Having searched out there on the www for accurate impressions of how the Soundtower Editor for SP4 keyboards works and found very little, I thought some of you might find my first impressions useful.
Well, the SP4-7 I have is my first Kurzweil, but I have some experience at programming other brand's synths, so it's not exactly all new to me.
THe ST Editor certainly opens up a whole new world with the SP4 units. The download experience was straightforward and paying my $69 resulted in a registration key emailed to me less than half a day later, which fairly straightforwardly unlocked the software.
OK, well firstly, how does one find out how to use it ?? Well in all honesty it's just a case of trial and error. Kurzweil SP4 (and PC3LE) manuals are no help. The Soundtower editor instructions is also no help and does not even attempt to explain the things that can be edited in the software. The editor even uses different language than the PC3 series and different ways of editing for sound parameters, so you really are on your own.
So trial and error it is. Some of it is fairly obvious to an experienced synth programmer, some is not. I have worked out the basics but am still struggling with a lot of it to be honest. For example I'm currently really wanting to add pedal sustain to a KB3 organ program but the editor simply won't do it. It has a button to do that, but it makes no difference. If anyone knows how this is done I would appreciate knowing !!
My SP4 connected with the software instantly and easily (once I had selected the SP4 in the setup IN/OUT window).
So I can now add and edit effects and tweak all sorts of parameters. Some bits of the software simply doesn't work, but most does. I get occasional instability and odd behaviour, which is remedied by switching the SP4 of and on again and re-opening the editor software.
For me there have been two key benefits. Firstly, adding and editing effects, which you simply can't do on the keyboard alone. Secondly, I can create layered or split sounds as programs, rather than as setups. The benefit of this is actually vast as a gig machine. Changing a program mid-song is smooth and seamless, whereas changing setups usually involves some type of glitch in sound and volume as the unit resets some of it's parameters. So, musically, being able to change programs seamlessly is really great.
Within a program you can layer loads and loads of sounds if you want. Obviously once not connected to the editor you have no way of editing these, but if you can get your sounds right, then it is a great bonus, compared to changing setups.
Another positive is being able to re-name programs, and change volume/velocity response at different places on the keyboard.
A negative is the terrible application of a cutoff filter frequency and any sort of envelope to alter it. It could and should be so easy to find and edit, but I am really struggling with this supposedly easy task.
Other negative is that I cannot find how to apply parameters to the control knobs on the SP4. I suspect it can be done, but it is far from obvious. I hope I do not get frustrated and annoyed with it before I have found out how to do this. Again, if anyone knows how to, please let us all know here (maybe even on this thread).
So, that's just about it so far. Was it worth $69 to me ? Yes, easily. I am a bit of a perfectionist on sounds and the ability to tweak and get them right is great, even if the software is very non-intuitive and I feel I am battling it at times.
Hope that is useful to someone.
