The Journal

PC4-7 and SP6-7

Hello,

The PC4-7 and SP6-7 are starting to appear in multiple stores as a pre-order option at least in the USA. Sweetwater, Kraft, Musician’s Friends, B&H and similar. For what I can see, it seems that the prices would be around $1,199 for the SP6-7 and $1,799 for the PC4-7, which is amazing considering that they have the same features as their bigger 88-keys brothers. I don’t know when the units will be actually shipping but, if you are looking for one of those, at least you can make your plans considering the prices and pre-order them if they fit your needs.

I don’t know about other countries as each distributor works independently but probably their timing wouldn’t be too off the USA’s one.

Also, check out all the details of these 2 new models at:

PC4-7
SP6-7

Regards,

Fran

Switch Pedals

Hi,

The latest Kurzweil pro products like the PC4 or the SP6 have two 1/4 inch stereo jacks for switch pedals. This means that you can have up to 4 switch pedals. This is very helpful for people that want to do something more than triggering sustain and sostenuto with the pedals, like changing your multi or triggering chords. The possibilities are endless.

But Kurzweil does not sell a double pedal at this moment, so, how do I get these 4 pedals?

Well, you can buy one that is compatible like the Studiologic VPF2/10B.

https://www.studiologic-music.com/products/vfp2/

But be careful when buying this one because there are 4 models and you want the one with the stereo connector, not the one with the 2 separate connectors. While the 15B might work I personally have not tried it so I will recommend the 10B that I have and works well.

The other option you have is to use regular single pedals thru an adapter. While the adapter will have one 1/4 inch stereo male connector on one end and two 1/4 inch mono female connectors on the other end be careful because they sell a lot of adapters that look exactly the same but the 2 female connectors are stereo. Make sure you buy the one with the female mono.

With either solution you should be all set to use the 4 pedals.

Have fun!

Regards,

Fran

Fall fundraising

Hi,

It’s the first day of the Fall in the Northern hemisphere or Spring for you Southern ones… although those Australians have been having a Spring for quite awhile already.

This is the time of the year where I humbly ask for your support to keep this site alive. If you can, please consider donating $5 to Ksetlist. Your money will go directly to pay for the server cost and the security certificate that will help to keep Ksetlist alive.

Those of you who have already donated this year, thank you so much, you are the best, and I hope you can do it once a year. And for those of you who haven’t done it yet, it’s very easy and secure just click in the Donate button that is in the main page.

Good things are coming…

PC4-7 and SP6-7

Hi,

Don’t miss the preview on the upcoming brand new PC4-7 and the SP6-7 at

PC4-7

and

SP6-7

With the same features of their 88 keys brothers, in a very slim and light 76 semi-weighted keys package, these two new Kurzweil keyboards are really going to be great for you to carry around without breaking your back. It’s not that the PC4 and SP6 are heavy, because they aren’t as they have plastic enclosures, but the SP6-7 is under 8 kilograms (17.5 pounds) and the PC4-7 is under 9 kilograms (19,4 pounds), which amazing for keyboards with these features.

I remember when back in the day I was carrying my PC2 in a custom metal roadcase and I literally broke my back carrying it around from gig to gig. Well, those times are over! How about carrying a 7 or 8 Kg keyboard with a million of features to your gigs?

Ask your dealer about prices.

Use valid email addresses – Anti-SPAM

Hi,

We get lots of SPAM fake registrations at Ksetlist and, well, at any other community in the planet. In order to avoid those fake accounts SPAMMING the hell out of us, there is an anti-SPAM filter in place. This filter is pretty strong so sometimes it flags as potential SPAMMERS regular users that are coming back to Ksetlist after awhile or are new users.

In the Anti-SPAM filter, if I see somebody flagged who is clear a SPAMMER, I will block their IP. But if it’s unclear, I’ll send an email to that person and that person will have to reply in order to get access to the site. Until I don’t get an answer, there’s no access. So, very important, use a real email address when registering to this site or you might end up flagged as SPAM and blocked just because you are not answering my verification email.

Beta Programs

Hi,

In Kurzweil we have Beta Programs for most of our PRO keyboards. With these programs we get real users of a keyboard to help us finding bugs or testing new features that we are adding to that product. Their feedback has been really important for us and some features you currently enjoy in your brand new Kurzweil keyboard might have come from their suggestions and comments.

These Beta Testers know that they are not only making the keyboard better for them but also for all the rest of the users all around the world. We have had the altruistic help of hundreds of Beta Testers in the past decade and we have seen how some of them have gone through different Kurzweil keyboards during this time, like for example the one that had a PC3K and moved to the Forte but then bought an SP6 to have a lighter keyboard to play live. The knowledge of some of these users of the Kurzweil engine and features is amazing. Sometimes they even surprise us with things that they are doing with their keyboards that we didn’t even think about it.

The Beta Programs are more active in the first years of the life-cycle of a product and then they will eventually fade out into sunset as we move into newer products. But in some cases it can last a good bunch of years if that keyboard is one of those special keyboards that we may use to develop newer products. That’s the case of the Forte, for example, that is 6 years old and it’s still getting Beta releases (yeah, one is coming soon).

I can’t thank enough all the people that are currently part of a Beta program or that have been in the past. They have really made a difference for all of us.

Currently we have Beta Programs open for the SP6 (sp6_beta@ycrdi.com), Forte (forte_beta@ycrdi.com), PC4 (pc4_beta@ycrdi.com) and Forte SE (forte_se_beta@ycrdi.com). If you have any of these keyboards and want to know more about the Beta Program, please send us an email to the addresses above.

And thanks so much!

It’s a different world out there

It seems like we are living in a different world than 6 months ago. Some countries have had a very different experience with covid-19 than others and the whole world feels like it’s upside down. 565K+ people have lost their lives in this pandemic all around the world, which is really terrible. But also many more people are living with the consequences of such a terrible illness. I’m sure you all know somebody. I do and it’s not fun. And, of course, all of us are living the economic consequences derived of the world stopping all of a sudden. Musicians have been hit really hard. Companies in our industry too. Yes, some products for home have sold well if the companies had stock (remember that many factories were shut down too), but those products for live performances? Not so much.

In those countries where life is coming back to semi-normal, hello New Zealand, hello South Korea, hello parts of Europe, hello Canada, …, I wonder if live music is coming back or not really. I imagine that local acts can probably start performing with certain restrictions but international tours are probably still dead.

Ksetlist is full of musicians that, pro or semi-pro, play live. That’s what you do. That’s our main premise. You play covers live and you need to get sounds to play them as quickly as possible. That’s why this website exists. So, please let us know in the Comments section or in the Forum how are things going right now for you as a live performer. Are you still at home? Are you starting to play outside? Do you feel comfortable rehearsing in a small room with that band member that everybody knows doesn’t take too many precautions?

In my personal case last year I was preparing a new duo with a singer to play covers, just keyboards and vocals. We thought we were going to be ready to start playing this spring but, obviously, that didn’t happen. New York, where I am located, was hit very hard and then everything stopped. While now the state is doing much better than other states of the US, hello Florida!, things are still chaotic here. I guess we’ll have to wait a little longer.

Anyway, here’s one of the covers we recorded to get our foot in the local pubs. The sound is a factory program in the Kurzweil PC4, 814 DoubleCleanChrs, unedited just with the variation button pressed. One of the reasons to show you this is to illustrate how useful are those Kurzweil guitar sounds when you play without a guitarist. Yes I could have made a piano arrangement (I do it for other songs) but sometimes you can get such a nice clean guitar sound to accompany the singer and that’s all you need. By the way, the FX matter. A lot. And I’m really proud of Kurzweil FXs. Also, mixing some pad on the background help you fill out the sound, that in these kinds of settings sometimes is a little too empty.

Thanks!

Thanks to all of you who have donated $5 to help cover the server costs of Ksetlist. I was in doubt if this was going to work but my doubts are now totally gone. This actually works! All of you are getting a Patron badge in the forum.

And if you haven’t contributed, please do it. The process is very simple following the Donate button and it will help to keep this site alive.

Thanks and please share sounds!

Regards,

Fran