Kurzweil PC3LE6 61-Key Synthesizer Keyboard Workstation

No longer available at zZounds
With Kurzweil's VAST synthesis engine, 700+ on-board effects chains, and 61 semi-weighted keys with aftertouch, the PC3LE6 is a stage and studio powerhouse.

The affordable Kurzweil PC3LE6 performance controller keyboard has fantastic sounds, reliable performance, musical expressiveness and ease of use. The PC3LE6 combines the amazing sound quality and performance control features of the successful PC3 with a streamlined, intelligent user interface, providing an interactive experience that is bound to inspire creativity.

A Massive Sound Set That's Easy to Navigate

Under the hood, the PC3LE features the same groundbreaking chip technology that has made the PC3 the most talked about keyboard in recent years. All of the PC3's sounds are included -- the famous Kurzweil grand piano, vintage electric pianos, Clavinets and Mellotrons, dazzling Orchestral and Strings collections, stunning VA virtual analog synths, KB3 organs, realistic basses, drums, guitars, percussion and horns, General MIDI, plus nearly 200 programs developed specifically for the LE; over 1050 programs in all. Kurzweil has improved the method for navigating through such a massive sound set; programs in the LE can be viewed and selected with a set of Category buttons. Select Leads and you'll see a list of all the synth leads in the machine, grouped together. Same goes for the other 20 categories, everything from Synth Bass to Mallets to Guitars.

These programs take advantage of Kurzweil's V.A.S.T. synthesis engine, using pristine samples paired with detailed programming of literally hundreds of synth and effects parameters. Whether it's the rosin of a bowed string read more instrument, the resonant harmonics of a piano's damper pedal, or the thumps and squeaks of an electromechanical keyboard, Kurzweil has done their homework and provided a level of detail and realism that can only be found in a Kurzweil. Which means you can focus on the important business of making music.

700 Awesome Built-in Effects

The PC3LE6 comes equipped with over 700 onboard effects chains from which to choose, all with real-time controllers already assigned to relevant parameters. With world class reverbs that decay into complete silence, warm, classic sounding phasers, flangers and choruses, and burning, saturated distortions, you'll have everything you need to make your music sound like a polished, finished product from the outset. The PC3LE6's architecture provides up to 10 insert effects, which can be distributed among 10 channels, with an available auxiliary effect as well.

Interactive User Interface: See Your Parameters and Control Values

In the PC3, Kurzweil introduced the INFO feature, a soft button-press that allows the user to see which controllers have been assigned to parameters within a program. For the LE, Kurzweil has taken this to the next level, with an interactive user interface that communicates directly with you whenever you move a real-time controller. Turn a knob, hit a button or move a wheel and the LE's screen will display the controller, its real-time value and the parameter being affected. An example would be moving the modwheel on an organ program - you would see the following: Modwheel 79 Distortion Drive. This system never breaks down -- you can change effect chains freely and all of this info remains intact, updated to reflect the chain you've selected. Also, this info is transferred seamlessly to Setup Mode -- you can see whatever controllers have been assigned to programs used in any zone of a setup.

Customize Your Sound with Real-Time Controllers and Hit Save

Kurzweil wanted to give users the quickest, easiest possible way to adjust the PC3LE6's sounds to suit individual tastes and needs. In any given program or effects chain, the relevant parameters, the ones that you'd want to tweak and adjust, have been assigned real-time controllers. Move a controller and hit the SAVE button -- no menus, no pages with endless parameters -- and you get one touch sound customization. Also, flexibility is important when it comes to customizing your sound. Don't want filter frequency control on a knob? Prefer to have it assigned to the modwheel? No problem. The Parameters page allows you to re-assign any controller to any available parameter. You can save your custom sounds to the user bank, with over 1000 ID slots.

A Different Drummer: Trigger Sounds, Sequences and Arps with 8 Pads

With the PC3LE6, Kurzweil is introducing a set of dynamic physical controllers -- 8 backlit, velocity-sensitive drum pads that can be used to trigger sounds, sequences, chords and arpeggiations. Every program in the machine has a drum kit assigned to the pads, so you'll always have access to a rhythm track when you need it. As a bonus, Kurzweil has included a set of over 100 drum programs, with acoustic brush kits, slammin' rock kits and a number of heavily effected techno/electronic kits, in addition to the 24 existing kits from the PC3. Just as Kurzweil put a great deal of effort into making sure that their keyboard action feels just right, the drum pads were implemented with precision and care, with utmost attention given to how they feel when played. After all, this is a musical instrument and not just a piece of technology.

Use It Your Way: Setup Mode, Quick Access Mode, and Song Mode

Complementing the LE's features are a few old familiar Kurzweil favorites; Setup Mode, Quick Access Mode and Song Mode, all taken directly from the PC3. Setup Mode enables the LE to act as a powerful MIDI controller as well as providing 16 simultaneous, independent, fully programmable arpeggiators, with factory and user-programmable patterns. On top of that, each setup can have up to 16 simultaneous Riffs -- sequences that can be triggered by buttons, drum pads or notes on the keyboard. While Setup Mode, with up to 16 zones each with its own program, is still as powerful as ever, a Split/Layer button has been added to make the creation of simple setups quick and easy. Quick Access Mode allows you to create custom banks of 10 sounds that can be accessed by a single button-press. And Song Mode delivers a full-featured 16 track sequencer with all of the powerful editing features that you'd find in a high end workstation -- event editing, swing, controller scaling, input quantize, input filter, and chasing controls. User memory provides over 1000 ID slots each for your own QA banks, Setups and Songs.

Connectivity: USB Host, USB Device, MIDI In/Out/Thru, Analog and S/PDIF Audio Outs

Saving, loading and updating the OS are all made easy on the LE with the inclusion of both USB Host and Device ports. You can save your user programs, setups and songs to a USB thumb-drive or directly to a computer. OS updates can be loaded from a thumb-drive or directly from your computer, and of course the LE sends and receives MIDI over USB. Standard MIDI jacks are also included for In, Out and Thru. For audio, the PC3LE6 features high-quality, hum-cancelling, stereo balanced analog outputs, with 24-bit DACs as well as a 24-bit stereo S/PDIF digital output at 48K.

Power Supply:Internal AC Power Supply (Included)
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Keyboard: Fatar TP-8; 61-note semi-weighted action with velocity and aftertouch sensitive keys

Display: 240 x 64 backlit LCD w/ dedicated back panel contrast control

Polyphony: 64 Voice Polyphony, dynamically allocated, lightning fast performance

Multitimbral: 16 parts (one per MIDI channel)

Architecture: PC3 sound engine, complete with anti-aliased VA oscillators and KB3 Mode. Important synth and effects parameters can be accessed and adjusted via the PC3LE6's front panel knobs and buttons - user settings can be captured and saved with a single button press. Supports loading PC3 programs

Factory Presets: PC3 sound set, including Base ROM, Orchestral, Classic Keys, String Section, General MIDI set and over 70 KB3 programs with total of over 800 programs

Factory MIDI Setups: 256 factory programmed MIDI setups. Up to 2560 user programmable MIDI setups, each with 16 independent zones, effects, triggerable pattern-based "Riffs" and arpeggiator settings. Dozens of user-editable patterns for both pitch and velocity

General MIDI: Standard

User Memory: 2560 locations for user created preset programs, songs and setups

Sequencer: 16 tracks; 960 PPQ resolution. Song editing functions include both event and track-based tools like quantize, swing, remap, controller scaling and more. Controller chasing and quick "set song loop point" functions are also included

Effects: 10 insert effects distributed over 10 busses, one auxiliary send; featuring over 500 award winning effects - reverbs, delays, chorus, flange, phaser, EQs, distortions, rotary speaker simulators, compressors, and more

Controllers: Pitch wheel, modulation wheel, 5 front panel knobs (15 virtual knobs with a two-tiered shift button), 7 front panel switches (momentary or toggle, software selectable), 2 switch pedal inputs, 1 continuous control pedal input and mono pressure. Controller values can be "captured" and stored as part of a program. In addition to all of these, the PCLE6 also features 8 backlit velocity-sensitive drum pads that can be used to trigger sounds, sequences, chords and arpeggiations

Arpeggiator: 16 full-featured independent arpeggiators with multiple latch modes, selectable play order, velocity, duration, tempo, and sync functions as well as pre-recorded beats and musical phrases

Riffs: 16 simultaneous "Riff" generators (used for triggering MIDI sequenced phrases, beats, or complete multi-track arrangments from notes on the keyboard and/or any on-board physical controller)

Analog Outputs: Two 1/4" balanced TRS analog (24-bit DACs)

Headphones: 1 rear panel 1/4" headphone output

Digital Outputs: 24-bit, stereo S/PDIF at 48K (internal clock)

MIDI: In, Out, Thru

USB: Host port for connecting a USB thumb-drive and a Device port that allows the PC3LE6 to load and save data directly to and from a computer, perform OS updates and send/receive MIDI over USB

FREE OS Updates: Flash ROM upgradeable via USB or thumb-drive

Dimensions
Height: (5.00") (12.70 cm)

Depth: (14.50") (36.83 cm)

Length: (41.50") (105.41 cm)

Weight: (31.00 lb.) (14.06 kg)

Automatic selection 90-250V AC operation

Power Supply:Internal AC Power Supply (Included)

For support or warranty questions, please contact the manufacturer:
Web: https://kurzweil.com/support/

Reviewers gave this product an overall rating of 5 out of 5 stars. (6 ratings)
Submitted October 14, 2010 by a customer from aol.com

"THE MOST INSPIRING & USEFUL WORKSTATION ON THE MARKET FOR THE PRICE!!"

Overall: 5 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
I probably won't be using my computer software,nor my Korg M3 for a long while,because this keyboard has so much of what I've been looking for and I need to spend some quality time with it.

Sound
The most impeccably authentic piano sounds I've ever heard on a hardware workstation..they're right up there with software! 90 percent of all of the sounds on this board are pure inspiration...the pads are lush & dreamy,the leads,pads & synth basses are unlike anything I've ever heard in a workstation synth....superb retro sounds that were so hard to find,up until now! Most of the sample-based sounds are excellent,but the electric guitars are pretty average.

Features
Came with a sustain pedal...sweet!The one touch save button for edited sounds and the onscreen feedback from the control knobs,are so damn cool!! PLEASE NOTE...THE COMPANY "SOUNDTOWER" IS COMING OUT WITH SOUND EDITOR SOFTWARE FOR DEEP EDITING. IT SHOULD BE AVAILABLE AT THE END OF THIS YEAR.

Ease of Use
It's completely effortless to get truly inspiring sounds out of this synth & it has the most intuitive interface I've ever come across in a workstation,in this price range. There are only basic parameters for sound editing like a timbre filter,envelope,decay,sustain,attack..etc.,...but like I mentioned above,SoundTower is coming out with editing software for the LE-series.

Quality
The most rock read more solid keyboard to have ever come out of China-incredible!Smooth controls,superb semi-weighted full size keys and lightening fast on screen functioning...I have never seen anything like it before!

Value
One of the best overall values out there!

Manufacturer Support
I had a problem updating to the current OS because I was using AlZip to decompress the files,but Kurzweil support is very knowledgeable & eager to help & resolved my problem quickly. Be sure to uninstall your AlZip if you use it,because you need to install the current OS update,as the old factory OS is a bit unstable and the sequencer will lock up in the old version. The OS update installation is very simple,BUT YOU NEED TO FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS PRECISELY,in order for the update to work.

The Wow Factor
An absolutely beautiful keyboard on the outside,with amazingly fast & simple onscreen menus and the BEST layout of knobs & buttons I've ever seen in workstation!

Musical Background:
Veteran keyboard workstation composer & recording hobbyist.

Musical Style:
Various
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