Love your Kurzweil stuff, Hank. Here's a tip concerning the section on soldering Radoslaw's PRAM connector wires. I've installed five of them over the last few months and the colors/stripes/dots on the wires seem to progressively be getting harder to see and discriminate and none of the ones I have had are as clearly marked as yours. Anyway, I needed to find a way to differentiate the leads from the connector better than the colors of the wires. Readers who are going to do this may find this helpful..... Before you start to solder anything, put the PRAM board into its socket and attach the lead wire connector to it. While the connector is in its socket on the PRAM board pull the leads up straight and separate the two wires for at least six inches (you will need to do this eventually because one lead goes to the left and one goes to the right). While you have the wires separated look at where they enter the connector that plugs into the socket on the PRAM board. Choose one of the wires (it doesn't matter which one) and note the position (left or right) that it enters the connector. There are two connections to be soldered, as shown by Hank. If you have the board oriented the way Hank does in the video (with the keyboard side on the side away from you), the connection to the diode goes to the left. In this orientation, the wire that enters the connector on the left is the wire that goes to the diode meaning the wire on the left goes to the left side (obviously, if the synth is oriented the other way with the keyboard side closest to you, the diode will be on the right side and the wire on the right side will go that way). Whichever your orientation, mark the wire that goes to the diode in some way that you will be easily able to differentiate it when it comes to the soldering. If Radoslaw continues to supply white wires, the easiest thing to do is to mark the wire using a black Sharpie. Then, when the wire is marked, remove the PRAM board from its socket on the K2000 and then remove the wire connector from its socket on the PRAM board (make sure you do it in that order because the wire connector is sometimes difficult to dislodge from the PRAM board). Now, you can complete the soldering task. On the first two installations I did I guessed wrong about which wire was supposed to match the green wire in the Kurzweil instructions and had to redo the soldering in both instances. I hope that this may make it easier for anybody else attempting this mod not to make my mistakes.
I have an Alesis Fusion 8 HD and they are famous for their very noisy, high pitched little fan. One day I found an old graphic card in some box in my cellar with a funny nice little fan...and just got curious....I replaced the noisy one (that looks like it was made for tanks in russia) with the graphic card...and it works. Ok, I run into a problem when I use the full 16 miditracks on the sequencer..but most of the time I use it for what its best: Pads and other ambient stuff.... So. maybe this Idea helps
Good video excellent newbie advice. Love my k2000. Did the pl daughtercard from pl before i saw this. Your advice is spot on.i did the sampler upgrade but love to add the vk stuff. Already at 3.87. Way to go bro. Top notch advice. And one of the finest synths ever made. I love the option to make the screen font BIGGER for old eyes on a dark stage.had a t3 and sold it and kept the k2000.
Upgraded my K2000RS last summer added the SCSI2SD and Radoslav's PRAM board. Just wish Radoslav would use different colored wires it was a bit difficult to decipher which wire was which. Hank you did an excellent job showing the procedure.
Classic stuff! Great video Hank, I really enjoyed it, my K2000 is getting an upgrade soon, so this is very helpful, mine has the first OS so 3,87 will be quite an upgrade 😁
Hello, All - Thanks to Hank for all the great videos and to everyone else for the very knowledgeable and helpful commentary! Got a question for any/all of you.... I have a K2000VP that I'm upgrading to VX. So I have Radoslaw's ROM and PRAM boards, and the necessary EPROMs with the upgraded sample set. As I think Hank mentioned in one of the videos I've watched, Radoslow references the original Kurzweil instructions for installing the PRAM option, and so I downloaded that, and read it through carefully. Noticed that Kurzweil says that if you add ROM and PRAM, you MUST install the fan kit, and you must do it BEFORE the other upgrades (!!). No mention of that requirement being dependent on a SCSI drive, although I can see the logic that a fan should not be needed without the SCSI... Now, I know manufacturers can be a little over-cautious sometimes, but operating from a "while I've got this thing opened up" perspective, I went ahead and ordered a fan. The one I have coming has a two-wire Molex connector on the end of the wires, and I think that's correct. But they're hard to find, and it's not a new one, so I'm not counting on it being accompanied by any guidance as to where it should plug in for power. Can't seem to find that information anywhere else, either, including the K2000 Service Manual. Any ideas appreciated. Thanks!
I never added a fan to mine. Radoslaws boards are tiny compared to the original Kurzweil parts. They aren't putting off much heat. I replaced my display, so there isn't a backlight anymore. I don't have any internal drives, or the sampling option. I've removed the floppy for tiny Gotek. So I've come to the conclusion that I don't need a fan. If you are going to leave your keyboard on for hours at a time, a fan wouldn't hurt. A fan wouldn't hurt either way. I just don't want to hear it. lol.
I own a k2000j which is a South Korean model i got, through it only includes the orch rom but it sounds very great. This video was a interesting to watch through and i think the fan goal was to cool down the scsi drive which i actually own.
I have the 2000v3 withS. Fully loaded ram done bank then. Also 2gb hd Im most interested in the scsi sd drive. Also newnew display Yes do add a fan. It just makes parts live longer. I save fans out of computer junk. Any fan will do. Usually 12 volt. Even if you needed to solder on a little 120v spot to run little 12v walwart.
Nice job. You shouldn't need a fan. It's really there for the SCSI drive, to my knowledge. It produced a lot of heat (and is annoyingly noisy). Since you've got the SCSI2SD you'll probably be fine. The only thing to keep an eye on is the power supply. You should probably double check the +5VDC supply with all the upgrades. I can't recall offhand if there's a trim pot to adjust that, but I think there is. You're still missing sampling, though.... right? Though, with the SCSI2SD you can easily transfer audio, but sampling on a K2xx is pretty fun.
Thanks Michael. Yeah, I explain in video why I didn't install the sampling option. I use the SD cards. Audio comes from my computer. I don't do the record from turntable thing. I can grab any of that audio on my computer. Sampling option is something else to generate heat also. I'm not going to install a fan. I don't have the high voltage backlight display in it anywhere. No floppy. And only 2 small cards added. I don't think I need the fan either. The keyboard isn't going to be on all the time. 👍
@@HankCoffey Ah, I missed that part of the video. Yeah, makes sense. As a guitarist there's one thing you might want to try which I call the Genesis trick. Sample yourself playing... something. Then pop it into the K2000, fiddle with it a bit (make a loop, for instance), and then play over top of that. I call it the Genesis trick because a lot of Invisible Touch came out of Tony Banks sampling their jams randomly. (Not my favorite album, but it's an interesting idea.) Since you'd do this with the SD card and not the sampling option, then just record a bunch of random stuff at a time before migrating the card back to the K2000. Then see what happens to it once you start playing with VAST.
Hank!!! Because of you, I am doing all of these options. I have a k2500 v 5.00 w/ sample option. 1249k purchased in I used to have a loaded k2000 purchased in 96' but I didn't take care of it so ebay'd me a k2500 about 10 yrs ago
Ok Hank, I figured it out. I have 3.20. Press the 456 simultaneously and it comes up. Now I see what you did with the Ensoniq external SD. Wow, easy. Do they make one for the Kurz?
also, the chips in my 2500 are larger and square. the board is stacked 3 high. I saw 2 chips that said janis on the bottom or 3rd board. It also had 1998 on a chip of some sort.
@@D84D if it was a plugin external, that was a 5.5 mini. They will work on a Kurzweil. I have to keep my keyboards in storage. And I honestly forget details on stuff until I mess with them a bit.
Love this series! im upgrading one from 3.01J to 3.87, and VX Roms, Daughterboard and orchestral contemporary all in one, Pram, and 16ram to 64 Then on to Floppy and LCD and also i may change the little led lights to other cool color, love the Blue Case too!
Thanks Christian! You might want to make sure you don't have to have the contemporary expansion as well. The VX Roms might require it. I am not 100% sure. The VX had both expansions.
@@HankCoffey Thanks Hank! yes i just bought the same board as yours from the same link so thanks so so much for sharing it! scouting for the originals must be expensier and a pain i find the Analog emulation sounds on K2000 just amazing in the future i plan to add the floppy and LCD but i dont know if get a gotek floppy emu or just scsi to sd, do you use your K2000 in your tracks? cheers!
@@ChristianFernandoPerucchi I hardly play it anymore. I use software. I still have it though. A kurzweil can read and write through SCSI. So it's best to get a scsi2sd instead of a Gotek. Goteks are slow like floppy disks.
@@HankCoffey Thanks to you i have my fully loaded K2000 now i need a Scsi to SD and a new LCD and im set , in the process one of the chips came with a almost loose pin and broke off so i used the old chips as donors and could solder a new pin and put tha sucker into the socket, all working now, soldering into the motherboard was scary though i sweat a lot hahaha! thanks again!
I still own the K2000 with sampling option from decades ago and often wonder whether I should sell it or upgrade it. Thanks to your bold adventure I will hold on to it for now :)
Hey korgfanatic, thanks for the offer. I am leaving the fan out of it. I haven't added anything generating enough heat for a fan. The keyboard doesn't get hot. And the VP doesn't have the factory fan. It's not needed. It's for people with factory expansions and internal hard drives.
It's not the extra heat from the extra added components. The power supply gets hotter with more power demand by more components. This power supply fails eventually if run consistently too hot. That's why the fan
It's a blast updating this totally awesome vintage synth that is just a genius bit of engineering. Where did you get the SD card drive and where can we find copies of all these vintage sound libraries to fill the 8G with? The fan kit is mounted onto the housing (the lid) from what I have seen, could be wrong I only have my inherited unit to go by and I did not install that myself
The cheapest place to get the drives is eBay. I got mine from eBay seller SynthPlus. A site called Sampler Zone sells them for more $. But they will offer support if you don't know what you are doing. The libraries can be gotten from a site R-Massive. You will probably have to contact them on Facebook for a password to the files.
Thanks for the tips on soldering. I have a K2000 with the original factory fan, which is annoyingly noisy. People used to remove the stock fan on these and install a quieter one. I've been meaning to get that quieter fan for many years, but now they're hard to find and I'm not sure how to identify the right one. Any suggestions? Also, how about the sampling option?
I decided not to go with the sampling option because I can easily bring samples over from my computer. Since I only installed two small circuit boards, and removed the floppy Drive, I decided a fan wasn't needed. My keyboard is only powered on when I'm playing it, not extended periods of time. If someone played their keyboard for hours at a time, a fan would make the caps last longer. Extending the life of the board.
The sampling board doesn't draw much power when it isn't being used. If you have installed both Radoslaw's PRAM and ROM expansions, there will be little additive hear dissipation. As Hank suggests, if you aren't keeping the synth on for long periods of time (i.e., says at a time), I doubt that fan will help significantly just by adding these expansions. Still, a fan is better than no fan. Any 90mm x 25mm fan will do. I have found that the ones manufactured by StarTech (Part #: FAN9X25TX3H), available at Amazon, is ideal given its quiet dual bearing design.
I know your dealing with k2000, but I have a k2600x, and I’m looking to find what ever expansion presets that’s available that has pink Floyd presets. Do you know where to get something like that, or what I need to do get those synth tones. Like the intro to shine on you crazy diamond? My Kurzweil is bone stock but does have the contemporary and orchestral rom upgrade as far as I know. I haven’t opened it up yet, but I thought you might be able to help me. Thanks
I guess I'm too late to the party. I just acquired a K2000 VP but I can't find any sources for upgrade parts other than the OS upgrade chips. The site in this video still exists, but everything says "out of stock" and the site doesn't seem to have been updated in quite some time. 😢
I noticed that a lot of stuff isn't available anymore. That is a bummer. I don't use my hardware keyboards much anymore and have thought about selling some of them. I guess I better keep my Kurzweil if I ever want to have one. Can't build another one.
Nice video, I have the K2000 s ,"sampler," what's the difference between all k2000 ,? Can I up grade my k2000s ,Same as yours? I would like to have all the k2000 sounds on my keyboard,,,,,
Yes, it can be upgraded the same. There are 2 different circuit boards. Calvin and Janis. Janis is easier to upgrade. Contact Scott at SynthPlus. He is eBay seller SynthPlus. He sells the stuff you need.
Probably so. I am not adding the fan. There isn't much difference from it's factory state component wise. And the factory backlight isn't there anymore... No floppy... It's alright without the fan. 👍
Last I heard, the parts are not available any longer. I say where to get them in the video. There is also a playlist of videos on this keyboard. I also say where I get everything in those videos.
Man they are great. Not all, but there are some good ones in there. I like the Contemporary rom also. lol. The keyboard sounds a little dated, but it still sounds good. 👍
Don't blow on the solder points! It might generate cold solder points. And get a solder station for 50 bucks it's better to dial the right temperatures in, also you can put your soldering iron in its stand. I soldered for years without one... its 50 bucks buy it right away!
Can you help me? I just bought a k2500 a few days ago and I'm looking to upgrade and update it. I've already changed for a usb floppy simulator and now I'm a bit confuse about how to update the Os (2.80 is running). When I look at kurzweil website I notice a suggestion to first update the objects but I'm worried in not do it well and fuck everything up. 😅
I am not real familiar with the other Kurzweil models. I've only owned a K2000, and use mostly software now. I recommend contacting eBay seller SynthPlus, use advanced search for seller. His name is Scott, he knows everything about Kurzweils.
There is a short or bad component somewhere. Diagnosing would probably require a multimeter and knowing where to test voltages. I haven't worked on my keyboards in years. You will have to research.
Hey! Not sure if you still have this lying around, but would you be able to demo most (or all) of the K2VX presets? (bank 600-700) There's little to zero demos of any of those exclusive sounds online, and I heard some very familiar sounds in it from media I know. A friend of mine just got a basic K2000, and we'd like to hear those sounds in action, before installing that expansion. If it's too much work / time constraining then I completely understand. It would be super appreciated, for those rare sounds!
Hey Excalibur, that sounds like it would be a good video to make. It's sounds 600-799. I can not play keys very well. So let me see if I can play well enough to do the video. I'll see what I can do.
@@HankCoffey One more question, does your K2VX contain the Industrial/Techno programs (starting with 200 Java set)? I see it associated with the K2VX alot, not sure if those are exclusive to the VX or if they are a separate floppy. Maybe you could demo those too, if you'd like?
@@excme22 No, those are not on the internal ROM. Maybe a VX is required to play them? The K2vx has the stock 000-199, 600-799 vx, 800-899 contemporary expansion, 900-999 orchestral expansion. Anything else has to be loaded by disk/sysex.
The website in Poland says 'out of stock' on everything. Is there a way to contact him? Also, sorry if you answered this in the video but can this be done for ANY Kurzweil 2000? V3? I'd like to buy an affordable one and upgrade it since the vx is so rare. What specs should I look for (model/OS)?
I think any Kurzweil K2000 can be upgraded. There are 2 different mainboards. I can't remember the names. Juliet and Calvin I think. You want a Juliet board. Calvins are harder to upgrade. Do an advanced eBay search for seller "SynthPlus". He is a Kurzweil expert.
@@r2aul yeah, I had upgrade fever until I got mine maxed out. Now it sits in my keyboard shelf. I use software most of the time now. I think the Kurzweil parts are getting real hard to find.
That stuff is getting hard to find. It might be best to keep your eye out for a K2vx, and just buy the whole synth. Comes with everything. There is an Orchestral Expansion on Reverb, but you still need a daughterboard to use it, and you have to change the setup roms. I still have this Kurzweil but I never mess with hardware synths anymore. So I am out of the loop of what is available. Get ahold of Scott Bray, eBay seller SynthPlus.
Yeah, it looks like he is shut down. Everything is Out Of Stock and no Checkout or Contact info. It's been a few years, I don't have his email. Try to contact Scott, eBay seller SynthPlus. He may be able to help you.
@@The1stMrJohn It's very HOT here as well JJ. I am doing great, this was a project I did. So of course I needed to make a video of it. I hope you are doing well also man. 🐻🍩🍩🍩😀🍩🍩🎸
@@HankCoffey hi Hank, just looking to see if you're live. Tomorrow we are off down the coast heading west to a cottage we've rented for the week. I've been keeping an eye on the rate of virus spread on our maps, and where we live is doing well--our situation is far better the national average, ...but east of us are not doing so well(never been keen on the southeast of England anyway!) The southwest, which I prefer anyway, never seemed to get to high levels of infection and they are still very low which is another good reason to go that way. There are some parts of the north that we like that are having resurgences of the virus and some cities and larger towns are bad again. Where we live is almost in the middle of the southern coastline, above The Isle of Wight, and we are considered by the country to be the most Eastern of the southwestern coast...which has never made sense to me! The government has put money into many industries to boost the economy including eating out in pubs and restaurants during Mon, Tues, Wed is currently 50% cheaper so we will be taking advantage of that😊 Catch you later Hank 💚🐕🎵🎸🐾🐻🎹🍩
@@The1stMrJohn hey JohnJohn, no, I'm not live today. I have a bunch of stuff going on, and I might be moving soon. So I've been kind of busy. If I get a new place, I might go live more often. Because I can leave my lights and everything setup. It's a hour set up, and a hour tear down now. That's why I don't go live often. Hang in there man I might get situated where I can do things better. 👍. Be safe on your trip man. 🐻👍🏾😎👍🍩🍩🍩🎸🍩🍩🍩
![Lil Uzi Vert - Chill Bae [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/D7F42F_JM3U/mqdefault.jpg)
Love your Kurzweil stuff, Hank. Here's a tip concerning the section on soldering Radoslaw's PRAM connector wires. I've installed five of them over the last few months and the colors/stripes/dots on the wires seem to progressively be getting harder to see and discriminate and none of the ones I have had are as clearly marked as yours. Anyway, I needed to find a way to differentiate the leads from the connector better than the colors of the wires. Readers who are going to do this may find this helpful..... Before you start to solder anything, put the PRAM board into its socket and attach the lead wire connector to it. While the connector is in its socket on the PRAM board pull the leads up straight and separate the two wires for at least six inches (you will need to do this eventually because one lead goes to the left and one goes to the right). While you have the wires separated look at where they enter the connector that plugs into the socket on the PRAM board. Choose one of the wires (it doesn't matter which one) and note the position (left or right) that it enters the connector. There are two connections to be soldered, as shown by Hank. If you have the board oriented the way Hank does in the video (with the keyboard side on the side away from you), the connection to the diode goes to the left. In this orientation, the wire that enters the connector on the left is the wire that goes to the diode meaning the wire on the left goes to the left side (obviously, if the synth is oriented the other way with the keyboard side closest to you, the diode will be on the right side and the wire on the right side will go that way). Whichever your orientation, mark the wire that goes to the diode in some way that you will be easily able to differentiate it when it comes to the soldering. If Radoslaw continues to supply white wires, the easiest thing to do is to mark the wire using a black Sharpie. Then, when the wire is marked, remove the PRAM board from its socket on the K2000 and then remove the wire connector from its socket on the PRAM board (make sure you do it in that order because the wire connector is sometimes difficult to dislodge from the PRAM board). Now, you can complete the soldering task. On the first two installations I did I guessed wrong about which wire was supposed to match the green wire in the Kurzweil instructions and had to redo the soldering in both instances. I hope that this may make it easier for anybody else attempting this mod not to make my mistakes.
I have an Alesis Fusion 8 HD and they are famous for their very noisy, high pitched little fan. One day I found an old graphic card in some box in my cellar with a funny nice little fan...and just got curious....I replaced the noisy one (that looks like it was made for tanks in russia) with the graphic card...and it works. Ok, I run into a problem when I use the full 16 miditracks on the sequencer..but most of the time I use it for what its best: Pads and other ambient stuff....
So. maybe this Idea helps
Good video excellent newbie advice. Love my k2000. Did the pl daughtercard from pl before i saw this. Your advice is spot on.i did the sampler upgrade but love to add the vk stuff. Already at 3.87. Way to go bro. Top notch advice. And one of the finest synths ever made. I love the option to make the screen font BIGGER for old eyes on a dark stage.had a t3 and sold it and kept the k2000.
Hey, thanks Kid. Yeah I've had newer Kurzweils and sold them years ago. The K2000 just sounds better. Warmer mids.
Upgraded my K2000RS last summer added the SCSI2SD and Radoslav's PRAM board.
Just wish Radoslav would use different colored wires it was a bit difficult to decipher which wire was which.
Hank you did an excellent job showing the procedure.
Thanks Dana, yeah Radoslaws wires are confusing.
What does the pram do ?
Classic stuff! Great video Hank, I really enjoyed it, my K2000 is getting an upgrade soon, so this is very helpful, mine has the first OS so 3,87 will be quite an upgrade 😁
Thanks Graham! Good luck with the upgrades!
I came for the procedure, but I'm staying for the personality!!! BAD ASS!!! :)
You are upgrading your Kurzweil K2000 Synthesizer with an excellent way. Thanks for sharing this video.
Thank you Sorry!
Hello, All -
Thanks to Hank for all the great videos and to everyone else for the very knowledgeable and helpful commentary! Got a question for any/all of you....
I have a K2000VP that I'm upgrading to VX. So I have Radoslaw's ROM and PRAM boards, and the necessary EPROMs with the upgraded sample set. As I think Hank mentioned in one of the videos I've watched, Radoslow references the original Kurzweil instructions for installing the PRAM option, and so I downloaded that, and read it through carefully.
Noticed that Kurzweil says that if you add ROM and PRAM, you MUST install the fan kit, and you must do it BEFORE the other upgrades (!!). No mention of that requirement being dependent on a SCSI drive, although I can see the logic that a fan should not be needed without the SCSI...
Now, I know manufacturers can be a little over-cautious sometimes, but operating from a "while I've got this thing opened up" perspective, I went ahead and ordered a fan. The one I have coming has a two-wire Molex connector on the end of the wires, and I think that's correct. But they're hard to find, and it's not a new one, so I'm not counting on it being accompanied by any guidance as to where it should plug in for power. Can't seem to find that information anywhere else, either, including the K2000 Service Manual.
Any ideas appreciated.
Thanks!
I never added a fan to mine. Radoslaws boards are tiny compared to the original Kurzweil parts. They aren't putting off much heat. I replaced my display, so there isn't a backlight anymore. I don't have any internal drives, or the sampling option. I've removed the floppy for tiny Gotek.
So I've come to the conclusion that I don't need a fan. If you are going to leave your keyboard on for hours at a time, a fan wouldn't hurt.
A fan wouldn't hurt either way. I just don't want to hear it. lol.
I own a k2000j which is a South Korean model i got, through it only includes the orch rom but it sounds very great.
This video was a interesting to watch through and i think the fan goal was to cool down the scsi drive which i actually own.
Cool, yeah I think so too. I'm not installing the fan. It's ok without it. 👍
I effing love ❤️ the purple kurzs, congrats, nice example
Hey, thanks Walter. I like it too. It's cool. lol
Hank Coffey channel doing best work on youtube. Carry on.
And Lamiya is the hottest girl on RUclips. 💋
Really you are an amazing technician sir. Keep it up.
Hey, thank you Hase.
I have the 2000v3 withS. Fully loaded ram done bank then. Also 2gb hd Im most interested in the scsi sd drive. Also newnew display Yes do add a fan. It just makes parts live longer. I save fans out of computer junk. Any fan will do. Usually 12 volt. Even if you needed to solder on a little 120v spot to run little 12v walwart.
Cool man, SCSI2SD is nice.
...and I thought I was a synth nerd.
Love it!!!
Nice job. You shouldn't need a fan. It's really there for the SCSI drive, to my knowledge. It produced a lot of heat (and is annoyingly noisy). Since you've got the SCSI2SD you'll probably be fine. The only thing to keep an eye on is the power supply. You should probably double check the +5VDC supply with all the upgrades. I can't recall offhand if there's a trim pot to adjust that, but I think there is.
You're still missing sampling, though.... right? Though, with the SCSI2SD you can easily transfer audio, but sampling on a K2xx is pretty fun.
Thanks Michael. Yeah, I explain in video why I didn't install the sampling option. I use the SD cards. Audio comes from my computer. I don't do the record from turntable thing. I can grab any of that audio on my computer. Sampling option is something else to generate heat also. I'm not going to install a fan. I don't have the high voltage backlight display in it anywhere. No floppy. And only 2 small cards added. I don't think I need the fan either. The keyboard isn't going to be on all the time. 👍
@@HankCoffey Ah, I missed that part of the video. Yeah, makes sense.
As a guitarist there's one thing you might want to try which I call the Genesis trick. Sample yourself playing... something. Then pop it into the K2000, fiddle with it a bit (make a loop, for instance), and then play over top of that.
I call it the Genesis trick because a lot of Invisible Touch came out of Tony Banks sampling their jams randomly. (Not my favorite album, but it's an interesting idea.)
Since you'd do this with the SD card and not the sampling option, then just record a bunch of random stuff at a time before migrating the card back to the K2000. Then see what happens to it once you start playing with VAST.
@@mphtower yeah, that's a good idea!
Man I just love your channel. Thanks for the videos. I want to upgrade my K2600x.
Awesome, thanks man. I'm actually a guitarist. But I was modding my keyboards and video'd it.
Perfect job Hank! i love it!
Thanks Virgil!
Hank!!! Because of you, I am doing all of these options. I have a k2500 v 5.00 w/ sample option. 1249k purchased in
I used to have a loaded k2000 purchased in 96' but I didn't take care of it so ebay'd me a k2500 about 10 yrs ago
Cool Dave, good luck with the mods!
Ok Hank, I figured it out. I have 3.20. Press the 456 simultaneously and it comes up.
Now I see what you did with the Ensoniq external SD. Wow, easy. Do they make one for the Kurz?
also, the chips in my 2500 are larger and square. the board is stacked 3 high. I saw 2 chips that said janis on the bottom or 3rd board. It also had 1998 on a chip of some sort.
@@D84D if it was a plugin external, that was a 5.5 mini. They will work on a Kurzweil. I have to keep my keyboards in storage. And I honestly forget details on stuff until I mess with them a bit.
@@HankCoffey you are the figgin' Man! Thanks for your reply cheers.
i really need to do this with mine, i have a k2000 r and K2000s. great job. thanks for posting!
Hey, no problem James! Thanks!
Locksmith, Gunsmith...then You are one best Keyboard-smith of today! Go for it!
Thanks Machine! 👍
I bookmarked this video for future reference!
Awesome, I'm glad you like it!
Love this series! im upgrading one from 3.01J to 3.87, and VX Roms, Daughterboard and orchestral contemporary all in one, Pram, and 16ram to 64
Then on to Floppy and LCD and also i may change the little led lights to other cool color, love the Blue Case too!
Thanks Christian! You might want to make sure you don't have to have the contemporary expansion as well. The VX Roms might require it. I am not 100% sure. The VX had both expansions.
@@HankCoffey Thanks Hank! yes i just bought the same board as yours from the same link so thanks so so much for sharing it! scouting for the originals must be expensier and a pain i find the Analog emulation sounds on K2000 just amazing in the future i plan to add the floppy and LCD but i dont know if get a gotek floppy emu or just scsi to sd, do you use your K2000 in your tracks? cheers!
@@ChristianFernandoPerucchi I hardly play it anymore. I use software. I still have it though. A kurzweil can read and write through SCSI. So it's best to get a scsi2sd instead of a Gotek. Goteks are slow like floppy disks.
@@HankCoffey Thanks to you i have my fully loaded K2000 now i need a Scsi to SD and a new LCD and im set , in the process one of the chips came with a almost loose pin and broke off so i used the old chips as donors and could solder a new pin and put tha sucker into the socket, all working now, soldering into the motherboard was scary though i sweat a lot hahaha! thanks again!
@@ChristianFernandoPerucchi No problem man. Glad you are getting it working.
Bravo Hank!...
Thank you!
I still own the K2000 with sampling option from decades ago and often wonder whether I should sell it or upgrade it. Thanks to your bold adventure I will hold on to it for now :)
Thanks Rayder, I still have mine for now.
I have a fan of a regular k2000 keyboard that for not being careful when uncovering burns the keyboard, if you need it, I give it away
Hey korgfanatic, thanks for the offer. I am leaving the fan out of it. I haven't added anything generating enough heat for a fan. The keyboard doesn't get hot. And the VP doesn't have the factory fan. It's not needed. It's for people with factory expansions and internal hard drives.
It's not the extra heat from the extra added components. The power supply gets hotter with more power demand by more components. This power supply fails eventually if run consistently too hot. That's why the fan
Love to do that to mine. I have 3 of them but website is out of stock on everything. I wonder if it is still going to be made
Contact ebay seller Synthplus. Tell him I sent you. 👍
You put a fan inside only if you install an actual SCSI hard drive.
It's a blast updating this totally awesome vintage synth that is just a genius bit of engineering. Where did you get the SD card drive and where can we find copies of all these vintage sound libraries to fill the 8G with? The fan kit is mounted onto the housing (the lid) from what I have seen, could be wrong I only have my inherited unit to go by and I did not install that myself
The cheapest place to get the drives is eBay. I got mine from eBay seller SynthPlus. A site called Sampler Zone sells them for more $. But they will offer support if you don't know what you are doing. The libraries can be gotten from a site R-Massive. You will probably have to contact them on Facebook for a password to the files.
I got a used k2000 v3 for 250 in 2012. I need to upgrade roms.
Thanks for the tips on soldering. I have a K2000 with the original factory fan, which is annoyingly noisy. People used to remove the stock fan on these and install a quieter one. I've been meaning to get that quieter fan for many years, but now they're hard to find and I'm not sure how to identify the right one. Any suggestions? Also, how about the sampling option?
I decided not to go with the sampling option because I can easily bring samples over from my computer. Since I only installed two small circuit boards, and removed the floppy Drive, I decided a fan wasn't needed. My keyboard is only powered on when I'm playing it, not extended periods of time. If someone played their keyboard for hours at a time, a fan would make the caps last longer. Extending the life of the board.
The sampling board doesn't draw much power when it isn't being used. If you have installed both Radoslaw's PRAM and ROM expansions, there will be little additive hear dissipation. As Hank suggests, if you aren't keeping the synth on for long periods of time (i.e., says at a time), I doubt that fan will help significantly just by adding these expansions. Still, a fan is better than no fan. Any 90mm x 25mm fan will do. I have found that the ones manufactured by StarTech (Part #: FAN9X25TX3H), available at Amazon, is ideal given its quiet dual bearing design.
Oh, I forgot... The fan should be 12v DC!
Hi, great video. How do you know if you have a VP or a VX without opening it up? I found a used one and I'm going to check it out tomorrow.
The VP will have K2000VP on it. It will only have sounds 1-199. The VX will have K2vx, and sounds 1 to 199, and sounds in the 600s, 700s, 800s, 900s.
@@HankCoffey Thanks!
I know your dealing with k2000, but I have a k2600x, and I’m looking to find what ever expansion presets that’s available that has pink Floyd presets. Do you know where to get something like that, or what I need to do get those synth tones. Like the intro to shine on you crazy diamond? My Kurzweil is bone stock but does have the contemporary and orchestral rom upgrade as far as I know. I haven’t opened it up yet, but I thought you might be able to help me. Thanks
Hey Darren, I don't know much about the k2600. I'm a guitarist. I've just had k2000s. Try researching on Google. The info is out there.
I guess I'm too late to the party. I just acquired a K2000 VP but I can't find any sources for upgrade parts other than the OS upgrade chips. The site in this video still exists, but everything says "out of stock" and the site doesn't seem to have been updated in quite some time. 😢
I noticed that a lot of stuff isn't available anymore. That is a bummer. I don't use my hardware keyboards much anymore and have thought about selling some of them. I guess I better keep my Kurzweil if I ever want to have one. Can't build another one.
Nice video, I have the K2000 s ,"sampler," what's the difference between all k2000 ,? Can I up grade my k2000s ,Same as yours?
I would like to have all the k2000 sounds on my keyboard,,,,,
Yes, it can be upgraded the same. There are 2 different circuit boards. Calvin and Janis. Janis is easier to upgrade. Contact Scott at SynthPlus. He is eBay seller SynthPlus. He sells the stuff you need.
@@HankCoffey thank you
Maybe the fan was to keep a scsi drive cool? my K2660 has a fan and a Scsi drive.
Probably so. I am not adding the fan. There isn't much difference from it's factory state component wise. And the factory backlight isn't there anymore... No floppy... It's alright without the fan. 👍
@@HankCoffey yeah a few extras that you have added, wont cause problems at all.
Have 1 with sampler. Going 2 do di same. Namasté.
Where do you get the upgraded parts from? I want to max mine out too but Im not really sure where to get the correct parts
Last I heard, the parts are not available any longer. I say where to get them in the video. There is also a playlist of videos on this keyboard. I also say where I get everything in those videos.
great video! How do you like the orchestral sounds?
Man they are great. Not all, but there are some good ones in there. I like the Contemporary rom also. lol. The keyboard sounds a little dated, but it still sounds good. 👍
Don't blow on the solder points! It might generate cold solder points. And get a solder station for 50 bucks it's better to dial the right temperatures in, also you can put your soldering iron in its stand. I soldered for years without one... its 50 bucks buy it right away!
Can you help me? I just bought a k2500 a few days ago and I'm looking to upgrade and update it. I've already changed for a usb floppy simulator and now I'm a bit confuse about how to update the Os (2.80 is running). When I look at kurzweil website I notice a suggestion to first update the objects but I'm worried in not do it well and fuck everything up. 😅
I am not real familiar with the other Kurzweil models. I've only owned a K2000, and use mostly software now. I recommend contacting eBay seller SynthPlus, use advanced search for seller. His name is Scott, he knows everything about Kurzweils.
Would you know anything about why my k2000's fuses keep blowing?
There is a short or bad component somewhere. Diagnosing would probably require a multimeter and knowing where to test voltages. I haven't worked on my keyboards in years. You will have to research.
Hey! Not sure if you still have this lying around, but would you be able to demo most (or all) of the K2VX presets? (bank 600-700)
There's little to zero demos of any of those exclusive sounds online, and I heard some very familiar sounds in it from media I know. A friend of mine just got a basic K2000, and we'd like to hear those sounds in action, before installing that expansion.
If it's too much work / time constraining then I completely understand. It would be super appreciated, for those rare sounds!
Hey Excalibur, that sounds like it would be a good video to make. It's sounds 600-799. I can not play keys very well. So let me see if I can play well enough to do the video. I'll see what I can do.
@@HankCoffey Thanks a bunch! IMO, I wouldn't mind if you aren't able to play well, I'm most interested in what they sound like
@@excme22 cool, I'll do the video in a week or so.
@@HankCoffey One more question, does your K2VX contain the Industrial/Techno programs (starting with 200 Java set)? I see it associated with the K2VX alot, not sure if those are exclusive to the VX or if they are a separate floppy. Maybe you could demo those too, if you'd like?
@@excme22 No, those are not on the internal ROM. Maybe a VX is required to play them? The K2vx has the stock 000-199, 600-799 vx, 800-899 contemporary expansion, 900-999 orchestral expansion. Anything else has to be loaded by disk/sysex.
The website in Poland says 'out of stock' on everything. Is there a way to contact him? Also, sorry if you answered this in the video but can this be done for ANY Kurzweil 2000? V3? I'd like to buy an affordable one and upgrade it since the vx is so rare. What specs should I look for (model/OS)?
I think any Kurzweil K2000 can be upgraded. There are 2 different mainboards. I can't remember the names. Juliet and Calvin I think. You want a Juliet board. Calvins are harder to upgrade. Do an advanced eBay search for seller "SynthPlus". He is a Kurzweil expert.
@@HankCoffey Thanks so much. I did not expect a reply so fast! How can you tell if it's Juliet or Calvin without cracking it open?
@@r2aul You'll need to ask Scott from Synth Plus. After upgrading mine, I stopped researching them.
@@HankCoffey thx, bro. I got the fever for those sounds now!
@@r2aul yeah, I had upgrade fever until I got mine maxed out. Now it sits in my keyboard shelf. I use software most of the time now. I think the Kurzweil parts are getting real hard to find.
Hello, any idea why every 7 white notes all the octaves sound in a single key, it is an sp5-8, you could get spare parts to send to Chile, thanks
No, I don't know exactly why. I would try all factory resets first. If that doesn't work, it's probably a loose ribbon cable. Or problem with key bed.
Expansion roms for contemporary and orchestral, looking all over.....anyone know where I can order one?
That stuff is getting hard to find. It might be best to keep your eye out for a K2vx, and just buy the whole synth. Comes with everything. There is an Orchestral Expansion on Reverb, but you still need a daughterboard to use it, and you have to change the setup roms. I still have this Kurzweil but I never mess with hardware synths anymore. So I am out of the loop of what is available. Get ahold of Scott Bray, eBay seller SynthPlus.
I think I might have been the guy who scooped up that K2VX.
Was it like $299 or something? Mint condition?
@@HankCoffey Yeah, fully loaded with a case and CDs/diskettes. Even came with two manuals and the original Sweetwater receipt.
LOL, dam you
@@HankCoffey If it means anything, I referred to your video when upgrading the screen.
@@AnnexIptaru Cool man, I have my VP setup how I like, so it all worked out
Do you replace the battery in yours? Is it necessary?
This model has a door on the bottom with AA batteries. So there is no internal like older models. Internal lithium batteries usually last 15-20 years.
You wouldn’t happen to know this guys email address? His site says on holiday till June 18 and there’s no email link anywhere on his site?
Yeah, it looks like he is shut down. Everything is Out Of Stock and no Checkout or Contact info. It's been a few years, I don't have his email. Try to contact Scott, eBay seller SynthPlus. He may be able to help you.
Watsuuppp!
Jaaaahn Jaaaaahn!!!!! What's up mane?
@@HankCoffey
Usual stuff, nothing new...
....it's very hot and humid
in England today!
Hope you're well and happy
😀
JJ
@@The1stMrJohn It's very HOT here as well JJ. I am doing great, this was a project I did. So of course I needed to make a video of it. I hope you are doing well also man. 🐻🍩🍩🍩😀🍩🍩🎸
@@HankCoffey hi Hank, just looking to see if you're live.
Tomorrow we are off down the coast heading west to a cottage we've rented for the week.
I've been keeping an eye on the rate of virus spread on our maps, and where we live is doing well--our situation is far better the national average, ...but east of us are not doing so well(never been keen on the southeast of England anyway!)
The southwest, which I prefer anyway, never seemed to get to high levels of infection and they are still very low which is another good reason to go that way. There are some parts of the north that we like that are having resurgences of the virus and some cities and larger towns are bad again.
Where we live is almost in the middle of the southern coastline, above The Isle of Wight, and we are considered by the country to be the most Eastern of the southwestern coast...which has never made sense to me!
The government has put money into many industries to boost the economy including eating out in pubs and restaurants during Mon, Tues, Wed is currently 50% cheaper so we will be taking advantage of that😊
Catch you later Hank
💚🐕🎵🎸🐾🐻🎹🍩
@@The1stMrJohn hey JohnJohn, no, I'm not live today. I have a bunch of stuff going on, and I might be moving soon. So I've been kind of busy. If I get a new place, I might go live more often. Because I can leave my lights and everything setup. It's a hour set up, and a hour tear down now. That's why I don't go live often. Hang in there man I might get situated where I can do things better. 👍. Be safe on your trip man. 🐻👍🏾😎👍🍩🍩🍩🎸🍩🍩🍩