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Kurzweil PC361: First impressions of a new owner


musiclvr

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Disclaimer: the following are the initial impressions by a Kurzweil newb. I've always been intrigued by Kurzweil's reputation, but had never been able to try one out. I took advantage of the latest blow-out prices from Nova Musik and it arrived on Friday.

 

First impressions are very positive: It looks great. It has a solid metal casing, top and bottom; nicely compact. The screen is nice and bright. Sliders and buttons feel solid too. The slider caps feel ever so slightly rubberized for an easy grip. Including a sustain pedal was a great idea and very useful out of the box.

 

Keybed

I was most concerned about whether the non-weighted synth keybed would be to my liking, after using an original Motif then a Triton for the last 10 years. This will be my main midi controller too, so a good keybed is important to me. I needn't have worried. The keybed is different but has a high quality feel. In fact I think Kurzweil do themselves a disservice by saying it's not semi-weighted. How is it different to the Triton, then? It's shallower (the keys don't press down quite as far); It's much quieter (the Triton clunks loudly, the PC361 "rattles" gently); It's fast, and without the bounce-back the Triton has. The aftertouch is especially easy to control. It doesn't trigger accidentally, and doesn't require finger-breaking pressure to make it work either. I'm happy so far. I will see how accurately it outputs midi velocity when I hook it up to Logic next week.

 

Updating the OS

It had a really early OS version (0.63?) so before spending too much time playing around, I upgraded to the latest, v2.0.3. The instructions seemed daunting (about 20 steps) but in practice it was very clear and easy via USB cable and went very smoothly. It was done and rebooted in a couple of mins.

 

Sounds

Program mode: It took me a long time to audition them, as I spent a lot of time playing each one. I like that everything is very musical, no filler, no flashy sounds to sell the synth that are unusable in real music and take up ROM slots after sale. Just well programmed and nicely detailed bread and butter sounds.

 

I was surprised that the mod wheel didn't seem to be set to do anything on a lot of sounds. The sliders also didn't do anything on the sounds when I remembered to try them. (I was more interested in just playing yesterday, so I'll go back and be more thorough). I was expecting them to control filter cut-off, ADSR perhaps. A good place to start tweaking maybe. I realize not all sound with have a Filter+ADSR structure in VAST.

 

I'm excited about using the orchestral sounds in something very soon. Beautiful strings and so many variations. The VA sounds were very striking. There's something really cutting and sharp about them that took me by surprise. Can't wait to see how they fit in a mix and start making some more of my own. A very different sound to the VSTs I've been using. There are a LOT of drum kits that I probably won't ever use, but that's not to say they are bad. Some kits are GM mapped, some aren't, which is a little strange and will be harder to swap between them. Toontrack EZDrummer is my goto for drums at the moment. I didn't hear anything to beat that yet.

 

Setup mode: these sounds confused me. I almost expected to find them blank, all ready to put together some layers, splits, etc. of my own. But there are quite a few pre-programmed sounds in there. Are they meant to be useful or just to demonstrate how to use setups? They seemed random and not completely "finished." In some, drum loops and arps start randomly, and don't follow the chords I'm playing. Sections of the keyboard are sometimes blank. Maybe this is one of those moments when I'm carrying over expectations from previous synths, but I expected the arps to match the chords I was playing, and to "hold" (continue) when I lift my hands, etc. More like Triton Combis? It's not a big deal. This arranger-type stuff isn't what I need or will use them for. But maybe I'm missing something about them?

 

Navigation quirks

You can tell that the navigation system hasn't evolved with growth of included sounds. The 2 base banks make full use of the dedicated category buttons, e.g. press Base 1 > Strings > Programs 1-8. It's a simple way to quickly find a sound. But the other 5-6 banks don't have pianos, e-pianos, drums, percussion, etc. so these dedicated category buttons are kinda pointless for the majority of sounds available. They still work, but you have no idea what you'll get. On the Triton the sounds have a category and get grouped together by that category when browsing. It's a small thing to draw attention to, but that's a lot of buttons on the front panel that will mostly go unused and if I'm looking for a piano sound I have to search around in several banks to find them all... and will likely miss many options along the way.

 

The User bank can't be selected. I'm going to assume for now that's because I haven't created any of my own patches yet :)

 

Next steps

I'll report back when I've used it as a controller with Logic, and tried programming some new sounds. I've also downloaded the editor software and will try that out also.

 

So far I feel like I got a hell of a lot of synth for $969!

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Some kits are GM mapped, some aren't, which is a little strange and will be harder to swap between them.

 

 

There is a setting to make them all GM mapped I think. Hahaha, I've owned 3 of these things but I can't recall where that is off of the top of my head.

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I played a Kurzweil PC361 for the first time this past winter NAMM, and I must say, it was the highlight of my first NAMM visit. Thanks for your small review, and will look forward to hearing about your workflow with Logic! Cheers!

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I was so close to get PC361, so just to twist the knife in the wound a bit more, how does the key feel compare to Korg M3?

 

 

I was told the PC361 has the same keybed as the K2661. If that is indeed a fact, I can tell you first hand the Korg M3's keybed is superior as I have played both at a friend's studio.

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I was told the PC361 has the same keybed as the K2661. If that is indeed a fact, I can tell you first hand the Korg M3's keybed is superior as I have played both at a friend's studio.

 

 

Phew! From peoples descriptions I imagined its weightlesness might feel a bit like M3, which I love(even, when I typically prefer a bit more resistance)! Can Alesis Fusion owners confirm this? Doesn't it have the same keys, than PC361? How does it compare to M3?

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I was so close to get PC361, so just to twist the knife in the wound a bit more, how does the key feel compare to Korg M3? And does Tritons keys compare to Z1's(I haven't touched Triton).

 

 

I've not played an M3 or Z1. My references are Korg Wavestation, Yamaha Motif 6, Korg Triton (Classic Pro). It's different from all of these, but not in a bad way. I imagine the Z1 would be similar to the Wavestation? But I don't know that for sure.

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I imagine the Z1 would be similar to the Wavestation? But I don't know that for sure.

 

 

They really aren't. The are worlds apart. Both are good in very different ways - I love the Z1, and also used to have a Wavestation EX back in the mid nineties and it was great back then, but can't see myself ever buying one again. It just sounds so 1993 almost no matter what you do with it. I also have the Legacy Collection version, and it gets very little use (but I've started to use the Legacy Poly Six again - and hey, it's pretty good! but that's another story bla bla bla)...

 

...

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Phew! From peoples descriptions I imagined its weightlesness might feel a bit like M3, which I love(even, when I typically prefer a bit more resistance)! Can Alesis Fusion owners confirm this? Doesn't it have the same keys, than PC361? How does it compare to M3?

 

 

I don't think so, the Fusion is semi-weighted.

 

I do like the M3/Kronos 61 keybed better than the Fusion's though. Not that the Fusion is that bad, but the Korg is clearly superior here.

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They really aren't. The are worlds apart. Both are good in very different ways - I love the Z1, and also used to have a Wavestation EX back in the mid nineties and it was great back then, but can't see myself ever buying one again. It just sounds so 1993 almost no matter what you do with it. I also have the Legacy Collection version, and it gets very little use (but I've started to use the Legacy Poly Six again - and hey, it's pretty good! but that's another story bla bla blah

 

 

Sorry if I wasn't clear. I was only referring to the possibility that the same keybed might have been used in both keyboards. I loved my Wavestation all througth the 90s, and only sold it out of necessity when I moved from the UK to the US. I have the Legacy Collection also, and love it to get some of those shimmery, moving sounds now and then.

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Sorry if I wasn't clear. I was only referring to the possibility that the same keybed might have been used in both keyboards. I loved my Wavestation all througth the 90s, and only sold it out of necessity when I moved from the UK to the US. I have the Legacy Collection also, and love it to get some of those shimmery, moving sounds now and then.

 

Don't worry about. I've obviously lost my ability to read. I can only blame the fact that I've been pretty busy lately.... :)

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Setup mode: these sounds confused me. I almost expected to find them blank, all ready to put together some layers, splits, etc. of my own. But there are quite a few pre-programmed sounds in there. Are they meant to be useful or just to demonstrate how to use setups? They seemed random and not completely "finished." In some, drum loops and arps start randomly, and don't follow the chords I'm playing. Sections of the keyboard are sometimes blank. Maybe this is one of those moments when I'm carrying over expectations from previous synths, but I expected the arps to match the chords I was playing, and to "hold" (continue) when I lift my hands, etc. More like Triton Combis? It's not a big deal. This arranger-type stuff isn't what I need or will use them for. But maybe I'm missing something about them?

 

 

The more you read about SETUPs, you will understand the great flexibility it brings to all your gear.

Unfortunately, documentation on how they are supposed to work at the preset level is a little light.

Essentially, you will find that you are going to spend more time editing and finding out how a particular SETUP works and integrating into your own SETUP. Things like the ARPs can be a little confusing for new Kurzweil owners, as they can be set up to track your finger playing, or triggered like a step sequencer.

The "arranger" type stuff is their showing you possibilities. If you are gigging with splits you may not really see the need for this type of stuff. Kurzweil call them "RIFFs" and they are a powerful feature on the PC3 series. The Riff could be a sequence you want to trigger on another piece of gear, stacked with the PC3, or the PC3 itself. They can be set up to trigger on and off on various keys and or with buttons/pedals. The ARPS are programmed not to hold, but you can program them to hold.

 

What I suggest you do to fast track your Kurzweil knowledge, is focus on a few SETUPs that have your interest, and ask more detailed questions about them. That way you won't have "It should work like this?" and "Why is it like that?" moments. But you will have moments thinking how deep the thing is.

 

Get in amongst the various Kurzweil based communities and short circuit the learning curve.

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The more you read about SETUPs, you will understand the great flexibility it brings to all your gear.

Unfortunately, documentation on how they are supposed to work at the preset level is a little light.

 

 

Kurzweil owner's manuals are, at best, often vague.

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Anyone has any comments about the PC3's KB3 mode? I am interested in that and how it stacks up to the latest Nord B3 emulation?


TIA,


aL

 

 

It's very good from a tone standpoint, but the Leslie sim remains its weakness IMO. Kurzweil has made some tweaks to improve it in the latest OS releases, but there is still a noticeable difference next to my Kronos' CX-3 sim or my Ventilator.

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Kurzweil owner's manuals are, at best, often vague.

 

 

I feel quite the opposite -- I think they're some of the best manuals (I also really like Ensoniq's manuals) I've read. For the PC3 series you'll probably want to add the K2661 Musician's Guide and Musician's Reference to your reading list, as well as the KSP8 manual (for its more in-depth descriptions of the effects algorithms), as the PC3 manual doesn't have in-depth descriptions of all of the DSP algorithms, individual effect blocks, or FUNs.

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It's very good from a tone standpoint, but the Leslie sim remains its weakness IMO. Kurzweil has made some tweaks to improve it in the latest OS releases, but there is still a noticeable difference next to my Kronos' CX-3 sim or my Ventilator.

 

 

Thanks. OK. So I can use my vent with the PC3 in KB3 mode and I'm good to go!! Now, I have to find a place that has one of these puppies so I can play it before I bite.

 

aL

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Thanks. OK. So I can use my vent with the PC3 in KB3 mode and I'm good to go!! Now, I have to find a place that has one of these puppies so I can play it before I bite.


aL

 

 

Definitely -- the PC3 sounds tasty through the Ventilator.

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