Orchestral ROM Soundblock
 K2000 sound expansion chip with orchestral samples

K2000 Orchestral ROM
(image from kurzweilmusicsystems.com ) 


The Kurzweil K2000 Orchestral ROM Soundblock is a ROM chip containing many new samples and patches for the K2000.

It features 100 new programs (typically loaded in the "900" Program directory) and 50 new Setups (also typically loaded in the "900" Setup directory), but of course it's possible to use this chip as the base for custom sounds.  Since this expansion is ROM, there is nothing to load, and the programs and setups are readily available as soon as the synthesizer boots up.

The focus of this board is Orchestral samples, lots of them - and all absolutely of very high quality.

The brass are outstanding, but so are percussion, guitars, solo strings, and many others.

This soundblock provides fantastic, realistic, quality instruments to compose orchestral music, but also New Age, soundtrack scoring, commercials etc.

Check out some of the sounds from this expansion chip.

 

 

 

Programs

Program name with audio demo My comments

900 TotalCntrl Orch1

Excellent patch, with great dynamic expressivity.  High quality orchestral cymbals appear by pressing the keys harder on the left side of the keyboard.

902 BaroqueOrchestra

Quintessential Vivaldian orchestra

903 Oboe&Flute w-Str

Romantic set

906 Piccolo

Deliciously realistic piccolo flute

907 Orchestral Flute

Very realistic flute

908 Solo Flute

Dry version

909 Orchestral Oboe

Beautiful, expressive oboe

911 2nd Oboe

and variant

912 Orch EnglishHorn

Cool English horn

914 Orch Clarinet

Woody and realistic

917 Solo Bassoon

Realistic

919 Woodwinds 2

Sweet woodwinds

921 Copland Sft Trp

Typical Aaron Copland style trumpet

922 Orch Trumpet

Awesomely realistic and with very natural vibrato

925 French Horn MW

Lovely French horns.  The Modulation Wheel acts on the filter brightness

929 French Horn Sec1

Cool section

931 Solo Trombone

Highly realistic

932 Tuba

I've always loved this instrument.

933 Dyn Hi Brass

Good

934 Dyn Lo Brass

Lower

936 Soaring Brass

Brassy

937 MarcatoViolin MW

Realistic and expressive thanks to velocity, aftertouch, mod wheel, controller slider

938 Solo Violin

Nice

941 Solo Viola

Beautiful sounding viola

943 Marcato Cello MW

Ok

946 Arco Dbl Bass

Low and deep

949 Touch Strings

Nicely sampled strings

951 Chamber Section

Smaller

953 Sweet Strings

Yep

956 Bass String Sec

Sweet strings

957 Pizzicato String

Beautiful and realistic

960 Classical Guitar

Very expressive

963 Snappy Jazz Bass

yep

964 Dynamic Harp

Classy instrument

966 Harp Arps

Cool layout of the keys

967 Celesta

Very nice.

968 Pipes

Nice pipe organ

969 Pedal Pipes

Powerful pipe organ with mighty pedal sounds

970 Church Bells

Crispy clear bells

971 Glockenspiel

Lovely instrument!

972 Xylophone

Nice

974 Timpani-Chimes

Nice split

976 Timpani & Perc

Other nice split

977 Big Drum Corp

Outstanding samples

978 Orch Percussion1

Perfect.

981 Conga & Perc

Cool percussion

982 Woody Jam Rack

In a great room

983 Metal Garden

More excellent percussion

984 Hot Tamali Kit

Very tight snare kit

985 Funk Kit

Oh yes.

988 Synth Orch

Beautiful hybrid - synth and real orchestra

989 Nooage InstaHarp

Perfect for New Age and Ambient

994 Tranquil Sleigh

Superb atmospheric pad

995 Batman Strings

Large section

996 Ethnoo Lead

Fusion solo synth

997 Orch Pad CTL

Very nice, spacious pad

998 Choral Sleigh

Stellar pad

999 Pad Nine

The perfect pad

Setups

Setup name with audio demo My comments

900 Common Manfare

Typical American brassy setup.

901 Tutti Passage

Nice

902 Swan Lake

Inspired by the famous ballet music

904 Take the L Train

A walk on the jazzy side

905 Yankee Doodle

Patriotic setup

906 Lyric Cue

Beautiful, expressive setup

907 Orchestrator

Awesome and fun to play

909 Ethereal Harp

Nice delays

910 Cemetary Night

The zombies are coming out.

911 Trumpet Trio

More jazzy material

913 Snake Charmer

Middle-Eastern

914 OrchScape 1

Very nice and expressive

920 DialogUnderscore

Sweet classical

923 Choir-Harp

Beauty and perfect for many genres

924 Symphonic

Nice, happy and bouncy setup!!!

935 Folk Jam

Yep

938 Bumper Orch

Perfect for movie scoring

940 Flute Trio

Relaxed, excellent cool jazz set

941 Tutti Str&Brs

Nice

948 Piano Trio

The most classic jazz set:  the piano, contrabass and drums trio

950 Finale Orch

Yep!

The Orchestral ROM Soundblock came with a supplemental diskette that offered demo songs and many more programs.

Orchestral ROM Supplemental Disk 

K2000 Orchestral ROM Supplemental Disk

 

Patch name with audio demo My comments
ACT1DEMO
HJ Blockbuster Superb demo song showcasing the realism of the patches on board
HJ ClassicalTune Great solo instruments on this chip
HJ Modern Orch More modern offerings
ACT2DEMO
PH Movie 1 Great also for cinema scores
KEYBRDS
Baroquen Trio Yep
Flute Pipes 1 Intimate chapel organ
STRSECT
Bright Orchestra Quality samples
Dynamic Strings Full-bodied strings
WWINDS
Woodwinds w-Str1 Sad strings

The Orchestral ROM Soundblock also came with a diskette containing the standard GM SoundSet.  This diskette is particularly useful to compose music for the media - since Roland's GM is the standard.

K2000 Orchestral ROM GM Soundset

 

The K2000 Orchestral ROM also came with a sticker, that one could attach to the keyboard to indicate it was expanded with such ROM:

Orchestral ROM sticker


Kurzweil K2000 Orchestral ROM Soundblock
Year of release: 199_
Polyphony:  
Sound generation method:  
Preset memories  
MIDI:  
Sound expansion capabilities:  
Sequencer  
Arpeggiator  
Effects  
Velocity  
Aftertouch  
Misc  

Resources:

Links

 

SITE Type of resource DESCRIPTION
  Manufacturer site home page
     

Kurzweil K2000 Orchestral ROM Soundblock with audio demo - January 28, 2009