Kurzweil Music Systems Inc

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. The Musician Stevie Wonder, a customer for the reading machine, challenged Raymond 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, the K250, to successfully reproduce the full complexity of acoustic instrument sounds in 1983.


Kurzweill PC 88 Synthesiser

In 1990 Kurzweill Systems was bought out by the Korean musical instrument manufacturer Young Chang and set up its R&D institute in Waltham, MA, USA. Raymond Kurzweil left the company which has continued to the present to produce sophisticated digital synthesisers and samplers.

Further Information:

The Kurzweill website

  • Kurzweil Web:Young Chang Corporate site
  • Complete K2000/2500 :Info & resource site including software tools and a patch archive
  • FTP Search for K2000 Sounds:.KRZ files via FTP
  • Kurzweil Expander:Kurzweil resources page. Some Mac Galaxy bundles available.
  • Kurzweil Forum:David Fox's Kurzweil newgroup / forum.
  • K150 Fourier Synthesizer:A page for a very rare synth
  • K2000 Everything Site:Info & resources for the K2000
  • K2000/2500 Launch Pad:Resources & information site covering all aspects of the K2000/2500 synths, from patches to expansion & hard drive info.
  • K2000 Programmers' Corner:Programming information
  • Kurzweil Sounds :Patch directory at uwp.edu See Kurzweil directory for other resources.
  • Harmony Central's Kurzweil Info:Pages on new products from Kurzweil
  • Official K2000 Tutorial Page:Download tutorial documents on the K2000 & .KRZ files.
  • 3DSound World Wide Home Page:3D Sample CDs for Kurzweil.
  • At Work Software:Editors and librarians for Kurzweil synths & expanders.
  • Front Room Productions:Sounds for the K2000 & K2500
  • Voice Crystal:Established dealer in sounds & cards for most synths including Kurzweil
  • World Control:TB-303 and other Analogue sounds for the K2000.