The K1 is one of Kawai's most economic digital synthesizers in the K-series. The K1 has 256 digital samples of waveforms, 50 of which are from acoustic instruments. You combine up to four wave shapes to create very new and unique sounds. The K1 is capable of very good acoustic recreation, excellent unique synth sounds or at times, completely noisy walls of complex sound.

The K1 comes in many options: the K1m module/desktop version and the rackmount K1r (pictured above). It makes a great entry-level or back-up synth. Budget digital D-50-like synthesis doesn't get much better than this! It is used by Cirrus and Lab-4.

Robert

August 26, 2010 @ 10:11 pm

I've got one since last winter and I really love it.

When I midi it with a Roland D-20 the sounds can be very Dx-7 sounding.

For example, An electric piano on the K1 and a acoustic piano patch on the D-20.

warjol

August 10, 2010 @ 3:26 pm

i got the desktop vesion for 15 bucks, so cheap, nice one. sounds great with effects. sad thing is that mine is so beat up i got to be constantly tightenig its screws. i think i should find a new case for it. fun to program, ha ha

Lamster

June 27, 2010 @ 5:28 pm

I've got the K1r and an M1 had them both from new.
yes the m1 is smooth and lush and was three times the price.The K1 is gritty and harsh sounding, noisy, and imperfect all the things that make an instrument great. K1r cheap enough now to buy off ebay as a fancy 1u blank for your rack although none of the blanks in my rack sound as good as the k1r.

Lord Jungalee

June 22, 2010 @ 9:29 pm

Our synth pop cover band uses only this keyboard, 1 multi-patch per song, keyboard divided up into as many as 5 zones. Through many hours of careful tone balancing and custom single sounds, comparisons to hit dance music, I can confidently say that this one keyboard, with a nice bit of reverb and delay on the send and returns and a small rolloff at 100hz, a wee boost at 6K and a bit of gain in the 10Khz region, anything from Duran Duran to Lady Gaga can be achieved with positive results. We play the pubs and parties so for a local money making outfit it's all we need.

Mr Gobz

May 2, 2010 @ 11:11 pm

sorry but I owned 1 of these back in the early 90`s, I also owned an M1 and got this cos I saw EMF using it, well it`s junk really a poor man`s M1 ( the name gives it away ) granted the M1 was very expensive, but you get what you pay for and this was cheap and sounded that way too. Defo not a synth to be sought after these days.

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