The Journal

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 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 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

Hi,

I’ve uploaded the PC4 FM Programs with FX Chains at https://ksetlist.com/community/ksetlist-com-compilations-volumes/pc4-fm-programs-with-fx-for-forte-sp6-forte-se/

You can file similar files online as PC4 users can create those files, but I thought I would create one version of the file myself.

This will work on a Forte, SP6 or Forte SE.

Regards,

Fran

Hi,

I’ve added a Login menu option at the top menu of the page. This works both for the forum as well as the comments on The Journal.

Also, when you are in the Forum now it shows a header with Register, Login and other options. Hopefully this will make it easier to log in.

Regards,

Fran

Hi,

So, I’ve follow some suggestions and we’re going both Ads AND donations. As they are set up so far they aren’t too annoying.

The suggested donation for those of you who download sounds is $5. That will help keeping the site alive in its current form.

Thanks,

Regards,

Fran

An SSL certificate has been installed in the page so no more security warnings will appear.

The access problems that some people were having should be over by now or within the next 48 hours.

Thanks to all of you who have been reporting access issues, or no issues, from different parts of the world.

Hi,

As you know the previous version of Ksetlist had Google ads. Not a lot, but some. That was enough to cover like 1/3 of the expenses of the server. The rest comes out of my pocket directly.

Somebody in Facebook suggested to take Donations instead, obviously small donations ($5 – $10).

So, before I start working on the Google Ads for the new site, let me ask all of you this question to all of you:

Do you prefer a site with few ads OR a site without ads but with a small donation button for those who want to keep the site without ads and can do a small donation?

Please tell me your honest opinion,

Thanks,

Regards,

Fran

If you have accessed Ksetlist in the past weeks, you most likely need to clear your browser cache in order to see the current page correctly.

Tell the world.

Thanks,

Regards,

Fran

Today the domain was moved to the new server and forwarding is not needed anymore. If you try to connect to ksetlist.com and it goes to new.ksetlist.com just give it a few hours more so that the domain spreads all over the world and it should work well.

In addition, attachments seem to be working fine now. If you find any broken link, please report it to me.

So, it seems that we can say that ksetlist is up and running again. I’m sure there will be still minor problems but the basic functionality of uploading and downloading sounds is working and the discussion forum should also be working.

Thank you all for your patience.

Regards,

Fran