K2000 Compatibility; K2000 Compatibility Files - Kurzweil K2500 Reference Manual

Appendix B

K2000 Compatibility

K2000 Compatibility Files

Included as part of your K2500 accessory disks are two disks of K2000 compatibility files, for
your use when playing K2000 programs on the K2500. The Kurzweil K2000 has been a widely
used platform for several years, and the VAST architecture and programming interface is
largely the same in the K2500. Therefore, an attempt was made to organize the K2500 factory
objects in a way most compatible with existing K2000 files. However, several improvements
have been made to the Base ROM objects, and therefore not all K2000 support software will
play correctly in a 2500 without some minimal translation.
The purpose of the files on the two K2000 compatibility disks is to allow you to play programs,
sequences, and other objects that were created on a K2000, so that they can be re-saved in a
"native" 2500 format.
If you never owned a K2000 and you do not have existing material programmed on the K2000,
you probably do not need these files.
Here are the main differences:
ROM Drum samples. While most of the samples in the base ROM are compatible between the
K2000 and the K2500, the drum samples are not. The K2500 drums are made from new
recordings, and a slightly different selection of drums is offered (e.g., three ambient snares
instead of four). Furthermore, where all drums and percussion had been grouped in one multi-
root sample (Sample #20 Drums and Percussion), they are now available as separate samples
addressed by number.
ROM Effects programs. These were re-programmed for greater signal-to-noise ratio, and re-
organized for ease of use. The Effect page in the program editor always points to an Effect
program, and has several parameters for real-time control. Many programs developed for the
2000 series utilized those factory default effects. When these programs are loaded into a K2500,
they will not call the correct effect.
ROM Keymaps. An effort was made to keep instrument keymaps in the same order as in the
K2000, because the keymap must be correct for a program to sound correct. Keymaps 20-38, 61,
70, and 173-176 have been replaced or deleted, and subtle improvements in volume have been
made to others.
About the compatibility files:
There is one main file on this two disk set, K2KBASE.K25. It contains all the necessary objects
for a K2500 to play any program made on a late model K2000, including drum and percussion
samples. If you do not have sample memory, you can still use this file for some compatibility,
but the drums will not play.
The idea is to temporarily overwrite the ROM in the K2500 with these objects, so that K2000
programs can be loaded, played, and then re-saved with their dependent objects.
If you use the compatibility files often, you will find that sometimes you only need to load
some of the objects from the big file. This can be done with the Load Object feature. As a
convenience, we have provided a file which only contains effects programs, K2KFX.K25, for
one such case.
We also included a file for Orchestral ROM compatibility, K2KROM1.K25. It should be loaded
in tandem with the K2KBASE.K25 file only if you have the Orchestral ROM option installed.
(There are very few differences between the 2000 and the 2500 in the Orchestral ROM bank, so
this file will rarely be used.)
K2000 Compatibility
K2000 Compatibility Files
Appendix B-1