Kurzweil Pro 1
A digital piano whose own maker admitted it sounded best with the reverb switched off.
Sound-on-Sound-UK (June 1995, p.48) listed the Pro 1 family among the Kurzweil instruments carried by UK dealers alongside discounted Yamaha and Alesis gear. The line was still moving through retail channels years after launch.
Overview
The most revealing thing about the Kurzweil Pro 1 isn't in a spec sheet. It's in the advertising. Kurzweil's own marketing copy for the line made the unusual admission that the companion PRO2 was "the only digital piano on the market which sounds its best with the reverb turned off," letting the instrument's natural soundboard-like character carry the warmth instead. That's a strange thing for a manufacturer to print. It shows how the Pro 1 was pitched: as a piano-first instrument chasing a convincing grand sound, not a feature-stuffed stage piano.
The Pro 1 sat at the entry point of that pitch. Kurzweil's advertising billed the range as offering up to 47 additional sounds alongside the core piano voice, with pricing that started below $2000 on the Pro 1. For players who wanted the Kurzweil piano sound without stepping up to the pricier PRO2, it was the way in: the same family voice and the same additional-sound library, at the bottom of the price ladder.
The Pro 1 also turns up in working studios rather than just showrooms. In a contemporary Electronic Musician studio profile, composer Victor Spiegel described a Kurzweil PC88mx as his main axe driving, among other things, a "Kurzweil 1200 Pro1" - the Pro 1 used as a slave sound source under a master keyboard. It was a tone generator in a MIDI rig, kept in the chain next to the pricier Kurzweils.
Collectors should treat the Pro 1 as a piano, not a synth. The additional voices are a bonus, but the instrument's identity, and its maker's own marketing, was built around the grand piano sound and the no-reverb philosophy. It's a modest, price-conscious entry in the Kurzweil line, and it should be judged on that basis rather than as a cut-down flagship.
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