Direct descendant of the Kawai K5, plus a lot of new features!
OK Super digital synthesizer mixing additive synthesis and PCM breed-- but is it still worth a buy?
KEYBOARD 61 Velocity keys and Aftertouch and a very nice futuristic design with some elegant blue plastic borders (weights about 14 Kg).
The main panel features a 240 x 64 pixels with blue backlight a jog wheel for data entries and total of 55 buttons and 12 knobs (send Midi Control Change) for real time values which four are freely assignable.
On the left side there are two wheels for PitchBending and another for modulation which is fully assignable, plus some buttons for Portamento, as there are two available monophonic play modes. Near the portamento there are two more buttons "Sw1" and "Sw2" that recall immediately some parameters like octave Fundamentals add or setting High / Low harmonics.
Back panel features a pairs of stereo Output each with volume slider, two pedal switches and two inputs for HOLD Sustain and Expression functions.
VOICE DSP ADVANCED SYNTHESIS based on a Core model Risc-32 manages a maximum of 32 Digital voices. A basic patch is composed by up to 6 digital oscillators or Elements (each element get a voice polyphony.
Each elements can be either a :
A) Additive oscillator 128 sinewaves harmonic formed by 2 harmonic group 1->64 and 64->128. Full spectre 1 > 128 gets 2 elements. The harmonics levels can be set step by step for both level (DHL) or by Envelope (DHE) or by the Macro Parts that has 5 selection presets: Bright / ODD H/ Even H/ Octave / a 5th / All harmonics. One of the most interesting features is the so-called Morphing function that can record four snapshot of the harmonics and interpolate them according to a time frequency.
B) PCM waveform more traditional subtractive synthesis featuring a 16 bits ROM that counts 123 waveforms with different categories such as acoustic samples loops or transient attack PCM (like Roland D50).
ENVELOPE five "big" EG:
1) Amplitude 4 segments+ 2 levels
2) Pitch oscillator 4 segments+ 2 levels,
3)
Standard Filter (4 segments+ 2 levels)
4)
Formant filter - variable stages number for each EG.
5)
Harmonic values - variable stages number for each EG, note that every Harmonics has its own EG with Loops between Decay segments.
FILTER Multimode digital filter DCF with both HighPass / LowPass that acts on both Subtractive and Additive synthesis, however Additive oscillator count an extra filter Formant, special resonant comb modulable by FF / LFO / BIAS.
The 128 bands Formant filter is defined by DFL 128 steps for Level, DFE Envelope or by bands macro parts 5/ 10/ 15/ 20 /ALL.
A special keytrack follower changes the Filter cutoff values to lower or higher octaves.
LFO four Low Frequency Oscillators in total with same characteristics.
A single LFO has four possible waveforms Triangle / Saw / Random with only free flow run (no note retrig) and modulates either Pitch / Amplitude / Standard or Formant Filter.
FX Digital generator that works in parallel or serial cascade mode that boast many fully editable effects such as Reverb /Delay / Panpot / Chorus / Flanger /Leslie / Distortion / Frequency Exciter / Overdrive.
MEMORY 2x 128 patches in RAM.
Sounds and performances can be saved to internal disk drive formatted at 1.44 Mb (Ms-dos file system compatible) or by midi sysex dump, which is really complete! and by the way, many essential parameters are assigned to Midi control change.
ARPEGGIATOR really complete with octave range, internal frequency or external midi Clock, Hold, Random, Gate Velocity and Midi Import to create custom library. Note that it ouputs arpeggios through Midi to other machines. >ihmo< Quite complete and fun! definitively one of the best hardware Midi arpeggiator on the market.
K5000 RELATED MODELS:
K5000 W has bigger wavetable, performance parts, an internal sequencer, but no real time knobs.
K5000R two units rack with no control knobs for edit (a big miss) but all the stuff can be accessed with external control change or directly with the "Kawai box Macro Control".
