![]() A selection of apt reverbs treat the acoustic pianos, while the reverb is joined by chorus on some electric piano and organ patches an effect called Deep Space is indescribable, being a wild, modulated reverb type of effect that works best on Slow Digital Pad, to which it is preset.Ī particularly interesting aspect of the acoustic pianos is that the first two Programs (Classical Piano and Stage Piano) are available in two tunings: Solo and Ensemble. The effects aren't editable as such, although the balance can be altered over MIDI. A particularly interesting aspect of the acoustic pianos is that the first two Programs (Classical Piano and Stage Piano) are available in two tunings: Solo and Ensemble.Įach Program has an effect assigned to it, but this can be changed by the user. As far as I can tell there are no true stereo samples on board, but the samples are output in stereo - bass notes have a bias to the left side, and high notes are biased to the right, with the rest spread in between these two extremes, which is great for realism. In addition, there is a selection of layers (acoustic or electric piano and strings, piano and organ, for example) and something called Slow Digital Pad - this is an excellent moody and ethereal pad. The complement of 32 Programs includes seven acoustic pianos, four electric grands, six electric pianos, five organs (of the Hammond variety) and five strings. While many of the Micro's samples come from Kurzweil's K2000 library, there is a lot of new material, particularly, it seems, amongst the acoustic pianos. The Micro offers a creditable 32‑note polyphony, expandable to 64 notes by linking to a second unit. The simple three‑character LED display is clear enough for the task at hand it even includes a MIDI activity light. These are labelled Tuning (+/‑50 cents), Transpose (24 semitones up or down), Channel (1‑16), Effects (for selecting one of 16 preset effects) and Program, for selecting one of the 32 on‑board sounds, or Programs as Kurzweil call them. The MicroPiano is an elegantly unpreposessing unit: half rack width, with a simple, minimalist front panel, it features a couple of knobs (on/off/volume and data entry) and five buttons. As a company, they are now part of Young Chang, the Korean acoustic piano giant, so it is both a move full‑circle and a nod to their current status within Young Chang that Kurzweil should release what may, for the time being at least, be the ultimate in sampled piano playback modules. Kurzweil are currently known for their K2000 range of powerful synth/sampling workstations, but cut their teeth on providing realistic sampled piano‑type instruments in their early days (cf their K250). It worked for Emu with their Proformance, for example, and Roland have high hopes for the recent P55, which received a very positive SOS review from David Mellor in the December 1993 issue. While it may be hard to justify shelling out the cash, especially for something that seems to do so little, it has to be said that choosing a piece of equipment that does one thing, or a small range of things, very well is an attractive concept. There is an alternative: buy a dedicated piano sound module. Play a few other sounds alongside your piano, and you will need to keep your piano part fairly simple to avoid the inevitable note stealing. The average polyphony for synths and samplers, with a few exceptions, is a total of 16, 24 or 32 notes. The real thing can be 88‑note polyphonic, and the inter‑note interaction produced by playing and sustaining as many as 88 notes is impossible to reproduce with a sound produced by an electronic instrument that may be trying to do several other things at the same time. However, there is a problem: pianos eat polyphony. Most studio musicians and keyboard players need regular access to a good piano sound, and to be honest, perfectly useable sounds are available amongst the factory sounds or disks of most modern synths and samplers. Is it worth the price premium? Derek Johnson finds out. The legendary Kurzweil piano sound is now available in a smaller box and with a lower price tag than ever before - though in the UK it's still significantly more expensive than competing piano modules from other manufacturers.
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