Kawai K1, K4 and K4R

Instruments
1

Forum user Tomas Peterka made a preset for the Kawai K1.
Nicely made , I’d say.

https://app.electra.one/preset/6vtmnGDSZbMgbDOdFcCO

I don’t have a K1, but I do have a K4R so I’m building on top of his work to make a K4/K4R preset.

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2

@NewIgnis Jeez man! you really have many many synths! I bet this will be the first time you can build sounds with pleasure on the K4R. I hated editing in that screen!

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3

On the K4, and I assume on the K1 too, once you choose a waveform and press a note, and then you change the waveform, the running note will keep the chosen waveform until the note Off. This can be used musically as well.

So I programmed what I call a ‘Dynamic Wave’ in my preset. It allows each of the 4 wave sources to independently change their waveform (within a selected range) for each incoming note.

The modulation you hear in the demo of my K4R does not come from the lfo, but it’s the Dynamic Wave logic in to preset that changes the wave for each note press.

The effect is best using Poly 2 mode. In Poly 1 mode, the running waveform gets cut off.

K4R

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4

New preset available: Kawai K4R

Comes with patch parsing, name resolving, and 2 additional features:

  • Source Mute (not the one from the Kawai itself)
  • Dynamic Wave: the E1 will let you alter the chosen wave on every Note On.

Due to an resolved bug the Envelopes page is incomplete, and the Performance page will be added later.

https://app.electra.one/preset/AlCQizaQSu25PlvypH3l

Further documentation:
kawai-k4-k4r-service-manual.pdf (3.0 MB)
Kawai-K4-Synthesizer-Manual.pdf (4.0 MB)
Kawai-K4-Wave-List-and-MIDI.pdf (430.4 KB)

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5

New version V2 for the K4R preset

New to V2

  • Dynamic resonance added (Kawai doesn’t do that on its own)
  • 2 Balance faders between sources 1-2 and 3-4
  • Color schema changed for esthetic reasons
  • Unused parameters are toned down in color for better readability
  • The patch name now appears in the lower right corner
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6

Just by incident I bought a K4r this week! :grinning:

Thanks so much for this! :heart_eyes:

BTW I could not spot any free patches on the internet for it which is quite I surprising for such an old synth. Do you have any links?
Edit: Here are quite a bunch: MNX2010 KAWAI K4 SYSSEX DOWNLOADS

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7

Hi @moss ,

do try the dynamic notes page, and tell me what you think. If you engage one of the 4 voices or 2 resonances, it’ll allow you to set a range for the E1 to choose a wave or resonance setting from, for each MIDI Note On it receives.
I found that, when keeping the range within similar waves, and having some spread in the resonance without engaging settings 6 or 7, it gives an addtional edge to this old bugger.

On the download site you mention there are some patches in .SND format. Any idea how these work?

Some other download sources, most of them paying unfortunately

I don’t have facebook , but there seem to be a K4 group: Kawai K4 and K4 rack synth Public Group | Facebook

And there’s a new group on Gearspace, they are also looking for patches: https://gearspace.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-and-electronic-music-production/1418897-kawai-k4-fan-club.html

8

Sadly, I cannot make the template work. Is there anything that needs to be setup?
My K4r seems not to react to it’s Sysex messages. I am routing it through MIDI-OX on Windows 11 and see that the messages are sent out. I also copied some of the messages to the sysex editor of MIDI-OX and they did also not get received while I could sent sysex files successfully to the K4r from the same window.
On the other hand I could make the Atari ST editor and librarian from the link I posted above work with the Steem emulator :slight_smile:

9

Midi channel? It’s on 11 in the device definition.

10

Ah, thanks! Did somehow overlook this! Will check tonight!

BTW the SND files are also sysex files, just a different file suffix.

EDIT: MIDI Channel 11 made it work! Thanks!

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11

I summed up my experiences of the 1st week with my K4r in a video incl. this awesome template!

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12

great!

@NewIgnis put quite some effort in this indeed.

It is worth mentioning that the primary goal of E1 was to bring vintage MIDI devices with awkward user interfaces back to life. I am really happy to see it is actually happening.

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13

I forgot to mention that I got regular freezes of the Electra One (Mk2 with latest 3.5) when tweaking the Filter envelope. Not sure if this is a bug in the LUA code or a firmware issue.

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I have been in touch with @NewIgnis on that. I have an input from him and the preset is also being restructured.

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15

I have the same with the amp envelopes every now and then. @Martin is helping us out on the root causes.

Once we’ve figured it out, I’ll correct the preset and let you know.

In the mean time I’m figuring out a generic mod matrix that I can apply to a Moog Minitaur, so it enriches that little bass synth’s mod capabilities vastly :slight_smile:

EDIT @moss I commented out the print command in the Parameter On Change function in the lua. That will reduce the load on memory and traffic a bit. You might do the same, or reload the preset.

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