Product: Kawai K4
Price Paid: Francs (FR) 7000
Submitted
05/19/1996
at
05:17am
by
Avinash MEETOO
Ease of Use
:
9
Very easy to use. No nonsense configuration. The preset sounds are interresting (check OceanWatch or Oasis) but the accoustic instruments are not very well done... some little manipulation from the part of the user is required here. Editing is very easy thanks to the simple configuration (singles and multis as on 99% of other synths). A patch editor is not really required but a librarian can be a real time-saver. The manual is OK (contains all required information) but, alas, contains absolutely no tips on music-making...
Features
:
8
Polyphony: 16 notes Effects : 16 types (some quite good like the stereo panning and some dual effects like chorus+reverb) Expansion: Card slot (for patches not PCM). Limited and expensive. Using a librarian (with SysEx) is more interresting. MIDI: Adequate. Transmits on any channel. Receives (in multi mode) on 9 channels (8 instruments + drums). Keyboard: Attack and release velocity sensitive. Channel aftertouch. Good keyboard (weighted keys).
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
8
The accoustic instruments are not really realistic. But the synth (analog and digital) sounds are very interresting. The K4 is a satisfying synth to program and hear. Uses: synth-pop, light rock and sega (I am from Mauritius Island :-) The effects section is adequate, relatively programmable, but doesn't compare to a dedicated effects processor. Good keyboard and accessible controllers make for expressive playing.
Reliability
:
10
Very reliable. I never had any problem with the K4. I would use it on a gig without a backup.
Customer Support
:
5
Customer support is nearly inexistent (Kawai doen't even have a WWW site...). No information whatsoever about ROM upgrades. Banks of sound relatively difficult to found.
Overall Rating
:
8
No I won't but it again (would like an XP-80 though :-) I bought it in 1990 and then it was real value for money. Love the accessibility and the keyboard. The MIDI implementation is not complete (no Pan controller). I wish it had this feature; mixing would have been much easier. I learned to make music with my K4 and so I love it...
Product: Kawai K4
Price Paid: Deutschmarks 1100 used
Submitted
03/06/1996
at
10:07am
by
Andreas
Ease of Use
:
8
The presets are ok.
Patch editing is reletivly easy, it's very close to edit an analogue synth. Using the on-and-only K4 Patch editor (for Win3.x) makes less difference, because "k4edit" is not ver user-friendly. But after all, k4edit is very usefull to save patches.
The mannual is sometimes useful, but not user-friendly at all. You can only use it as an reference. Not tips, no tricks. Heavy vor newbies (like I have been).
Features
:
7
16 voices (2 VCOs per Voice) or 8 Voices (using 4 VCOs per Voice) or mixed plus 16 voices for Drum Section.
Build-in effect are echo, distortion, hall, chorus, flanger...; they are easy to edit, mixable in some ways (hall and distortion, reverb and chorus and so on) and can be used to make a acceptable stereo setup.
It accepts one (expensive) Kawai Card, which is used as a second patch bank. But in Multimode, it's not possible to mix both banks into one Mixed-Mode setup.
The Keyboard is fine (weighted keys), pressure sensitive whith aftertouch. The K4 can use all 16 Channels, alhought Multimode can only use 8 (free choiceable) MIDI-Channels at once (plus Drums on free configurable MIDI channel).
Two controllers, both configurable in how much their influence is, one freely configurable (in parts) in what is controls.
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
7
Piano is Strings are ok, Trumpets are ok.
Although a digital synth, it sounds very warm and comes close to "dirty" sounds of analogue synths.
The K4 is not very good for making clear electronic sounds.
Reliability
:
10
I like it :-) It never made nonsense, and I bought it as an used device.
Customer Support
:
8
I bought it in an used-synth-shop without handbook, and Kawai handed me a manual, copied by hand, after calling them, for acceptable money. Thats ok.
Overall Rating
:
7
It's is worth the price I paid for.
I love it for beeing very flexible - within it's range. I hate the drum section, it's like knocking on water.
Compared with newbies like Korg X3 it's clearly an old machine :-) but I can recommend it as an secondary synth for backgrounds.
I wouldn't buy another Kawai of this class, because I want to have a Synth that sounds completely different to this one (I'm looking for very clear digital or analogue electronic sounds, very hard, but not percussive, I think, the Korg DS-8 has been what I'm looking for.) although I like it's sounds.
At the moment I'm using an even older Kawai SX210 polyphonic analogue synth (without MIDI) as secondary instrument (argh, I want MIDI!). (On the SX210: even the MS-20 of Korg is better.)
