Classic Synth Sample CD-ROM Kurzweil Sample Library

Format: Kurzweil only.
Review by: DasKreestof Chandley, 2001

Kurzweil's blurb about the CD:

"The Classic Synth CD-ROM reproduces the original factory program sets (and many other outstanding programs) of 13 different analog synthesizers and 7 digital synthesizers of the past. Our programmers got their hands on the original analog instruments and created Kurzweil emulations using either the VAST synthesis engine and/or sampling. Each Kurzweil emulation was A/B'd with the original synth and replicates the original program exactly (Requires a minimum of 4Mb SIMMs. For K2000, also requires v3 or higher). $299"

Introduction

The first high quality synth I bought was a Kurzweil K2000r. I bought it because Kurzweil's marketing said the advantage of the Kurzweil was that it could do almost every kind of synthesis. I wanted to buy ONE synth, so the idea of having a synth that could emulate all others was massively appealing. After some time I discovered that the Kurzweil couldn't emulate some sounds as well as I would like, because sometimes only a classic synths analog filter circuit will make that precise sound I was looking for. When that's the case, samples are the way to go. With this disk, Kurzweil promises to fulfill the dream of classic synth emulation. Do they? I can't answer the question "Are these synths right for you?" I'm just going to answer the question: Are they as accurate as Kurzweil's hype claims?

Overview

The Classic Synth library from Kurzweil combines the "legendary" Kurzweil analog synth collection with a new collection of Classic Digital synths. The strength of both libraries on this disk is the strength of the Kurzweil itself. Many of the programs contained on this disk contain no samples at all, and many contain layers from the Kurzweil engine and/or ROM along with samples. One of the advantages of this method is that many of the sample banks are surprisingly small and load fast. Another advantage is that any emulation made utilizing the VAST engine will be more flexible to altered modulations than anything dependent on a sample like a sampled filter sweep. The disadvantages are that you won't be able to port many of the programs to other samplers, and in some cases they are not a quite perfect emulation. This disk really showcases the strength of the Kurzweil VAST engine. Because Kurzweil made it for Kurzweils, the disk really makes use of VAST engine to make the programs expressive and dynamic. Many of the programs respond to velocity and other controllers. So the choice in these emulations was flexibility and small size vs. accuracy.

Accuracy

"Each Kurzweil emulation was A/B'd with the original synth and replicates the original program exactly"

This is, as you might expect, a complete lie. It has become quite common for manufacturers of Virtual Analogs, hard and soft, to claim they completely emulate another synth sounds exactly. Even a Matrix 1000 doesn't perfectly emulate a Matrix 6, so what chance does a digital synth have? They claim this disk faithfully recreates all of the presets of these synths. It would be more accurate to say this is an exaggeration, than a lie, and I can only blame marketing, not the programmers, who did a truly astounding and obviously very time-consuming job on this disk. There is an alternate version of the blurb that reads: "Great attention to detail was paid in the creation of the emulation programs. We A/B'd each program we created with the original synthesizer patch to create replicate the sounds from these classics synths exactly." Stated this way, it's not a claim of dead accurate emulation, but of working method. So when put this way it might be a truthful statement, regardless of poor grammar. Since I think the average buyer is still going to assume that this disk is dead accurate, I'm going to have to continue harping on this.

Quite often, sounds in the digital synth section sound like Kurzweil patches instead of the synths they are trying to emulate. An experienced Kurzweil programmer is going to recognize when the Kurzweil string ROMS samples are used. This might be forgivable since the Kurzweil string samples are of such good quality, but it goes to the "exact replication issue" again. I think it's a fine solution, but someone needing 100 percent accuracy might be angry as hell, because it's illegal to sell or return a sample CD.

In the analog collection, often the patches are close, but not dead-on accurate. Sometimes the patches are pretty off (see the examples below). This occurs more with the VAST DSP emulated analog synths than with the sampled analog or sampled digital synths. This difference is usually due to differences in the digital vs. analog sound of the filter, or the use of Kurzweil ROMs or VAST DSPs instead of samples. Once again, the advantage of going this route is faster load times and greater flexibility, and it's a testament to the power of VAST that this route is a fairly acceptable alternative.

Honesty may not sell product, but it does affect company reputation and repeat business. Honesty should be delivered to customers who are purchasing a non-returnable, non-transferable object. Kurzweil makes a promise of exact replication, and they don't keep it on much of this disk. Companies should be held accountable for these claims, because a single consumer doesn't have much of a chance of getting justice when they get ripped off this way. Only in intellectual property matters can consumers be so consistently defrauded. Until companies start offering money-back guarantees on products, especially in this price range, honesty should accompany the product. We expect it, and we should receive it. Perhaps we consumers need to make that clear. Marketing companies need to be honest, or held accountable.

It is possible to make completely accurate emulations of digital synths. I have an emulation of an SY 22 and I A/B'd it with a borrowed SY22. Most of the presets were so accurately emulated, across the keyboard, that I didn't know whether I was playing the emulation or the actual synth until I started playing with the joystick. (I was controlling the emulation with the SY22). I've got some perfect emulations of some rack mount digital gear as well. I'm not going to laundry list you, I'm just telling you it's possible to make emulations close enough for my demanding ears.

Some of the emulations on this disk are probably that accurate. But I don't own all of the synths, so I can't tell you if that's true. I'm certain that some are, but "some" aren't what marketing is claiming here.

Analog Collection

My suspicion is the presets that rely on samples are dead accurate. With a sample of a bass sound with a resonant filter drop you won't be able to change the timing of that filter drop, but it will at least be completely accurate. The makers of this disk often sampled things that had to be sampled. For example, the only way to accurately reproduce a SCI resonant filter drop is to sample it. No virtual analog filter is going to be 100 percent accurate. When I played the pro one basses, I felt like I was playing with Skinny Puppy's SCI Prophet 5 or SCI Pro One. It was the bass sound I'd been searching for all my life. It's definitely a more accurate emulation of these synths than Native Instruments Pro 52, but it lacks the flexibility, because it's sampled. They nailed the perfect settings on these samples though, so for me, no adjustment is needed.

If you don't have the Kurzweil Analog Collection, and you love analog synths, you should get this disk. The analog collection is very impressive. It's not always accurate, but it's a wonderful companion to the Kurzweil, and some of the samples are perfect.

Digital Collection

The digital collection uses several different methods of emulating synths. Some are pure VAST, some are mixed VAST, ROM and samples and some are pure sample-based. The D50 is the most fully emulated synth. Not only do you get all the presets, but all the ROM block choices as well. It's a pity they don't provide such a complete emulation of some of the other digital synths.

The problem for me isn't that the emulations of the digital synths aren't accurate, it's that the original presets of these synths weren't very useful for the work I do in the first place, and would require a lot of reprogramming to get the kind of sounds I could use. The D50 emulation is the best type of recreation to this end, because you have all the building blocks needed. It's a pity that the JD990 wasn't as fully emulated. Although I think what made that synth such a legend was its programmability, interface, and the characteristics of its filters, which would be lost in an emulation anyway. I wanted to like a single 990 patch, but didn't.

For me the real standout in the Digital Collection, besides the fantastic recreation of many of the drum sounds of the old Korg synths, is the DX7 collection. As a Kurzweil owner, one of the only areas of synthesis beyond your reach is advanced FM synthesis. Only a few years ago FM was considered dated and DX7s were going for a hundred bucks. Well like subtractive synthesis, FM is starting to make a comeback. FM gear prices are rising, and the DX7 collection shows you why. This collection relies on samples and is therefore probably completely accurate. The k2000 had advanced FM capabilities in its design stage, but this was removed before release to avoid Yamaha law suits. All Kurzweil users should join me and shake a fist at Yamaha because this feature would have been phenomenal. I know it would have because Kurzweil R&D sets the standard higher for the rest of the industry on every product they release.

The digital collection is probably of more of use to those that used to own one of these synths and need some of the presets back. It might also be quite useful to those trying to achieve a pop 80's sound, or looking for presets loaded with cheese. That said, I should once again add that the DX7 set is fantastic, and the Korg drum sounds are quite useable.

A/B comparisons

I've used many of the synths emulated, I've owned two, but currently I only own one. So I can only do A/B comparisons with the Oberheim Matrix 6. Now, to be fair, I own the Matrix 1000. The differences however, should help instead of hurt Kurzweil here. The differences between the Matrix 1000 and Matrix 6 are basically that the Matrix 6 is slightly fatter because it was more poorly made (and is also unreliable), and its internal oscillator circuitry is different. The two are sysex-compatible, and program and modulation are identical. Most of the Matrix 6 original presets are contained in the Matrix 1000's eight hundred ROM presets. I found an additional 27 of the original patches in some other Matrix collections. All examples below use the same exact midi data. All was played live into a sequencer, and not quantized or cleaned up (which is obvious).

Near emulations:

Oberheim vertabra Kurzweil vertabra

You can hear a small difference in the filter cutoff modulation. An astute ear might hear minor differences in the resonance of the filter.

Oberheim sunrise Kurzweil sunrise

Pretty close, in this example. I actually like the Kurzweil version better.

Kurzweil Exposed- emulations that are way off:

Kurzweil synclock Oberheim synclock

Both of these are interesting sounds, but their characteristics are very different. The Oberheim sync is almost bell-like, whereas the Kurzweil version is a harsh lead sync.

Kurzweil funk art Oberheim funk art

Listen to the way the filter closes on the Oberheim's key release. You can feel the gate slam shut. This is one of the characteristics I've never heard a virtual analog pull off convincingly, and it's a big part of the beauty of a real analog filter. Here the Oberheim is more resonant and the Oberheim's punch kills the VAST emulation.

Digital synth Collection Demo

The disk contains no demos so I put this cheesy demo together. It probably showcases the Korg drum sounds best, as that is probably where my programming strength lies. The total size of all sounds used in this demo is 7740k. It uses 27 of what I thought were the best programs in the digital collection. Often chords and drums are layered with other programs. I didn't have enough sample memory to include my best of DX7 patches in this demo.

Conclusion

The documentation for this disk is the best I've ever seen in a sample CD-ROM. It includes a history of the analog gear on the disk itself, which would have been a small book if delivered in hard copy with the disk. The one omission that I was most disappointed with was that I would have really liked to see a collection of oscillator wavetables from the analog collection synths. Saw waves, for example, vary greatly between different analog oscillator sections, and having a collection of these, especially detuned or in unison, would have been a treasure. The disk isn't as accurate as it claims or implies itself to be, and that's bad for a disk in this higher price range.

---Emulated Synths--- Analog Synthesizer Collection

Arp - 2500, 2600, Odyessy, Chroma
Korg - MonoPoly, PolySix
Moog - MemoryMoog, MiniMoog
Oberheim - Matrix 12, Matrix 6, OB8
Roland - Juno 106, Juno 60
Sequential Circuits -Prophet V, Pro One
Yamaha - SK20

Korg -M1, T3, O1/W
Kurzweil K250
Roland D50, JD990
Yamaha DX7

Ed. Note: missing mp3 samples will be posted in the future.

Kurzweil users may want to try out DLN Sound for Kurzweil-native KFM programming.