The Kawai K4 sounds have been carefully programmed completely from scratch – to give you the best possible sounds from your mighty old, mighty classic and totally underestimated Kawai synth. Since upgrading its system to 1.3 (check your version by holding the system button while powering up) it got rid of most of its problems with the clicking envelopes.
The K4 has rather interesting filters with resonance, at the time not too common among these synths. It was introduced in 1989 and faced stiff competition from the Roland D-50 and the Korg M1. However, the K4 certainly held its own, and very much so once you started programming sounds on it – the factory patches weren’t very inspiring even by the standards of the early 90s.
The package includes three complete banks. Each bank contains 64 SINGLE patches.
Price: $79
4 comments
alan says:
November 11, 2011 at 20:25 (UTC 1 )
Any chance for audio demos from the k4 patches? To get an impression? regards Alan
bitley says:
November 12, 2011 at 15:05 (UTC 1 )
Sure Alan, will fix this. It’s in the agenda.
Russell says:
January 29, 2012 at 18:45 (UTC 1 )
When I send sysex banks to my K4, it only updates the 1st patch.
If I play it a MIDI file it does all the banks (like the stock one form Kawai)
What am I doing wrong ? I’d like to send it SYX files.
SYSEX RCV is ON
MEMORY PROTECT is OFF
Anyone ?
Also, what format are your patches in ?
Thanks
bitley says:
January 29, 2012 at 21:48 (UTC 1 )
Hi Russell!
It needs to be set to recieve the right thing.
Press SYSTEM/MIDI, press +1 until the display says “=RCV”.
Press SYSTEM/MIDI again after this.
RCV PGM should be “=NORM” I think.
Sysex must be on, Protect must be off, the right channel has to be set.
My sounds are in .syx format too.
Sitting here in two K4R’s, one expanded with a card. Three banks.
Kudos!