Kawai Piano Prices: Kurzweil SP2 76-Key Weighted Stage Piano Review

[With increased use, I'm becoming increasingly disenchanted with this machine.The manual spends more time on USB/MIDI/computer talk than the practical needs of the performing musician (as opposed to the "programmer").The 16 set-ups are absurd as are the 64 programs--every spacey effect in the book but no engineer thought to include a simple piano/bass split + layered ride cymbal?The Autosplit feature (in "Program mode") is useless because, unlike the PC2, it doesn't raise the left-hand pitches by an octave while simultaneously lowering the right-hand pitches by same so that both hands will be playing in the appropriate register.Consequently, the user can transpose one hand but then discovers that the non-split notes are now in the wrong octave and can't be transposed separately.The only solution is to wipe the slate clean, start with a blank set-up, and construct each program from scratch.It's laborious work, best begun well in advance of any gig, and done on a program-per-day basis.So many musicians may as well forget about "Program" mode altogether and concentrate exclusively on constructing their own "Set-Ups."Finally, in the last couple of years Kurzweil has released or re-deployed the few specialists who knew anything specific about their complex computer-instruments.Whereas the company used to be responsive to befuddled users' questions, their customer support is now virtually non-existent.Kurzweil seems to be going out of their way, even with the PC3, to limit their instruments to advanced computer specialists or to musicians who simply push the buttons and play whatever programs are available at the highest surface level.]

Until the SP2 appeared comparatively recently, I had claimed the Kurzweil SP76 as the least expensive keyboard that a self-respecting professional performer might be able to "get away with" on the job.Now I can revise that claim, bestowing the same on the SP2.The main advantage of the SP2?There are actually two: first, it doubles the number of voices (programs, patches, objects, or sounds, if you prefer), providing 64 instead of a mere 32 (the SP76 did not even have a vibes program); 2nd, it permits you to split the keyboard, assigning different internal sounds to the various zones created by the split.

The SP2 costs about 33% more than it's predecessor, but the above features make the hike worthwhile.Formerly, I was importing bass or vibes sounds from a module velcroed to the keyboard and spending tedious hours with the MIDI set-up. No longer.And for "popular" music, 76 keys is all you need; 88 weighted keys will add at least 20 pounds to the package.I would have purchased a PC1se, a PC2, or a PC3 with 76 keys except for all of the gratuitous add-ons and complications (these are "programmers'" hobby kits) plus the extra weight.With the SP2, I can still, as was the case with the SP76, toss the instrument in a gig bag and set up in no time (I've grown out of the need to haul monstrous, heavy keyboards, sometimes just to play Basie fills in a big band!). If I'm ever awarded a roadie, I'll pick up a Roland RD700 or Kurz PC3x or Korg M50 (the fully weighted 88-key version) or the comparable Yamaha fully-weighted 88-key monster.But for now, safety, sanity and common sense all point to the SP2(76).

If you want more voices (time-consuming, complicated) and onboard speakers (like weighted keys, requiring dollies, helpers and hernias), get an SP3x.But now you've entered a nebulous territory that I've found even Kurzweil reps have no good answers for: when you get down to it, what's the difference between an SP3 and a PC3?(I find the SP, with its protruding knobs, a "gaudier" instrument than the PC design).

Back to the SP, Kurzweil shows its lack of understanding of a musicians' needs when the company doesn't provide a dedicated button permitting "layering" a ride cymbal on to the left-hand bass sounds walking 4/4 lines (the basis of ALL "swing," for Pete's sake).Instead the company throws in an automated drum machine (!) or trumpets its "Take 6" voices (a great vocal group, but I prefer to play them on my iPod or CD player.When I once played them in public on a Kurzweil PC2, the other musicians merely laughed at me--very dismissively).Until companies like Kurzweil take the music and the musician seriously, no real musician is going to record an album on any of their hundreds of Triple Strike "acoustic" pianos.Hundreds of great pianists have had the opportunity--from Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans to Keith Jarrett and Brad Mehldau, though none has lowered himself to that degree.(Even Stevie stuck to a concert grand piano (and nothing more) at the Michael Jackson memorial.)

Electric pianos are still the realm of techno-engineers and gear-heads.These companies have got all they can handle to recreate the sound of an analog synth or Rhodes, let alone come up with a respectable piano.But at least they could listen to, say, Ahmad or Monty Alexander or Benny Green and try to service an actual musician's needs. That'll change if consumers are more demanding, and if musicians are allowed to advise the designers and manufacturers.

[Warning: What ever keyboard you decide on, make sure there's a return/exchange policy you can live with.I've frequently been impressed by keyboards in the store, only to realize after the first job that this infatuation was no more than a single-night honeymoon.The keyboard will always sound different in a different room, with a different amp, with more time to allow your ears to be bombarded by what you thought sounded like a "real" piano.(If you plan to test at the store, bring your best headphones to plug into each piano.)Kurzweil wants its keyboards to be perceived as "performer's" rather than "programmer's" instruments.If so, consumers need to keep the pressure on their engineer / designers, demanding instruments suited less for an engineer than a musician.]

[P.S. The SP2 is not, technically speaking, "weighted."See the Young Chang / Kurzweil site.]

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Product Description:
SP2 Overview: Superior Technology on the Inside...Elegant Simplicity on the OutsideThe Best... The SP2 delivers the legendary Kurzweil sound, with all of its detail and refinement, in a digital stage piano which is both professional and easy to use....

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