(image from kurzweilmusicsystems.com )
Orchestral ROM Soundblock
K2000 sound expansion chip with
orchestral samples
(image from kurzweilmusicsystems.com )
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The Kurzweil K2000 Orchestral ROM Soundblock is a ROM chip containing many new samples and patches for the K2000. It features 100 new programs (typically loaded in the "900" Program directory) and 50 new Setups (also typically loaded in the "900" 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 focus of this board is Orchestral samples, lots of them - and all absolutely of very high quality. The brass are outstanding, but so are percussion, guitars, solo strings, and many others. |
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This soundblock provides fantastic, realistic, quality instruments to compose orchestral music, but also New Age, soundtrack scoring, commercials etc. Check out some of the sounds from this expansion chip. |
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Programs
| Program name with audio demo | My comments |
| Excellent patch, with great dynamic expressivity. High quality orchestral cymbals appear by pressing the keys harder on the left side of the keyboard. | |
| Quintessential Vivaldian orchestra | |
| Romantic set | |
| Deliciously realistic piccolo flute | |
| Very realistic flute | |
| Dry version | |
| Beautiful, expressive oboe | |
| and variant | |
| Cool English horn | |
| Woody and realistic | |
| Realistic | |
| Sweet woodwinds | |
| Typical Aaron Copland style trumpet | |
| Awesomely realistic and with very natural vibrato | |
| Lovely French horns. The Modulation Wheel acts on the filter brightness | |
| Cool section | |
| Highly realistic | |
| I've always loved this instrument. | |
| Good | |
| Lower | |
| Brassy | |
| Realistic and expressive thanks to velocity, aftertouch, mod wheel, controller slider | |
| Nice | |
| Beautiful sounding viola | |
| Ok | |
| Low and deep | |
| Nicely sampled strings | |
| Smaller | |
| Yep | |
| Sweet strings | |
| Beautiful and realistic | |
| Very expressive | |
| yep | |
| Classy instrument | |
| Cool layout of the keys | |
| Very nice. | |
| Nice pipe organ | |
| Powerful pipe organ with mighty pedal sounds | |
| Crispy clear bells | |
| Lovely instrument! | |
| Nice | |
| Nice split | |
| Other nice split | |
| Outstanding samples | |
| Perfect. | |
| Cool percussion | |
| In a great room | |
| More excellent percussion | |
| Very tight snare kit | |
| Oh yes. | |
| Beautiful hybrid - synth and real orchestra | |
| Perfect for New Age and Ambient | |
| Superb atmospheric pad | |
| Large section | |
| Fusion solo synth | |
| Very nice, spacious pad | |
| Stellar pad | |
| The perfect pad |
Setups
| Setup name with audio demo | My comments |
| Typical American brassy setup. | |
| Nice | |
| Inspired by the famous ballet music | |
| A walk on the jazzy side | |
| Patriotic setup | |
| Beautiful, expressive setup | |
| Awesome and fun to play | |
| Nice delays | |
| The zombies are coming out. | |
| More jazzy material | |
| Middle-Eastern | |
| Very nice and expressive | |
| Sweet classical | |
| Beauty and perfect for many genres | |
| Nice, happy and bouncy setup!!! | |
| Yep | |
| Perfect for movie scoring | |
| Relaxed, excellent cool jazz set | |
| Nice | |
| The most classic jazz set: the piano, contrabass and drums trio | |
| Yep! |
The Orchestral ROM Soundblock came with a supplemental diskette that offered demo songs and many more programs.
Orchestral ROM Supplemental Disk
| Patch name with audio demo | My comments |
| ACT1DEMO | |
| HJ Blockbuster | Superb demo song showcasing the realism of the patches on board |
| HJ ClassicalTune | Great solo instruments on this chip |
| HJ Modern Orch | More modern offerings |
| ACT2DEMO | |
| PH Movie 1 | Great also for cinema scores |
| KEYBRDS | |
| Baroquen Trio | Yep |
| Flute Pipes 1 | Intimate chapel organ |
| STRSECT | |
| Bright Orchestra | Quality samples |
| Dynamic Strings | Full-bodied strings |
| WWINDS | |
| Woodwinds w-Str1 | Sad strings |
The Orchestral ROM Soundblock also came with a diskette containing the standard GM SoundSet. This diskette is particularly useful to compose music for the media - since Roland's GM is the standard.
The K2000 Orchestral ROM also came with a sticker, that one could attach to the keyboard to indicate it was expanded with such ROM:
| Kurzweil K2000 Orchestral 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 Orchestral ROM Soundblock with audio demo - January 28, 2009