Technics KN-5000

Los sonidos son muy buenos, los pianos acusticos estan muy bien logrados. Es un excelente teclado arreglador. No he tenido necesidad de editar los presets, pero es facil de lograr. El manual esta en espa?ol y casi no he tenido que recurrir mucho a el. El sistema operativo que uso es el primero.

La polifonia es de 64 notas (excelente). La accion de las teclas no es muy profesional, sin embargo, cumple. Los efectos a bordo son muy buenos, y este teclado KN 5000 a diferencia de modelos anteriores de Technics, trae muy buenos efectos como Reverbs, DSP Effects, y uno llamado Acustic Illusion, el cual es como un Exciter que le da mas fuerza al sonido general.El sistema de graves es excelente. La unica manera de expandirlo es via Floppy Disk y puedes descargar utilidades de la pagina de Technics Canada. Trae un secuenciador de 16 pistas y 32 mil notas facil de usar. Es muy facil tambien utilizar y comandar datos MIDI con otros equipos.

Los sonidos son excelentes. Los pianos acusticos, la emulacion de guitarras electricas, strings, woodwinds, brass, etc. Los sonidos que Technics no ha logrado mejorar sin embargo, son Las guitarras acusticas y las distorsiones. Los ritmos estan muy bien hechos y los drum kits son muy buenos. Definitivamente es un teclado que te invita a tocarlo, por lo facil que es su uso. Mejor, a mi parecer que cualquier PSR o PA.

Es muy facil editar estilos en este teclado. Yo tengo ritmos de mariachi, cumbia, pop en espa?ol, norte?o, etc. y se oyen mejor en este sinte que en un KN7000, por eso, es de mis favoritos.

He intentado tener contacto con gente de Sala Chopin, distribuidores de Technics en Mexico, pero no responden adecuadamente o no saben de accesorios etc. Cuando le hace falta servicio a mi KN 5000 se lo doy personalmente.

He pensado vender mi KN 5000 para comprar otro de mejores condiciones, o tal vez un KN 6500, pero por el momento no me urge hacerlo. Tengo 2 a?os tocando con el. A pesar de haber salido a la venta en 1997, suena muy bien, mejor que un PA80 o PSR 2100. Lo unico que tengo que recriminarle a Technics, es la construccion del mueble de todos los KNs. !Bastante fragiles! Hechos de un plastico muy ligero, facil de quebrarse, de rayonearse, etc. Mucos usuarios de Technics bien podriamos pagar una cantidad mas para que los teclados de esta marca fueran mas resistentes (y Technics es una marca de elevado valor).

effects n reverb r slightly cumbersome to prog

on baoard sequencer n step recorder!
personalised wallpaper

Acoustic:i love the acoustic sounds it can produce - the lush strings n orchestral pads sound very real on reverb n sensitive keys

Ambience: very nice atmospheric pads to set new age atmosphere - combine 2 or more pads playing slightly diff parts for one instrument for fuller effect

Digital:can b really awesome if u'll take time to run thru each digital/dsp effect n reverb to find e perfect futuristic sound for dance/hits - dare to experiment n use e flute to play bass parts or bass to play lead parts n such... very good for a keyboard of this era

drums/percut:quite gd

physically, basic frame n body'll pass well some minor probs include 1) buttons beside adjustable display r intermitent->adjusting e display fixes this quickly - leaving display almost all e way down eliminates prob 2) midi switch at back falls out too easily 3) accompanying music stand falls apart too easily although this doesn't really matter to e keyboard itself

->can b abused to at least certain degree hold e rt parts during tranportation though.
very reliabe to give desired sound during performances

local staff r really friendly n go very out of e way to help - sadly however, e head dept over in japan son't cooperate dat well
-support quickly dies for products no longer in production too

i'll give it a 9 comparing to other keyboards of its era

Using version A.
Presets are quite good if you want something to do quick modelling of demos, etc. on. For anyone wanting to do serious sequencing & recording, they fall a little short. Everything can be edited quite easily & with lots of flexibility, making it great for dance / techno music, but there's no way to expand the onboard waveforms, so what it comes with is what you have. No realtime patch editor. Manual is very easy to follow.

Polyphony is good - falls a little short with big orchestral things (cymbal rolls sometimes clip together, etc.). Wide range of onboard DSP effects, although there is only 1 DSP, so you can't do too much with it. Any expansion is only really edited sounds & rhythms - you can't add any more waveforms, etc. MIDI operation is good - but the Technics program change system is a pain - banks & programs are swapped around making it hard to control from a computer (using Logic Audio). Onboard sequencer is great - 10 songs gives you a lot of flexibility & removes the need to constantly re-load songs.

Sounds are pretty basic - not overly useful for any serious recording, but will easily do most live gigs for piano-like stuff. Organ sounds are quite good (esp pipe organs). Drawbars are a nice touch, and have come in useful. It's quite versatile, giving good performance accross a wide range of musical styles. Falls down a bit on classical music, unless you're doing movie score type of things that use a lot of reverb for padding, etc. Velocity & aftertouch are good, although Yamaha aftertouch is much better.

Very reliable. I've been using it for 3 yrs, transporting around at least once every 2 wks and haven't had any real problems.

Haven't ever had to use customer support

Wouldn't buy it again if it was lost, but I think it's because my needs have changed since I bought it. I use almost exclusively Technics gear, and own a FA-1 organ as well. Ideal instrument for intermediate players wanting to get into performing / composing / sequencing. It's great for most general things, but when you want to do anything in detail, it falls a bit short.

very easy to use takes about a year to explore the expanded part of the keyboard my wife ia a new user and just loves it i am using a digitech "harmony processor" which has been developed for the kn 5000 the keyboard has a screen so you can monitor the vocoder which i find very helpful i love this instrument

has an onboard sequencer with easy record capabilities it also has a built in digital disc drive updates can be purchased via a disc to load also has a disc to convert so you can play or use software from other companies has a full midi capability software can be purchased via a disc to make the words to a song flow across the screen

both before and aftertouch can be adjusted plays dance music which is what we play very well onboard effects very realistic and also some are humorous

have called the "help line a few times and they have been very responsive actualy sitting down at a similiar keyboard and describing step by step help have had 5 technic instruments only one ever needed repairing

could not make good music without its many special effects that is why my group is called murphy and the "deception" takes twenty years to become a good musician with the help of the kn5000 you can make it in five keep on with the upgrades technics i love it prefer the 5000 over the new 6000

Software ROM version 10

Overall, the preset sounds are great, especially the acoustic piano which I think is the closest sounding to my seven foot Steinway "B" grand piano which is located in the same room as the KN5000.

Patch editing on the KN5000 is very good. . . its' intuitive interface makes it great for making changes "on the fly". Though you have to step thru various sub-meus to acess certain parameters, the KN5000's intuitive layout makes it easily assessible. Even though patch editing directly via the keyboard is good , a "software patch editor" for the KN5000 would be greatly appreciated .Unfortunately I don't think a software patch editor is currently commercially available. It would be great if Emagic could develop a "patch editor" for the KN5000 in their popular sound editor software program "Sound Diver" for PC/Mac.

The manual is very clear and straight forward but unfortunately it doesn't go into "practical use" of the keyboard or include tutorials (which would be very beneficial).

64 note Polyphony, keyboard action is pretty good and responsive for a non-weighted action keyboard. You can ajust the touch response. The built-in effects are great. Unfortunately there is no sound expansion provisions. Highly recommended is the one gigabyte hard drive (from Keysoft Service) - it is a necessity for gigging musicians as 100's of song/styles can be catagorized and stored for almost instant (2-3 seconds) loading. The onboard sequencer is both flexible and pretty easy to use as there is an "Easy Record" mode for quick recordings. I still personally prefer using an external software sequencer (such as Logic Audio or Cakewalk) for ease of use, when more precise recording/editing is desired. The KN5000 seems to have most all MIDI input/output setup provisions which make it easy to augment the KN5000's sounds with other midi sound sources. The built-in mic input sound quality is just passable. For a high-end keyboard of this nature, I think Technics should have included a pro quality mic input . Only feature missing is a built-in vocal harmonizer. To bypass the KN5000's mediocre mic inputs and lack of a vocal harmonizer, I use a Digitech Vocalist Workstation EX which produces "pro-quality" results.

The primary reason I purchased the KN5000 was for it's most natural sounding "acoustic piano" sample. As I mentioned above, I own a seven foot Steinway "B" grand piano (which sits in the same room as the KN5000) and I think the KN5000's "acoustic piano" sample comes as close in sound to my Steinway of any other I have heard before. The other great "acoustic piano" sample which I like is the one from General Music - piano expander module.

Though the KN5000 covers most all styles pretty well, I feel that the KN5000's great style "STAND OUT" is: acoustic jazz, swing and big band. The "coolest" feature is the KN5000's ability to recognize and interprete (in autoplay cord - pianist mode) when you play sophisticated "rootless jazz chord voicings" as played by the late great jazz pianist Bill Evans. I don't think there is any other brand of arranger keyboard able to do this.

I have been gigging regularly with my KN5000 for a year and a half and have encountered no problems. The only weak spot may be the metal speaker grills which can be easily dented during transport.

I had contacted "customer support" by telephone and unfortunately they seemed to know less about the keyboard than me. I found the "best support" to come from Technics online message boards/chat forums & user supported Technics keyboard sites such as:

Synthzone - Technics Discussion Group:
http://www.synthworld.com/cgi-bin/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number=25&SUBMIT=Go

Key of G:
http://home.earthlink.net/~gaalli/

Dave Ross' Technics Player's List:
http://www.jc.net/~rdr/

Bob Hendershot's KN5000 "how to" Website:
http://home.att.net/~bobgrh/

Technics Music Canada Keyboard forum:
http://www.greatwestmusic.com/talkback/index.html
* unfortunately this forum was recently "closed", possibly because they were getting too many negative
postings regarding their newest keyboard, the KN6000. The advantage of the other listed websites is that they
are not supported by Technics so honest opinions can be openly discussed.

I love the KN5000 and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world (as of now anyway). If it were lost or stolen, I would probably purchase it again though I would seriously consider upgrading to the newest KN6000 (but only if Technics is able to work out the current chord recognition bugs plagued with the KN6000). I also had tried the Solton X1which has very impressive sounds/styles, but for the type of music I perform most (acoustic jazz, swing, big band) , Technics offers much more, in both quality and quantity of styles and chord recognition features.

presets sound
some sounds are nice. I usually use brass sections as a filler and with the right combinations of the brass section
kn 5000 can produce such a nice brass section. Although it is not as good as roland e-96. Piano sounds are good. Bass sounds are too
soft (the attack is not powerful enough). Sounds are easily edit through the sound menu. Although I haven't read the manual
i can easily adjust the velocity and others attributes of the sound.
One thing is missing is that the sounds are not as much as i want. I find it a bit limited. I think we can make some new sounds (I Haven't
ye figure it how)