Review of the Technics KN5000 (published in Organ and Keyboard World Nov 1997)

Did you know that 1997 see's the tenth anniversary of the "Technics World Music Festival", a lesser known fact is, it is also the fifteenth anniversary of their "Electronic Musical Instruments Division". Earlier in this year of their celebrations, a strange hush fell over the company. This lead to many people suspecting the release of a new KN keyboard was immanent. It has been two years since the release of the KN 3000, the last flagship keyboard. Whilst it was a good instrument and better than the KN 2000, it was not what a lot of us had expected or hoped for. In this article we can give you an exclusive preview of the new Technics KN 5000.

First Impressions

The first thing that strikes the eye when you see the KN 5000 is it's new case and the color screen that seems to jump out of the middle of the instrument. The screen unit is a square panel that tilts upwards (a little like the old KN 1000) in which is a full color LCD display is set. The effect is stunning. It gives a vast amount of information that is easy on the eye and more importantly the information carried upon it is easy for the brain to assimilate. The same cannot be said of the rest of the front panel though. Either side of the screen is a very large speaker grill that extends to the edge of the instrument. The reason for the size of these grills and the Bass port on the front edge (below the keys) is a new amplification system designed by "Ramsa". Stand by to be amazed. The keyboard loaded with a stunning 66 watts of power, 2 x 18W speakers for mid and high frequencies and a 30W bass speaker. It is loud! I first heard the 5000 in a large conference hall and believe me with no additional amplification it was crystal clear, everywhere. In the average front room and turned up full you had better be able to play well as the neighbours will hear everything. The drawback of this speaker system though is the reduction in the space needed for control panel. For those of you used to either of the KN 2000 or 3000 the buttons are smaller, closer together and consequently it is easier to push a wrong button. This will be especially so while you are getting to know the instrument. From left to right across the front panel are controls for Volume, 6 Manual Sequence Pads (shame these are so large as some space would have been better used making the other buttons larger). Next come the Rhythm groups in three banks of five, then the composer and sound arranger controls, variations and MSA. Beside these are the usual fills, intro/ending plus some new controls, Music Stylist and fade in and out. Center, directly beneath the screen is the tempo dial. To the right of this sits buttons for Transpose and a useful combination of buttons for transposing a right hand sound up or down one or two octaves, under these are the Start/Stop, Synchro/Break and Tap Tempo buttons. At this point I'll just take a breath for air and a mouthful of coffee... Next comes the effect's section that includes the usual Sustain, Digital Effect and DSP plus a very important new addition called Acoustic Illusion. To use Techno Jargon you would say the keyboard uses "Three Dimensional Acoustic Modeling", in other words press this button and by the wonders of modern technology the sound coming from the instrument acquires an enhanced width across the Stereo that has to be heard to be believed. This is something you are going to switch on and Never switch off. Below is the Conductor parts, Techni-chord and Entertainer buttons. Lastly comes the Sound Groups, Sequencer controls and Panel memories, of which there are now a massive Eighty (ten banks of eight). For those of you that have or have had a KN instrument most of the front panel will make total sense. You will have to get used to the new width of the panel though as it now extends right the way across the instrument and not just between the speakers. This will take a little getting used to as things like the panel memories seem to be stuck right out on the edge of the 5000.

An instrument is only as good as it's Sounds and generally the sounds have been improved although I still want to get a 5000 home and play it through my own PA before giving a final vote of confidence. The main features of note in the sound section are the inclusion of a new string section (much needed and incidentally sourced here in the U.K.), a new set of brass sounds (also much needed) that include Big Band Brass and Marching Brass, there is also a new Brass sound called Brass Fall which should sort out some of the problems of trying to play with both hands and control the pitch bend at the same time. A brand new Stereo Sampled Piano (which sounds like a Steinway to me) joins the Piano section. In addition to the old Sax sounds there are two new Tenor, a new Alto and new Soprano Sax sounds. There is also a very effective new Bossa Guitar.

A major boon to those Organists that decide to buy a 5000 is the inclusion of a new set of Rock Drawbars in addition to the Jazz ones. One of the things I am specially looking forward to playing with is the new Accordion registers or Couplers as they should be called. Two nationalities, German and Italian (Ocatvina and Musette tuned). These tabs can be set in the same way as on an accordion and will select different combinations and footages of reeds. Now seems a good time as well to tell you about the improved Techni-chord facilities. On prior instruments you set the Techni- chord to play harmony lines below a melody played with the right hand (this harmony is dependant on which chord you are playing with the left hand, which style it is set to, and has in the past been played with the same sound that plays the melody). You can now make the harmony lines play using different sounds i.e. Violins on the top and each harmony part playing different string section. There is a whole host of other new or improved sounds and couple all this with the addition of the above mentioned Acoustic Illusion and the capability to add EQ to the keyboard I think that many people will buy the 5000 just for the new sounds on their own.

If not the first then the second item a prospective keyboard customer usually looks at is the patterns that are included in the instrument. The KN 5000 has two hundred rhythms patterns that cover a wide range of music. Each has four variations, two intro's, two outro's and two fills for each variation. Most are new although a few come from prior KN keyboards. The major breakthrough on this front though is in addition to the three composer memories (A, B and C) there are an extra twenty composer slots that load into a flash memory in effect giving twenty three composer slots. This flash memory unlike the usual three composer slots is permanent and stays in the memory when the instrument is switched off or until something is loaded over the top of them. This will cut down the number of times you will need to load from disk dramatically as twenty of your favorite patterns can be left here all the time. For those of you that have had a KN keyboard before, the 5000 will load software from all the KN range released since and including the 2000. I did not have the time to check but I suspect it will also load KN 1000 software via the inclusion of the EMC Style Convert Software that has been included with the keyboard. Mind you if the Kwai Z 1000 keyboard is anything to go by, this is about the only thing the EMC software will be good for. Those of you that have any experience of EMC will know just what I am on about. I should also tell you that I did have the chance to load in some of my KN 3000 pattern software and I was most happy with the results, so upgrading from the likes of a 3000 shouldn't be a problem. In view of troubles loading 2000 software into the 3000 though I am holding judgement as to how well this will load into the 5000.

The sequencer appears to have been lifted directly from the 3000 although apparently there are some minor improvements and again 3000 software should load without any problems.

There are quite a few new additional features on the KN 5000 such as a Mic input which also has Reverb and EQ on it. EQ for the instrument as a whole including a bunch of presets for the not to technically minded. Output for controlling a harmonizer such as the Digitech Vocalist, Those Midi Files that include Lyrics will also scroll the words on the screen (Tune 1000 Midi Files will do this). A facility for loading different wallpapers into the color screen (pretty pictures the likes of which you would find on a computer). Output for linking directly to a PC. All 5000's, up to the end of December, also come with a free software disk and a Video manual. It's about time the manufactures started doing this, as the instruments of today get more and more complicated a visual guide is becoming more and more important. Score one to Technics. By the way I've seen the video and the quality is excellent.

There are a couple of interesting optional extra's that go with the keyboard the most important being a set of six foot switches which I believe can be used in conjunction with the standard two giving a total of eight. The second optional extra is the hard disk. KN 3000 owners beware, your hard drive will not work in the 5000. The price for the hard drive looks as if it will be around ,500.00, not cheap, but with the new loading options from disk in conjunction with the extra composer flash memories it is debatable whether or not it will be needed.

Overview

I would love to have had more time with the instrument. Much though I hate to say it, as after the 3000 I had my doubts about just what this instrument was going to be like, and whilst I am holding judgement on a few things I personally will be buying the KN 5000 as soon as I can lay my grubby little mits on one. My first impression is that Technics really look as if they are back on track again and the product is going to give all the other manufactures nightmares. The price? I think everyone will be pleasantly surprised ,1,999.00. Beware, if you go and see it, then take your check book or credit cards 'cause your gonna want one!

J.R.