From bruce@ashbysolutions.com Mon Oct 22 16:24:08 2001
Subject:RE: clone spotting

Dan,

>In regards to the Kurzweil question...
>
>Kurzweil makes great acoustic pianos.....have been for years. In fact I
>believe they were a piano company before they got into keyboards.
>They make some of the best uprights as well....(although...I personally
>don't like uprights) Their mid-market grands are the best on the market for
>the price in my opinion.

I hate to burst your bubble, but ...

From the Kurzweil Music Systems site:

"Kurzweil Music Systems Inc. was founded by inventor Raymond Kurzweil, who
had developed a revolutionary reading machine for the blind that scans
written materials and reads them aloud in a synthesized voice. Musician
Stevie Wonder, a customer for the reading machine, challenged Ray Kurzweil
to create an electronic instrument that blended the richness of acoustic
sound with the control and sound modification of electronics. The Kurzweil
engineers then developed the first ROM-based sampling keyboard to
successfully reproduce the full complexity of acoustic instrument sounds -
the K250. When the K-250 was introduced in 1983, the music industry was
astounded by its ability to emulate a piano, strings, choirs, drums and
other acoustic instruments with extraordinary accuracy. Since then,
electronic musical instruments have had a new benchmark of quality for
which to strive.

"In mid-1990, Young Chang acquired part of the technology and engineering
team from the original Kurzweil Music Systems, Inc. This engineering staff
is housed at the Young Chang R & D Institute, located in Waltham, MA.
Raymond Kurzweil has long since left the company, but Kurzweil's reputation
continues to grow as new technologies are developed and Kurzweil engineers
sample new sounds from around the world, using state of the art digital
technology to add to the sound library. Today the Kurzweil product line
features a wide array of electronic instruments for both the home and
professional musician. The top of the line K2600 Series professional
sampling synthesizers feature Kurzweil's Variable Architecture Synthesis
Technology (V.A.S.T.®) and represent Kurzweil's most advanced offerings to
date.

"Kurzweil Music Systems' Professional Products continue to be the choice of
leading musicians, recording studios and institutions because of Kurzweil's
critically acclaimed sound library, extraordinary functionality, and
industry-leading technology. In addition, Kurzweil Digital Home Products
offer consumers the same world-renowned Kurzweil sound quality as the
professional products, plus handcrafted cabinets and top-quality built-in
audio systems."

Notice that there is no mention of 'using their many years experience with
acoustic pianos' or such -- because they don't have such expertise. Ray
Kurzweil is an electronic/acoustic engineer who developed an expertise in
digital recording and simulation while working on his text-to-speech
converter for the blind.

Also from the site:

"Young Chang was the first musical instrument manufacturer in Korea, and
has now been producing high-quality musical instruments for over 35
years. Today, Young Chang is one of the largest manufacturers of acoustic
pianos in the world, and also manufactures a range of other instruments
under various brand names.

"The original piano assembly factory was opened in 1956, and started
manufacturing pianos, organs and harmonicas in mid-1968. Later, the company
went on to make guitars. By 1971 the company was beginning to export its
products successfully, and Young Chang opened a second factory in Incheon,
Korea, in 1976."

Young Chang made a name by building a line of not-so-cheap knockoffs of the
Yamaha grands, including the flashy paint jobs. (Early 80's models were a
bit low on quality, but the last one I looked at seemed to be a first-rate
instrument.) I don't know if Young Chang ever marketed one of their pianos
under the Kurzweil name.

Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Design Consultant
Ashby Solutions™
www.ashbysolutions.com
CloneWheel Support Group moderator
978.386.7389 voice
978.964.0547 fax
bruce@ashbysolutions.com