Kawai K4R

I have had 2 K4 racks in the past, but never sussed out software upgrades. No. 1 was bought brand new for #299.00 GBP in 1993, No. 2 2nd-hand for #140.00 GBP. I am glad I was steered in the direction of Kawai instead of Korg, etc, by the rep at Sound Control, Glasgow. I wanted choirs and strings with the ability to tweak'em all up. I expected EVERY digital synth would have had resonant filters back in 1993, so I am glad I made that decision to go with Kawai. The presets are mindblowing, even 13 years on when I think about them. Programming is done via the handy data entry slider, which zips through parameters quickly, with two yes/no/increment up & down buttons for the "fine tuning". The manual was easy to use and explained what I needed to know.

16-note poly, 8-part multi-timbral. No effects, but muliple outputs. 256 waves, including some drum noises, with a resonant LPF to die for. AWM (Kawai-speak for ring-mod) is also included, so if you are seeking raucous, discordant sounds, the K4 needs some investigation. In terms of expansion, there were program data cards made, but I never saw any PCM cards for this baby. One the most useful MIDI funtions, (IMHO) was the ability to route filter cutoff to the mod wheel - I was able to recreate my favourite Korg MS-10 bass patch by using one of pulse waves with this legendary digital filter. No sequencer or MIDI clock sync for LFOs' here - usual early 90's MIDI implementaion we now seem to take for granted.

As stated above, no effects, but easy-to-use routing options. From the 256 waves, I have to say that some of the multisamples show their age - but as a whole, the K4 abounds with good sounds, but to be objective - the strings have some background noise, and the pianos can be a bit suspect, as you can "spot the joins" where the multisamples were taken. There are not mmany drum noises, but these are of good quality. Only 2 snares, but one of them is that "ringy" sound from the edge of the rim, this can easily be tuned to beef up your existing snares - and as the owner of many synths, samplers, etc, who takes drum sounds seriously, few samples will stand out in your mix so well as this one, especially for breakbeat, D&B and suchlike. But goddamn, soon we've got to come to THE FILTER - and this is where the K4r shows what it can do to justify rack space. Although the resolution of the "resonance" parameter is quite low(only 7 levels if I remeber correctly), NO OTHER DIGITAL FILTER SOUNDS LIKE THIS. Seriously. Watch out for your speakers! Perhaps one of the most aggresive, in-yo'-face kinda beasties you could ever get to grips with - and it does the chilled out pads, basses, and SFX as well!!! This is what the K4r is good for. It was never going to be a "do-it-all" kind of rack - think in terms of the ring-modding one digital wave against one of the analog-type waves, put this through the psycho filter, connect to your outboard effects, and the world shall tremble in fear (or chant"Aum", if thats your bag) !!!

Lightweight, no plastic parts, with only the slider for data etry and volume sticking out. Yeah, I would gig with this baby, all right!

In regards to my previous post (K3m), I said that Kawai seemed to have forgotten synthesisers, concentrating on acoustic and digital pianos. An aged and distiguished gentleman (their UK rep) answered my questions regarding a replacement power supply for a Q-80 sequencer, but did not not seem the kinda guy you would discuss the latest KMFDM/Fatboy Slim collaboration with in a hurry...
Still, full marks to the guy, there are so many people who will try to get you off the phone as fast as possible. Nice to speak to a real person, as opposed to knee-jerk call centre ops.

I have had to sell 2 K4 racks due to financial considerations (don't laugh, I'm a Glaswegian). No. 1 was still a bargain in 1993, at #299.00 GBP. I would still designate this as a REAL SYNTHESISER as opposed the otaku "it's just a ROMpler" saying. HAVE YOU TRIED IT? Beats plug-ins! K4rs' are in plentiful supply on eBay, but I feel they would fetch more if dedicated synthesists knew more about their capabilities. If you have not heard the filter on the K4r, don't just take my word for it.

I won't re-hash of what's already been said about the details. But I just read Michael Diamonds review and what his opinions on the K4 are uncannily along the same path as my experience with the K4. First I bought this synth after owning a K1. The reason I had a K1 was it was the only one I could afford at the time. I knew what I wanted, sweepable, resonant filters. However I had to settle for the K1. I always used to think the K1 would be great if it just had those damn filters. Lo and behold a year or two later, Kawai finally came to their senses and gave us the K4. At this point I was already looking for another synth, mainly the M1, again no resonant filters, or the D50 - half of it is a real analog synth for those of you who don't realize this. However I was holding off because these were going for over $1400 at the time and I couldn't justify spending that much on. I had to pay for my car and college instead. But then the K4 hit the stores. I thought it's filter sound was one of the best sweeping sounds I've ever heard. It was deep and cutting, not to mention how thick and phatt it could sound with mid-high resonance. It was easy to program it to do a lot of sound twisting as well given in part that the envelopes accepted positive-negative values. I came up with at least a dozen great sounds within 15 minutes at the store. This was only $900 new, so I decided to make the buy. Haven't had any regrets since 1989. Since then I have owned many high-end synths and still haven't sound a filter on any analog or digital that can replace the K4 filter. It still stands on it's own. In my opinion, the K4 was actually the first VA synth to hit the market. All because it's digital filters emulated resonant anlog filters so well. They're somewhat noisy when sweeped, but that often adds to the character. Did you ever try using a DX200 for it's 6 operator synth versus a real DX7. The old FM's sounds dirtier which makes them sound more analog and less digital like the DX200 - yet the numbers in the DX200 and DX7 are being crunched the same way. So these older synths still have a quality to them that's desirable. Of course it's sound is still digital, just like any other digital synth, and yes, even including the virus C. However I'll admit what Access has done so far is getting very close to true analog sound. Maybe a couple generations down the road of new releases for them.

At any rate, the K4 is well worth the money. I tried to sell mine a few times at more than the market price, but always change my mind when it comes to relisting it. I wish the K4R had the effects. Some of the K4's best features are its effects. Crude in many ways, but immersive as well, in particular the last delay algorithm - #16. On some presets this effect alone is half the synth - just like the effect section on a Hartman Neuron, some of the Neuron's effects are so different and powerfully deep, that using one on any sound will account for more than half the final timbre you hear. The effects on the K4 can significantly and uniquely add to the sound if one wants to use them in this way.

For ambient or electronic, the pads can't be beat. They have their own kind of sound which you'll go back to often. It won't replace your other synths for pads. Because it doesn't do just any kind of pad or backgound texture tones. It can do a lot of them, but not the majority, but then what synth besides a synthesizer/sampler does?

It does have a great bass sound too - best described as digital/analog 80's hybrid - exactly what the K4 is.

I've replaced my presets with my own custom set if anyone is interested in trading, let me know. i.e. - Vodka Doll

Great multi-timbral setup with ability to control the fx mix for each part, unlike the Korg M1, etc.

Still inspires me and impresses most others who listen to it.

Aftertouch hardly responds anymore. I think there's a cheap and easy way to fix it however. If I ever get around to it, I'll post a link to it here. Otherwise it's rock-solid. LCD is still bright, even though I've used this for over 14 years now a lot.

Great. But haven't used their support in a while now. Year ago I asked for a ROM upgrade to the K4. But they were very helpful back then and quick to respond, just like EMU - you call and get somebody who knows the products and what's going on. It seems with these two companies you always get to talk to a real insider. Maybe they both have relatively small in-house staffs compared to Yamaha, Roland, and Korg.

back in 1989 I would have given it an 8. Now I give it a 10. With all the great synths that have come out since then, especially the K5000S, what does that tell ya.

In general, I find Kawai synths relatively easy to get around on. Before the K4r I had a K1 (and later a K4 keyboard). That was my first digital synth after having analogs with all the knobs and sliders on the front panel (Juno 106 & OBX/A), so it took some readjusting to start working with menues, cursors, etc. But I found the Kawai operating system to be fairly simple and intuitive. And this is from someone who was at that time primarily a guitar player and just messing around with synths on the side.

The manual is basic, but straightforward and helpful. I wouldn't have minded more information and detail, but it was ok, and I couldn't imagine learning the synth without it.

A lot of the features have been covered in other reviews, so I won't dwell too much on this. There have definitely been times when I would have liked more polyphony, especially on more complex layered patches.
The K4 and K4r are almost identical, except for a few features. The K4 has an internal effects processor where the K4r doesn't. I don't know why they chose to leave that out of the module, but they did. I wound up running it through an external effects unit like the Boss SE50. It definitely makes a big difference. One feature the K4r has that the keyboard doesn't is 8 output jacks (the keyboard has 2).

The K4r is expandable with ram/rom cards which is a good thing. When I first started with the K4, it was fairly new so there were a lot of cards, both factory and 3rd party available. I would imagine that they are pretty hard to find now.

This is where, in my opinion, the K4/K4r really shines. Although it does depend on what kind of music you are using it for. For my use in doing ambient, electronic, New Age, and soundscape-type stuff it's fantastic. Realistic sounds (piano, organ, bass, horns, etc) are not it's strong point, although some useable patches can be found or created. I tweaked a pretty nice Rhodes/DX7 electric piano on it that was used a lot in a band I was playing in. However, for strings, "air-pads", and special effects it's awesome. Actually, there are some decent percussive sounds as well that I've used with an external arpeggiator.

I have since gotten heavily into synths and have acquired some of the best synths and modules around for ambient music (Korg Karma, Prophecy, Wavestation SR, Roland JD800, Morpheus, FS1R, etc), but the K4r is something I still use a lot in all my recording projects. I'm constantly recyling my gear to get something new or different, but I can't imagine ever selling the K4r. Even with a lot of more sophisticated synths, there are certain sounds I can't get anywhere else and that work well in midi layers and sequences.

This is not a synth to be judged by the presets. There are some decent ones, but tweaking can provide some interesting and unexpected results. Keep in mind that it is 16 bit synth so the sound quality will not compare to something produced today, but it is pretty good. When it came out, it was competitor to the Korg M1 and Roland D50 and in my opinion, it held it's own. I had a D50 for many years and although I loved it for certain things, it couldn't touch the K4 for particular ambient sounds. So the relatively high rating I'm giving in this category is taking into account it's age and usefullness in a specific genre of music.

It's been totally reliable. Never a problem.

The few times I called Kawai with a question, the tech staff were helpful and friendly. One big plus is that Kawai maintains a large library of sounds on their website that can be downloaded for free.

The K4/K4r has been an indispensible part of my music production for many years. Like I said, I've constantly recyclyed my equipment over the years. I even (very reluctantly) sold the awesome Kawai K5000S in order to buy a Korg Karma. But I'm sure that the K4r will always occupy a space in my rack.

I bought this last week and already I love it! I have always read aboutt he Kawai K1 + when I saw a Kawai 4r in my local Cash Converters I had to have it. It took me a bout 5 hours to suss it out and I have already created some cool sounds

I use it as an extra synth to my set up so the polyphony doesn't worry me. The seperate outputs are the most important feature for me because the sounds kick with external effects processing.

Mine came with new presets + not the originals, the previous user left me 16 very nice basses + 16 wicked leads. + with external effects WOW!!!!!!

seems ok, I have racked it so it's sitting safe

Not needit yet

It's the perfect addition to my studio I have a JV1010, JD990 and Yamaha TG33, all these machines sound quite digital, but the Kawai adds a digital/analogue feel to my tracks + I love it so much that I wanna remizx all my previous tracks with new bass sounds!!

Using cubase on a good ole atari st to run the K4r synth wich i have had since 1994 and have edited all the LFO S on every sound
The sounds are weird especially the 1040s one the one were you hear an orchestra tunning up.
But that said the strings and choir are extreamly good
The unit is ok to use but very confusing when you first start playing around with it.
the best way to get the unit to speak and listen to a sequencer is to press
multi, 16, edit, inst,
then you have a limited synth.

the polyphony is good whenyou are just using 1 voice from the k4r and other synths.
when you start layering chord upon chord it tends to drop some notes all together

brill sounds for orchestral use
choir, strings

i would never write a piece without the k4r

well worth what i paid for it
an exellent addition
the unit works well if you repect it for what it really is
a 1 channel 1 voice synth

The K4 is a bit tedious to edit since its based on submenues, but unless you are completely braindead it is not difficult. Straightforward except maybe for the LFO menu.

I remember I thought the synthetic sounding presets were pretty cool when I first heard the machine quite a few years ago when I was new to synthesizers. I'm sure they didn't however, I was just lame :-) There was this digeridoo patch that was quite nice, and overall, the instrumental sounds are bad, but not terrible. They had a lot more punch than the standard Roland GM sounds. But who cares about presets?

The manual is ok. However, I recall the K1 having this nice diagram sheet with the waveform and spectral display for all the waveforms. That seems to be missing for the K4. Too bad.

Another thing; I am quite certain that if you are not into experimental sounds, and try to make something like a natural sounding guitar patch or similiar, this box is horrible to edit because of its wierd synthesis structure. I'm the kinda of guy who likes to press the buttons and when it sounds good I save it. It's hardly possible to plan ahead what type of sound you wan't to make; you'll get lost in parameter fiddling and end up with a completely different sound. Which is is ok with me :-)

It's an additive PCM based synth designed to be an el-cheapo Korg M1 as far as I can see, but there are 96 looped short waveforms besides the usual stuff. It is only 16 voice polyphonic, and only 8 if you make 4 op sounds. It can be 8 parts multitimbral + 1 drumkit channel, but you don't want to use it this way...

For some reason Kawai removed some of the standard features and put in some wierd ones instead; the LFO is very limited and there is no portamento or oscillator sync, but you get AM modulation and this wacky resonant filter for each voice. It seems like the one who designed the synthesizer was not much into synthesizers himself...

And, like everybody allready said, the MIDI is sloppy :-(

Assuming you are into wierd electronic sounds: there are two things that makes this box unique: AM modulation (I basicly use it as an "AM synth") and the wacky filter. The filter has built-in distortion that sounds wonderful :-) It has a special K4 sound; really screaming and howling resonance like a distored 303 but still very different. Does not sound analogue to my ears, but sounds very cool nevertheless.
It's really a bug that turned into a feature. I would use it even if it only could to this.

Another great thing is the drumkit. It is pure industrial evil. Why on earth did they put this drumkit (and that filter...) into a M1 wannabe box? And you can even tweak it like a simple drum synth. I would use this synth even if it only had the drums. They are very compressed and unnatural sounding, but with a really different sound compared to Roland, Yamaha and the likes (ie no boring 909). Usable for techno and electonic styles but wonderful for industrial synth or EBM.

I tend to use it for wierd noises, by messing with the parameters until something nice comes out :-)

It is too bad the synth engine isn't more flexible, you can't AM osc 1 and 3 for instance and the auto bend is poorly done.

I'm using an old firmware. It clicks a bit sometimes when filtering bass sounds; ie you have to compensate with attack and release which makes some sounds impossible to achieve without clicking.

It is a bit plastic and lightweight, but I keep it in a rack so I don't know if it stands any abuse.

You can excpect real customer support for a >10 year old product anymore, but Kawai answers your email and I heard they still sent you free firmware ROMs until some years ago (they still do that in the US I think). When I asked about the ROMs they sent me ROM images which is a nice move and alot more than most companies would do these days.

I have sold a few old synthesizers lately but the K4r is staying. I like it because it keeps surprising me everytime I sit down and make patches. They are going quite cheap these days, and I'll bet people will be giving them away for free in a couple of years when pirated software synths have completely taken over... Seems like many people try it once, notice it doesn't have any sliders or pots, don't read the manual and when they can't make it sound like a virus, they say it's crap. It's not. It's a unique piece of gear that can sound like no other.

If it was stolen I'd consider the options, but I might get another K4r or a XD-5 even if it is not (for the right price). It is not vital to my setup but it could be said to be vital to my sound. I'm mostly into techno, house, electronical wierdness, industrial synth and trance. Wouldn't even try using for rock, classical or anything non-electronic. I don't think it will ever become a cult instrument, simply because it is too complicated and powerful for braindead people. However, many of the great EBM/Industrial acts use / have used it.

I heard the Kawai MM-16 can be used for realtime parameter editing. If I find one cheap I will definitely consider it because sliders is what this synth lacks.

The manual made more sense than anything from Roland ever has, a bonus! Got into making my own sounds very quickly indeed. I found it easy to use although a tiny LCD is a pain at times.

Polyphony annoyed me when I was writing using only this machine as it glitched like mad. I was using way too many sounds though! No built in effects on the rack. MIDI was good but I didn't use a lot of the aftertouch at all. No onboard sequencer.

Sounds are good but I replaced many with my own creations...great sounds from this machine..very analogue sounding... more blurps and bleeps.... GREAT ! I used it for techno dance music with melodies though.

Never died on me. Never gigged it though.

No dealings with Kawai......always wanted a memory card though.

Wouldn't go out of my way to get another one. A very capable little synth...I love it though I haven't used it in a few years now and It ain't for sale. I used a Roland U 20 and it was a nightmare to navigate comapred to the Kawai.
The Chemical Brothers used the keyboard version in their early days.

pesets...lol yeah alright. must be some japanese joke. i just got mine this year 2001/dec in japan for 10,000 yen about $90 no manual. havent really figured it out yet cos my brain has been abused down the years and is rather slow, i would be glad of any manual downloads if you could e-mail me.

i got it mainly to make loads of noise and it is supposed to be good for that. no built in effects thank god.

the music i produce ranges from ska to trance havent decided if it can be part of my studio yet and it is still not racked up. still playing with it, and would be glad of any tips from anyone.

i pluged it in and it lit up ... so far so good

i hear they are very helpfull

i have many modules and my mother board is a duel manual yamaha electone (no i dont use the sounds from it) the k4r is a recent addition to my studio but i did have a k1r back in the days that made some freaky sounds.. hope this thing can do it too..if you know lots about this module and have some time could you please mail me with some advice on program change and editing..also looking for a manual to download...thanx

forget the presets - use it for pads/sfx
esay to edit
MUST use the Amplitude Modulation feature.

K4R does not have effects built in.
Has lots of outputs though.
Will receive MIDI control of the Filter - if assigned
Use it in Multi mode to create kewl sfx pads

GRREAT for anything off the wall.......

Can also play tasty pads

Seems sturdy enough

Also own K4 - had to get the main ROM chip replaced. Kawai were kewl and did it free

The AM feature can produce unique timbres.

If you can pick one up cheap, get one.

It is NOT a multi-purpose unit. Use for pads and unique fx (a 16-part AM patch? Who can compare..?_

I found the k4 very simple in it's use- easy to figure out envelopes- little bugs though in setting mod comtrol to work with the controller

16 note polyphony- nice touch sensitivity- got it used and never saw the presets so I can't comment on those- very haappy with the midi send/dump features and ease of attaining and using pc software for editing (even though I tend to do it from the panel most of the time) a SERIOUS pain in the ass to find memory cards for it

people seem to complain about the strings- but it seems to me that they are talking about the straight presets- huge range on the c/o freq makes for VERY expressive strings on edit- have used for both string/chorus sounds and for generak tweaked out noize beautifully

let me down once (and I restarted the machine and it was all good)- seems to have a little tweak hanging up on the release/ks depth issues when they drop between 68 and 71 (don't know why) but other than that it's been reliable- right now it's my only bank synth- but I would feel a lot safer if i had a backup

if you get it used you cannot find a manual. no online support or faq I found more support by joining users groups than I could ever find from the company

i would definately buy it again as nowadays it is a very affordable synth with VERY impressive sounds. I think I would like to have the actual k4 keyboard though (as I am using the rack) as there have been some wierdness issues associated with the controller interfacing - but all in all a good machine that I would recommend to anyone interested in textural or noize musiqe