Sounds: Kurzweil PC3 vs Kontakt?

Hey y'all. I'm really undecided between getting a Kurzweil PC3 or a Muse Receptor with Kontakt as my main instrument. Talking purely about the sound quality, which do you think is better for realistic sounds, the Kurzweil PC3 or Kontakt?

like other keyboards, PC3 doesn't have perfect realistic soundset, but it does go well in a mix. Don't know much about kontakt, except that I tried the free version and it sounded deep and thick to me.

I personally would avoid the Muse Receptor; buy a rack-mountable Windows PC instead.

Regarding Kontakt, the library with Kontakt is really just a "teaser" library; you are primarily paying for the Kontakt engine. There are a number of good sound libraries in Kontakt format.

that's a good idea. i see some rack mountable atx case for just around $60 online

If you're talking about playing live and changing sounds, PC3. For studio work, the Receptor can take a load off your computer.

Teaser library? I dunno...I've heard some of the sounds that come with Kontakt and they already sound very, very good to me, but then again I haven't had a chance to fully try out Kontakt or PC3. I'd just like to know how the two compare, only in regards to sound realism and nothing else. I don't think I'd being tweaking sounds much.

As for a rack-mountable PC, I'd really like to avoid the monitor and mouse setup and keep things as simple as possible, with physical controls on the instrument and all.

But editing on something that you can only peek through on a small display is not simple either .

Seriously though, while Kontakt might win sound-wise, if you're going to use this live, the speed at which you can switch sounds would probably win out.

When you say "compare", are you only comparing the Kontakt 4 Library sounds to the Kurzweil PC3 sounds?

With the Kurzweil, you have some sounds that sound great and some that sound OK when compared to what is possible using Kontakt. There are some Kontakt libraries available for sale that are exhaustive in terms of size (GB) of the library samples and various articulations that beat the Kurzweil hands down. Of course one of the disadvantages to super large libraries (even on a Receptor) is that you can't load everything at once, meaning there can be time lags if you need to load a large number of different sounds in succession.

With the Rompler like the PC3 all the sounds can be loaded instantaneously.

If I had to pick between just the Receptor with ONLY the Kontakt 4 Library loaded versus the PC3, I would probably pick the PC3. However, if was planning to use the Receptor to load a bunch of different libraries, its potential sound quantity can't be beat.

kontakt 4 sounds good,

ill go with the receptor .

An important consideration. Even the guys with blazing fast i7 systems have 1-2 minute load times with some of the newer, heavy duty libraries for Kontakt like Abbey Road 60s Drums for example. The thing sounds fantastic though.

For live use I'd go Kurz for sure, for any other situation Kontakt, with it's own 43 GB library and hundreds of excellent 3rd party ones wins hands down. Though I'd run it on a PC with a big hard drive(s) instead of a pricey, one-trick-pony Receptor though.

Definitely a Kurz for live situation.

Kontakt is a studio winner.

What Kontakt has over PC3:

1) Very good ethnic/world instrument library

2) A few good brass sounds

3) A couple of good guitars/basses

4) Some nice drumkits

5) A lot of preprogrammed synth presets (not that you cannot program sounds like that on PC3, but in Kontakt they're already done for you).

What PC3 has over Kontakt:

1) Most keyboard instruments like pianos/EPs/Clavs are way better.

2) Much more useable orchestral sounds. It's not that Kontakt's VSL samples are bad per se, but they are left there in almost unprocessed state, and the presets that come with it are almost unplayable, and there are zero "out-of-the-box" usable full orchestral combis. With Kontakt, you have to spend weeks or even months reprogramming the samples (and you need to get as deep as editing sample start points and loop regions on per-sample basis) to get anything remotely close to playability of Kurzweil.

3) Potentially much more powerful synth engine, but almost no usable out-of-the-box presets, you have to program all your synth sounds yourself.

Also, as for PC3's drums and basses, while it is very noticeable that samples in PC3 are very small and have little or none velocity switching/key zones/etc, they still sound very good in the mix and sometimes just better suit a song than gigabyte-sized instruments with all details and nuances sampled.

And also, generally, Kontakt does not have the scope of what you'd call a "workstation". In every category (except synths), there are only very few sounds. So, for example, where PC3 gives you dozens of various EP presets with different characters or imitating sounds from particular songs, in Kontakt you get only "Mark I", "Mark II" and "Wurly", and it's similar with other categories. That's I think why some call it "teaser library".