Do you know th Kawai K5000S?

[Lek]

I had one for awhile back in 1998 I believe. Didn't end up keeping it too long. It was interesting - you really just have to hear it to make a decision.

[juicylime]

I've decided to let this one slip by me. It's a little to early in my adventures in synth to be getting into additive modelling.

[cramseur]

It is a weird and unique sounding thing...back when I first heard it I was enrapt. Then I got one, but I think far too late. I used to have time to sit and learn the ins/outs of programming, but not anymore. It just gets used as my controller.

It is supremely digital sounding...capable of icy cool wavestation-like evolving texture sounds and pads. Metallic-y sounds too.

[chrisso]

As a sound machine it was a bit overrated IMO.
You did the right thing.

[skan]

i would grab it if you still have the option...i bought one of the last ones when they were blowing them out cheap (poor marketing by kawai at the time as well as average presets led to this) and i am so glad i did, would never get rid of it.

reasons?


1- controllers galore...tweak your existing modules from here!
2- unique additive synth engine
3- sounds easily find their own place in a mix due to above point
4- brilliant build quality (made in japan)
5- arpeggiator from hell
6- lovely,clean 'hi-fi' sound...evolving textures/sci-fi/digital spikes and bells etc as well as some wonderful bass tones

yes it's probably not the best choice for a first synth, but as part of an arsenal there is nothing like it and as far as 'getting in to it' , well you don't have to be an additive guru to get great tones from it...just dial up a preset and twiddle the knobs!

[dlmorley]

I keep meaning to get one of these. I think they are great at kind of icy atmospheric stuff and stuff with an edge. Totally different to other synths.
Additive RULES! I have a Synergy II+ that when it was working :-( sounded amazing...

[shangoe]

i had this one. it has some extreme positive and negative sides.

plus:

i never programmed more unique sounds in my life
digital never sounded so clear in the high frequencies


minus:

i never had to spend so much time
alot system bugs (maybe they fixed that with a better os-version)
japaneese kind of usability

there used to exist a sounddiver version for the k5000. try to get this.

[baikonour]

got one 6 months ago...always wanted to get one since it was released...
quite unique sounding synth and the kbd has a really nice action. it's now my master kbd.

[rids]

Originally Posted by chrisso

As a sound machine it was a bit overrated IMO.
You did the right thing.

Couldn't disagree more. The K5000 is one of the deepest synths out on the market. Has something like over a 1000 parameters to tweak. Very unique sound and possibly the best sounding additive synth over the softies out there.

The problem comes when you are trying to achieve certain sounds. If you tweak a parameter that is 'supposed' to do A, the tweak might react in an unexpected way. So from a synthesist's standpoint, it is one of the hardest synths to try and coax sounds in your head from.

Not a beginners synth.

[VelvetGoatmine]

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[NuSkoolTone]

I have one. Got the Expanded Memory for it too. It's icy cool to the max! Can get pretty nasty too. I can do warm, but it's very different from analog warm, not matter what it's always "Clean" sounding.

With exception of organs and some EP's/strings with a twist, forget bread and butter sounds. But synths galore for sure!

Few Synths I have owned sat in a mix as easily as these things.

[skan]

..ahhh yes, i fotgot to mention the keyboard feel!

it is gorgeous as a main controller.

it just has a very quality, playable feel to it...not that plasticky,tacky, one dimensional feel like most others


(understandable too seen as kawai made some of the best digital pianos....)

anyway,the less people that know about this secret weapon, the better in my opinion

[chrisso]

Originally Posted by rids

Couldn't disagree more. The K5000 is one of the deepest synths out on the market.

But I was talking about the end result.
It may be deep for programming, but the sound is far from deep.
I'm not trashing it. It's a nicely made keyboard with a lot of tweakability.
The end result I found to be not as useable as many other synths.

[lucey]

We have one in the corner .... got it for like $400 on a blow out. Hardly ever use it but would never sell it.

Not a Moog but very cool in it's own right. Good key feel, nice knob control. Unique.