Kurzweil PC3LE7 76-Key Synthesizer Keyboard Workstation

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Kurzweil PC3LE7 76-Key Synthesizer Keyboard Workstation, Front

Kurzweil PC3LE7 76-Key Synthesizer Keyboard Workstation, Rear

Forget the menus, pages and confusing options. Kurzweil gives you convenient sound customization with this intuitive workstation.

Overview

The Kurzweil PC3LE7 76-key performance controller keyboard has fantastic sounds, reliable performance, musical expressiveness and ease of use. The PC3LE7 features a streamlined, intelligent user interface that inspires creativity that is only confined by your imagination.

Best Sounds

Under the hood, the PC3LE7 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. They've 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 the 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 instrument, the resonant harmonics of a piano's damper pedal, or the thumps and squeaks of an electromechanical keyboard, Kurzweil has done… read more 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.

The PC3LE7 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 PC3LE7's architecture provides up to 10 insert effects, which can be distributed among 10 channels, with an available auxiliary effect as well.

Interactive

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. The LE takes 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.

Customizing Your Sound

Kurzweil wanted to give users the quickest, easiest possible way to adjust the PC3LE7'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

With the PC3LE7, 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.

Everything Else You'd Expect

Complimenting 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

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 PC3LE7 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)

Specs

- Keyboard: Fatar TP-8; 76-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 PC3LE'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 of our 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 PC3LE 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: (49.90") (126.70 cm)
- Weight: (37.50 lb.) (17.00 kg)
- Automatic selection 90-250V AC operation

Power Supply:Internal AC Power Supply (Included)

Documents and Manuals

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

Manual

Reviews

(6 ratings)

Submitted August 15, 2011 by a customer from abv.bg

""You want to sound as good as possible? You want the best keybed on a synth? You want the Kurzweil PC3LE""

Overall:

(see rating details)

I am very happy with my purchase. Kurzweil support their products forever, the only major missing feature right now is the lack of effects chain editing, which I hope they will add at some point. Overall, PC3LE is a wonderful synth, an excellent next step for Kurzweil. I have some minor complaints about it, but nothing too big to be a deal breaker. Add in the unbelievable price, and there you have it - the best synth below $2000 on the planet.

Sound
The sounds are AMAZING! A huge selection of usable patches, right from the start. I only use the factory sounds now, but I will buy the desktop editor and start playing with that. I give that a 9, mostly because there aren't enough quality guitars and brass sounds. I would have preferred more of those, rather than having all those strings available.

Features
It came with a nice sustain pedal and a power cable. Has balanced outputs, 3 pedal inputs, the build quality is incredible. I wish it had 9 rotary buttons, though, instead of five. Overall, I haven't seen another synth for that money which is so well made. The keys are fantastic to play, excellent balance between weight and speed for me. One of the best features are the drum pads - they have so many potential applications, and are way better than the ones is M3. It loses a point for the small screen, even though the OS makes it very easy to navigate around. I would have preferred paying $100 more for the Korg touch… read more screens (but not for their OS, which is another story ...).

Ease of Use
90 % of all sounds I will probably ever need are already there. Every program/setup is an inspiration, I just select one and the ideas start coming. As I said, the interface is pretty good, considering the small screen, but if you want to dig deeper, you will have to spend quite a lot of time learning all the options for tweaking (trust me, there are enough to keep you busy for a long time). I also wished it was easier to set up splits/layers levels, a simple mixer screen would go a long way. I hope the PC software will make things easier, however, editing sounds is not my first priority.

Quality
It feels sturdy, with no creaking plastics (I am looking at you, Korg/Roland), and amazing keys. Get a nice case for it (even a soft one will do) amd you will have no troubles using it for gigs.

Value
I got mine for $1500 + tax, which is amazingly cheap for what it offers. There's hardly anything else on the market which comes close to the sound and the quality of this instrument. There aren't too many 76 keys synths on the market in that price bracket (Juno Stage, M50, that's pretty much it), but the Kurzweil beats easily not only those, but also more expensive models. The only possible competition in terms of sound are some stage pianos, but with the PC3LE you get so much more than sounds.

Manufacturer Support
I had my unit replaced, due to some firmware issue, but I got a new one right away, the store/distributor/manufacturer partnership is very good (I bought it from Canada's largest music stores chain).

The Wow Factor
I love the blue color and the metal feel to it. The layout is very nicely organized. It is not as flashy as some other synths, but there is something to the design that no one else can beat.

Musical Background:
Active Musician

Musical Style:
Soft rock, piano rock, alternative

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