K2000VP (urgent)

[Medusa]

I have achnace to buy a used K2000VP for around $500. Can someone give me an opinion on if this is a good buy. I'm only using a Korg N1r right now with a controller plus soft synths.

Thanks for any advice.

PS i'm not able to view the item prior to purchase so can't test it out.

[stradivarius]

Hi

I bought a used K2000VP last summer for about $800 without any expansions. Most of the presets isn't really that exciting for my taste, but the things you can do once you learn VAST programming is AMAZING. I would never replace my K2000VP with another keyboard... (Well, maby a K2600XS if I had that kind of money :roll: )

Good luck!

[Medusa]

Thanks for the feedback. I too would ideally like a K2600 but i'm never gonna afford one of those so this is my only chnace of owning a Kurzweil right now.

[Renato]

I too bought a K2000VP some time ago... but now I'm seriously thinking about selling it. Don't get me wrong. This is an awesome synth... I thought I would never sell it, but its complex midi control is making me crazy. Its probably a problem of myself not knowing exactly how to program my software and the keyboard, but I'm going to sell my K2000 and my SP76 to buy a single all-in-one workstation, but with limited capabilities but modern. Another thing is that it has only 24 voices, in a manner which makes me only make solo leads. I need a keyboard for everything... not just a monster to play leads or one-track-at-a-time multi-track recording.

Hope this doesn't discourage you from buying it.

Renato.

[maJ estY]

In reference to the 2nd post: The big disadvantage of Kurzweil instruments is that the presets suck. It's the same with the K2600, but you don't have all those abilities with any other synth from another manufacture!

You can't make a mistake in buying any synth from Kurzweil's K series and, hey, 500$ is a good price, IMO!

[Medusa]

Well in the end i came across a good deal on a K2500 so i went for that. I'm very happy with it and am now looking for upgrades to it. Any suggestions on which upgrade first is appreciated.

[ImaX]

Gettin upgrades depends on your requests.

- The Piano-ROM features some good piano-samples, it's the one Jordan uses, so you can listen to it for exmaple on SFAM or at the Kurzweil-webiste.

- The contemporary ROM has some good synth-sounds (weird combinations in this ROM block, what means "contemporary"?) :)

- For orchestral music get the orchestral ROM, it has samples of any instrument in a classical orchestra.

- is you are fine with the samples you already have and like to start programming, KDFX-board is a good option, it gives you a lot of great effects to improve your sound quality.

- well, nothing to say for sampling board... get it if you want to do sampling :-)

All options are good if you find the one that fits your needs :wink:

[Enigma™]

Let's see:
This is how *I* think the process SHOULD go depending on what it is that you want to do with it and how long you want to take, but here's my order of things:

P-ram
Piano Rom
KDFX *not user installable*
Orch Rom
at LEAST 2 megs of Ram*for sampling, 128 recommended*
Sampling
Contemp Rom
And then here's what I WOULD recommend you do anyway:

The buttons *not keys, but the tact switches on the motherboard under the black buttons on top* in the 2500 are commonly known for "breaking" meaning the button doesn't click anymore but still works. This is followed by a furthur breakdown whereas the buttons will become VERY sensitive and eventually start changing on their own. This is simply kurzweil's decision at the time to save an extra .04$ on cheaper buttons... It's like Plastic Door Handles on a Rolls Royce.
Anyway, what I've done is bought and recieved from a really good friend of mine that works closely with Kurzweil are 25 tact switches to replace MOST of the ones that aren't working so well.
The soft buttons are USUALLY the first to go, followed bt the Setup button and the Enter button, and in the end some of your number buttons. Anyway, the ones I DON'T use are the SW1 and SW2 buttons, the Solo, Mixdown and MIDI faders buttons, The 4 directional buttons, and the Effects, Q access and Master buttons - These are ones that I hardly touch and will exclude from changing at the moment until I get more
A - Time
B - Buttons ;)

Anyway, in the end, it's STILL an amazing synth, easily one of the best synth's out there, but there were 2 problems with that version of the 2x00 line and that's one of them.
The other is the key weights, but we'll worry about that at a different time as I've never had a problem with that *knock on wood* but I know some people that have.
All synths have their Manafacturing flaws... Trinity's have their screens and occasionally their joysticks, The QS series was bad for their LCD screens not working as well... You get my point.
Anyway, I hope this helps you somewhat and if you have questions, that's what we're here for. Also check out sonikmatter.com - A great *albiet satyrical* bunch of people that REALLY know their shit.
Also, if you're looking for Sounds from Prog albums, everything from Dream Theater, to Rush, check out the link in my signature. A bunch of people here started up a new website/forum to trade and make sounds dedicated to albums, jams, etc.. It's free to sign up and there's a WEALTH of material over there as well.

Take care dude - :)

[ImaX]

Enigma: do you mean just replacing the buttons if they don't work, or can I get them out to put some better ones in?

A synth should have keys like a PC-keyboard, just smaller... :?

[Enigma™]

well, you actually have to have them soldered off of the motherboard and replaced with newer ones. I mean, it's not MANDITORY but doing it sometime while you have a little extra cash and aren't in the middle of using it - Might be a good idea. It's EXTREMELY frustrating to be in the middle of a great take or jam and then have your keyboard drop 3 octaves because you played a tad too hard...
There are times when I have to just stand up, count to 10 and walk away because if I didn't, my Kurzweil would quickly become very aquainted with the local sidewalk...

Anyway :)

[Medusa]

Thanks for the advice guys. Sorry for the slow delay (i've been away on hols).

Anyway, so far this is what i've done.

1. put in 32meg of sample ram. My board is the later K version of the motherboard and takes 72pin ram, i had some laying around and put it in. No problem.

2. I have ordered 128meg of sample ram.

3. Have ordered a KDFX and am gonna have a go at installing it myself (gulp), plenty of people have told me it's quite do-able.

4. Have also ordered a Hd mounting kit. Loading from floppy is really gonna piss me off. Got a SCSI drive from work and hope (fingers crossed) it will work ok.

I'll let you know how all this goes when i get the goods. I ordered all my stuff from US as the dollar is week and the prices are SOOOO uch cheaper than UK.

[Mago_Lari]

But..what are the mainly differences between K2000rs and k2000 Vp ? and what does a k2000 miss instead of a k2500 ?