Technics KN6000 Review by John Romero (Organ and Keyboard World Oct 1999)

Photo's courtesty of Jarmo Niskanen

Yes they’ve done it again. Regular as clockwork every two years, Technics release a new flagship keyboard and now they have another one. For twelve years now I have to confess to having got the latest keyboard as soon as it has been released. Those twelve years started with the SX700 and progressed through the KN800, 1000, 2000, 3000 and 5000. In the past we have seen instruments from Technics that have led the music industry with the KN2000 arguably revolutionising it. The jump to the 3000 saw some more big changes although many customers were not that impressed. That’s what happens when the one before is so good. The KN5000 saw another big jump and I for one wondered how this could be improved upon. The KN5000, especially with its hard drive, has for the past two years for me been the perfect gigging tool. As to the KN6000, I have had an hour with it and I’m really pushing the deadline for this magazine, however here are my impressions so far.

Technics claims for the new KN are towering to say the least. Their publicity states "The new Technics KN6000 - There's nothing subtle about it. Completely redesigned from top to bottom, the KN6000 is like nothing you've ever seen or heard from Technics before. Its sound is monumental". The first thing to strike the eye is the new livery colour. Gone is the dark grey and in its place is a new silver/gold colour and if you thought the 5000's screen was large, wait till you see the 6000, it’s enormous. The screen is twice the size of its predecessor and it isn’t the only thing on the tilt up section as the rhythm groups are now located to the left and the sounds to the right making this section huge. It does have the advantage that the buttons for these sections are repositioned at eye level on either side of the LCD, so you don't have to avert your eyes from the screen. A new speaker system is located either side of the screen as it was on the 5000. This new 66W amplification system combined with the new sampling technology brings a clarity of sound beyond anything achieved before. The sound section boasts a new sound format called NX Sound and is compatible with the new so-called Midi standards of GM2. There are more than 1,000 newly sampled sounds with some processing power that’s quite startling as there are now ten digital signal processors (DSP’s). You can now apply separate DSP Effects to Right 1, Right 2, Left and APC parts, although that’s not quite as simple as it might at first seem. A global DSP effect such as Chorus and Reverb can be added to the overall sound. This theme is continued with both a global sound equaliser and separate equalisation functions for each part, so you should be able to create some stunning studio-like mixes. Aside from the ordinary sounds, which all have new samples with the fine detail and nuances better reproduced, they have expanded upon the ones called soloists. Now I like the 5000's trumpet soloist but most of these are even better. Try out the flute and sax soloists. As to the other sounds, look at the piano before trying anything else. It has a lovely tonal quality and clarity to it. An important and often overlooked section in the sounds is that of the drums and these drum kits are another major improvement. There are new Bongo, Conga and sound effect kits which are Brill. The down side of the clarity of the speakers is, personally I found the strings harsh. Now sound is subjective and everybody hears things slightly differently. Some may like the strings, I suspect others may not.

The rhythm section has been rebuilt and now conforms and goes beyond the standard of many other keyboards as it now has up to 8 parts in its accompaniments and 200 hundred rhythms each with 4 variations. Owners of the 5000 will recognise a number of the rhythms. If you have a 5000 and decide to buy a 6000 then make sure you save your favourite patterns to disk as some of the best ones have gone, although you should find many more to replace them. I’m also glad to see they have kept the custom rhythm section so that you can permanently load twenty of your favourite patterns in without to keep reloading them. A lovely new feature is the addition of a separate volume slide for the backing pattern. You can still balance the volumes for each part but the global slide gives an overall balance between right hand and backing parts. Excellent. The manual sequence pads have been improved "big time" and are now becoming a really useful feature of the instrument. Extra presets are available and they are more appropriate to what is being played. These include loads of additional guitar strums and drum parts that can play along with the backings. An interesting addition in this section is the function assigned to that of buttons 5 and 6. When pressed these buttons now take over the playing of the chords in the backing, playing a series of chords appropriate to the style selected. One button for major riffs and one for minor ones.

As if all this isn’t enough, it was inevitable that Technics were going to add a vocal harmoniser to the instrument. I was disappointed that there was only one set of harmony positions for the vocals when used alongside a pattern. It is effective though and singers will gain much benefit from it. There is a second setting which takes the harmonies (when programmed) from the chord track of a standard midi file and this again is a very useful tool. Yet another tool Technics have included in this section of the instrument is a brass simulator. Don’t expect much from this as it is little more than a toy. Ten gets you one by the time we reach the 7000 this is one feature that won’t be there anymore and I’ll be surprised if anyone misses it. Talking of missing features the "Acoustic Illusion" from the 5000 has gone although I suspect this is because it has been permanently built in. The One Touch section is a little better than the 5000's and you can now search these settings by Style Category, Alphabetical order and Era. It is a useful feature for exploring the instrument but long term, the panel memories are more important. These have been increased and there are another three banks of eight added making a total of 104. Probably the biggest non musical feature is the customise screen function. This treats the screen a little like the desktop on a computer. It allows you to personalise the screen to your requirements allowing volume bars, parts, shortcuts and even pictures wherever is convenient to you. With so many features on this instrument, it means you can get to what you want when you need it very quickly. There are just so many features on the new flagship instrument that it is hard to cover them all in a couple of pages review so I will cover just one more, that of the Sound Controller ball. It is a small black track ball set to the left side of the instrument and when rolled around depending on what parameters have been set strange things happen to the sounds. Panning, echo’s, tonal qualities can all be altered here. It is debatable whether you will use it for big band numbers but it is great for synth work.

Conclusion

The KN6000 is an amazing quality workstation and personally I like it, but I have one major problem. I have a hard drive fitted to my 5000 which cost several hundred pounds. I’ve got used to it and as a gigging musician couldn’t go back to not having one. Why is it the 5000's hard drive will not fit in the 6000? Why have I and many other musicians been put in a position that we have got to spend another £476.00 for a new hard drive? I have got to tell you, I and others I have talked to are not impressed. If those that need a hard drive are forced to fork out every time a keyboard is released......well its just not going to happen and Technics are going to lose some sales. So should you part with your cash and get one? This is a good question. It is without doubt better than the 5000. The sounds and their reproduction are better and there are more and better features. Some, particularly those people with KN 5000's are going to find this a hard decision. For me? Well the jury is still out. I’ll let you know next time whether I succumb to temptation.

J.R.

Tec Spec

All specifications are taken from official Panasonic/Technics literature