Kurzweil K2500X
The fully weighted 88-note flagship of the K2500 line. Kurzweil built it to be the benchmark, and then advertised it as such.
Overview
The K2500X is the 88-note, fully weighted member of Kurzweil's K2500 Series. It is the one for players who think of a keyboard as a piano first and a synthesizer second. The standard K2500 carried a semi-weighted 76-note action. The X swapped in the same fully weighted 88-note keyboard found on the PC88, according to Electronic Musician's Editors' Choice coverage. So you get a V.A.S.T. workstation you can sit down and play like a piano.
Underneath is the K2500 platform. Electronic Musician described it as keeping the same basic Object hierarchy and VAST synthesis architecture as the K2000, while doubling polyphony to 48 voices and raising the maximum sample RAM to 128 MB. The base model shipped with 200 programs and 100 setups built from 8 MB of ROM, plus a disk containing over 1,000 additional programs. The company's own advertising called the soundset "8 MB of Kurzweil's most spectacular sounds."
Expandability was the other half of the pitch. Optional soundblocks - Orchestral and Contemporary ROM, plus the Stereo Grand Piano - push internal ROM to 28 MB. The sampling option turns the instrument into what Electronic Musician called one of the best sound-design machines on the market. The same coverage noted eight drum channels instead of one, with each Program on those channels able to include up to 32 Layers, and Setups accommodating up to eight Zones.
It is not a light instrument. EQ (2000, p.90) gave plain advice for anyone touring with one: spend real money on a dedicated road case where the boards can be stacked flat.
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