in 1990 and was available in four versions, the K2000, K2000S, K2000R, and K2000RS. The S versions contain the hardware required for sampling and the R versions are rack-mount keyboardless synthesizers and lack the 61 pressure sensitive keys of the non-R versions. The K2000 is capable of 24 voice polyphony which is somewhat limited, although up to 4 oscillators per voice can be used and an intelligent voice stealing algorithm retires the playing notes which are estimated to be least audible rather than simple the oldest. Each voice of the K2000 is able to play a separate program, allowing for smooth transitions during live performance, this simple feature took Kurzweil's competitors more than a decade to match. The keyboard could be equipped with up to 64 megabytes of sample RAM for user loaded samples.

The K2500, released in 1996, was an incremental improvement to the K2000 which increased polyphony to 48 voices and made a number of other minor improvements. The K2500 was available in several versions, including a choice of 76 note semi-weighted, 88 note weighted action keyboard,or rack-mount without keyboard. It was also available with or without sample recording hardware. The K2500 also included a ribbon controller.

The K2600, released in 1999, improved on the K2500 with the addition of a new effects engine called KDFX and an enhancement to the VAST engine called triple-mode. KDFX was also offered as an upgrade for the K2500 and later made available as a standalone product in the KSP8.

Midiboard

The Kurzweil Midiboard, primarily designed by Hal Chamberlin and released in 1988, is a dedicated midi-controller. As a dedicated controller it produces no sounds of its own. There was a flurry of dedicated controllers produced in the late 1980s as electronic instrument manufactures realized the potential of the technology, but these products were unsuccessful in the market because musicians were more comfortable with the longstanding model of one-keyboard one-synthesizer. Dedicated controllers have increased in popularity in the 2000s due to the introduction of software synthesizers.

The Midiboard contained a number of interesting innovations, some of which remain fairly uncommon. The Midiboard has 88 weighted keys, but unlike most weighted keyboard which have fixed weights on levers the Midiboard uses an all-wooden key-bed which provides a far more natural key inertia. Most midi controllers provide aftertouch data, but the midiboard is capable of polyphonic aftertouch, a feature found on few other keyboards. The midiboard also provides comprehensive signal routing, layering, and transposition control. These advanced features are not without their cost: the Midiboard weighs approximately 100 lb and is fairly difficult to use.

Competition

Artists who have used Kurzweil keyboards

External links

Synthesizer manufacturers

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Kurzweil Music Systems".

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