I purchased a K4 way back when they first came out in 1992 and loved it. I saw it as an upgrade to the K1m I'd been using, which it basically was. you could think of the K4 as a K1 with more waveforms, drum setups, and a filter section. I remember loving the sound of it, a character all it's own that fit into the rest of my keyboard rig nicely (along with a Roland D-70 and Yamaha V-50). Someone described the sound pretty accurately: smokey mellotron-type sounds and warm synthy strings. I parted with the K4 along with the rest of my gear to go off to college, and in 1999 when I started acquiring new gear for my setup, I decided to give the K4 another shot, and I must say, I was greatly dissapointed. I found the sounds to be very noisy, which I found out later, later models did tend to sound a little hissy and slightly muffled. I quickly got rid of it, as it simply didn't hold up with the times. A Roland JD-800 took the role that the K4 previously held, which is one hell of a machine in it's own right, and easily one of the best designed digital synths ever made. A K4 is a good purchase for low-fi sounds (by today's standards), but I wouldn't use it as a main synth, as I think you'll find it just doesn't stand up to a live mix very well.
Rating: 2 out of 5
posted Monday-Sep-14-099 at 02:22
larry
a hobbyist user
from Canada
writes:
Iloved this keyboard ,but when nlend it out to my son in tucson , I got back with no sound . So as to this writing I found a guy who can repair it .When it was working it was the coolest sounding key I had.
Rating: 4 out of 5
posted Saturday-Jun-20-099 at 22:19
MILAN KOVACEVIC
a hobbyist user
from SERBIA
writes:
KAWAI K4 IS MAGIC MACHINE.IF YOU TWEAK AND PROGRAM YOUR SOUNDS THE RESULT IS:MELLOTRON STRINGS,WARM DARK PADS,CHOIR PADS AND SUPER ULTRA OVERDIVE LEAD.STRINGS QUALITY BETTER THAN ANY 1000 EURO NEW SYNTH AND HAVE MORE LIFE AND SOUL,BECAUSE STRINGS ARE NOT SAMPLED,STRINGS USE DIGITAL WAVE.SYNTH LEAD WITH OVERDRIVE IS UNIQUE AND GREAT AND THIS SOUND YOU CANT FIND ON ANY OTHER SYNTH.ONLY 200 EURO KAWAI K-4 COST SECONHAND AND WORTH.WITH THIS SYNTH YOU DONT NEED A SOLO GUITAR PLAYER.ALONG WITH YAMI DX-7,ROLAND D-50,KORG M1 AND T3 KAWAI K4 IS A CLASSIC MACHINE WITH WARM SOUND.MORE PROGRAM BETTER SOUNDS.END OF STORY.
Rating: 5 out of 5
posted Sunday-Jan-13-088 at 03:39
Suture
a professional user
from Poland
writes:
The K4R is just great. I paid for it around 70 EU, which I consider a real bargain. Used with the PC editor it's very easy to program and the capabilities are endless (well, ok - a bit of a stretch that) for such a simple synthesis engine. It can produce unbelievably rich and convincing analogue-like sounds - bleeps, burps, clicks, leads and so forth. Check 'Exit Planet Dust' by Chemical Brothers - probably the most analogue sounding bits there were produced with the k4. Great dirty, grungy sounds for industrial or experimental electronic music. The filter is weird and it's got a very distinctive sound.
Rating: 4 out of 5
posted Friday-Sep-01-066 at 06:40
neven dayvid
a professional user
from berlin
writes:
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