If you want to make a living as a keyboardist, you’d better be a master of every genre, be able to show up anywhere at a moment’s notice, and sound perfect no matter where you go. In order to meet all these demands, you’re going to need some amazing gear. Look no further than the Kurzweil PC3X Performance Controller.
For Many Years, Kurzweil has been a pioneer in the field of audio synthesis, and the PC3X is the beneficiary of years and years of experimentation, experience and expertise in every aspect of music production. Key elements from the most successful Kurzweil designs have all been incorporated into the PC3X, making it not only one of the best digital instruments you can get, but the only one you’ll ever need.
The Performance Controller series, as its name implies, started as a pure MIDI controller keyboard with no sounds of its own, called the PC88. Kurzweil had one goal in mind when designing the PC88: to build a controller that felt like a world-class piano. The extraordinary playability of the PC3X is the result of the intense efforts put into that, and all the subsequent instruments in the PC line. Eighty-eight weighted keys enable the high level of performance that professional gigs demand, with an amazing dynamic range and smooth action. A Kurzweil weighted keyboard will make your grooves sit tighter, your ballads more expressive, and your playing altogether more musical. The PC3X retains all the other controller functions of its predecessors, too, so you can use it to control MIDI sound modules and soft synths with pride, but you’re going to want to hear the sounds the PC3X has to offer first.
Some keyboards excel at one or two types of voices. Maybe the acoustic piano sounds are the selling point, or the virtual analog synth engine is the standout feature. If you wanted a truly flexible rig you’d need to buy multiple keyboards to cover all your bases. Or, you could get yourself a Kurzweil PC3X. It was called “The Ultimate Gig Keyboard” by Keyboard Magazine for a reason: every sound is as good as or better than the competition. With the PC3X you can show up at any gig with confidence knowing you’ve got access to great sounds that’ll fit the bill. Accompanying a vocalist? Call up the celebrated Kurzweil “Triple Strike Grand Piano” patch. Got a blues gig? Dig into the meaty tonewheel organ sounds. Tasty jazz set? Serve up some luscious Wurly tones. There’s orchestral sounds and ethnic percussion if you’re looking to score a film, or check out the drum kits and Kurzweils’s VA-1 Virtual Analog synth modeler before you produce your next hip-hop track. Every sound you dial in is stage and studio ready, and is sure to inspire great performances from you and your fellow musicians.
The secret to this kind of synthesis power, again, resides in Kurzweil’s years of design experience. Ever since Ray Kurzweil designed his first instrument for his good friend Stevie Wonder, the company has made it their mission to stock their synths with only the best sounds. To accomplish this, Kurzweil goes so far as to build and design all their processors in house, and the PC3X’s “Dynamic V.A.S.T.” architecture is the most powerful sound engine they’ve ever created. An amazing 32 layers of sample playback are available on each note for the most articulate, dynamic, and lifelike virtual instruments around. It’s the reason the preset patches on the PC3X sound so incredible, and it’s what allows for limitless editing and sculpting of sounds for the insatiable tweaker. Effects processing on the PC3X has a pedigree of its own; based on Kurzweil’s KDFX engine, only twice as powerful, sixteen insert effects and two auxiliary sends are available for remarkable flexibility. The effects themselves are, of course, top-notch, with an array of filters, phasers, flangers, envelope followers, and Kurzweil’s signature Shaper, Wrap and Distortion effects. The final icing on the cake is the PC3X’s selection of awesome arpeggiators. Sixteen different patterns can be mapped to separate regions of the keyboard at once for jaw-dropping live performance and production pyrotechnics.
Nothing’s worse than showing up to a gig and forgetting your instrument at home, but a close second might be struggling to find sound patches in front of an impatient client. The PC3X eliminates any guess-work with a big 240 x 64 LCD display and an easy-to-navigate menu. For instant on-the-fly sound editing, the LCD screen automatically displays the effect, instrument or parameter last manipulated so you won’t have to go searching through layers of menus to find the element you’re hearing and want to adjust. The screen also provides access to the PC3X’s built-in, unlimited track sequencer, a boon to any keyboardist who wears composer or producer hats over the course of a day.
You may find it hard to imagine one keyboard becoming not just your main instrument, but your only instrument for live and studio gigs, but a quick look at the awards and accolades the PC3X has received should serve as a dramatic testimonial to the extent of this musical instrument’s power. Even if the bounty of rave professional reviews doesn’t have you convinced, ten minutes playing time with one will be enough to realize that the Kurzweil PC3X is the synthesizer you’ve been waiting for since you started playing music, and the one you need to remain competitive in the cut-throat professional music scene.
Features: 128-voice polyphony. New Dynamic V.A.S.T architecture. Classic Keys and String Section ROMs integrated.
