Kawai K1?

mjbphotos

mjbphotos

Moderator
Anyone had any experience with this 'classic' synth? Local GC has one pretty cheap. I see there are lots of patches available for it, and some good 'old' reviews.
 
GC lists a K4 for $99, and a K1 for $129. Wondering if something is wrong with the K4, but will be checking them out. The K4 has built-in effects. I like the additive synthesis features - being able to set where the vibrato kicks in for a violin, for example, or being able to control it with the pitch bender.
 
I went for the K4! The only reason it was $30 less was it is scuffed up on one side - nothing a black magic marker won't fix. Thanks for headphone advice- I brought my in-ear monitors and an adapter. The K4 not only has the programmable effects but more memory spots, too. I think the horns and strings will work pretty well in the Beatles tribute band.
They gave me the power supply for nothing and I went for the $15 12 month warranty - its worth it because if it breaks/dies, they'll give me my full money back.
 
I still have a K1r racked module...bought it new back in 1990-something.

It got used during my MIDI days, but I can't remember the last time I powered it up. :D
The sounds are OK, there a few decent ones, I remember always using at least a couple any time I was layering MIDI stuff.
 
Cool also, I have hte rack mount K4r. It has this one cool sound called swell-choir...
 
So I finally got around to attempting to do some patch changes and editing with the K4. Pressing a few buttons on the unit itself didn't result in much useful sound editing, so I looked online for software, found some, downloaded, only to find that none of it was compatible with Windows 7.
What I would like to do is save all the patches in the unit itself right now (in case the internal battery dies), then start finding some more useful tones to replace those in the banks now that I would never use. There are some good horns and strings, but some of them have too much reverb/delay/sustain on them.
I do have the Kawai manual but have yet to start playing with serious parameter editing as I thought it would be easier on the computer.
 
I found an updated swell choir patch on some website somewhere, and had trouble uploading it as well, and that was from a Win98 box running some other patch editor I found for it. I didn't delve into it much further than "damn, couldn't get that to work" so it isn't just you....:cursing:
 
I had a K1m some 12 years ago, and regret getting rid of it. It does very good ambient, breathy, atmospheric sounds, pads, strings (the strings are best achieved by layering up several using the multis' and doing a slight detune where/if necessary) and basses, the joystick (on the K1m) can be really interesting, and you should be able to find an editor that contains all the patches ever released by Kawai (I can't post links yet! Doh! synthzone dot com has an archive, the programme is called changeit). They can tend to be a bit noisy tho'. The real downside is the programming, I couldn't work it out at the time, I think Kawai are one of the few synth makers to use 'subtractive' synthesis - I could be wrong tho :). One thing to watch out for are the buttons, they are rubber, and they wear out pretty quickly and, if they work at all, need to be pressed very hard, which makes for hard work!
 
mjbphotos said:
Anyone had any experience with this 'classic' synth? Local GC has one pretty cheap. I see there are lots of patches available for it, and some good 'old' reviews.
Click to expand...

YES! Experience with it since 1989. And I still use it. Patch S-1-A-3, 'String Pad'. I use that sound on almost everything I record.And I will use
it as long as I'm able to play. I have 2 right now. My main one is in my rack.

Here's my rack. Notice the K1R on the bottom. Guess what patch it's set on.

rackjuly15.jpg


I use that string pad on everything I compose. You can hear it on this recent one.

 
Last edited:
I am a long time Kawai K1r user since 1990, but recently I used the factory system exclusive patch data from the official Kawai downloads page, and now I no longer have the original "SINGLE int" bank of sounds. I have included the cardboard presets guide which shows the "SINGLE int" bank, and this is totally different to what my K1r shipped with; it also lacks the amazing "Orchestra" patch

So if anyone here has the system exclusive file of the factory presets that match my list, I would be very grateful if you could send it to me! I will then make a backup of it to my DC-32 RAM card.

I also have a Kawai MM-16 MIDI Mixer with K1 presets but I have not figured it out properly yet.

Ian

Kawai K1 - Presets.jpg
 
Thank you for the very fast and helpful response. I'm going to try the file later this evening and going by the included text file, it looks promising! :thumbs up:
 
The file did not work for me but once Etienne finds some time to backup the patch banks, I and others will have the factory patches back again. :)
 
I think so because having checked my extracted folder, it has two files K1_INT.SYX (7.90KB) and K1_INT.TXT (4.00KB). I suppose I could try again and see if I get lucky. I used the software program MIDI-OX to do the transfer to my K1r.
 
Memories! I see I started this thread back in 2012! I sold off the K4 when the Beatles band broke up - got $140 for it. Used one patch from it on a song on my last album, but there wasn't anything 'magic' about the regular patches on it, it was just a cheap usable-for-live use keyboard. Never did figure out how to get it working with Win7.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top