KAWAI K5000S - Sounds, Patches & Ambient Soundscapes | Synth Demo

synth4ever

"Kawai K5000S digital additive synthesizer demo, featuring various sounds, presets, patches & ambient soundscapes. This Kawai K5000S synth demo showcases various K5000 sounds including pads, arpeggiator, leads, textures, FX and more.

Released in 1996 in a sleek design, the Kawai K5000S was Kawai's top of the line digital workstation synth at the time and one of the few additive synthesizers released to the market. The Kawai K5000S is part of the Kawai K5000 additive synth series, which includes the Kawai K5000W and K5000R.

The Kawai K5000S features 32 voices of polyphony and a digital additive synthesis engine, with over 1000 editable parameters per patch. It has a 128-band formant filter as well as separate resonant 24dB lowpass and highpass filters. There are 2 LFOs - one for formant filter, one freely assignable to other destinations.

The Kawai K5000S also has a decently featured arpeggiator on board with 40 patterns plus 8 user patterns. Memory-wise there are 200 patches and 64 performances available (which allows up to 4 patches to be played at once). In addition, the keyboard features velocity and aftertouch, and there are 4 effects algorithms with 32 effects to choose from.

The Kawai K5000S is the only version of the K5000 series to have dedicated knobs for more hands-on control, which allows for much more spontaneous live tweaking. The Kawai K5000 series of synthesizers can create some gorgeous ethereal ambient soundscapes with constantly evolving timbres over time. The use of additive synthesis and a formant filter also gives the Kawai K5000 synths their own unique tone, and allows you to create new sounds that are uncommon to other synths.

Overall, if you are interested in digital synthesizers and want to try something different from FM synthesis, subtractive synthesis, wavetable synthesis etc then the K5000 series may up your alley thanks to its comprehensive additive synthesis engine. The K5000S is often sought after by those who enjoy adding a new palette of sound to their music, and is recommended if you want to try something different in the realm of synthesis."

The Sound of the Nord Wave 2 feat. J3PO - #1 Analog

NordKeyboards

"This brand new series shows the unique range of sounds and capabilities of the Nord Wave 2. With a total of 5 episodes, LA-based keyboardist Julian "J3PO" Pollack demonstrates the different sound categories as well as complex layers and rhythmic patches. The first episode is focused on the Analog waveforms featured in the Nord Wave 2. #nordwave2 #j3po #analog #iseenord"

Digi OS Upgrades: Step Recording mode

Elektron

"A new sequencing mode is available on the Digitakt and Digitones - Step Recording. This feature lets you input chords and notes into the sequencer step by step. Or use jump mode to skip to the next predetermined spot in the sequence via the Length parameter, making it even easier to control your melodies and build them a step at a time."

ARTURIA RELEASES KEYSTEP PRO 1.2.6 FIRMWARE UPDATE

via Arturia

"It’s Arturia's job to make sure that the products they bring users perform at their best capacity, so users can enjoy the smoothest workflow. That’s why Arturia constantly works on firmware updates for their products: exciting improvements such as new features, improvements and bug fixes.

The teams have worked on analysing feedback on their latest controller, KeyStep Pro, and delivering a firmware update.

The update includes workflow improvements and bug fixes for the most part.


WHAT’S NEW IN KEYSTEP PRO 1.2.6?

Reworked MIDI In implementation
Notes sent to the track’s input MIDI channels are now processed as if these were played on the KeyStep Pro keyboard and transmitted to the MIDI and CV Outputs.
More recording flexibility with the count in
When recording in real time, notes played prior to the recording are maintained after the start and are now recorded as well.
Record several patterns on the fly
Patterns can now be changed while record is ON. This lets you build several patterns at one time leaving more room for your creative flow when jamming.
Drum track time division per pattern
The drum track time division is now stored in each drum pattern and recalled when changing from one pattern to another.
Sync Auto mode improvement
KeyStep Pro is now able to jump back to its internal clock after having been synced to an external source.
Sync handling improvements
Synchronization accuracy has been improved and now supports all clock rate formats.
New screen feedback messages
For some actions, new screen messages have been added to make the workflow more intuitive
Bug fixes
The update also comes with various bug fixes and workflow improvements. For more details, check out the release notes."

New Waldorf Iridium Trailer, Sound Demo, Official Announcement Press Release & New Pics

Follow-up to this post.

"Waldorf Music makes more waves by bringing flagship’s futuristic functionality and advanced tonality to desktop with Iridium Synthesizer

REMAGEN, GERMANY: having opened eyes and ears when introducing its forward-looking flagship Quantum Synthesizer keyboard to widespread critical acclaim in 2018, Waldorf Music is proud to introduce its Iridium Synthesizer ‘sibling’ — sharing futuristic functionality and advanced tonality and applying those traits with welcomed added extras to a compact desktop form factor living up to the high-quality synthesizer developer’s demanding design standards — as of June 12…

Following in the Quantum Synthesizer’s trailblazing footsteps, the Iridium Synthesizer features a generous high-resolution multitouch display working — with haptic help — in perfect harmony with an adroitly arranged control panel positioning all functions for speedy operation. Noticeably new to the demonstrably different Iridium Synthesizer is its integrated 4 x 4 pad matrix, used to call up sequences, chords, scales, and arpeggios. A quick glance under the hood, however, reveals that the Iridium Synthesizer still shares the same selectable sound generation processes per oscillator (OSC 1, OSC 2, and OSC 3). As such, it can convincingly and comprehensively reproduce the sound spectra of the following five synthesis types: Wavetable, Waveform, Particle, Resonator, and Kernels.

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All Sequential kit - style 1984

SynthMania

All Sequential Circuits instruments, Italian '80s style:
Synth Lead: Prophet-5
Synth Bass: Pro-One
Drum machine: Drumtraks
Digital Reverb processor: MXR 01
Digital Delay processor: Lexicon PCM41

Eurorack, Line Level, Effects, Mixers - Connecting Everything Livestream Tutorial

Perfect Circuit

"We had to postpone this stream last week, but will be live Thursday 6/11/20 at 6PM PST, we will be going over how to connect eurorack and line level gear and the difference in their signal levels. Being able to go back and forth between signal levels gives you more options when it comes to effects routing and mixing. If you want to use a guitar effect pedal with your modular, or run a desktop synth through one of your eurorack effects we will go over this as well as the pros and cons of eurorack mixers vs desktop mixers and how to setup the routing of each.

Eurorack/Line Level Conversion Modules available here: https://www.perfectcircuit.com/eurora..."

Elka Drumstar 80

Kory Westerhold

"The Elka Drumstar 80 is a thick sounding, punchy vintage machine from Elka that came out in the mid-80s. Known by many as the Italian Linndrum, it features 20 banks of different presets —with 3 fixed and 1 programmable variants for each...giving it a total of 80 presets. It’s also programmable, in the vein of an Oberheim DX or Linndrum. There are also intro, outro and fill patterns for each preset, as well as a programmable fill. Feature wise it has 8 individual outs and the main outs are mono OR stereo, as well as a mixing section at the top for individual sounds that takes them up and down in the main mix. It has a cartridge slot for RAM memory as well, though I don’t own a cartridge.

A couple quirks of note on the Drumstar 80. One is that it actually has an internal fan to help cool the machine, which can run quite loudly during operation. It doesn’t affect the sound output at all, but is kind of an odd trait of the machine. I left at bit of the room noise in at the beginning of the video during power up to give a sense of it, and cut in a bit at the end of this video that hopefully is a more accurate capture of the noise.

The second quirk (and this happens on the Drumstar 64 as well) is that the tempo/bpm doesn’t move up and down in linear increments. It may clock to midi fine, but it moves in fixed increments. Just something to note."

Elka Drumstar 64

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.
Kory Westerhold

"Short demo of the vintage Italian drum machine, the Elka Drumstar 64 for Reverb. It’s just a preset box, but has killer, punchy disco-era rhythms presets...and gives you the ability to pan between different sounds. It’s actually a stereo machine, with individual L & R outs, but this was recorded in mono."

via this auction

"Here we have the Elka Drumstar 64, which is cool, punchy old Italian disco machine from the mid-80s. 1985 I believe 🕺🕺🕺"

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New ElectroTechnique TSynth - DIY Teensy Synth

ElectroTechnique

Note this is the first post to feature ElectroTechnique.

"TSynth is a DIY synth based on the Teensy 3.6 MCU board. It is six voice polyphonic with two oscillators and very comprehensive control and options. Patch saving and recall, three MIDI in options and USB digital audio. It is open source and the PCB and front panel are now available to buy on Tindie. The intention was that the cost of parts to build this synth are around $99 and it should be a serious instrument. There are many features and full details are on https://electrotechnique.cc

All sounds are directly from TSynth with built-in stereo chorus - Youtube tends to muffle the sound, the bass will go very low. I'm hoping that end users will produce better demos and contribute to the code."

Specs via ElectroTechnique:

Oscillators

Six voice polyphony (last note priority), two oscillators per voice, detunable with +/- 2 octaves range, Sine/ Sample & Hold (like tuned noise)/ Square/ Sawtooth/ Ramp/ PWM/ Var Triangle/ User waveforms and level
Pulse Width/ Var Triangle can be set for each oscillator with PWM by dedicated LFO or from the filter envelope
Pink or white noise level
Dedicated LFO for pitch mod (can be retriggered by note on), Sine/ Triangle/ Sawtooth/ Ramp/ Square/ S&H waveforms
Pitch can be modulated by filter envelope (+/-)
XOR ‘Ring Mod’ (creates lots of harmonics with certain waveforms)
Unison with all twelve oscillators detunable from each other
Polyphonic Glide with variable time

Filter
State variable 12dB filter (SVF) with continuous mix between LP and HP (provides notch filter) and BP
Cutoff freq and resonance

Cutoff can be modulated by dedicated ADSR envelope (+/-), dedicated LFO
LFO has same waveforms as pitch LFO (can be retriggered by note on) and rate can be set to match MIDI clock (tempo) with variable time division (1,3/4,1/2,1/4,1/8…)

Amplifier
Dedicated ADSR envelope
Volume for DAC output
Effect amount and mix - currently for stereo ensemble chorus rate and mix but could be set up to allow choices in programmer

Programmer
160x80 IPS colour display
Encoder with button for data entry, Back button for menu navigation
Save and Recall buttons for storing patches, holding Recall initialises the current patch to match the panel controls. Holding the Save button takes you into a patch deletion page.
The programmer makes the synth very flexible with future possibilities for changing User waveforms, alternative filters, alternative effects with further parameter settings.

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