of Microprocessors

In the beginning the company was supported by venture capital money and the
overriding concern was to develop the K250 to the highest level allowed by the
technology of the time essentially regardless of cost and get it shown. Although I
hadn't yet joined, the fuel to power 20-hour days leading up to the first NAMM
showing came not from stock options but from the thrill of creating something
both groundbreaking and far beyond what had been achieved by others at that
point.
When I did join about 4 years later, it was time to get to work designing products
that were profitable AND had a large enough market to make back the vast
deficits rung up earlier. The Arnold chip and K1000 series contributed the most to
this effort in the late 80s. I maintained a wall mural stock chart and it was thrilling
to see the price creep up gradually before and just after the 1000PX was shown
and began production.
Certainly the months surrounding the bankruptcy and sale to Young Chang in
1990 were a low point but soon afterward we were running on adrenaline again as
the K2000 was coming together. That was many years ago though and I'll have to
admit that things had gotten to be rather routine afterwards as we crunched out
product after product to keep manufacturing busy and sales up.
Recently however the development, launch, and initial acclaim of the KSP8 is
feeling like old times again even from halfway around the planet.
SONIK : Do you think the music consumer market failed to see the idea behind
the Kurzweil EXPRESSIONMATE controller?
HAL : I have to give credit for the original ExpressionMate idea to Chris
Martirano of Kurzweil's marketing department. Shortly after the K2500
reintroduced long ribbons to the synth market, he suggested I take that design and
incorporate it into a standalone device that would let anyone add long ribbon
functionality to their own synth setup. Add a few jacks for extra pedals and a
breath controller and put in an arpeggiator and we'd have quick new product that
could build on the ribbon technology I'd developed with our Korean membrane
switch vendor.
Once I'd started programming the little 6502 derivative processor inside and
discovered that it was possible to play notes right on the ribbon then bend or
modulate them plus some other things the K2500 didn't do, the project took on a
life of its own. Which made it late, but great. Now it's really a performance
instrument it its own right with three arpeggiators and an extensive MIDI
processing, routing, and merging section for its two MIDI ins and outs.
I think its best feature is the note playing capability. Either 1/3 or the whole length
is virtually divided into 13, 37, or "scale length" little zones. Each zone is
associated with a note, either along a straight ahead chromatic scale or 15 other