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Average rating:
3.7 out of 5
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Well, I've actually got a K1 II - with the built in drums & digital effects.
And it's a great keyboard! The fact that the drums don't eat into the polyphony is a winner and the drum sounds themselves are OK & punchy.
As for the synth section, it's a good source of ethereal, sweepy pads,despite the absence of any filters.
I've also found it good for plucked string type sounds, especially harps and stuff like that.
The LCD could be bigger and give more info, but basically programming is easy.
Setting up the multi patches can be a bit of a fiddle, but the results are well worth the effort.
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Organ sounds! If you see one of these units lying around, scoop it just for the organ sounds that can be easily jury-rigged.
The trick is to layer three of the same single organ voices into a multi, tune one up slightly, detune another the same amount, and assign the volumes of each of them to different joystick positions.
You'll find that you can use the joystick to flip between slow leslie and fast leslie (low detune and big detune). All of the organ waves work well with this technique, but the low "Whiter Shade of Pale" one is the coolest. If you happen to have a u-20/220 or a Sound Canvas around, layering this sound with the distorted organ sounds from any of those units is a VERY cool effect.
It takes some messing around to get the right settings, but once you hit the sweet spot, it justifies the K1(m)'s existance in your rig. Unfortunately, your joystick movements can't be recorded by sequencers...
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Well I have had my K1 Since Dec 1988 I midi it to my K2000RS. I have used it
to create new wave forms that i sample into the K2000, It really shines there.
Especially when you use the K2000's filters on those waveforms. Yeah I have
outgrown most of the pathes in the K1 but I love giging with it. I hide the
K2000 so all that can be seen is the K1 I love to see if anyone notices.
It really has been a great keyboard. You might want to watch out for the weights
comming out of the keys though. I have been able to fix this myself. Turns out
if you use road cases you should put an insert under the keys to prevent them
from moving. I wasn't warned of this when I bought my USA CASES for my K1 & K4.
So I ended up having alot of down time. Either than that She works great.
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I bought my K1 used in 1988 and it's still going strong. I use it mainly for the strings and organs. I have yet to hear a synth with warmer string pads. I run it through my Quadraverb effects processor for some sweet chorus. For the organs, I've made a patch on the Quadraverb that links the leslie speed to the mod wheel on the K1 via MIDI - works great! (If you do this, be sure to turn off any mod wheel effect for the organ patch within the K1!)
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I recently bought a K1. I'm really a guitarist trying to remember how to play piano. I'm mainly interested in piano (doh!) and organ sounds, plus a little SFX. The organ sounds are pretty good (I've spent a lot of time trying to create some good patches). My only complaint here is that you can't use aftertouch to control the mod rate (this would be great for those of us trying to get Leslie effects with no free hands (usually the case for me). I just ordered a Korg P3 and plan to use that for piano. Paid US$250 for the K1. Seemed fair to me -- anybody think I'm a fool? I have one problem with my keyboard -- I've got one key that responds at full velocity level if you so much as look at it. Is this common? Expensive to repair?
Anyway, this is my first synth, and based on the ease of programmability and multitimbrality, I'm glad I got it.
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