This exactly what I was looking for, hammer action, excellent pianos, beautiful Rhodes, amazing pads, what else’s does one need? Where are these manufactured?
Hello and thank you for this video! Sorry this is a long message, please read as your answer will significantly effect my purchase decision. I am considering this Kurzweil Forte SE 88 over a few other keyboards. I am looking for the 'highest quality' Fatar key bed along with fantastic piano sound and a compliment of delicious strings, horns, voices, synths etc. Having said that, my first inclination is the Nord Piano 3. However, although the pianos are inspirationally fantastic on the Nord, and the action quite good, the other tones are not so great - strings, horns, woodwinds etc.. I went to Kurzweil website and listened to this Forte SE. I felt it was phenomenal in ll regards...but what about the key bed/action...say, compared to the Nord P3? It really needs to be close to a real piano as I can get. (like many others) Just to give you an idea of where I'm coming from: I have had every Roland in the RD series except the NX and the new 2000 (not interested in the RD-2000 - PHA-4 action is excellent; suspect PHA 50 is too). I've had the Kurzweil PC3x; PC3A; PC376; PC88MX and the SP8...also the Korg Kronos (RH3 action, not reliable); and many Yamaha digital piano slabs (quite good - but Piano tone no longer current by today's standards). I am considering this board (Forte SE); the Artis (full), though a bit dated), the new Roland FP60 - (great for the price); the Nord NP3, and the new Kurzweil SP6. Given all that info, can you help me at all with making sense of this and finally pulling the trigger on the right board. Price 'does' factor into (at the time of this wring my inclination is leading towards the subject of this video - the Kurzweil Forte SE 88 - especially since the price has been lowered which is often a precursor to the end of the product line. I am a classically trained pianist by definition but play out a lot with pop music. Thank you so much if you respond! Videos such as yours are sooooo helpful i cannot convey, ~RScott
Hi Scott, your request is really very specific, I think the simplest solution is that of a Kurzweil ... although there are many interesting sounds even in North Stage 3 ... you also have to evaluate the prices. Personally I think the most complete stage piano is the Roland Rd2000
Thank you so much, I so appreciate your reply. I think for me it might be time to move on from Roland (having had so many) - though I love Roland. But I find the RD-2000 to have too many lights that are visually distracting to me as I play, and the SuperNatural piano tones are getting a little long in the tooth, given the current options. So I've eliminated that choice. I do very much appreciate your response though and understand that my question was quite detailed and specific. Thank you nonetheless. I am really thinking about this Kurzweil over the Nord NP3 since the additional tones are superb in addition to a very excellent piano, while the price has recently been lowered. I'm still trying to figure out if I can download and install addition quality piano tones from the Kurzweil website - the samples seem to be limited. Any info on that would be appreciated. best always, Robert
+RScott S the forte action is quite light....not comparable with roland rd or kronos, is the same brand of nord instruments (fatar keybeds), this is also because forte se has been designed to be highly compact and portable (18.5 kg) whereas pc series where 24 kg....it is not easy to build an instrument with great weighted action and a lightweight frame. in terms of sounds nord has better piano and electric piano samples, they are tons and all free of charge simply go on site and download them....and library keep growing on. kurzweil has less samples and a little bit outdates but...they are expressive and musically good....the real core feature is vast synthesis and kdfx, which allows highly customizable sounds, so the this is the real advantages of kurzweil. so if i had to choose a key only for playing rhodes wurli and pianos i'll go to nord...which is also straightforward whereas vast is very complex even for a thing like changing reverb type or add a chorus to a piano. forte se is and highly portable and complete synthesizer, with incredible synthesis power inside and sleek design.
+RScott S no problem....i think kurzweil has a middle character it sounds american and western like also nord or emu/ensoniq whereas roland and japaneses retain often such a "crystal" character....sounding overprocessed and often thin....for ex...i had kronos for two years, preset combis were nice when you wore headphones alone....but let's try to fit them in a mix of a song, doesnt work you lose it....leave off FX and sound turns completely like a cheesy toy key. kurzweil has less spectacular presets but with few adjustments they fit well in a song, always had this impression even with K series it sound good even without too much fx....todays i use quite only analogue synthesizers, but kurzweil maybe is the only modern digital that I could be use in those kind of tasks (sound design), and is also an excellent live keyboard and controller. montage is another good synthesizer but only for FMX side and is way complex (not easy to program a pure fm synthesizer for everyone), and also the 88 version is 29 kg...not compact nor easy to be moved.
yes it has....but was added after so there is no a button "song mode" like K or PC3 models. However in global mode there is a soft button with SONG labeled and this bring you direct to the sequencer page, which is essentially the same as other kurzweil models.
