(image from kurzweilmusicsystems.com )
Contemporary ROM Soundblock
K2000 sound expansion chip with
pop/rock/new age/jazz/fusion etc. samples
(image from kurzweilmusicsystems.com )
|
The Kurzweil K2000 Contemporary ROM Soundblock is a ROM chip containing many new samples and patches for the K2000. It features 100 new programs (typically loaded in the "800" Program directory) and 50 new Setups (also typically loaded in the "800" Setup directory), but of course it's possible to use this chip as the base for custom sounds. Since this expansion is ROM, there is nothing to load, and the programs and setups are readily available as soon as the synthesizer boots up. The quality of this board is outstanding - Quite a few years have passed since its original release, but even today, these are some really high-quality samples and programs, and a superb addition to a K2000 series synth. The electric guitars, Clavinet, percussion, and brass in particular are incredibly realistic... but all the other sounds are very good as well. |
|
|
One thing I noticed early on, is how well all these new sounds "gel" together when they are recorded in the same mix. The Kurzweil engineers have done a great job of meticulously sampling all the nuances and tonal character of each instrument, and present them in a way that is extremely playable, recordable, and ultimately, very enjoyable for a musician/keyboard player. Check out some of the sounds from this expansion chip. |
|
Programs
| Program name with audio demo | My comments |
| 800 Jungle Jam | Great smorgasbord of all kinds of percussion. |
| 801 Mbira Stack | Very nice patch. |
| 803 Prepared Mbira | Wonderful program that samples well the African instrument and mixes it with metal percussion |
| 805 World Jam 1 | More excellent world percussion |
| 808 India Jam | Superb patch with tablas, sitar - excellent expressivity thanks to the velocity and aftertouch |
| 809 Slo Wood Flute | Beautiful wooden flute |
| 811 Chiff Brass Lead | Classic Fusion lead sound, a la Roland D-50 |
| 813 Prs Koto | Aftertouch engages the pitch effects on this nice koto patch |
| 816 Kotobira | Cross between koto and mbira? |
| 819 Perc Pan Lead | Very cool patch - optimal for New Age, or Fusion solos |
| 823 Dyno EP Lead | Another nice Fusion type sound |
| 825 Super Clav | Realistic Hohner Clavinet |
| 827 Touch Clav | Great Clavinet with filter applied |
| 829 Rad Rotor | Nice new organ with rotor effect - |
| 831 Perc Organ | A very groovy organ with rotor effect, very gritty and 1960s rock sounding |
| 832 Drawbar Organ CS | Cool 1950s organ - the CS slider modifies the harmonic content |
| 833 Bebop Alto Sax | Very realistic contralto saxophone |
| 835 Soprano Sax | A very good soprano sax patch |
| 837 Air Reeds CS | Mainly a good accordion, by sliding the CS slider up, it becomes a very, very good harmonica! |
| 838 Jazz Muted Trp | Typical sound a la Miles Davis |
| 839 Jazz Lab Band | Superb, extremely realistic jazz brass section |
| 842 Neo Stabs | Powerful synth brass, extremely 1980s |
| 843 Gtr Jazz Band | Bass, ride, kick and snare on the left hand; jazz guitar and CS-slider-triggered brass on the right - very cool ensemble, fun to play! |
| 844 Full Rock Band | :-D Very fun program that combines rock drums, guitar, and organ, all in one patch - super fun to play thanks also to the aftertouch that bends the guitar! |
| 845 World Rave Kit | Punchy drum sounds |
| 846 Punch Gate Kit | Solid snare |
| 847 Shadow Kit | Tight kit |
| 848 Fat Traps | Gluey drumset |
| 849 Generator Kit | Powerful |
| 851 Crowd Stomper | Hip Hoppish |
| 853 EDrum Kit 1 | Classic Roland TR-808 and other sounds |
| 854 EDrum Kit 2 | Classic Roland TR-909 and other sounds |
| 857 Two Live Bass | Extremely clean, nice electric bass |
| 860 Chirp Bass | Moogy |
| 861 DigiBass | 1980s FM bass |
| 863 Touch MiniBass | Mini style |
| 865 House Bass | Classic House bass of the late '80s/early '90s |
| 867 Straight Strat | One of the best samples on this board. Fantastic, expressive and hyper-realistic Stratocaster guitar. Mod wheel adds tremolo; CS slider brightness. |
| 869 Strataguitar | Clean rock guitar |
| 870 Elect 12 String | Yep - nice. |
| 871 Dyn Jazz Guitar | Realistic hollow-body |
| 872 Pedal Steel | Quite realistic |
| 873 Strummer DistGtr | Realistic guitar with just a bit of distortion |
| 874 Rock Axe | Typical hair guitar hero sound of the 1980s |
| 877 Attack Stack | Soulful synth ensemble |
| 879 Q Sweep SynClav | Very good, expressive synth Clavinet, with just the right amount of resonance of the filter - very 1970s funky |
| 881 Ballad Stack | Full |
| 882 Big Stack | Yep |
| 883 BrazKnuckles | Huge syn brass |
| 884 Hybrid Breath | Hypnotic |
| 885 Hybrid Stack | Quality synth stack |
| 888 Sizzl E Pno | Nice electric piano with voxy pad on top |
| 889 My JayDee | Fabulous bell synth, presumably inspired by the Roland JD-800/990 |
| 890 Slo SynthOrch | Classy pipes |
| 891 SpaceStation | Very nice rising, shimmering pad |
| 894 Mandala | Scary a bit. |
| 897 Koreana Pad | Beautiful, ethereal and fluffy synth pad |
| 898 Tangerine | Psychedelic pad |
| 899 Planet 9 | Perfect pad for sci-fi effects |
Setups
| Setup name with audio demo | My comments |
| 800 Dark Jungle | Quality setup with dark pad and world percussion |
| 805 Stackz | Fat, creamy synth brass |
| 809 Perc Body & Pad | Wonderful melancholic breathy pad, with somber electric guitar on the left of the keyboard |
| 812 Hot Sauce | Cuban jazz |
| 814 Mystic | Nice bells over a bed of ominous synth |
| 816 Trippy Planet | Beautiful, different pad, with plenty of LFOs/movement |
| 822 Amber Pad | Ravishing soft steam pad |
| 825 Plucky Toys | Nice bells with pad |
| 828 Low C Groove | Cool percussion loop on the left, and slap bass on the right, Quite the "Seinfeld" setup. |
| 832 Ancient Future | Beautiful and cinematic. |
| 841 Hybrid Split | The K2000 does synth brass well. |
| 843 Mega Drawbars | Nice Hammond with Leslie. |
| 844 Glory Days | Presumably inspired by the keyboard sounds in Bruce Springsteen's song. |
| 845 Retro Rock | Typical 1960s soft rock set. |
| 849 In The Trenches | Vicious distorted guitar and a bell/vox pad |
| 850 Foggy Bells | Cool bells and synth. |
The Contemporary ROM Soundblock came with an additional diskette that offered many more programs. Many of these extra programs are standouts, especially the tone wheel organs! Check out audio demos from this diskette:
Contemporary ROM Programs and Demos diskette
| Patch name with audio demo | My comments |
| ADEMO1 dir. | |
| CS DIST B3 | Solid Hammond B-3 through distortion |
| CS MUTE GT | Cool reggae style palm-muted electric guitar |
| KIT 5 | Cool 1980s drumkit, very Fine Young Cannibals |
| ADEMO2 dir. | |
| CS Bongosynth | Wild solo synth |
| CS DIST LEAD | Realistic distorted electric guitar |
| FLANJ VOX | Digi pad with flanger |
| KIT 1 | Drum kit with delay fx |
| ADEMO3 dir. | |
| ACIDBATHGRAND | Crazy effect |
| POKES | More craziness |
| Tron 1 | The K2000 can turn ugly |
| ANASYNTH dir. | |
| 229 Arp Rise 2 | Reso rise inspired by some ARP synth |
| BIPHAZE SAWZ | Fat waves |
| EYE SAW I | Incredibly large synth stack - very analog sounding |
| MINI PHAZE | 1980s cool Minimoog |
| SEM PULSED | Pulse wave inspired by Oberheim S.E.M. modules |
| TRANCE MISSION 1 | Cool detuned synth |
| TRANCE MISSION 2 | variant |
| WARM OLD SAW | Tasty analog syn brass |
| BASS dir. | |
| Anabass 3 | Fat syn bass |
| Bass 0 | Groovy picked bass via flanger |
| House Bass 1 | Yep |
| Minibass 4 | Aggressive synth bass |
| Mut Bass | Ok |
| Twangy 2 | Ok |
| BRASSWND dir. | |
| Bad Sax prs pw | Expressive saxophone |
| Wendy's pan | the cool breathy flute sample |
| DRUMS dir. | |
| EDrums 1 | Hip Hop 808 |
| EDrums 2 | Dancey 909 |
| Kit 1 | Solid traps |
| Kit 15 | F o n k y |
| Kit 2 | '80s |
| Kit 7 | Fat |
| ELECTGTR dir. | |
| Eruption | Presumably inspired by Van Halen's song |
| Grunged 2 | Distortions. |
| Rick N. Backer | Rickenbacker emulation, very nice |
| Rock Axe 2 mono | Typical feedback |
| Super Komp | Sweet clean electric guitar |
| ETHPERC dir. | |
| Misc Ethnic | Maghreb |
| Temple Bells 3 | The East |
| Tibetan Thing | Mystical |
| HYBSYNTH dir. | |
| HEAVEN STACK 1 | Typical Roland D-50 sounds |
| HISS POWER | Powerful |
| Majic Stack | Hard synth brass |
| POrck Pad | Classic digi synths of the '90s |
| Sing Atlantis CS | Nice and different |
| Swirlite 2 | Soft pad, nice. |
| THE SYNBRASS | More excellent K2000 brass |
| KEYBOARD dir. | |
| Clav 1 | Very good Hohner Clavinet patch |
| Mellow Rotor | Classy Hammond organ with Leslie engaged via modulation wheel |
| Organ 1 | Slow rotor action |
| Perc Organ 2 | Cuts through the mix |
| Phase Clav | Yep |
| Soft Organ | In a small chapel on a mountain |
| Tone Whl Organ 1 | F A N T A S T I C patch of Hammond organ with Leslie - excellently programmed!!! |
| Tone Whl Organ 2 | Same as above!!! |
| Wah Clav 1 | Yes |
| LOOPS dir. | |
| 7-4 Loopy | percussion loop in 7/4 |
| loop 1 | ok |
| loop 14 | weird loop |
| loop 9 | Lots of drum |
| Saw Loop 3 | Cool loop done with waveforms |
| SYNTHTEX dir. | |
| Air Pad 2 | Stupendous atmospheric soft pad - perfect for New Age / Ambient / Chillout music. |
| BrassyFluty Lead | Fusiony |
| LO SAWVOX | Ok |
| MEDDLE RUB | Dark and beautiful |
| Multi Lead 2 | More Fusion synth brass |
| Pad 4 | Moving pad |
| SUBMERGED | Huge metallic pad |
| Yoo Lead | Wild reso and vibrato |
| Kurzweil K2000 Contemporary ROM Soundblock | |
| Year of release: | 199_ |
| Polyphony: | |
| Sound generation method: | |
| Preset memories | |
| MIDI: | |
| Sound expansion capabilities: | |
| Sequencer | |
| Arpeggiator | |
| Effects | |
| Velocity | |
| Aftertouch | |
| Misc | |
Resources:
| SITE | Type of resource | DESCRIPTION |
| Manufacturer site | home page | |
Kurzweil K2000 Contemporary ROM Soundblock with audio demo - January 28, 2009