The Eat at Joe's Kawai K5000 Message Board Digest K5000 Bank Capacity ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Couple of questions Thursday, 27-Nov-97 14:41:34 Message: 12.65.21.203 writes: Hello K5000s users. I hope someone has a moment to help a prospective buyer who can't quite get questions answered in the store (tho they are happy to let me play the instrument and I've had a load of fun doing that.) First, regarding patch storage. Can the S, without memory expansion, handle added patch storage? The stock unit seems to have 60 patches in each of two banks, with many more slots available. But somewhere in the mag reviews it sounded like those patches pretty well maxed out the stock RAM. I'm also interested in how disk-loading-saving of patches works--one patch at a time, full banks? Apparently there are additional patches supplied on disk with purchase. Are those for the S? Another topic: The R version plus knob box... how do the two pieces communicate with each other? MIDI sysex? Or something hard-wired between the two? Are there any connection issues with a keyboard-5000R-knob box set up? Lastly... I haven't found any description of what I gather is a newish operating version, 3.0. What does it do for the instrument? (And of course, any general advice about making this purchase much appreciated, options, things to be aware of, etc.) This feels like the synth I have been waiting a decade to see appear, affordably and with real-world programming accessibility. It was also great to find this site and message-board. I hope I can contribute in the future as well as just ask dopey questions. Thanks to one and all for any help, for now. Rick in Seattle rzah-new@seatimes.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Re: Couple of questions Friday, 28-Nov-97 00:34:46 199.86.47.8 writes: I've got the K5kR. The D bank seems to have room for a lot of new patches. The A bank only semms to have room for one or two more patches before you have to erase presets. However, the SoundDiver software will hold on to those patches for you. The knob box sends CC's. The best price I saw for the K5kR was $700; I think the S should go for under $1k. It's extremely flexible, a tinkerer's dream, and it makes some sounds you can't get anywhere else. leite@skypoint.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Re: Couple of questions Friday, 28-Nov-97 02:01:03 131.169.150.49 writes: In every bank u can make up to 128 Sounds...BUT only when the Sounds use only a little power. This means: If u use Sounds with 6 ADDs/Sound u will not get more than a few Sounds/Bank. If using for all Sounds only 2 PCM it is possible to reach a "full Bank" (128 Sounds). The Memory Expansinsion gives only 2 new Banks ! Normally one Bank has 60-70 Sounds. U can store one patch at a time OR full banks. Version 3 has Bugfixes, new Sounds and a little cosmetics..... Please xcuse my bad english.....im from germany trancemeister ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Re: Couple of questions Saturday, 29-Nov-97 04:51:54 152.163.207.37 writes: It doesn't matter how many patches there are in either bank, the memory is shared between the two banks and different patches take up different amounts of memory. Starting out there are 60 patches in Bank A, and 40 in Bank D. This is about all the memory there is, you can usually only add 4 complex additive patches or about 8 patches using only PCM wave sources. The memory upgrade is pretty cheap though, and it triples the memory of the K5000. Overall I think the K5000 is a great synth. The K5000S lacks drum sounds, but I use a DR5 anyways. The K5000 doesn't make the greatest bass sounds, but it makes some really awesome sounds overall. euporia420@aol.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ squeals and storing Saturday, 31-Oct-98 09:11:08 168.100.206.18 writes: [section on resonance clipping removed] Secondly, I'm really puzzled by the memory/load story. I tried to edit a patch and store in the blank spots in the "A" bank. I got a message saying "Error, memory full". Same story trying to load off of disk, although I was able to store a single patch into the "D" bank. What gives? Also, is there a way of loading a group of patches without wiping out what's already stored. It seems that banks always load at location 1. Is there a way of loading 10 new patches into locations other that 1-10 without going through the very slow one-at-a-time-load. The K5000 does make some very interesting sounds, and I'd like to be convinced that it will work for me, but at the moment I'm a bit discouraged. Thanks, Elby ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Re: squeals and storing Monday, 02-Nov-98 00:57:45 153.37.7.110 writes: [section on resonance clipping removed] The second problem is due to the way the K5000 stores patches in memory. While there are 128 slots to store patches in, there is also a limited amount of memory for each bank. The number of patches you can store in a bank depends on how large the patches are, and it is usually somewhere around 65. Patches will be larger if you use additive sources and also if you use more sources. Kenji ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------