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Average rating:
3.9 out of 5
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I picked up a Kii off craigslist for $55 and was pleasantly surprised,then I added a Roland jv1010 to it(also craigslist).Now it creates nice pads, E.P.s, strings even fairly good acoustic instruments.It really has its own unique sound, you can make the strings swell and sustain nicely. It has a sharpness to it also that can cut through a mix.All in all a good synth.
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An underrated keyboard which has a lot of flexibility. Major drawbacks are limited polyphony and lack of filters; waveforms are not band-limited so you'll get digital noise (a sometimes useful effect as Bobby Clark notes in his review) towards the upper end of the keyboard if you've tuned an oscillator high. Advantages are aftertouch on the keyboard (very handy as a master controller); good waveform selection with emphasis on additive sounds and percussive attack transients; up to four waveforms per patch (with double amplitude modulation -- you can spend hours messing with just this); multiple patches may be layered for really thick leads. Envelope delays allow for short drum sequences, echos, etc. The joystick makes data entry easy and you can use it to crossfade between waveforms in a patch. Does wonderful bass sounds, good leads, good pads, as well as etheral and bell (inharmonic) sounds and strange sound effects. Can create some truly dark and deep pads. There's a lot to work with and if you're creative it can do a lot without the need to go through endless menus. The on-board effects are very limited but usable; piping the output through a modern effects unit produces good results; a reverb or echo can help alleviate the polyphony limits for certain music styles. All in all a very easy to use, straightforward and flexible machine.
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This was my first synth. It was horrible, it had horrible sounds. Thank God I have better synths now.
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when I can't find a sting sound i'm really in the need for, back to the K1. A good portion of my library of sting sounds come from the K1, to get the feel i'm looking for.And for my taste,tweeking, is alot easier with this unit,than, everything else i'm in possesion of. Like my children, gotta love it, cause it mine.
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I've been a Kawai user ever since the thing first came out in the late 80's ... It's got a lot of strong and weak points ... It's really good at doing the lush atmospheric string and ambient sounds, and the glassy type percussion stuff too.
Recently, I have gotten into the synthpop/techno stuff, and I have even butchered this poor thing into generating Erasure-type computer sounds. One trick to keep in mind, is tune your waveforms as high as they will go, play on the right side of the keys, and maybe even induce some pitch sliding, and VOILA! Instant computer fx. You can also use this technique to generate random split metallic noise hits too.
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