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Kawai K3 Manual
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Kawai K3 Manual

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Download this manual See also: Service Manual, Owner's Manual
The Kawai K3 is a typical representative of those mid-80ies synthesizers: membrane buttons (instead of real
buttons), an Alpha Dial which is used to edit the extensive selection of parameters, plus a six-voice hybrid sound
engine. The latter consists of two wavetable oscillators, a VCF and a VCA per voice. The LED display is huge (similar
to that of a Korg DW-8000, but much bigger).
In its appearance, the Kawai K3 (released in 1986) is reminiscent of the DX-7, just like the Oberheim Matrix-6, Casio
CZ-Series, Sequential 2000, Roland Alpha Juno 1/2, JX-8P/10, and others.
A few general thoughts on the instrument
The Kawai K3 is a very professional hybrid synthesizer. It's a mix of digital oscillators, additive/substractive
synthesis and analog filters
x
VCF and VCA give the sound a lot of depth and warmth
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The wavetable oscillators, on the other hand, can easily produce sounds similar to a PPG Wave synthesizer
Kawai K3 – a rare hybrid synthesizer
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Summary of Contents for Kawai K3

  • Page 1 The latter consists of two wavetable oscillators, a VCF and a VCA per voice. The LED display is huge (similar to that of a Korg DW-8000, but much bigger). In its appearance, the Kawai K3 (released in 1986) is reminiscent of the DX-7, just like the Oberheim Matrix-6, Casio CZ-Series, Sequential 2000, Roland Alpha Juno 1/2, JX-8P/10, and others.
  • Page 2 Kawai K3 – a rare hybrid synthesizer The Kawai K3 is a very good background synthesizer, thanks to the soft character of its sound. No wonder it gets along so well with digital and analog instruments in a mix. It leans more toward PPG-like bells and pads than toward classic Oberheim/Sequential-like brass sounds.
  • Page 3 Kawai K3 – a rare hybrid synthesizer Kawai K3 The OSC BAL(ance) function, on the other hand, is very professional. This parameter determines the mixing balance for the two ocillators. “-15” is oscillator No.1 only, “0” is even, and “15” is oscillator No.2 only.
  • Page 4 Kawai K3 – a rare hybrid synthesizer Kawai K3 User-Defined Waveform (source: Kawai K3 Owner’s Manual, page 25) “The sound of a musical instrument […] is complex. The amazing thing is that, at any particular instant, the waveform can be broken down and expressed as the sum of a series of sinusoidal waves whose amplitudes may differ, but whose frequencies are all whole number multiples of a single common frequency.
  • Page 5 Kawai K3 – a rare hybrid synthesizer USER-DEFINED WAVEFORMS A synthesizer such as the K-3 reverses the process, mixing a series of sine waves to generate complex patterns for “natural” sounds which we recognize instantly as a piano or a saxophone. In fact, all standard oscillator waveform shapes in popular synthesizers, such as triangle, sawtooth and square waves are easy to reconstruct in this manner.
  • Page 6 Building up a new waveform from scratch sounds creative and interesting. But, to be honest, I never gave that a try (this was the fate of my OSCar, as well). The 31 factory waveforms of the Kawai K3 are more than sufficient – enough material to program heaps of new, interesting sounds.

  • Page 7: Factory Waveforms

    Factory Waveforms If you like the sound of the old PPG Wave 2, 2.2 or 2.3, then you’ll fall for the Kawai K3, too. The 31 factory waveforms are a nice mix of soft, sometimes nasal tones. The analog VCF/VCA section adds a lot of depth to them, giving you deep, lush analog/digital sounds.

  • Page 8: Keyboard Features

    Kawai K3 – a rare hybrid synthesizer Kawai K3 Keyboard Features Speaking of pressure modulation: a whole bunch of features turns the K3 keyboard into a highly versatile pro- instrument … Velocity VELO VCF – controls VCF cutoff frequency VELO VCA – controls VCA output level Aftertouch PRES OSC BALANCE –...
  • Page 9 Kawai K3 – a rare hybrid synthesizer Keytracking VCF (pos / neg) VCA (pos / neg) Voltage Controlled Filter: The ANALOG K3 “The VCF seems to be the most interesting part of the bunch: six well known chip SSM 2044 with resonant Low Pass Filter -24db/oct, however keep in mind that the Cutoff and the rest of the parameters are CPU scaled values.”...

  • Page 10: Low Frequency Oscillator

    Actually, there are two filters in the K3: a classical Low Pass Filter and a High Pass Filter (called LOW CUT). The latter can only be adjusted manually, similar to the HPF on many Roland synths.
  • Page 11 We have already spoken of velocity, aftertouch and other strong keyboard functions. Sadly, the rest of the instrument’s performance section is not that comprehensive. The K3 commands just one lonely wheel. And that’s for pitch bending only, adjustable in semitones.
  • Page 12 – quite a pleasure to use, really! I think it’s much better than the data-slider of its competitor, the Korg DW-8000. INCREMENT Dial with Memory Function Although there’s no direct access to the individual sound parameters, the K3 data wheel allows for instant access to “one” individual parameter per sound. | 12...
  • Page 13 Kawai K3 “The K3 lets you change the value of a parameter even during a performance simply by rotating the INCREMENT dial. To set a particular parameter for live editing, simply assign it to the tone patch program just before you “lock in”...
  • Page 14 These are stereo chorus, tremolo and delay effects for creating tone patches with “realistic, studio quality effects” (?). This is what the K3 manual says. Hm …. reality is somewhat different. Most of the effects tend to be very noisy, making it far better to turn them OFF and to use modern, external effect units instead.
  • Page 15 Nevertheless: nothing like that will happen with your Kawai K3. This is a heavy chap (15 kg), solidly made, with a proper keyboard, a wood-finish front panel and a huge (and reliable) LED display. The single pitch wheel is a proper –...
  • Page 16 Kawai K3M StereoPing K3 / K3 M Controller StereoPing offers a specialized midicontroller allowing realtime edits on the K3 / K3M. “The midicontroller will be plugged in between the midi sending device and your synth. It merges incoming midi data with it’s own parameter change commands and forwards both to your synthesizer. Means: you can perfectly fire your synth with midinotes while tweaking it’s sound with the synth controller –...
  • Page 17 By the way, there is one smaller deficit we noticed on our K3 instruments (2x Kawai K3, 1x Kawai K3M): the ripple voltage of the power supply is – possibly – quite noisy. I don’t know if this is true of all K3 models, but one of my K3 is really loud (and a second one is quite noisy, too).
  • Page 18 Kawai K3 – a rare hybrid synthesizer Nonetheless, the Kawai K3 is a professional machine. Try to find one, if you like its sound – and don’t forget to turn off the internal chorus …! The following sound sample start with an excerpt of Robert Witteks excellent K3 audio workshop. See www.synthesizer.at...
  • Page 19 Kawai K3 – a rare hybrid synthesizer Links: Vintage Synth Explorer Review by Robert Wittek (German only) Hardware Controller by StereoPing | 19...