Looks like Kurzweil has jumped on the train and joined the "budget workstation" market. They've released a new budget model.

Specs seem fairly decent. Poly is a bit low though IMO.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PC3LE61/

I always liked the Kurzweil sound...now, if they would only make an arranger based on this model in particular, as it would keep the price reasonable.

They made electronic pianos with arranger features (something like a Yamaha CVP) back in 1993, and they were pretty nice...I remember we had both a Mark 150 and a Mark 10 at the music store I was working in whilst in Newfoundland.

The Mark 150 wasn't portable...it had a 200 watt, seven channel, seven speaker sound system by Boston Acoustics and it was like a grand piano, and the Mark 10 was smaller, but still not what you would rate as as "portable" either.

I think Cassp has a Mark 10.

Strange they went with 64 note poly with this model, when 128 seems to be the industry standard, and with a 16 track sequencer, low polyphony is not what you want...more is always better.

Casio will have a surprise for everyone in the new year.

I suspect that the fact that they also never mentioned the amount of PCM data it contains suggests that there's a lot of other things well below today's standards.

Regards
James

Is Kurzweil still owned by Yong Chang? I thought someone else picked them up.

I suspect they had a tough go over the recession...certainly, although they are great synths/workstations, the competition hasn't been sitting still, and they (Kurzeil) probably have a much smaller piece of the market than they once had.

Maybe it's time they did make an arranger again?

In 2006 Hundai bought Kurzweil from Young Chang. They have struggled the past few years. They went from being the most popular pro keyboard sampler to pretty much the bottom of the pack. Poor management was the biggest problem. I've checked out many of their products the past few years and have always thought they weren't quite up to the big 3 players. Not enough polyphony and a bit overpriced.




------------------
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

And didn't Samick buy Hyundai?

There are Hyundai pianos....they are made by Samick...just another "stencil" piano made in Korea.

Of course the Hyundai name suits the piano business, as they make the Sonata, and the Accent.

Also suits the Internet, as they also make the Santa Fe, which in Navajo is Yootó (Navajo: Yootó) or 'YouTube'.

Silliness is contagious.



chas

I always wanted a Kurzweil arranger. I have a Mark 5, same big-ass piano without the arranger features. Kurzweil has stuck with their proprietory 64-voice polyphony forever. Amazingly, I have never had issues with it and I really haven't heard complaints from any of the PC88 thru PC3 users either. Whatever they're doing works.

But yes, a Kurz arranger would be a real interesting proposition.

I think 64 poly might be an issue within an arranger...the style itself would use up a fair amount of poly, plus you have left hand and right hand sounds...and, if you layer sounds, you use up more.

64 note poly would be acceptable on a digital piano, I'm just not sure how well it would work on an arranger.

In any case, I doubt if we'll see an arranger from Kurzweil in the near future.

Ian