Kawai K1

Non-General Midi. You create your own 8 part arrangements and save them. Therefore, this synth cannot be used as a live multi-timbral create your arrangements on-the-fly rig.

No effects. No General Midi. Keyboard action OK.

I've owned this synth for 10 years. I also own a Korg N-Series, a Roland Sound Canvas, a Yamaha DB-50 daughterboard and a Kawai K-11 synth. I am not kidding. THE STRING PAD ON THE K-1 IS THE FINEST I HAVE EVER HEARD. Better than Korg. Better than Roland. Better than Yamaha. I CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT THE STRING PAD VOICE ON THIS SYNTH. Therefore, I give this synth a 10 for sound (that 1 voice only).

I've owned it 10 years. Performed with it. Never a problem.

Kawai is the only synth company I've been able to actually talk to tech support whenever I needed to. I got to know the guys by name.

I cannot live without the string pad voice on the K-1. I use the bass (acoustic) voice a lot too.
It's not only me who feels this way. Ian Babylon said in KEYBOARD MAG. that he still uses a K-1R in his gigs with Elton John.

Pay attention: this concerns the rack version, which has 4 outputs and no keyboard (!) or joystick (for vector synthesis). Due to its idiotically small display there's a lot of scrolling to do. However, everything is clear and logically layed out.

It has a polyphony of 32 voices. Every patch either uses 2 or 4 at the same time. I especially like the following: -The rack version has 4 individual outputs. -The samples can amplitude-modulate each other (AM sounds a bit like ring modulation). -It has 8 (!) velocity curves which can be set for each individual voice and can be inverted also. -Though it lacks filters it has a lot of usefull parameters which you won't find on other synths. Like the velocity curves, extensive layering and splitting, also multitimbrally (8 channels)and 5 keyscale curves (normally this would be a straight line on up: e.g. the higher you play, the higher the pitch, but there are 4 other types available, and you can individually for each voice link different parameters (not only pitch, as in the example) to it). -2 poly-modes: new notes played on the same key can either stop the previous one (as with piano's)(even my $2500 SY85 doesn't have this indispensable function) or not (like playing the same note on 2 different guitar-strings).
It's a pity it doesn't have a pitch EG (only a "ramp", a straight line) and / or portamento (although the mono mode does suggest a fast portamento which is quite convincing).

I don't find the instruments realistic at all. It's great for really electronic music. Weird, atonal sounds. Especially percussive. It's very expressive, as you can link anything to (channel) aftertouch and velocity in extremely different ways within one patch. But you really have to work on it because the samples themselves are crap.

I haven't used it that long (yet). I previously owned the keyboard version, never had any problems.

Sorry, no experience here.

Especially for this price (about $200) it's the greatest piece of my gear and I would never sell it again (I sold the Keyboard version some years ago to an asshole). I use it with about 50% of the productions I make. Advice: get the rack version (as I did), you'll need the 4 individual outs!

-Not sure about the software Rev, although it was updated when a board was replaced a couple of years ago.
The stock sounds are pretty lame, only about 10 out of the original 64 are very useable. This is not a fault of the keyboard though, more the programmers. This keyboard was released back when the japanese were doing all their programming in house, so the presets kind of suffer. There are a million patches available for this thing, so don't let the sound of a stock one in the store color your thinking (mine only has about 5 of the original 64 sounds)
Editing patches is fairly simple, although sometimes the buttons take several pushes to engage. The programming interface is sort of like a Proteus with more buttons; you select a function and then scroll thru several pages of info. There is a graphic on the top panel that shows the structure of the pages - Very nice when you first get the synth and don't know it very well.
The manual was far better than a Roland manual (then again so is toilet paper). It actually explains some of of the concepts behind the parameters instead of just saying what they are.
I use Midi-Quest 4.0 for editing - it helps a lot, especially with the envelope editing. It's great for setting up multi-banks too. The synth is quite useable without an editor, but it really helps.

Quoted in ads as having 16 voice polyphony, but that's with using a two oscillator structure. The best sounds (usually) use 4 oscillators, so for all practical purposes, it's an 8 voice synth. At least you have a choice of two or four, unlike many other budget synths that only allow two oscillators to be layered. For it's vintage (1988/89) and price, the polyphony was actually very good.
One nice feature with the multi setup is that you have a choice of fixed voice allocation (0 to 8 voices) or variable (called VR in the screen). This way you can limit some patches in a multi to only a few notes, and make sure the extras are availabe for the patches that really need them.
No built in effects - those were added in the K-1 II version.
The only expansion option is a RAM card. The Kawai's were very expensive I bought a 3rd party card with sounds. Later on, using sysex dumps, I acquired three more sets of sounds from another guy's Kawai cards when I was doing a studio project for him. I took some of my own patches, and the best of the stock sounds, along with the best of his 3 cards and put them in the internal memory and on the card. This gave me 128 Good patches instead of the 10 or so that were decent to begin with.
One limitation of the multi setups is that you cannot mix patches from the internal memory and RAM card within a multipatch. Multipatches on the RAM card also cannot use internal sounds. I spent a little time with a sheet of paper planning around this so it wasn't a big deal. RAM cards are probably hard to come by now anyway, but if it comes with one, that would be an extra incentive to buy the Keyboard.
For a 1988 budget synth, the midi capabilities are very impressive. Unlike the Roland D-10, it has aftertouch. You can set it to send and receive on separate midi channels, and the multi-mode (multi-timbral) is very flexible. You can set any of 8 patches to receive via the keyboard, via midi, or both the keyboard and midi. You can also dump via sysex; single patches, banks, single multis, or banks of multis.
Very stable midi - I've only crashed it once with my computer editor.
No on board sequencer

This keyboard's big selling point when it was introduced was the ability to get that breathy 80's M-1 sound for a cheap price. It is very good for that kind of stuff, but other than some string stuff the "real sounds" are pretty bad. The piano is pitiful (except some of the Rhodes type pianos), and the brasses are pretty wheezy. You have to cut the thing a break though, it came out in 1988 for under $1000 (I paid $675 in 1989) and it only had 512k of 8 bit samples. The rest of the waveforms are single cycle waves. The programmers did a lot with a little. The mallet sounds are quite good too.
It's good for rock, or classical (not as an only keyboard), but would not be good for jazz (other than the Rhodes and mallet sounds). It does not have filters so forget dance music - it just won't get it.
One caveat though is it is kind of noisy. Especially if you use the sampled 8 bit waveforms it is VERY GRUNGY. These days though, that can be a plus. If you work with the oscillator levels a bit and turn down the worst offenders, then it isn't too bad. Just don't expect to patch it straight into an ADAT or DA-88 and get pristine sound.
No on board effects - apparently the ones on the K-1 II were pretty bad I don't know personally.
For a cheap synth it's fairly expressive - the pitch and mod wheels have a nice throw to them. Another cool feature is the joystick - you can pan around the four waves in a sound and get a different mix (kind of like a cheesy Korg Wavestation). Sometimes the effect is real subtle, sometimes it's bad - at least you have the option.
The velocity response is very good, and has different curves you can select. The aftertouch is not that great, but I don't care for the aftertouch on most synths. Unlike a lot of it's contemporary competitors AND some new stuff (Roland XP-10, Korg XD-5) AT LEAST IT HAS AFTERTOUCH!
This thing ain't no Kurzweill K2500, my rating is based on the vintage of the keyboard, it's original price, and it's street price now (around $200). Believe it or not, a lot of these things wound up on records (Bad English, Slaughter) - I wouldn't use this as my only keyboard, but for adding layers or a part in a sequence it's pretty good.
One last thing is the stock sounds - only about 10 are any good. There are probably 200,000 patches for K-1's floating around out there though so I would look for other sounds. After I reprogrammed my with the best of four different sound sets (mine, 3rd party, and 3 kawai alternate sound cards) it really came into it's own. A lot of people can't believe it's a K-1.
Also - most of the stock patches have their volume programmed WAY TOO LOW. The patch volume parameter goes from 0 to 100, and a lot of patches are set at like 30 or 40. When you turn these up, the sound gets a lot thicker, and can cut through a mix better. With some of the patches, turning up the volume brings a lot more noise though. More or less the best practice is the play with the setting and find a good compromise between output level and noise. Depending on the samples and/or waveforms used, this is usually between 70 and 90. Beware of turning it up too loud though, as this will clip the output.

A couple of years ago, I would have said great - However
Two years ago it just stopped working. I thought it was a power supply problem, but it turned out to be a major circuit board problem.
The repair cost me $229 with labor, which is kind of steep. I seriously considered putting the $$ into a new keyboard, or a used K-1, but I had put a lot of effort into programming it, and the tech pointed out that my K-1 was WAY nicer than any one he had seen in his shop.
I was lucky that I had all my original patches and multi's and custom sets in my computer - when the board was replaced all I had to do was load them. IF ANYONE OUT THERE IS READING THIS - GO SAVE ALL YOUR PATCHES TO A COMPUTER OR SOMETHING RIGHT NOW - YOU DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO GO BACK TO SQUARE ONE!!!!!
In it's defense, it had been used almost daily for 6 or 7 years, so it had a lot of use. I didn't gig with it, so it might be kind of fragile for that.
From what I've heard they are pretty reliable.
I'm giving it a low score because it cost me a lot to get it fixed...

I only talked to them once, they were pretty helpful.
Kawai has had a sketchy past with "pro" keyboards though - they keep pulling out of the market every few years. I kind of wish they would either get out, or get serious. When you say Kawai, people think, oh yeah that little toy thing I saw down at the music store...
The circuit board I needed (a major assembly) was readily available ( took about a week).

I'm giving the K-1 a pretty high rating, but I'm not saying it's one of the greatest keyboards ever released - I don't think it will achieve classic status. I think that many people expect too much out of keyboards for the money - I mean a $200 guitar wouldn't be considered much of anything, why should a $200 used keyboard be compared to the latest stuff? For the age and current street price, I think the K-1 represents an excellent value, especially as a newbie board, or an extra synth. If it gets stolen or trashed, your'e not going to be out much.
The fact that I paid $229 to get it fixed says a lot. I think I would buy another one if the price and condition was right (Mint for $200!). This would be a good first keyboard for either someone just starting out with a $250 budget limit, or for someone who already had 2 or 3 boards and wanted to add another controller and sound source.
I almost bought a K1-II rack in 1995, but got a Proteus F/X instead.
I've been playing (dabbling really) with synths for about 11 years. The Kawai K-1 was my fifth synth, I replaced a Poly 800 (now that was a piece of crap!) with the K1. Before the K-1, a bought a DW-8000, then a Roland MKS-100 sampler (THAT was a mistake!), then an Oberheim Matrix 1000 (that was more like it!). I then wanted a second controller so I bought a used Poly 800. I couldn't stand it, so I sold it and bought the K-1. Since then I've entered the modern era (sort of), I also have a Roland JV-90 and a Proteus F/X, and an Alesis D-4.
No real loves or hates, but the wish list would include:
"Hates" - Wish it had more sample ROM (only 512k! - 8 mb is standard today) and 16 bit samples. Also resonant filters would have been nice.
More realistic (back in 1989 at least) wants would include adjustable contrast in the display and a controller pedal input, and larger buttons and a built in power supply (ever notice how companies tell you they put on a wall wart for "cost reasons" but never say how much more it would have cost with an internal power supply?).
The things I LIKE include: The easy programming interface, the joystick control over some parameters, the pitch bend wheel, the options available in multi mode, and the large amount of third party support for the K-1 (at one time, the pages of keyboard were filled with ads for K-1 sounds) It also has a strong output, PROVIDED you turn up the patch output volume in the programming page. There are some patches this DOES NOT work well for (it get's too noisy), but many of the patches are programmed way too low - turn them up and they sound a lot beefier. A value off 100 is usually too much( the output clips, but 70 to 90 works well most of the time.
I compared the K-1 to the Korg 707 (no Contest) and the Roland D-10. I passed on the D-10 since it didn't have aftertouch. A couple of years later, I had the opportunity to buy one used, and after listening to the D-10, I realized I liked my K-1 just as much.
I wish the K-1 had some basic built in effects (delay, chorus, reverb) Like I said they added these with the K-1 II, but I've heard they are real bad.
It's been a great keyboard for me music-wise - I wrote several songs just after I got it, because it inspired me. I use it now to add a little bell/sparkle to a track, and as a third layer for organ sounds.
K-1's have really been dissed over the years - don't get me wrong it's not a fantastic keyboard, but look at what you get for the price. There's really nothing short of an M-1 or D-50 (not counting Oberheims) from that era that is better. Like I said, I wouldn't use a K-1 as an only keyboard but for a newbie, or somebody with some other gear, it's a worthy addition. Just get on the net and get some other sounds for it, or roll up you sleeves and program it some. The stock sounds don't really do it justice.