Old Hammond Player seeking advice Kurzweil SP 4-7

[Donald Martin]

I'm the Sandman...been playing Hammond organ most of my life and still playing it today...I'm 70..old surfer and rocker...going to Palm Coast FL to live from Oregon....and joining a very popular oldies band in Daytona..I bought a Kurzweil SP 4-7 to round out the sound I need and have found the manual to be absolute gobbledegook to my mind...I thought after a lot of consideration and shopping around and doing research that this would work..boy was I wrong sort of...the sounds are awesome but the manual just doesn't seem to make sense to me so I thought I would reach out for some help to those of you who know your way in the Kurzweil world...I contacted the go to person in California today who told me basically that there was no way to do what I was attempting..I'm not so sure he actually knew...but he said that I could download some 70.00 software to go deep in it but I don't know how to go deep anyway.....so, here is what I would like to ask for some help with:

1..The pitch wheel: it seems to be defaulted to 3 semitones...it pitches up or down one whole note...I need to set it to pitch up or down a full octave......in other words I need to do the string gliss in Glass Onion by the Beatles...I can't figure out how to simply adjust it..

2..Mod Wheel: the mod wheel only seems to work with specific patches...you would think the horn settings would naturally have the mod wheel actively in the patch but no, most do not...I can't figure out how to adjust it either..the sax and horn settings seem kinda sterile...can anything be done?


Is there a simple way to adjust these two features regardless of a set up or ????????..I would like to just be able to change the range without losing my mind...if there in fact is no help forthcoming...in other words if these two features...pitch and mod wheel cannot on the fly be adjusted can anyone recommend a Kurzweil platform I can gig with that has simpler/front feature adjustments...

Thanks anybody out there...

 

[CowboyNQ]

G'day and welcome Donald.

I used to own an SP4-7, so I'll do my best to help.

Firstly, I have to say it's not the easiest thing to edit - as you're discovering. I used another keyboard for all my non-piano and EP sounds so I never bothered to trouble myself with it.

The above said, I believe if you familiarise yourself with the operation of Setups (starting at manual page 7-1) and Zones (starting at page 7-4), you can then move to page 8-1, which is the start of the chapter on how to edit Setups.

Pitch Wheel - bottom of page 8-9. You'll need to edit for each of your four zones though.

Mod Wheel - looks like you may be SOL.

However, all is not lost. For deeper editing you can use the SoundTower program. Here it is:

http://www.soundtower.com/sp4/page.html

As I said, I never bothered with any of this but I'm told it is very good indeed and unlocks the SP4-7's full potential. Looks like it will set you back USD69 but I'm guessing it might be worth it, given what you would have paid for the keyboard.

Fun fact: You can also download new sounds off Kurzweil's website:

http://kurzweil.com/product/sp4-7/downloads/

Last thought. I agree with you that this keyboard sounds fantastic. Combined with its nice semi-weighted action and light weight, it's a really good bit of gear. I don't think you'll regret your choice once you can make it do what you want it to.

Good luck!