Our Patron Saint, the Honorable Dr. Kurzweil recently gave the keynote for the GDC08...The Game Developers Conference. We were sent a 'Secret' and probably fictional, somewhat maybe slanderous photo of Ray's Other Keynote. We can't guarentee the validity of this and telltale signs of the Photoshoping might be there, but we are going to pretend it is as accurate as anything else we publish here.

Whats next for Ray? What is always next with Ray -- Sex With Robots!!! This is why he was brought back on to Kurzweil Music Systems...not because he was the founder, but to get us all in the mood with the next generation synth / AlGoreRythmic Music Generator (which we believe is an alarmist software program that is pretty stiff...MANBEARPIG!!!)

Take a read on over at the tipstech.info site for some real information.

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Our pal Rozzer has publish a set of freeware sounds for the K2600.

He's been kind enough to share them with the Kurzweil community @ Sonikmatter.

There is more information on the thread in our forums here.

Thanks Rozzer!!!

PS: Make sure you stop by and thank Rozzer for his efforts.

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Most kind and generous Sonikmatter member Martin Demsky has provided a free bank of V.A.S.T. programmed K2x00 sounds to the community. The sounds are "still in beta" - but it's great that Martin has shared his efforts with the rest of us.

More on this here.

Drop a note to Martin and say "thanks!"

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Philip Dodds, the one time Vice President R&D at Kurzweil, passed away on Saturday the 6th of October. Phil made enormous contributions to the music world, not only through Kurzweil, where he worked during development of the K250, but also as the Vice President of Engineering at ARP in the 70's. Phil also appeared in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind as the man playing the mighty ARP 2500 to communicate with the other worldly visitors. (He is pictured here, third from the left).

Phil Dodd was also heavily involved in implementing standards and for advancing multimedia through his role as the CEO of IMA (Interactive Multimedia Association).

Phil is survived by his wife Sue, and lives on through his many achievements and the legendary products that he contributed to.

To read more about Phil's achievements visit The Wayback Machine and AICC News

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NAMM news is old news, by now, but Kurzweil finally have some preliminary specs up on their website about the upcoming PC3, and it looks like it's quite a large step up from the PC2.

In many respects, the PC3 spec even exceeds the K2661, with the major difference between the two product streams being the lack of sampling and Digital Mulitrack I/O on the newly announced machine. Some of the most significant differences between the PC2 and the PC3 are:

• Bigger Display
• VAST Support, with new algorithms being developed
• 4 Independent Arpeggiators
• K2 style Sequencer
• Up to 16 KDFX Insert Busses, as well as 2 Aux Busses, with more than twice the processing power of the KSP8
• USB support (for MIDI and Data)

The preliminary pictures still show a Smart Media Card, which are becomming increasingly difficult to source, and could be a source of constenation for users, though I guess it's better than a floppy drive. The most widely asked questions from the sonikmatter forums is whether or not the PC3 will support a VAST editor in the same style as a the K2 series.

If it does, then the PC3 looks like it could be a powerful and flexible performance synth for those that don't need to use samples or mangle live audio. Rumours are still rife about a successor to the K2 series, and if the PC3 is any indication of how high Kurzweil have raised the bar, then Kurzweil's new flagship could be something exciting.

For a more detailed spec visit Kurzweil's Website. To join in the speculation and add to the rumour mill, check out the Sonikmatter Forum.

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Ray Kurzweil has been appointed the Chief Strategy Officer of Kurzweil Music Systems by their owner Hyundai.

Ray Kurzweil, who founded Kurzweil Music Systems back in 1982, will become a spokesman for the company, and work on the company's technology strategy, as Hyundai strive to "build Kurzweil Music Systems into one of the largest music instruments brands in the world."

Kurzweil Music System's phoenix-like rebirth, after a recent arbritration case, saw them win back the distribution rights for Kurzweil branded products. Kurzweil seems set to continue with continued R&D investment by their new owners Hyundai. At this years' Winter NAMM, Kurzweil Music Systems announced a significant upgrade to their PC series of Performance controllers, with the PC3, with new features that seem to rival their current flagship workstation, the K2661.

It certainly looks like an exciting time for Kurzweil.

You can read more on Ray Kurzweil's appointment here and on the PC3 here

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Young Chang, the parent company of Kurzweil, has been purchased for 70.6 billion won (US$74.3 million), by a consortium led by Hyundai Development Company, a building developer in South Korea.

According to The Korean Times, the Hyundai Development Company have been planning an expansion into the musical instrument market, for some time.

The new look Kurzweil has been quick to start making changes with rumours of a new Australian Distributor having been appointed for their pro level instruments.

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We've started a group buy - from now until the 15th of May - for Sonikmatter's ONYX. We're knocking $10 off just for starters, with an option to get a second set of sounds free if we can get the numbers up. Buy early, buy often!

More information in this thread on the Kurzweil Forums

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The American Arbitrators Association in California has ruled in favor of Young Chang and Kurzweil with regards to the distribution of Young Chang, Weber, and Kurzweil musical instruments in North America. There has been ongoing litigation between Kurzweil and Samick over this issue. Young Chang Korea is still for sale, but we're hoping that a light can be seen at the end of the tunnel.

More from Sonikmatter member Jeff Dunmire here.

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At last there's something positive from our friends over at Kurzweil, with a new K2661 OS appearing that fixes a recently found bug with the wave file export of Mono Audio Files.

So if you have found problems with static in wave file exports, or want to update your K2661 to the latest version head on over to the K2661 OS page, download the file, and get to flashing those ROM's.

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Austin, TX — TangentCats, developers of music production tools for the Kurzweil K2600, K2500 and K2000 machines, announces the free availability of the beta release of VAST Programmer, a breakthrough interactive computer interface for Kurzweil K2xxx series machines. The beta release will be made available on the Sonikmatter website (details to be released soon) on Friday, July 8.

VAST Programmer (VP) is a Java program developed by Michael Warpenburg that allows users to interactively develop Setups, Programs & other types of objects on Kurzweil K2xx series machines. Users interact with the machine(s) in real-time using VP and as such can also use it as a general control user interface (UI) in a performance setting.

Highlights of VAST Programmer include:

Support of all K2xxx machines*
Support of both PC and Mac*
Real-time interactive development of Programs, Setups, etc.
Point & Click User Interface
Lightning fast browsing from page to page with a single click of the mouse
Based on the Kurzweil hardware UI paradigm; easy learning curve
Simple installation
* At the time of the beta release the only tested platforms will be K2600 and Windows XP. One of the objectives of the beta release will be to make it available for K2500/K2000 and Mac users for testing on those platforms.

A VAST Programmer release event will be hosted by Michael on the VAST Programmer forum on the evening of the release date, 9-midnight CDT, when the developer will be available to answer any questions with respect to installation issues & getting started on VP. Any other topics of interest to VP users are also welcome fare for the event. Specific information about the VAST Programmer release event can be found in this topic

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Sonikmatter is proud to present ONYX, a new soundset for the Kurzweil K2000, K2500, K2600 and K2661. Representing 2 years of programming by Sonikmatters very own Puppeteer (Jason Fewings) and long time Kurzweil Guru's Rick (Brujo) Wishart and Brian (Cowzar) Cowell.

ONYX is a hard hitting soundset for the modern electronic musician, and an incredible amount of programming has gone into the real-time control of all of the sounds. Two versions of this soundset come in the package. One is optimized for the Digitech processor of the earlier Kurzweils, while the second set gets the engine revving in the KDFX arena.

If you want to supercharge your Kurzweil and spend endless hours morphing synthetic textures and cutting edge electronic leads, basses and pads, then you owe it to yourself to look closely at this set.

Demo's and the 30 pages of documentation can be downloaded by clicking on the following links.

General Documentation
K2000 Controller Maps
K2600 Controller Maps

Demos

Blue Door
Love Dust
Prodigy Why
Room of Angels
Chicane Pad
Ocean Wash
PWM
Allpass
Exenon
Phased Saws

ONYX is available exclusively from Sonikmatter and can be purchased at the Store

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The K2661 is the latest workstation offering from Kurzweil, and the first OS upgrade has just arrived. The new OS fixes a problem with loading mono wave files, a metrenome problem in General MIDI mode, and an FX bypass issue, where you sometimes couldn't unbypass the FX.

If you want to get this new OS (and I know you do) simply point your browser to the K2661 Downloads Page

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Team Kurzweil - Europe has announced that the K2661 sampling option is now shipping. This is great news for all of those K2661 users wanting to get stuck into Live Mode.

Live Mode is a special mode, available in the latest K series synths that allow a live signal to be processed through VAST and KDFX in real time, even allowing for real-time pitch shifting, arpeggiation and all of the other tricks available inside the synth.

The sampling option is an integral part of live mode, as it provides the hardware necessary for the live signal inputs.

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Kurzweil Music Systems today announced a new keyboard to add to the K-series stable. The K2661 is based on a K2600 and adds a number of features requested by users.

The K2661 now makes it easier for the gigging musician to take the power of VAST on the road, with a more compact 61-key profile. This unweighted keyboard features a 24-bit optical I/O to make interfacing with other digital devices easier than ever. The K2661 also features a SmartMedia slot, the contemporary and orchestral ROMs, as well as a General MIDI soundset.

The retail price and total unit weight are yet to be specified, but preliminary indications are that this instrument will be cheaper than the current K2600 keyboard.

For a more detailed rundown of the K2661 see this page on George Hamilton's Site.

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Quite a few Kurzweil K2600 users have noticed a bug when switching to Live Mode with OS 3.10, whereby your K2600 would perform a soft reset and would then continue to reset whenever they entered the Sample page.

Kurzweil Music Systems have released a fix for this bug with version 3.11 of the OS. Point your browser to Kurzweil Music Systems Downloads and download the update.

For those upgrading from early OS versions, be sure to pick up the relevent object files as well.

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