New Kurzweil Forte will be a Kronos challenger?

[SanderXpander]

Were you in charge of design?

[EvilDragon]

I don't work for Kurzweil. But that was still unnecessarily harsh without any reasoning.

[Mr_SamDoogie]

Hmm interesting keyboard I see they have contest running until 31 December
you can win a Forte but you need a Kurzweil to enter .

[chilly7]

Looks like a Stage Piano... http://kurzweil.com/news/57/

16 GB German and Japanese concert pianos...

Not really, its just the same old technollogy with a different sales slogan

+1

[BasariStudios]

Why in the world would someone name a stage Piano as a competitor to Kronos? WTF?

[nitecrawler]

Looks like a Stage Piano... http://kurzweil.com/news/57/

16 GB German and Japanese concert pianos...

No.

[Kevin Nolan]

I think that's way too harsh, and not even halfways true (there are heaps of naff looking keyboards out there, Forte is quite classy looking really). At least some reasoning would make sense, instead of flat out attacking without any merits, just because.

In the end, personal taste is just like an asshole. We all have one. That doesn't mean you have to be one.

Crikey - you're taking that pretty badly. I genuinely think is it absolutely ugly, from the side. I absolutely hate contrived designs, adding on all sorts of stupid angles and bits and pieces for the sake of it. It's just horrendous! I'm serious when I ask this - were you involved in its design - you took my criticism quite personally ! ?

[EvilDragon]

As mentioned I don't work for Kurzweil. But I do disagree that Forte is ugly (as opposed to those cheap tacky plastic cheek ends on the original Kronos, now THAT is ugly, compared to the sleek look of the rest of the board!). Saw it in person and played it... great stage piano overall, not one least bit ugly.

[Kevin Nolan]

Agreed - never liked the look of the original Kronos - the new one looks far better to me.


I went into a music shop today and saw the new Kurzweil. I just do not like the look of it. It wasn't powered on - but I have to say - the keyboard action did feel nice. Don't know if its a new keybed since recent previous Kurzweils, but it did feel good, and not that far of the action of my K2500XS, which is an excellent keybed.


I've been one of those giving Kurzweil a hard time over slow development, but there is no denying the quality of their sounds, and with a good keybed as on this one, I can see it attracting its fair share of the market.



As an aside and completely off topic - there was also a System-1 there; and thought the sound from its basic synth engine was extremely good (far better than I expected), the 2-octave "keyboard" is nothing short of pathetic. you can't even call it a keyboard - it can't be performed on - it's simply a note entry section in the shape of a keyboard. And at 2 octaves, there is no hope of playing anything.

Just as Moog abandoned the 2 octave keyboard for the SubPhatty, I wonder if Roland are going to release a version of System-1 with a larger keyboard?

[EvilDragon]

It's the same keybed as on PC3x/PC3K8 - Fatar TP-40/L.

[ScoobyDoo555]

Personally, I will never buy a Kurz again. I paid for a K2k v3 maxed out with every option when they first came out.
Didn't mind the cost, as the sounds were great.

BUT the build quality was AWFUL. Finally sold it just to get shot of it.

FWIW, didn't lose any money - it earned its keep