Turn On, Tune In, Tweak Out
From the creators of the finest synthesizers in the world comes the world's most powerful effects processor, winner of the Electronic Musician Editors Choice award for Best Effects Processor Over $1000.

The Kurzweil KSP8 multi-bus signal processor is an 8-channel effects system designed for the professional engineer, producer, or musician who requires high-performance effects, excellent sound quality, and unparalleled real-time control. It has over twice the processing power of KDFX, the world-class effects system found in Kurzweil's award-winning K2600 synthesizer. The KSP8 extends the arsenal of effect algorithms from KDFX, adding newly developed surround reverbs and many more stereo and mono algorithms. The architecture has enough flexibility and power to process up to 8 channels of audio simultaneously, in mono, stereo, and surround combinations. Unlike other high-end effects systems whose DSP resources are fixed to a small number of processing engines, the 16 available processing units in the KSP8 may be freely shared among up to 8 effect buses. The sonic quality of the KSP8 is stunning; it has the best analog audio specifications in the industry, featuring unique output circuitry (patent-pending). The power, flexibility, and sound of the KSP8 truly make it a must-have for professional and semi-pro studios, as well as for sound designers in search of exciting new timbres.

The Architecture
The KSP8 architecture is elegant, offering a simple, easy to understand structure. At the lowest level is the effect algorithm. The KSP8 offers the highest quality algorithms designed for mono, stereo, and surround applications, with plenty of parameters for tweaking. From these algorithms, Kurzweil engineers have crafted exquisite effect presets ranging from spacious and gorgeous, to shocking and in your face rude. Effect presets are easily linked together to form effect chains on up to 8 buses. Users can fully customize effect presets and chains and have all the control they want. Manipulation and automation are a snap using MIDI or a host of local modulation sources including up to 36 LFOs and 36 envelope generators, with 72 functions available for combining control sources.

The highest level of the KSP8 architecture is called the studio. The studio is a kind of "snapshot" of the total state of the KSP8 at one time. Studios contain all the physical connection settings, signal routing (analog and digital I/O selections), analog and digital signal levels, as well as the assigned effect presets, effect chains, effect bus assignments (including all MIDI channel and controller settings) and all multi-band equalizer settings. A studio allows you to save and recall your entire project, quickly and easily. The KSP8 offers up to 999 locations for user-created objects. SmartMedia cards are used to store your work.

Signal Routing
The KSP8's flexible signal routing allows inputs and outputs to be wired up freely, and signals can be bused around the system for total control. Each input signal has its own multi-band equalizer and stereo or multi-channel panner. Inputs and outputs can be routed and saved as part of the studio. Effect buses may be routed directly to the KSP8's outputs, or to internal mixdown buses for submixing. The unique multi-stage metering section allows for metering at 4 points in the signal path, for all 8 channels.

Factory Programming
The extensive list of 249 DSP algorithms are used to create over 600 effect presets including lush reverbs, realistic rooms, throaty flangers, dreamy choruses, delays, ruthless distortions, aliasing and chaos generators, rotary speaker and cabinet simulators, Laserverb effects, enhancers, equalizers, a full complement of dynamics processors including multi-band and side-chain compressors, and more. Tempo-based effects such as flangers, panners, filter sweeps and delays can be synced to an internal or external MIDI clock; internal system tempo can be set with the Tap Tempo button.

5.1 Surround Audio
Today's audio and video markets must be ready to meet the DVD demands for music and sound in a variety of surround formats. The KSP8 includes new algorithms designed specifically for surround processing, including 5.1 surround ambience and reverb, and multi-channel compression. Whether you're using a large-format 5.1 console or a modest line mixer, the KSP8's multi-channel panners and effects make it the perfect tool for creating or enhancing a 5.1 channel surround mix.

I/O and Synchronization
The KSP8 base unit comes with 4 balanced analog inputs and outputs and AES/EBU in and out, for a total of 6 possible channels. An I/O option slot provides a choice of expansion. The KSP8 provides a 48kHz or 44.1 kHz selectable internal master clock, or can slave to an external digital clock. 24-bit precision is maintained on all channels.

Intelligent Interface Design
The KSP8 has a handsome new design that offers an easy-to-use interface. It includes a 240 x 64 CCFL backlit display, scroll knob, data entry keypad, and dedicated buttons for navigation and actions. It's fast and easy to get to important features and functions such as configuration controls, bus selection, level metering, effect bypassing, and more. The intelligent and intuitive design offers features like Quick Pages, allowing instant access to the most commonly needed effect parameters.

Options and Upgrades
Housed in a 2-space rack-mountable chassis, the KSP8 offers an expandable design with user installable I/O option cards. The KSP8 can accommodate one of several I/O options: 4 additional channels of analog I/O, or 8 channels of digital I/O, in Alesis Lightpipe, Tascam TDIF, Kurzweil KDS, or AES/EBU formats. The Alesis Lightpipe and Tascam TDIF provide word clock sync. The mLAN option provides a direct FireWire connection, allowing the KSP8 to function as complete solution for Digital I/O, a MIDI interface as well an effects processor for computer based recording applications. When fully expanded, the KSP8 can process 8 separate input signals, selected from up to 14 sources. An additional hardware option slot is provided for future growth.

As new technology and capabilities become available, the user can update the KSP8's operating system and ROM objects. New OS and object releases may be loaded into Flash ROM from the SmartMedia card or via MIDI. Advanced users may fully customize the ROM objects to suit their specific needs.

Remote Control
The optional RSP8 offers totally remote operation over all KSP8 functions. The remote offers the same display, navigation and data entry controls as the KSP8. In addition, the RSP8 adds a joystick and 8 knobs to control the KSP8 more efficiently. The RSP8's compact, attractive design will be at home in any studio environment. One RSP8 can control up to 7 KSP8s when used with HUB7, our optional multi-port hub.

Specifications

Analog Inputs
Connectors: Four 1/4" TRS balanced jacks standard, eight optional
Input Impedance: 20K ohms balanced, 10K or 20K ohms unbalanced
Maximum Input Level: +22dBu
Minimum Input Level for 0dBFS: +4dBu
CMRR: > 60dB @ <= 1kHz, > 40dB @ 1kHz - 20kHz
A/D Converter: 24-bit, 128x oversampling
Frequency Response: 20Hz - 20kHz +/- 0.15dB
Dynamic Range: > 110dB unweighted @ 1kHz
THD+N: < 0.0015% @ 1kHz, +19dBu
Crosstalk: < -100dB @ 1kHz
Analog Outputs

Connectors: Four 1/4" TRS balanced jacks standard, eight optional
Output Impedance: 100 ohms balanced, 50 ohms unbalanced
Maximum Output Level: +22dBu
Minimum Output Level for 0dBFS: +4dBu
D/A Converter: 24-bit, 128x oversampling
Frequency Response: 20Hz - 20kHz +/- 0.15dB
Dynamic Range: > 110dB unweighted @ 1kHz
THD+N: < 0.002% @ 1kHz, +19dBu
Crosstalk: < -100dB @ 1kHz
Digital Audio I/O

Connectors: One female and one male XLR, standard
Impedance: 110 ohms (AES) or 75 ohms (SPDIF)
Formats: AES/EBU (AES3-1992) or SPDIF (IEC 60958-3)
Input Word Length: Up to 24 bits
Output Word Length: 16, 20, or 24 bits
Dither: None, Flat, and 2 types of Shaped dither
Optional I/O

4 channel Analog I/O (1/4" x 4)
8 channel AES/EBU or S/PDIF (multi-pin connector, serial connectors, BNC word clock)
8 channel Alesis Lightpipe and 8 channel TEAC Tascam TDIF (Lightpipe and TDIF data connectors, BNC word clock)
mLAN option
Factory ROM

249 effect algorithms (expandable)
636 effect presets (up to 999 user presets)
138 effect chains (up to 999 user chains)
14 studios (up to 999 user studios)
Effects Algorithms

Reverbs (booths, rooms, chambers, halls, plates, stages and more), Delays, Choruses, Flangers, Phasers, Shapers, Enhancers, triggered Filters, Distortions, Tube Simulators, Compressors, Limiters, Expanders, Gates, Bit Resolution Degenerators, Aliasing, Ring Modulators, Cabinet Simulators, Spatializers, Rotary Speaker Emulations, Tremolo, Resonant Lowpass, Highpass Filters, Bandpass, Notch, Parametric, Graphic and Multi-band equalizers, Kurzweil?s unique Laserverb, Pitcher? and Chaos, plus others

Effect Routing: Any 8 of up to 14 possible inputs can be processed and routed to any 8 of the 14 possible outputs.

External Data Storage: SmartMedia cards can store up to 64 Mb. Users can store and retrieve via MIDI Sys Ex

Display: 240 x 64 CCFL backlit LCD with front panel contrast

MIDI: In/Out/Thru ? 16 channel operation

ROM Upgrades: OS and objects upgradeable via SmartMedia card, or via SysEx dump from a MIDI sequencer. The curent version is 1.90. Click here to download v1.90 from our site.

Dimensions:
3 5/8" x 17 1/8" x 15 1/8" 92mm x 435mm x 384mm
13.25 lbs. 6.02kg

Options:
KANA4 - 4 channel Analog I/O
KAES8 - 8 channel AES/EBU I/O
KADT8 - 8 channel Alesis Lightpipe I/O plus 8 channel TDIF I/O
RSP8 - Remote control unit for KSP8
HUB7 - Hub connection box (allows up to 7 KSP8s to be controlled from one RSP-8)
KMLN8 - mLAN option