Review: Kurzweil Music Systems PC3x

Feb 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Jason Scott Alexander

A PERFORMANCE KEYBOARD THAT PULLS OUT ALL THE STOPS

BONUS MATERIAL
The Factory Tour, V.A.S.T. Improvements

The new Dynamic V.A.S.T. lets you “wire” your own algorithms beyond the 56 that ship from the factory. A new Cascade mode lets you route any layer of a program into the DSP of any other layer for truly complex results. However, I sorely miss the K series' sampling features and RAM for importing prerecorded samples.

The PC3 offers more than twice the effects-processing power of the old KDFX engine — even more than Kurzweil's acclaimed KSP8 studio-effects module. Programs have access to a maximum of 16 insert effects units and 2 aux sends, which can be placed pre- or postinsert. Effects can be chained together in series or distributed among the PC3's 16 multitimbral channels. A global Master FX section provides a 3-band compressor and 5-band parametric EQ that can be applied globally to the signal at the main outputs.

Natural Born Player

This is one of those rare keyboards that make me want to sit and play for hours. Every preset is extremely musical and sits very well in a mix. As a serious gigging musician, I'd buy the unit for its pianos alone. The acoustic pianos are more natural sounding and timbrally balanced than those in any other keyboard I've played. Intelligent programming in V.A.S.T. results in synthesized string resonance (when the damper pedal is depressed) and sustain and key-off sample triggering comparable to top software pianos. Though the samples are small and looped, they're still the best I've found in a hardware synth. The sounds respond to the keyboard beautifully thanks to sample/zone mapping and Velocity scaling in the samples that are much better than in previous Kurzweil instruments.

You'll find every shape and form of electric piano, and Kurzweil includes tons of hybrid programs with synth layers and alternate states that you can activate by pressing the programmable switch located above the mod wheel. The Classic Keys bank is a highlight, with some of the strongest renditions of mellotrons, RMIs, Farfisas, and Clavs you'll find. Of course, you also get the expected guitars, basses, drums, and other meat-and-potatoes sounds.

Orchestral sounds are by far the PC3's strong suit. Over 300 presets provide breathtaking solo and section strings, ranging from intimate chamber ensembles to lush symphonic and movie pits, lively horns, flute and woodwinds, choirs, and a bevy of brilliant orchestral percussion programs. No other keyboard synth can touch these orchestral sounds. For an in-depth look at the presets, check out the online bonus material “The Factory Tour.”

The VA-1 engine is a monster. Because it's completely integrated within V.A.S.T., you can pass its signals through any of the standard DSP filter or modulation blocks, and you can daisy-chain VA-1 layers with the conventional V.A.S.T. layers in Cascade mode. This is incredibly powerful. The oscillators are truly gorgeous, especially the fluid new Supersaw and Hard Sync Saw algorithms from the latest OS update.

Another spectacular feature is the enhanced KB3 mode. Rather than using layers or algorithms, a bank of 96 oscillators (2 per voice) is dedicated to tonewheel emulation. Having all nine drawbars and the mod wheel is pure luxury compared with the PC2. Buttons above each slider control effects such as Leslie, vibrato, chorus, and percussion. I like how Kurzweil tweaked the Leslie ramp-up times and added some cool tricks with gain staging and distortion. The sound designers even took into account the way older organs start to sound different as their capacitors begin to leak, including a parameter that lets you vary the amount of grunge.

Songwriting Partners

In Setup mode, the PC3 allows you to become a one-man band. You can have up to 16 zones, each assigned to any range of the keyboard (overlapping or split). Each zone can have its own program, arpeggiator, MIDI channel, and MIDI- and physical-controller assignments. Every zone can also have its own Riff, which is a completely independent phrase, such as a simple drum groove or walking bass line, that you can snag from any sequencer track.

The onboard 16-track sequencer is fairly straightforward; the basics are easy to grasp without reading the manual. You're given a fairly typical set of track-edit commands, and each function has a set of parameters that control how the function operates and on what region of the selected tracks. Real-time input quantizing is a new addition in the recent OS release, allowing for quantized loop recording. It's a welcome feature, but I'd like to see step recording as well.

Any of the song's tracks can be defined as Drum Tracks so that their note events do not get transposed when a transposition is applied to the song. I like how you can maximize effects DSP: if there's a program with a particular effect or chain that you want to share between programs on other tracks, you can assign it to an Aux FX channel that the others can tap into. MIDI data on each track can be assigned to any combination of local, MIDI, or USB MIDI destinations. The PC3's compatibility with Type 0 and 1 Standard MIDI Files also makes the instrument ideal for playing back elaborate MIDI sequences created in a software DAW.

All You Need

I cannot think of a more thorough and better-implemented performance keyboard than the PC3x. The sounds are rich, expressive, and natural. Learning to become an expert V.A.S.T. programmer is difficult, but maneuvering around the instrument for typical live tasks couldn't be simpler. Quick Access mode puts you one button away from whatever sound or preprogrammed setup of splits/layers you need, and there are numerous other shortcuts and button combinations. The user definability of every real-time control is beyond that of any other hardware synth.

Best of all, the PC3x is an honest-to-goodness synthesizer at heart. The VA-1 marriage with V.A.S.T. is brilliant, and you get an overwhelming number of usable preset sounds. Whether your interests are classical, pop, rock, jazz, or urban, the PC3x will become the centerpiece of your composition duties and the star of your stage performance. It's a beautifully crafted instrument that's a pure joy to play.

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Jason Scott Alexander is a regular contributor to Mix and Remix magazines and runs a mix/production facility in Canada's capital, Ottawa.