Kurzweil PC2R


Kurzweil PC2R
by Tom Hensley
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The PC2R is Kurzweil's rack-mount version of its popular PC2 keyboard controller, loaded up with 272 fine sounds for the gigging musician. At the topmost menu level of this purple 1U module, you'll find three modes: Program, KB3 and Setup.

The piano programs, as usual with Kurzweil, are superb. Even the piano variants, dubious on some boxes, are well-named and useful. The string and brass programs are a bit hyper-programmed with articulation effects for my taste, but a bit of judicious tweaking solved that. Included are some wonderful scat singing samples done by vocal group Take 6 which someone will surely put to a memorable purpose.

KB3 mode is comparable to dedicated Hammond B3 organ/Leslie simulators. A set of 40 oscillators produces unlimited polyphony and the KB3 editor gives control of every imaginable parameter needed to create the B3 of your dreams, from a pristine new model to a funky, old smoke-polluted bar unit. Want more leakage/crosstalk to dirty up the sound? No problem. Keyclick too loud or soft? Adjust it. Rotary (Leslie-style) vibrato is controlled by a switch on the face of the PC2R or by way a remote switch.

Setup mode puts programs into four zones, each with individual sends to two excellent effects processors. 32 setups are provided, including some intended as templates, with 128 user setup locations. Setup zones can have separate MIDI channels and include layers or splits using regular programs, KB3 organ programs, or sounds triggered from other units. This makes the PC2R ideal for someone wishing to enlarge the capabilities of an older controller keyboard with only one transmit channel.

Editing of setups and programs is relatively simple. Four assignable front-panel knobs make on-the-spot tweaking of meaningful parameters easy. Users may prefer to keep the PC2R close at hand, rather than in a distant rack, to utilize these knobs (which double as drawbar controllers in KB3 mode) and the nearby Leslie on-off switch.

Also included is a programmable arpeggiator, controllable internally or via MIDI clock. The factory soundset could use more analog synth sounds to arpeggiate, so we look forward to the two 16MB program expansion boards coming later this year, bringing total onboard sound memory to 48MB. A card increasing polyphony from 64 to 128 voices, allowing you to put the sustain pedal down and noodle 'till Arbor Day without losing a voice, is available now.

Beware: the MIDI out jack is a switchable out/through, and if it's set wrong when you hook up your MIDI cables, you'll hear some impressively avant-garde looping.

At $1295 MSRP, the PC2R is up against a lot of competition from other sound boxes, but its KB3 mode and MIDI controller capabilities give it an edge for users who need them, and its onboard programs make it appealing even to those who simply wish to use it as a MIDI slave unit. Kurzweil is a division of Young Chang. For more information on the PC2R, contact Young Chang America, Inc., P.O. Box 99995, Lakewood, WA 98499-0995. Telephone them at 253-589-3200 or Fax: 253-984-0245. On the Web, visit: www.kurzweilmusicsystems.com

Tom Hensley, an LA session stalwart in the 1970s, spent the last 25 years playing keyboards in the Neil Diamond band. He composes and records multimedia music in his cluttered garage retreat, piled high with Macs and "gear of all ages."

Edited by: Barry Rudolph

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