KURZWEIL K250 first workstation 1984

[@amusic9825]

Sounds extremely realistic for a 1984 keyboard.... Extremely ahead of it's time.

[@vintagesynths]

Thank you.

[@jessihawkins9116]

No it doesn’t 🤨

[@annother3350]

@@jessihawkins9116 It certainly does

[@jessihawkins9116]

@@annother3350 no

[@annother3350]

@@jessihawkins9116 every review of this keyboard has a big load of people saying how impressed they are with the realistic piano. clean out your ears

[@PigiAkeys]

Incredible piano sound... which, however, basically remained the same until the day before yesterday!

[@davidnappyhoose204]

I'm not sure why anyone is trying to compare this to modern keyboards. That's like comparing a television from 1984 to the ones we have today. Of course it's not going to be as good but you can still marvel at how ahead of its time it was back then, especially if you are old enough to have actually lived through it.

[@MikeA0110]

Had one, with all 4 sound blocks. It's the only synth I ever sold, and tbh, I don't miss it at all. Unbelievably loud power supply, and boy did it ever weigh a ton.

[@squeakD]

This board was so far ahead of its time. There’s a reason musicians dreamed of owning a Kurzweil back in the mid 80’s to around the mid to late 90’s. They were king and they were expensive, but their reputation was well deserved.

[@seanchristophersynthesizer6999]

The K250 still sounds pretty decent considering how old it is now. I remember that the weighted keyboard action was pretty nice also when I played on in the 80's.

[@vintagesynths]

Thank you, Sean.

[@deborahchesser7375]

@@vintagesynthswhat do one of these go for now ?

[@nyobunknown6983]

@@deborahchesser7375 I don't know but when you consider how much better under $1000 keyboards sound than this I wouldn't pay more than $200.

[@PakBudiTarigan]

I was 3 yo at 1984. But i think this piano is amazing even now

[@stevenmann9769]

A classic instrument and great technology for the time.

[@miguelrejas5034]

Beautiful "piece" of fine art and a special part of keyboard history. I still have the KEYBOARD MAG Dec1988 where it did announce KURZWEIL PRODUCT with this line "THE SOUND IS TIMELESS. THE VALUE IS PRICELESS" K250 K250MX MIDIBOARD GRAND ENSEMBLE K1000 ENSEMBLE GRAND MARK II ENSEMBLE EXPANDER / RACK

[@vintagesynths]

Thank you very much. At that time manufacturers put much love in their instruments.

[@jaggass]

Way ahead of it's time. Very rare now as well.

[@Bernd_Bruening]

Schönes Video. Die Samples der Kurzweil Geräte waren immer schon unfassbar gut.

[@vintagesynths]

Danke dir Bernd, Kurzweil sind mM nach die besten Brot und Butter rompler. Einen K2000 ff würde ich immer noch einem Kronos vorziehen.

[@AntonisAdelfidis_UnderGround]

Excellent sounds and playing!

[@vintagesynths]

Thank you very much

[@sideoutside]

Just got a hold of one of these badboys!! You'd cry if I told you for how much, lol.

[@blueterminal7495]

Made in 1984? The Piano voice was wayyy ahead of its time ngl. Piano voice still is powerful even 37 years after it's release.

[@jaggass]

Kurzweil sampled numerous Steinway piano's for the K250. Even the panning of each note is accurate like a real piano too.

[@jbloodwo]

I still love the piano sample on these

[@realqwave]

Ich erinnere mich noch heute an die Musikmesse in Frankfurt wo dieses Instrument zum ersten Mal gezeigt wurde. Ein dicker Mann mit Vollbart spielte darauf. Und alle im Raum stand der Mund offen. So gut klingende Samples hatte man damals einfach noch nicht gehört. Wie die Samples datenkomprimiert wurden weiß ich bis heute nicht. Da hat Herr Kurzweil sich offenbar was gutes einfallen lassen. Bei der Harfe im Video dachte ich gleich an diese Band aus Düsseldorf mit der Tour de France.

[@vintagesynths]

Danke Till, für dein Feedback. Es gibt dazu Quellen im www. Die haben keine Loops genommen sondern eine sehr komplexe Berechnung. Jeder Ton klang dann auch ein bisschen anders. Man hört es. Den K2500 R habe ich dazu im Vergleich gespielt. Dort sind es nur samples.

[@sideoutside]

I'm going to try to hook mine up as a midi controller for modern vsts. Hoping..

[@EverettDudgeon138]

I wonder if these sounds are still part of the modern Kurzweil library.

[@Vin4227]

This was made in 1984??? Yamaha DX or Roland, Korg at that time didn't have these cutting edge patches nor such kind of workstation then.. sigh!..this was way ahead of its time.

[@vintagesynths]

Absolutely, I even prefer the sounds over my Korg M3 I used to have and maybe also my Motif XF I used.

[@Vin4227]

@@vintagesynths.. Ha ha!

[@kennethmccaleb2517]

It is the centerpiece instrument in my current recording studio still making masters on a daily basis.

[@procta2343]

From what i read, kurzweil still had the run right to the end of the K2600.

[@procta2343]

@Titan General i think this could have paved the way for the workstation, also not too sure how common an 88 key synth was at that time. Also this may have took on the fairlight cmi too.

[@procta2343]

Nice piano sound! just like its successors.

[@vintagesynths]

The piano is a bit dated but sounds very warm. I prefer the sound of the K2600

[@tonylancer7367]

1984 was golden, wasn't it? Thriller keeps rising, and this comes out to basically wow everyone. In the midst of E.Piano 1, I have to say this is very beautiful, breathtaking even. But I am also guessing it was too expensive to purchase?

[@vintagesynths]

Absolutely. It was unobtainable for normal people. Only professional musicians could afford it or very rich individuals. Mine was from a doctor.

[@miguelrejas5034]

I used to have US$1500 in 1989 and I ask a friend of mine to seek and buy it for me.. never did so.. never answered why he did not.. He simply said to me: "Oh I forgot or lost the paper you gave to me, so sorry" Yrs later I found out that that k250 was around US$ 4000/4500. I also ask the DX7 never made it! Too expensive stuff. I'm from Perú and now I own a Kurzweil stage piano and a Triton Karma. Happy now.

[@The.Foolosopher]

Sounds way better than my dgx 620.

[@MIDERA]

So many great sounds here - and excellent playing! Would've loved to pick one up, but they're massive and - worse than that, I heard there can be issues with the pedal system that - when failed, you can't use a cheap alternative, I think.

[@vintagesynths]

Thank you very much. Good luck that also the pedal can be serviced.

[@zibbybone]

Workstation? Wasn't aware it had a sequencer. Props for Saga's "Images".

[@vintagesynths]

Yes it has, 12 channels and quite easy to program. It is a complete music studio with synthesizer also.

[@seanchristophersynthesizer6999]

My very first use of a sequencer was on a K250 at a music store back in the mid-80's.

[@vintagesynths]

@@seanchristophersynthesizer6999 very interesting. So you are with synths that Long time.

[@seanchristophersynthesizer6999]

@@vintagesynths I bought my first real synth in 1985, which was a used Korg Poly 61, but I never bought my first sequencer until I got the Alesis MMT8 in 1987 or 1988. Luckily in 1986 a music store near where I was living had a K250 and the owner let me have a crack at creating a song with the built-in sequencer. The store ended up using it as a demo....which the really motivated me to save up for the affordable MMT8 a year or so later to use with a few synths I owned by that time.

[@vintagesynths]

@@seanchristophersynthesizer6999 great story

[@flyingnorth5093]

Very nice, thank you. Have you tried the 12 bit sampling option of the 250? Would be interesting to see how that sounds.

[@vintagesynths]

Thank you. It didn’t try it yet. I have no storage possibility. It has to be stored on a Macintosh

[@jessihawkins9116]

@@vintagesynths have you gotten a Macintosh yet?

[@vintagesynths]

@@jessihawkins9116 no

[@nookcyan]

Are violin+cello standard presets of K250?, or maybe a rom expansion. Thanks.

[@vintagesynths]

Standard

[@nookcyan]

@@vintagesynths I've the UVI U1250 but this presets are not in there. 😞

[@bobrandom9693]

Thank you for the demo. I've got a newer Kurz keyboard and sometimes end up playing with these exact same samples imported from K250! Now I can try fine-tuning them to sound more closely to the original. All thanks to this video 😎😎 By the way, do you happen to have any brochure or manual that would list the sounds of all soundblocks?

[@vintagesynths]

Yes I have tons of documents of it and also of at least three Soundblocks

[@hellitastenfan]

Hallo Rüdiger,...eine interessante Demo mit vielen Sample-Klängen die auch Heute noch sehr faszinierend sind. Sieht ja so aus als hätte das Teil sogar eine Holztastatur. Das Design ist wohl auch mit Stevie Wonder entwickelt worden. Sozusagen etwas mehr "Blindengerecht". Gefällt mir sehr. liebe Grüße und alles Gute.

[@vintagesynths]

Hallo Helmut, definitiv. Ich finde einige Natursounds sogar deutlich besser als von moderneren workstations, etwa des Korg M3, den ich jahrelang auch live nutzte. Da muss ich echt sagen: Hut ab, kann man heute noch sehr gut verwenden. Die Tasten sind aus Holz und ca 40 cm lang. Ich nutzte den als Edel-Masterkeyboard zB für den K2500. Schönen Sonntag dir und Liebe Grüße Rüdiger

[@barneyfinch8267]

Sounds better than every Casio Keyboard ever made

[@jessihawkins9116]

your comparing kurzweils flagship keyboard to a Casio 🤔

[@barneyfinch8267]

@@jessihawkins9116 it’s from 1985 and it sounds better than a 2022 Casio

[@nyobunknown6983]

Incredible for it's time but sounds cheezy today, only 12 note polyphony and cost thousands of dollars. Now it's possible to get a keyboard that sounds a lot better for under $1000.

[@vintagesynths]

I think it’s still can compete against modern samplers. Piano Not, but string and brass sounds are great and I prefer them to modern workstations

[@nyobunknown6983]

@@vintagesynths Cheezy sound doesn't make it unusable. Melotrons sound cheezy but sound great in the mix. Do you play keyboards? I do and have been spoiled by the newest ones.

[@patrikknoerr9777]

Technically, this was a marvel in 84. But the compression sounds worse than on the JV2080 and I'd prefer to use a U220 or even a U110 instead.

[@vintagesynths]

Really? I used to have the U-20 and also U-110. I didn’t like the natural sounds at all. I think that the acoustic sounds, especially violins or cello are extremely realistic of the K250 and also very expressive.

[@nunesnunes228]

kurzweil consegue fazer os teclados mais feios do mundo 😂😂😂😂😂 oh empresinha só ganha pra Casio que consegue superala