I guess my Artis sounds just as great as the new, more expensive unit! I can't hear much difference on my Grado headphones here! Thanks…I feel much better now!
Wait a sec. what am I missing here: they are both made by Kurzweil. The Forté sells for roughly twice what the Artis sells for. Are you people who say the Artis sounds better just proud Artis Owners who want their baby to be prettier? Or are you saying Kurzweil screwed up and introduced a more expensive big brother that doesn’t sound as good? This is Kurzweil we are talking about. IMHO (and I’m willing to bet I could be fooled in a blindfold test) the Forté sounds deeper and richer and more natural, and the Artis sounds more “transistor-ish”. As though it was truncating waves or over-dithering them to compensate for having less wavetable memory. Am I the )not one hearing the more “harsh” breaking of the Artis waves?
Boy, you can only have an absolute ear, because I didn’t notice that difference in wave. Artis sounds better in several tones shown in the video. I don't have either, but now I'm going to exchange my Kurzweil SP6 for Artis, great value for money. I'm not even sure if Kurzweil made the new Forte, but not so "strong" to justify the price.
The Forte has all the rom samples of pc3k and kore 64 plus artis 128 mb german grand and new large samples (two ac pianos, two rhodes, wurlitzer, clavinet, harpsichord, celesta and some more).....we can prove that simply install free editor and mess around with wave memory. So that means simply ARTIS is completely inside the Forte, you have the 128 mega german plus the old triple strike piano of pc3.....so you can with forte create the same programs of artis! I dont know...how can you say things like "artis is better?" whereas artis is simply the downgraded version of forte???? Seriously....wash your ears and read the specs before talkin' about instruments.
kyma1999x First, you should really calm down. Now, to some facts: You are wrong when you say that an Artis is inside Forte. The Forte doesn't have the 128 Mb German Grand. Instead, it uses the very same samples but unlooped. And an additional Japanese Grand on top of that among other new samples which are listed on the kurzweil website. In other words: the Artis uses the German Grand piano from the Forte but in the form of looped samples and probably not every single note. Probably, it's easy to check that. The second thing: when I listen the comparison of the German Grand piano from this clip, I also have the impression that the Artis sounds better (to my taste) regarding the piano. Somehow with more brilliance. That has nothing to do with my ears and specs do not help when we judge the sounds. I own an Artis7. And my main piano that I use for every single song on stage is... the old, "ancient" 12Mb (!!!) TripleStrike Piano because it simply cuts better thru the mix than the german grand which is 11 times bigger in size but is completely useless for me in my pop/rock band.
you are really ignorant about the subject man you probably don't know anything about kurzweil. forte HAS ARTIS PIANO...in the editor you can find Artis German grand....same keymap...and of course you have the new german unlooped and japanese yamaha pianos, plus old triple strike. but forte has also three new electric piano samples, completely new, plus a new celesta, new clavinet etc...new SAMPLES (not only patches). Artis has a total of apx 180 mega of samples inside... forte has 16 giga and this is only the starting point, because forte can load up to 3.3 giga of CUSTOM NEW SAMPLES, same technology of pc3k but bigger and faster. so in total is about 20 giga versus 180 mega of artis xD, and don't forget the extra processing power, 32 PAUs of FX processing double of pc3k series....and color display...and live processing of external input signals. if you like old triple strike more than new samples it's simply your opinion surely you are not a geek in setting audio equipment because triple strike doesnt cut better nothing. but it is untrue that artis is same as forte....forte and forte7 are the most powerful keyboards made by kurzweil, in terms of memory and features, the only thing K series was superior is LIVE mode (vast processing of incoming audio signal....not kdfx...vast), and the sampling on board feature, but nowadays this is pointless you can sample and edit better with a mac or pc, and then import samples, in 1994 computers weren't able to handle sampling and professional digital audio natively. other thing, forte miss completely sequencing capabilities....but again, this is not important, everyone has a computer these days....and a basic version of cubase for 99 dollars has 64 audio tracks and 128 midi, why working with limited GUI on an integrated sequencer of a keyboard when you can work easily and faster with a modern computer and cubase (or logic) instead? the audio/midi editing power of a modern sequencer is truly immense....there's no reason to have on board sequencing facilities on a keyboard.
