Back in 1986, this rackmount expander brought the groundbreaking sampled sounds of Kurzweil's K250 keyboard into a compact module format, delivering pro-level acoustic realism that turned heads in studios worldwide.
It's a 2U digital sample-based powerhouse with 24-voice polyphony, 16-part multitimbrality, and a base sound block packed with 120 presets like grand pianos, string sections, electric organs, trumpets, choirs, vibes, acoustic bass, and digital waveforms—expandable via PXA and PXB ROM blocks for Rhodes, flutes, sax, guitars, and more. An 8-button front panel and display let you tweak layers, create custom envelopes and loop points (think backwards pianos), and dive into a modulation matrix plus two LFOs for pitch and filter control. Effects shine with compiled options like chorus, phaser, tremolo, vibrato, and Leslie, plus wild modular ones using two ASR envelopes, inverters, negators, and amplitude tweaks; it responds to velocity, poly aftertouch, and even release velocity. MIDI In/Out/Thru, stereo outs, and internal battery-backed memory make it a seamless expander, chainable for up to 288 voices.
Vintage enthusiasts love its pristine sample quality at 50kHz, especially those lush acoustic guitars and pianos that still hold up, though some note the learning curve for deep editing and occasional layer limits with certain effects.
