# Anyone know the Kurzweil K2500/K2600?



## Nick Batzdorf (Jun 13, 2015)

Anyone out there know anything about the Kurzweil K2500 (or K2600)? If so, do you know whether it's possible to install programs if your disk drive controller is kaput, i.e. without a disk drive?

I had to have one of my EPROMs replaced and all the Contemporary and Orchestral programs are gone. While I haven't used them for years - I just use the instrument as a controller - it annoys me that it's not working right after spending all that money to have it repaired.

TIA


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## re-peat (Jun 14, 2015)

Nick Batzdorf @ Sun Jun 14 said:


> (...) whether it's possible to install programs if your disk drive controller is kaput, i.e. without a disk drive? (...)


Nick,

I suppose you can do that with Editor/Librarian-software like, for example, SoundQuest's K2500 Editor, no?
(I don't know if this is good software, but apparently, it is compatible with OS 10.9, which seems to indicate that it still has been receiving some fairly recent attention from its developer, unlike many other software editors/librarians.)

_


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jun 14, 2015)

Thanks re-. The problem is that you can't use SysEx for the stock programs, it turns out, and that's what editor/libs use.

I'm hoping I can use SCSI - and that the removable media SCSI drive I have in my closet will power up.  And that the SCSI controller isn't broken too.


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## Luca Capozzi (Jun 15, 2015)

I used to have 3 of them in the past.. as far as I remember, you need the disk in order to load the ROM's presets and settings. Theoretically should work with a SCSI iomega Zip drive as well, but never tried. Did you tried with an hard reset? If you only replaced the ROMs, this should work.. but will wipe all of your custom patches and combis.


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## mark.warman (Jun 15, 2015)

I own several of these keyboards, using them in West End theatre shows for almost 20 years. You can definitely load these programs in using any SCSI hard drive (including ZIP and JAZ - remember them!) or CD-ROM. I've done this on many occasions.


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## NYC Composer (Jun 15, 2015)

If it doesn't work, Nick, I'll bet the strings and brass rack mount modules can be had somewhere on eBay for a song  we had a K250 and the modules back in the day.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jun 15, 2015)

Thanks everyone, much appreciated.

Larry, I have two retired K250s in my garage, a 1000PX unplugged in a rack....and the ROMs inside the K2500X. The whole point is that I want to have the keyboard working properly, not that I want to use the programs.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jun 15, 2015)

Mark, I do remember them well, and I may be PM-ing you for help.


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## NYC Composer (Jun 15, 2015)

Nick Batzdorf @ Mon Jun 15 said:


> Thanks everyone, much appreciated.
> 
> Larry, I have two retired K250s in my garage, a 1000PX unplugged in a rack....and the ROMs inside the K2500X. The whole point is that I want to have the keyboard working properly, not that I want to use the programs.



Wow! You bought into Kurzweil the way I bought into the Roland 700 series back in the day. I had a bunch of 'em.


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## chimuelo (Jun 15, 2015)

Great old hardware still works after decades of use.
They don't make it to last like that anymore, totally different business model for Roland and Yamaha.
I still have 3 hardware sequencers, 2 use FDDs and the QX-1 uses the Floppy 5 1/4" disks. Still works great, never crashed from 1984 in Osaka through 1997 in Vegas.
The Roland MC-500MKII is also tip top shape still.
As a matter of fact the only repair I ever did was the Power cable on the QX-1.
After so many years it crunch-ied and needed a replacement.

Hell the QWERTY keys are all black from me using that thing so much.

First time I saw a Kurzweil was a model I forgot the number of. It was 1985 and the thing was huge, guy said it cost him 10 large.

I bet that beast still works too....


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## NYC Composer (Jun 15, 2015)

That was the K250, bro.


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## chimuelo (Jun 15, 2015)

OK. Came with the built in MIDIboard released later by itself.
What a kick butt piece of Tech.

It's why I get worked up when someone takes a chance and builds a board that maybe might sell 1000 units....

Don't ever sell it Nick..


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jun 15, 2015)

I don't plan on selling it!

One of my K250s belonged to Chick Corea, by the way. I have the road cases with Elektrik Band screened on them.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jun 15, 2015)

By the way, mark.warman, not only do I remember Zip, I have one - and a Castlewood Orb, and a Syquest Syjet. 

The Castlewood Orb starts up. Now I have to find a SCSI cable - the right now - and start up the Mac 9600 or G4 in my garage. One of those should have working SCSI.

See? There's a reason not to throw away stuff you'll use once 15 years later.


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## mark.warman (Jun 16, 2015)

Me? I never get rid of industry-standard hardware I've acquired over the years. To this day I'm happy to use those un-crashable workhorses in place of fragile consumer laptops if the gig doesn't demand the latest legato-sampled multi-mic-position libraries. In fact, there's a valid argument that for live playing, the simpler memory-efficient libraries created for the Akai, Roland and Kurzweil sample platform actually give back to the player far more of the musical expression he's trying to put in with his fingers! Too many random triggerings of an unwanted RR or legato connection can rapidly take the fun out of performing with these more recent multi-gigabyte instruments.


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## ag75 (Jun 16, 2015)

Broadway shows used them for years and I have programmed a few shows with them. SCSI ZIP/JAZ will work. They are great keyboards but very outdated at this point, and the key weights break often.

Do you know about the Pong game easter egg? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7TffABZR9w

Check it out, pretty cool.


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## mark.warman (Jun 16, 2015)

You're right about the key weight problem, which is why I never send those boards out on a touring show. However, Kurzweil made rack module versions of the K2600 which work brilliantly when controlled over MIDI by a more robust modern keyboard action from other manufacturers. I've fitted my K2600Rs with small internal SSDs for sample storage and they perform very reliably on the road. For theatre shows, the Kurzweil method of program numbering/selection/deletion/insertion has never been bettered and I continue to use them in many situations where the pit player (or his deputy) wants to interact with an instrument rather than a computer screen.


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## NYC Composer (Jun 16, 2015)

It's glaringly obvious that none of you live in a tiny apartment in NYC.

(Okayokay, so I can't throw away my G5. Or my G4. Or my Roland XP-30. Or the 8 or 9 100 gig Firewire drives in cases....but everything else is in its final resting place somewhere, especially the failed Jaz and Zip drives and 650 MO drives and dozens of failed disks....wait a minute- there are some 10k SCSI drives in the G4....I wonder if...hmmm.... )


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jun 16, 2015)

> the simpler memory-efficient libraries created for the Akai, Roland and Kurzweil sample platform actually give back to the player far more of the musical expression he's trying to put in with his fingers



That's especially true when you're playing samples with a wind controller.

Mark, what more robust modern keyboard actions do you use? I'm not up on them, and all I read are the same complaints that have plagued keyboard controllers since the beginning.


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## gbar (Jun 16, 2015)

Nick Batzdorf @ Tue Jun 16 said:


> By the way, mark.warman, not only do I remember Zip, I have one - and a Castlewood Orb, and a Syquest Syjet.
> 
> The Castlewood Orb starts up. Now I have to find a SCSI cable - the right now - and start up the Mac 9600 or G4 in my garage. One of those should have working SCSI.
> 
> See? There's a reason not to throw away stuff you'll use once 15 years later.



I have a SCSI 1 CDROM and a whopping 1G IBM SCSI 1 hard drive (left, blocked by the cheap condenser mic). I'd offer to sell them to you, but I think they are hard to find, and I might want to play the Emulator E-synth they are connected to some day.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jun 16, 2015)

Yeah, you should definitely keep them. That actually wouldn't solve my problem anyway.

It turns out the SCSI port on the K2500 works fine. I just have to dig through the garage and find an ADB keyboard before I figure out whether my PowerMac 9600 still boots up. 

Well, that's the first step in the dance....


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## mark.warman (Jun 16, 2015)

I can recommend the current crop of Yamaha 88-note weighted keyboards - S90XS, MOXF8 and MOTIF XF8. Not my favourite action, but they seem to stand up to touring life pretty well.


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## ag75 (Jul 9, 2015)

mark.warman said:


> You're right about the key weight problem, which is why I never send those boards out on a touring show. However, Kurzweil made rack module versions of the K2600 which work brilliantly when controlled over MIDI by a more robust modern keyboard action from other manufacturers. I've fitted my K2600Rs with small internal SSDs for sample storage and they perform very reliably on the road. For theatre shows, the Kurzweil method of program numbering/selection/deletion/insertion has never been bettered and I continue to use them in many situations where the pit player (or his deputy) wants to interact with an instrument rather than a computer screen.




It's rather hard finding the old rack modules these days I'm afraid. But agreed. The best for Show Programming.


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