Kurzweil SP4-7 sounds fantastic with great features

I've had the Kurzweil SP4-7 for about 3 weeks and played my first concert with it last night. It delivered the great sound I was interested in and which our audience loved. It is easy and quick to switch between the programs (voices) that you use the most and I am beginning to put together some pretty useful presets too. Another member of our ensemble is interested in getting an SP4-7, and I will definitely send her to Kyle Manship for help with a purchase.

Kurtzweil SP4-7

I bought this keyboard recently and I really feel very honored for the string, organ, and the pianos sound that I been looking for. The price is very acceptable.The only complaint was the the shiping price from UPS to Puerto Rico besides that I close my eyes and feel very proud with my new love the SP4-7..........

Kurtzweil SP4-7

I bought this keyboard recently and I really feel very honored for the string, organ, and the pianos sound that I been looking for. The price is very acceptable.The only complaint was the the shiping price from UPS to Puerto Rico besides that I close my eyes and feel very proud with my new love the SP4-7..........

This ones a keeper!

The sounds are excellent, the organ is much improved over the SP3. The attention to detail is phenomenal, as a controller they just didn't give you 4 independent zones, they made them easy to setup and you can enable and disable zones on the fly. So each setup is in affect 4 variations of that setup! The board is light, but solid! Except for the end caps its fairly thick steel. The key action is excellent and you have 7 velocity curves. Want more or different sounds? Kurzweil doesn't stop after they release it, they are going to release an os update soon that will allow you to upload PC3 sounds even ones produced 3rd party.

Great sounds, great size

This is a terrific performance keyboard! It's small and light enough to schlep around to gigs, but still provides both great sounds and a usable master keyboard. The programming interface is a little off the beaten path, but is quite usable if you plan ahead. The MIDI control is better than some dedicated master keyboards. I've been looking for a second keyboard to cover a lot of bases in classic rock band, and this one does the job nicely.

One a 0-10 scale, using several $2-3K keyboards that I own as reference ...

Features: 7.5 -- great sounds and a rugged, semi-weighted keyboard in a small footprint for under $1200 leaves the SP4-7 with little or no real competition. Full-size Pitch and Mod Wheels are nice to have. The display is small, but very readable, even on a stage. This 76-key product is smaller than some 61-key competitors, yet I don't miss the extra 12 notes of a full 88. Splits and layers are easy to make. I wish it had a few more controls for live use.

Sound: 8 -- great acoustic pianos, brass, and strings. Very good Rhodes, decent Wurli, fair Clavinet and Hammond Organ. Not a lot of synth sounds, but there are some useful ones, and you can layer them to make more complicated lead patches. If you know someone with a PC3 or PC3LE, they could make more sounds for you. The only reason that it doesn't get a '9' or '10' is the library is kind of small (so far, anyway).

MIDI Control: 9 -- four zones, which can operate locally, or send separate channels of MIDI to external modules. Each zone can react differently to pedals, the Mod Wheel, and the control knob. The only thing that would make it better would be 4-5 knobs; the round-robin selector button isn't all that live-performance friendly.

Programming: 5.5 -- You can get what you need out of this keyboard, but the programming interface is far from intuitive. Also, there aren't many editable parameters: You can change the delay level, for example, but if you want a different delay *time*, it probably requires a new patch -- which can't be generated from the SP4-7. In addition, while each patch has five adjustable parameters (timbre, modulation, envelope, effect, and reverb), most of the current patches only provide 1-2 adjustable items. If you have access to another Kurzweil keyboard from the SP3 family (and the newest OS), you can build patches on the other keyboard and download them to the SP4-7. For the rest of us, we're stuck with the onboard patches, and 64 more that are on Kurzweil's website.

Reliability: 8.5 -- I haven't had it that long, but the chassis is very solid and the keys feel substantive. Not a lot of things sticking up means not a lot to break on the gig.

Excellent controller WITH great sounds

This is one terrific package. I love the light weight action, perfect for ostinatos that I write for orchestral sampled libraries. I actually bought this simply to replace my StudioLogic VMK188 because I found its action too heavy for 90% of what I do (mostly film scoring) and thought the SP4-7 would be better suited. what I hadn't bargained for was how superior the SP4 is as a controller. Setting up zones, controllers, pedals, is in fact more flexible and quicker than the VMK which was a dedicated controller. I'm also loving the built in sounds that I figured would be a nice addition but hadn't planned on using them. Now, I'm using them on almost all of my tracks. I created a combination custom Setup using the glock and piano to create a patch that almost totally sounds like my Omnisphere sound. Terrific! My only beef is that some of the keys sort of stick when first played after a time of not playing the board. The M-Audio Axiom line also suffers from this but I expected Kurzweil to be better than M-Audio as far as quality goes. The action of the PC3LE is a bit better for non-weighted action but that's $400 more and only a 5 octave board.

My favorite gig board

I've had the SP4-7 for about four months and use it for live work - rehearsals and gigs - 2 to 3 times each week.  I carry it in a Nord gig bag with backpack straps and the schlep factor for this board is EXCELLENT: lightweight with a small footprint.  I had been searching for a good sounding, light-weight, semi-weighted, 76 key board for gigs and the Kurzweil is perfect for my uses.  

What I like: I like the less is more approach.  I don't personally use but a fraction of the 1000's of patches on my other workstation-type boards.  The SP4-7 has 192 sound with 64 of those being user slots.  The 64 'new' sounds made available on the Kurzweil site are excellent, are some of my favorites, AND easily changed out via USB through the computer.  I especially like the Wurlys, Strings, Pianos, Synths and Mellotrons.  All of the sounds are easily split/layered/zoned in user setups where you can also assign a nice selection of effects (they are preset effects, but you can control the amount of send to each of 4 zones...).  This is a good controller with full MIDI functionality for controlling external gear.  I like the semi-weighted keys, in general, and find them to be a good compromise for piano vs. synth or organ.  The board is mostly made out of metal - not plastic - thank you Kurzweil!

What I like less: The Mod wheel squeaks as does the included pedal.  The screen is small: but the navigation system is logical.  However, scrolling through the 900-some effects is ridiculous and programming complex setups can be fiddly.  There is no software available to interface the SP4-7 with your computer, so everything must be programmed on the board.  The control knob - like the screen - is functional, but not great for real time performance use as you have to scroll down to the parameter you want to get to.  The CC pedals I own don't work well (Yamaha and Roland) so I ended up buying the Kurzweil CC pedal - cheaply made.  Time will tell how it holds up.

I did have the board develop a strange anomaly where the Mod wheel would stop working and the user setups would become inaccessible.  Kurzweil tech support is awesome!  They were very prompt and responsive and helped me get it sorted out quickly via email and phone calls.

In summary, this continues to be a great gigging board for me - light weight, well built, great sounds (with the ability to swap out 64 of those sounds), programmable enough (with splits, layers and effects), some real time tweakability and great customer service.

Almost excellent

I did alot of research on 76 key "stage-friendly" synths, and the SP4-7 came out as the best choice. I already have Roland and Alesis units, and Kurzweil's reputation along with the capabilities seemed near perfect. My only complaint, however, is a big one for me personally. Synthesizers, by their very nature, should be able to work outside the norm sound wise as compared to an electric piano or dedicated organ. The SP4-7 will not hold sustain on any organ patches except for pipes. This is the only synth that I am aware of which has this limitation. Since I compose prog rock, that lack is a real hindrance. Even with the rest of the great sounds, I would not have bought it had I known this.

Good keyboard for the price, and lightweight -

I've been waiting for a lightweight (25 lbs or less) that can do good piano and electric piano sounds, as well as a reasonable selection of other instruments. The pianos seem to get mixed reviews, but they work fine for me - I particularly like the grand. I agree with the poster above that the sides of the keys are poorly designed and the rough edges can scratch you - this is the biggest detraction, in my view, but I seem to have gotten used to it - it doesn;t really bother me any more.

BTW, if you need a soft case, the Nord Electro 3 case fits it like a glove - literally.

rough edges detract

I thought I finally found the perfect instrument. It's nice and portable and the action is okay. It has some good, usable sounds. But I use a lot of octaves in the right hand and guess what -- the undersides of the key corners, which your fingers brush against, are scratchy and abrasive. I've owned Korg, Yamaha, Roland, Casio (Privia) and this is the first time I've experienced a keyboard that was actually painful to play! It's such a shame as it is otherwise a decent gigging keyboard. I will either try to take some fine sandpaper to the keys or return it so that I'm not bleeding by the end of the next Latin gig. I'm surprised that Kurzweil wouldn't have some pianists test out their designs -- after all this time! But if you don't play a lot of one-hand octaves you may not need to worry about this.