This does not sound like normal behavior. Kurzweil's note stealing algorithm is one of the best. A mixture of piano and strings should not cause a notable polyphony issue. Contact support@Kurzweil.com and send them the programs where note stealing is occurring so that they can evaluate the programs. Once they've ruled out the programs aren't the issue then they can offer diagnosis on the keyboard itself. By any chance are you running KB3 in these complex programs? KB3 voices are dedicated first and any remaining voices are then allocated to other sounds.

Hi

Better yet, please email me your Setup(s). I'll take a look/listen here.

support at kurzweil dot com

Reseted the keyboard settings. Still the same problem.

This can happen with a simple standard grand piano, with SW on, to mix the strings.

And I noticed it's random, some times it happens, other times don't... Really strange. The sound deteriorates to radio quality, with noise. I have to stop playing for it to go normal...

email Jean as he said. He'll get you up and running.

I may be stating the obvious, but have you eliminated your audio gear, amps, cables, mixers as the source of the noises? A flaky cable can cause the types of noises you are describing.

Gary

Just using headphones directly connected to the keyboard.

This is really strange, because not always happens.
I will try to record some audio, so you can check.

Could be bum headphones or a loose headphone jack.

Test with a different pair as well as with a Keyboard amp or preferably a pair of studio monitors with good cables.

This problem may only exist with your specific pair of headphones or only with the headphone jack.

Headphones tend to be prone to this sort of problem mainly because they are attached to a constantly moving person and the cables get stretched and tugged constantly causing loose, noisy connections and unnatural strain on the jack.

Gary

The problem is not the headphones. They work perfectly with all my other keyboards.

I tried to record audio of the problem I described above, and ended up discovering something curious: when I use the main outputs along with the headphones output, the keyboard behaves beautifully.

Beginning to suspect that is a bug in the operating system ...

Or just a loose/bum connection at the headphone jack...

Try wiggling the plug with the headphones plugged in.

Gary

And how would the headphone jack impact the polyphony of the instrument?

If you'd read the original posting carefully he was describing noise and distortion issues which are indicative of a poor audio contact and blaming it on polyphony.

Since the only output he seems to use is the headphone jack thart makes it doubly suspicious, particularly on his last postings which stated that when he used Main OUTS as well as headphone the keyboard worked perfectly.

It makes a hell of a lot more sense to blame line noise on noisy contacts than glitchy firmware doncha think Dave?

Gary

Gary,
the subject of the post is pc3k7 polyphony issue. The first paragraph of the post says this:

".. I bought a Kurzweil PC3K7 a few months ago and recently noticed that when I'm playing more complex sounds such as pianos mixed with strings, keyboard quickly run out of polyphony...".

The second paragraph speaks to the poor radio quality of the sound output. I view this as two distinct issues. A bad headphone jack isn't going to cure the polyphony issue. So please stop trying to tell me ( for the 2nd time now, the 1st time was in another forum) that I don't pay attention to what I'm reading and I'll stop trying to tell you that your interpretation of a polyphony issue is really the poster saying polyphony really means noise in the line and not polyphony. Even Jean wanted a copy of the setup to check the polyphony, so did Jean also misinterpret what he read as well? I guess we can't all be as good at reading minds as you are.

And this makes twice Dave that youy've jumped down my throat simply because we have different approaches to problem solving.

In the Keyboardforums thread you supplied an utterly useless RTFM answer to a person's query about STY files and here your only contribution to solving this OP's problem is to tell him that Kurzweils are infallabile at note stealing and nothing about solving his actual problem which is noisy output which the OP mistakenly blames on the Kurzweil's firmware and its implementation of polyphony.

At this point I am merely trying to eliminate the usual suspects of glitchy audio connections before telling him to ship it back to the factory for service.

This is merely a systematic routine for electronics troubleshooting and I'd appreciate it if we could try and keep our personal egos out of the thread.

As he posted perviously, he's already tried a factory reset and a firmware reinstall with no success.

That tends to incriminate the hardware as the culprit and the audio chain is generally the weakest link in a sound system.

Anyway, let's all try and behave like adults here. No one is trying to rob anyone of their "personal mojo."

Gary

Hello guys!

Finally managed to isolate a few seconds of glitch that I have spoken.

Recorded at low volume to ensure that there would be saturation.

Levels are high because I did a audio normalization.

here: http://www.4shared.com/music/qc7x0cJKba/Glitch.html

I was unable to record the glitch any longer, because, as I said, when I'm using the main outputs, this happens rarely.

I'll keep recording and posting.