From k2mojo@groovedaddies.com Thu Dec 11 21:26:00 2003
Subject:RE: Kawai K1 as a B4 controller

Hi Magnus,
I've got a K1 that I bought for $65 in a pawn shop about 15 years ago. Of
course by today's standards the sounds suck, but I've hung onto it all these
years because it's always served me better as a pretty good MIDI controller,
and besides I couldn't get enough money out of it to make it worth selling
so I keep it as a backup. I don't know about other ones, but I always
thought that the action on mine felt quite solid for a synth-weight
keyboard, and though I haven't tried it yet, I imagine it would make a great
controller for B4. In fact, thanks for reminding me I have one. A couple
of things I liked about the K1 is that it's very lightweight and yet it's
built fairly sturdy. And if you decide to use some of it's onboard sounds,
it did have this one interesting feature where you could use the joystick to
morph between different patches, which was something I'd never seen on a
synth this old before. I say go for it if you can get it for less than
$100.

Ed Fliege
k2mojo@groovedaddies.com
www.groovedaddies.com

> I'm thinking of buying a used Kawai K1 unseen to use as a
> softsynth controller. If anyone has played one in the near
> past, can you tell me how the action feels like? Would it
> work fine with the B4, is it organ-like? Wobbly?
>
> The reason I'm interested in that particular keyboard is that
> it's rather small and includes both pitch and modulation
> wheels. I like Roland/Edirol action but _hate_ the pitch/mod
> stick. I can also name the patches on the k1, not only view a
> program number like on the Edirol's. Nice for remote control
> of softsynths like the B4. Lacks sliders though...
>
> /Magnus