i bought a Kawai K5000S in 1997 when they were first introduced in the US. it had an incredible wide, airy sound and the on-board effects were top notch. i could never make sense of the additive engine and used it as a rompler. there were better romplers out there, so i decided to pick up a Wavestation EX and then JD-800 for the roles of spaced out ambient pads.

i have regretted selling the K5000S and hoped to one day pick another one up. over the years i have looked and found them to be either too expensive or in rough condition. this past week while looking for something non-synth related on craigslist, a k5000s showed up in the list. the universe was dropping a hint.

i reached out to the seller and on Saturday we met at a Starbucks coffee shop were i tested and then bought the synth. i've done many a parking lot deal, never a coffee shop deal. i brought headphones and we powered it up and i gave her a listen. the synth is in amazing condition and sounds exactly as i remembered. the synth is missing two knobs and the price was reduced to reflect this. i have reached out to Kawai for possible replacements.

i updated it to the final OS and then spent some time digging for my disk of patches (i never get rid of stuff). loaded up an ambient soundscape patch i created in 1998 when i lived at the Jersey Shore and let it wash over me using the arp set to play 4 notes in as played order with the clock set stupid slow. best hour of my life!




in the photo, i am testing the synth and while the demo plays i am hand cleaning and replacing the knobs. the first one to go back on was for "cut off" :]

is there any more modern computer editor/librarians? (ive still got my k5000R)

buttons still working?

I remember when these came out. Always wanted to try it but they were hard to find in Mexico and probably out of my reach back then. What's a reasonable price for one of these today?

It came with a free version of Sounddiver. I still have the disk. I've never seen any other editor. I got my K5000S when Kawai was blowing them out new for ~$500.

Free editor: Xaza's House

Lots of k5000 tips and resources: Jens Groh's K5000 page

More tips: Kawai K5000 Tips and Techniques

Check out the Yahoo k5000 group for lots of patches, including good stuff from the old EAJ (Eat at Joe's) site.

More patches: Kawai K5000

Downloads from kawai: Kawai Downloads - Download Archive - Page 2 (Scroll to the bottom. Also check page 3.)

There was a cool, very active site back in the late '90s: Eat at Joe's, by Kenji. I learned a LOT there from Kenji, Jens Groh, Greg Waltzer, and so many more, along with a book published by Wizoo.

everything is 100% except the left main output jack needs to be jiggled - a reflow should solve that.

FYI: test mode is entered by holding WRITE and EDIT while powering on.

make it rain

ive got the wizoo book somewhere! and i think i remember eat at joes. i spent lots of late nights trying to make it sound like anything i could imagine - which obviously didnt work quite how i envisioned it

I have a K5000s that is just sitting around. I love how it dounds, but never get around to using it.<sigh>.
When i bought it I thought it was the coolest sounding board...so different from everything else. It still is, maybe that's part of the problem I have with it.

with the k5000, what i like is its tones.... shifting around the harmonics you can come up with weird stuff that compliments your other, more normal synth tones

I want to change the display in my K5000R to one of the led back lighted display or the EOLED versions. It's a crazy synth and I wish I had the expanded memory option for it.

Congrats on the repurchase!

The k5000's is my most warmest synth and I have pulse 2, tetra, bass station 2, system 1, dx7.

i really like the k5000 i feel like i get rewarded for the time spent, which is significant, but i don't get the wavestation at all. maybe pre cheap samplers and effects? dunno.

@ Kaz par: there was a guy making modern versions of the memory expansion a few years back. Try googling it and he might still be in business. I picked up 2, one for the 5000s and one for the 5000r.
Great grab Blinky, they don'y often show up for sale in Philly.

i have the K5000S connected to my 1970's era solid state receiver in my living room. this is the best $280.00 i've spend - what winter blues

spent some time grabbing all the patches from the interwebs... this is gonna take some time to review them all. so many great pads and awesome efx patches.

I purchased an ME-1 board for my K5000S and it is great and easy to install. Here is a link. Hopefully, he is still producing them.

MARJORIE - Technische Informationen f

This is where I got my memory expansion in 2014:

MARJORIE - Technische Informationen f

Very cool, congrats! I had to sell mine to fund my Virus ti, but would love one back.

I wonder if you could replace the knobs with the Dave smith knobs? I bought a large set of them very cheap from Dave smith online, and I think they'd look nice on the K5000s. They are the black ones with chrome tops.

Thanks! for the info... I seen it a while ago and just plain forgot about it...

Great synth, but I found it had to stand in the mix with analog synths, except at a highs maybe. Than again, remembering doing some very cool stuff in the past with it, expecially pads, I have to say it's all the matter of context. It is monster machine for pads.

I sold it in the end, 'cause I'm enjoying Indigo and EX5 more and they are easier to work with.

Kawai US still has replacement knobs - 2 are being ordered.

haven't decided if i'm going to remove the demo sticker, that might be worth an extra $5.00 resale.

That demo sticker made me remember seeing the ad for your K5000. I was really tempted but I couldn't find the time to make a trip out to the burbs for it.
Good score!
I'm currently debating the K1 that's being advertised now. Perhaps you should snatch that too so you can start a little family of Kawais too!

Super sturdy build and one of the best key actions I had the pleasure to try. It's a modern classic, quite sure I'd get this over a JD-800.

The 5000r had an optional controller, the macro box, which was just the control section of the k5000s in a small box. I purchased my r first; had a hard time finding the macro box, purchased a 5000s that came up locally and a few years later purchased a very over priced macro box. The original idea was to save space but still have the real time controllers ala rolands MKS/PG series. Generic control boxes are probably a more economic alternative at this point. Glad to see this under rated gem getting some attention.
The additive hardware synths: Kurzweil k150FS, Wersi EX-20 and the Kawai K3 ( user slots), K5 & K5000 are still a bargain in todays "analog" world.

i now have both - they do different stuff and sound very different. the JD-800 for me does texture, but the K5000S is texture.

yeah, right. i should get one for mine

The K5000 has literally thousands of parameters while the control surface is basically 16 knobs; either the 5000s or the macrobox. A truly dedicated interface brought up to current tech specs would make the K5000 a top end synth.

the macro control is more about live interaction, not sound creation. gives some hands on movement to the sounds. i have a peavey pc1600x and damn near everything can be controlled via CC on the K5000. the MIDI spec is deep.