Kurzweil K250

Kurzweil K250 Image

One of the first keyboard samplers, it was great then and still good today. It has an adjustable sample rate of 5kHz to 50kHz which means 100 to 10 seconds of sampling time, respectively. Its sampler was also 16-bit. Many other samplers of this time had much more limited sampling/digital audio specs which made this synth a very prominent keyboard. By todays standards, however, this synth has many limitations such as samples are stored directly on Apple Mac disks only. But it had extremely modern features that make this synth easy to use and quite versatile.

It has a 12-track sequencer, chorus, transpose, tune, 36 ROM sounds, 96 pristine quality acoustic instruments, 341 presets, 12 voice polyphony, 2 LFO's per voice, variable sampling rate, truncation, looping, velocity crossfading, full 88 weighted keyboard, MIDI and more! Of course the newer K2000 series is supposed to be better, but the K250 still seems like a major contender even in todays modern synthesizer era. It was also available in keyboardless Expander or as a rackmount module. It has been used by Stevie Wonder, Sean Hopper, Richard Wright, Patrick Moraz, Paul Shaffer, Lorin Hollander, Michael Kamen, Vangelis, Kitaro, and John Carpenter.

21 Visitor comments
nao
February 18, 2013 @ 8:40 am
I have used k250 for about 20 years.
(good condition!!)

I remove internal battery and replace all chemical capacitor in pedal unit.
jcdlc
February 5, 2013 @ 3:21 pm
Edward Van Halen can be seen using a K250 in the "Live without a net" Live video too!
visceralvoids
June 9, 2012 @ 3:01 am
Amazing sound quality for 1984... one of the biggest keyboards, very long and wide.
Benjamin Edge
December 29, 2011 @ 7:55 pm
David Foster used this keyboard on "Love Theme from St. Elmo's Fire" (the instrumental version). You'll know it by the staccato violin track.
CJoyB
December 6, 2011 @ 6:23 am
I have a used K250 that was handed down to me. No one in my family uses it & I 'd be happy to pass it on for $300. It's been setting in my basement for a couple years I know NOTHING about how to operate it so I can't say if it works or not from personal account. But the person who gave it to me (my dad) said it works just fine. I also have the 2 pedal unit that goes with it.
Let me know if anyone is interested in it.
Carriebeachey@yahoo.com
 
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  • Demos & Media
  • YouTube Thumbnail
    Video 1
    - Kurzweil K250 Digital Synth Sampler

  • Specifications
  • Polyphony - 12 Voice
  • Oscillators - Digital Sampler Synthesizer / FM / sampler / workstation
  • Sampler - 16 bit, 1 to 4 MB (100 seconds @ 5kHz)
  • Sequencer - 12012 notes / 40 songs / 12 tracks
  • Effects - 2 effects
  • Keyboard - 88 weighted keys with velocity & split zones
  • Memory - 36 ROM sounds, 96 instruments, 341 presets
  • Control - MIDI
  • Date Produced - 1984 - 1990

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