Vintage Synth Explorer

Kawai • K4

The K4 from Kawai can be thought of as a warm and fuzzy digital synthesizer. A sample-based digital synth, its sounds are those typically weird industrial type sounds that can still be useful in lo-fi, big-beat and trip hop music styles. The sounds are 16-bit preset PCM samples of acoustic instruments. However, unlike its predecessor the K1, the K4 adds a welcomed digital filter section. This truly makes the K4 more flexible, fun and useful for today's filter tweaking music effects!

The K4r is the eight output rackmount version which has all the same features except for the effects processor. Both feature 8-part multitimbrality which is great for stacking, splitting and layering sounds. The K4 will give you strange, new and unique sounds with plenty of flexibility and analog-style sound shaping and control at an affordable price. It is used by The Chemical Brothers and ATB.

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Posting Rules: Please keep your comments relevant! Do not post requests for help, do not use for sales, do not post unless you have something interesting to say about this instrument, or we may delete your post.

 

Alfred

Posted 15 days ago

Just bought one and a friend said "its crap". I sat down and played around.....the realistic preset sounds are not very usable but the synthetic preset are good. Then I got a 3,5" Disk from a german sound patch company and I was blown away...my K4 makes the greatest electronic sounds. I started to program own sounds....the double mode allows to switch 2 Osc in serial to achieve nasty fat sounds. The best 90 Euro I spent for music gear. Dont listen to m*r*ns which say that this synth [beep] s. It does not....if you program sounds yourself or use great sound patches from 3rd party...you will be astonished. ROM Version Update 1.4 is needed....helps to speed up the OS and lower distortions in doube mode pataches.

BrianMac

Posted 43 days ago

I owned an Kawai k4 since the 1990s, time has taken its toll on this unique synth, the keys are beginning to break and the volume pot conks out sometimes....i try to use it as little as possible these days.

in its heyday however it was my number *1* synth, it made the most beautiful strings sounds i had ever heard and are still one my favourite...and it was sooooo loud too!

Nowdays I've moved on to VSTs and proper ProTools, but I still use my limited Kawai K4 for all my strings and I don't think that will change - listen for the "Hammer On!" Patch for analog goodness in a digital synth.

if u own a kawai k4 dont sell it, keep it, and if you see one on Ebay for under a 150 grab it, dont pay anymore than that though because these synths are aging badly and will probably be totally unusable before the current decade is out.

an amazing relic from an era long past.

Teleny

Posted 65 days ago

K4... Bought one brand new. My favorite synth of the late 80s/early 90s. It did it all-beautiful pads, brass, metallic sounds, some drum kits (a little weak), and nice d50ish sounds. Plus the keyboard had a nice feel if you were raised on synths. I am going to buy another one of these-the only reason I sold it was I got REALLY broke in grad school. Great synth!!!!

dario

Posted 81 days ago

Hello Bazi in kawaius. com there is a schematic of kawai k4. You need to register like a technician.

Bazi

Posted 93 days ago

I just got one kawai k4, but unfortunately without a volume pot, so I can't hear any sound coming from it, as the volume is on 0. I would like to fit a new pot in there, but I can't seem to find where the wires of the old one went to the circuit board. Can anyone give me some info, or maybe a schematic on what type of pot and where it goes on the circuit? It would be really appreciated, as I really want to repair and play this beautiful piece of gear. Thank you very much!

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