From map@cs.washington.eduWed Oct 18 10:22:05 1995 Date: Tue, 17 Oct 1995 10:33:18 -0700 (PDT) From: Mike Perkowitz To: electronica Subject: kawai k4 (Re: Multitimbral analogish modules?) i've got a k4 and can recommend it, especially to complement an already well-equipped studio. each patch can use 2 or 4 oscillators, each playing one of 256 waves. the first hundred or so are single-cycle. there are a bunch of more complex ones, and then the last few are weird loops and stuff. cool. you can have oscillator 1 modulate osc 2, and 3 can modulate 4 (i think that's what's going on). the single-cycle waveforms are decent, and it's got some nice unusual atmospheric waves, as well as being able to do a decent arco string. it's got digital resonant filters. there are only 8 values of resonance, and the resonance is not great, but if you set the resonance around 3-4 and play with the filter, it sounds pretty good. when you use 2 oscillators in a patch, you get a single filter. when you use 4 oscs, you can choose whether to route 1 and 2 through one filter and 3 and 4 through another, or have all four pass through first one filter than the other. unfortunately, the filter is only low-pass. there are amplitude envelopes for each oscillator, and one for each filter. the k4 has basic effects. the k4r (which i have) offers no effects, but has 6 extra outputs on top of the stereo pair. all outputs are polyphonic. routing is set up in separate programs, and patches specify how they're routed, as does the drum kit (each sound can be separately routed). in multisets, you can route each patch through whatever routing path you want. it's kind of confusing, but potentially very powerful. right now i just set up a few basic routings, and it's easy to not worry about this. one thing i really like about the k4r is that multisets are pretty easy to set up, and it's easy to switch between single mode and multi mode (unlike my wavestation, which is why i mostly use it monotimbrally). you can have up to 8 patches, and for each set midi channel, key range, output routing, level, transpose and fine tune (i think). so yes, you can do splits and layers and multi-channel stuff. the programming interface is as you'd expect: buttons, a data slider, and a two-line lcd. there's a button for each module, and then you step through the various parameters there. not great, though i've seen worse. you can edit it via sysex, and patch editors exist. i also sat down with the manual and wrote param editors for my peavey pc-1600. it was a bit of a pain though, because it doesnt send sysex when you edit from the front panel. also, it doesnt take to realtime tweaking that well.. some things dont respond until you key a new note, and some just misbehave. for example, i assigned sliders to tweak the levels of the separate oscillators, and sometimes if you turn an oscillator down, you cant turn it back up. you can tweak the filter in real time though. i use it a lot for bread-and-butter sounds: basslines, strings. i've also generated some great weird things.. especially layering those loop waveforms four at a time and modulating the two filters. i think the thing complements my analogues fairly well without being a sound canvas. i got mine brand new for $300.. that seems to be the average used price, though i dont see them that often. you could probably get one for a bit less. m ----------------------------------------------------------------------- In some rocks you can find the fossil footprints of fishes. -- the fifth grade view of the world ----------------------------------------------------------------------- map@cs.washington.edu http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/map/ mike perkowitz http://www.hyperreal.com/machines/