Anyone else just now realizing that this show has been a part of their Fridays consistently for like a year and a half? 😳 Thanks for all the laughs Florian!
I feel like for every cheesy '80s one-hit wonder, there's a cheesy '80s digital synth to match. Definite "heartfelt power-ballad meets SNES" feel here.
we definitely need more modern VSTs that capture the vibe of a lot of these late 80s/early 90s digital synths, I think. I feel like there's a lot more territory "those sorts" of sounds could capture, being nostalgic without being as full on cheesy, but don't want to have to shell out for a modwave or something
@@SisterRose - UVI has some sample packs that cover most of those instruments, and if you disable to software effects you have a lot of raw sounds there. Roland also has VST versions of the D-50 and JV-1080, both of which are excellent (I own the D-50 one and love it). Finally, there are various limited freeware emulations of synths from that time period, including one of the Kawai K3.
@@SisterRose - A current fave of mine is Audio Damage's _Phosphor,_ an emulation/extension of the old Apple ][ AlphaSyntauri synth workstation (that was my unattainable dream machine in the early 80s). Lo-fi in the good ways, very inspiring and easy to make great sounds.
Also - the reason for the minimalist "black surfboard" look of synths in the 80s came from a memo that was leaked out of SCI in the early 80s. They did a scan of all their repairs and returns and found that, regardless of how long someone owned a Prophet 5, 85% of their users NEVER CHANGED THE PRESETS. EVER. So, why make a synth with all these knobs that are a QA testing nightmare, when you can just make a box full of sounds for folks. don't even bother with a filter. East Coast synthesis wasn't interested in sound design. they just wanted funny buzzy noises for keyboard players to go buzz buzz with. The reign of the DCO unisoned Sawtooth began and Bleep Bloop died for a few decades. But seriously - it came out of that memo from SCI which quickly circulated through the industry. Other companies did the same research, and yup - no one was doing sound design, so all these expensive knobs were pointless. Enter: The Black Surfboard.
now I know why my SCI MAX has 6 voice multitimbral capability but literally no physical way to manipulate the 30+ parameters accessible via midi and is totally amnesiac
I attended an Ensoniq workshop at a local music store in the mid 1980s, and was asked the question “Do you want more, good, usable presets, or deep onboard editing capability?” The overwhelming answer from the attendees was “more presets”.
It actually make sense. When I am using synths with presets I usually do only some minor tweaking of sound. Also only about 20% of presets are rewritten on my machines. :-D
This videos are becoming more like videogames for the action and concentration required to see them. It takes me 30 minutes to watch each video stopping at every meme to read it, some last like 1 microsecond and it's difficult to catch them, meanwhile I also have to keep in mind the narration to not lose the plot of the video. I'm going crazy
OMG... I was literally _JUST_ watching this video and a friend of mine sent me a photo of a K1 he had _JUST_ bought locally... for only $50, everything working. (Hadn't realized he was even looking!!!) I've had mine since '88 and sorry, but I love it still.
I somehow ended up buying this off craigslist some 15 years ago as my first synth knowing absolutely nothing about it and it's continually grown on me as my favorite sound. I love how raw it is . it lends itself perfectly to shaping or smoothing the sound further with external effects.
I have the original, bought it shortly after it's initial release. It is still one of my favorites synths in my small collection. I've also put together a large sound library for it. The synth is capable of so much more. The review is good but it can definitely sound better, much better.
My first synth was a K1 II as well (got it 23 years ago - sold it sometime after 2007). With my precious Atari ST running Notator/Creator it taught me the basics of MIDI. Once I got hold of the sounds of all ROM-Cards online, I was in heaven! I think I even had an editor/librarian software for the ST. Have been playing with the VST/AU version now, that sure does takes me back in time. Great episode, Florian! Keep up the good work!
This was my first synth purchase ever and I don't regret it at all. You made it sound so nice with the end jam and I can't wait until I'm good enough to do the same!
her: i love this type of music, what genre is it called? me: *what if 90s Coolio was hanging out with 80s techno nerds in a 70s soviet time machine creating zero years crunk-core for a hyper-pop trap future*
The 8-Bit short samples of this instrument gave me Amiga vibes, your 3rd jam nailed those Amiga vibes. In fact, I had to bite myself to realize we're in 2021, looked around and realized hm...I might not be the best example as my house is filled with 80's memorabilia. I also realized that sometimes it's a good thing to let the past be in the past and leave those as good memories and just that, memories.
I haven’t met a Kawai synth I haven’t liked. My uncle had one of these and I spent a summer at my aunt and his place messing with it. He knew I was diving deep and told me to just not lose a few presets he used for band and church performance. I totally changed every other patch in there into some fun stuff. He really appreciated that synth a lot more after that.
I have the European K1r and that came with the Orchestra sound. However I tried finding the original sound bank sys exc file that mine came with, and it took me YEARS before I stumbled across it. Most out there are like the one on the Kawai website, which I guess is a USA or international version.
One of my go to synths for 90's industrial techno. Very easy to sequence multi timbral parts, intuitive menu and controls. Loved the bow scrape on violin. And it was $$$ cheap.I'd pair with my SQ80.
I used one in the 80s. The reason? It was small, it was light, it had a reasonable 61 key keyboard with aftertouch and the requisite controllers. IIRC, I wished the joystick cpuld spit out MIDI (maybe it was just my second hand model?) and I had a couple of keyless modules (D-550, and something Korg IIRC) that I often left at home. I kept using the K1ii as my master gigging keyboard into the 90s when I bought a Proteus and some other stuff I’d MIDI up sometimes. Back in those days, you’d be lucky to be able to tell the difference between a Jupiter and a Casio live (I exaggerate) so the K1’s grainy, sometimes noisy sound was fine for most stuff if you were playing with a typical band of drums, bass, guitar(s) and vox. The K1 was a great working keyboard for the smaller gigs that made up most of my musician work in those days. If it was a bigger gig, say supporting a big international act, I’d drag out my JX-8P, maybe my Esq-1, Mirage module and the D-550 plus the Korg thing I can’t seem to remember the name of. Maybe I’m confusing it with a Korg rack delay? Anyway. Of all those synths I mentioned, the one I still have is the darn K1! In a shed somewhere. All the others were sold, stolen or destroyed in a flood.
The K1-II was my first proper synth (after many mini-key home keyboards). I quite regret selling it- I have very fond memories of playing and programming it. I don't think it was that difficult to program (but then I always shout about the Blofeld being much easier to program than many think)- and the parameter layout is far less arcane than Roland's D-50. Some of those grungy sounds can be great in the right circumstances. I remember it being sold as the most realistic sax sound at the time (you could use the aftertouch to get a bit of grit into the sound using the ring mod feature). I had a Sound Source sound card for it too- one of the sounds "Belfullness" has been reproduced on many of my synths, from digital to my Prophet'08. Some of the features were lacking- the midi messages were about quarter resolution - so the pitch/mod wheel and aftertouch jumps 4 steps at a time.
YOU FINALLY DID IT! I own this exact model, and it's wonderful! The best part is with a basic sysex program and the Nils VST as a quick editor/librarian, you can totally overhaul the patch banks into all kinds of wild sounds. The MIDI implementation is really good, and I believe that Kawai even made a programmer device for it, so it accepts advanced sysex/CC stuff.... The the synth is especially great for pads, that's definitely the strong point.
So often in those little review quotes you put up on screen we see people complaining that the sounds of a given instrument are "outdated" or "cheesy." I've been in the synth game long enough (since '95) to know that all you have to do is wait a few years and those "outdated" and "cheesy" sounds will be sought after and considered cool again. 😄 👍
When the K-1 first came out, I was very impressed by it. It sounded so much richer than the FM and analog synths that were around then. And it was cheap: half the price of a D-50. Nowadays the features of the K-1 are very limited, but some sounds like the choirs and strings still sound very nice.
I'd actually argue that back then the K1 line was less impressive than the competition, because it had less of the highly desirable realistic samples and went into glitchy territory. Nowadays with Gigabyte-heavy VST libraries being the norm, that same competition has become less interesting. K1 & Co. are now more intriguing since they are different.
@@LeadingMotive What were the alternatives in 1987? It was analog, FM, the D-50 and synths with more primitive PCM waves, like the Ensoniqs. There were of course samplers and the Kurzweils, but they were out of reach for most people.
@@doordedeur The original K1 seems to be from 1988, that's about when I got my Roland U-110, a kind-of-affordable ROMpler. The U-220 came shortly after. Also the Korg M1 came out at that time. Edit: How could I forget - the E-mu Proteus 1 was released around 1989 too.
@@LeadingMotive I forgot about the Proteus and U-110. But I consider them as different beasts as the K-1. The korg M-1 was way more expensive than the K-1. Still, with effects applied, you can get M-1 like sounds out of a K-1. Especially the choirs and the organs.
I miss my K1m. Really impressed to see what you brought out the K1 II -- but them i'm always impressed by how nicely you frame gear's various timbres within your demos.
One of the funniest adverts I saw for a synth was in a music tec magazine back on the day. I think it might have been a Soho sound house advert. It read: 'Kawai, you've tried the jelly, now try the synth...'
The reason that this might remind you of the Super Nintendo is that the earlier version, K1 was actually the source of many Super Mario World samples. Koji Kondo had a K1r among his collection at the time. Check out the Ars Technica article "Super High-Fidelity Mario..." for some high-bitrate recreations of some SNES music people have been making.
Thank you for covering the dear old K1! It's one of the few rompler synths to have any character, and programming your own patches is easy to get your head around. And the versatility of the keyboard makes it a pretty good MIDI controller, too. People who moan about it not having a filter are missing the point, and can go stick their heads up a K4!
I've spent some fun sessions with the free K1 VST called Nil's K1v this week, and suddenly Bad Gear hits me with this banger. The K1 is a nice piece of gear, sound-wise :D
This video is under 9.5 mins but I swear it takes me 14-15 mins to watch as the memes/synth jokes are worth it. My hands are hovering over the left/right cursor keys & spacebar. 😂
Sounds were so awkward until the last jam . You killed it . Another record breaking genre title , and gold medal in menu diving 🥇🏆. I got nostalgic when I heard that jam (for what I haven't a clue) excellent composition , and video !
“What if 90s Coolio was hanging out with 80s techno nerds in a 70s Soviet time machine creating zero years crunkcore for a hyperpop-trap future?” The ravings of a madman or a Bad Gear jam? You make the call!
Well said. Went for the modular system and never looked back. We used the Kawai K1m as a doorstop because we tried hard but could not get it to fit our liking. Nice to see you do your thing with it and sort of succeed in your perseverance.
Ah, my first synth! Bought one used in 1994. For a teen like myself with no prior synth experience to speak of, it was fun to learn and mess around with, and a few of its sounds made it into some of my early tracker music. I mostly ended up just using it as a controller keyboard, though - a purpose it served for nearly two decades!
"VCR player" (shows XBox) - savage! "Bland musical motives" (shows David Guetta) - even more savage! Now I know why it always takes me at least half an hour to watch (*checks*) 9:26 videos like this one...
K1 was a very good alternative to D110 when it appeared on the low cost synths market. It was one of the first to provide " Dynamic Polyphony ", allowing some fixed or floating number of notes to different channels. It was interesting to mix it's sound with analog synths, and some pcm waves had some character. Not such a bad thing for late 80s pop :)
I had them both in the late 80s, I found the D110 far more flexible but still liked the K1 for the pads. Sold/swapped them in the 90s but bought again several yrs ago.
@@maccagrabme I worked demonstrating the K1 for Hohner, in Paris (Salon de la Musique ) I did use this synth a couple of years, but i didn't miss it a lot :) It was really cheap, but good . K4 never succeeded in taking a good place in the market . I really loved K3M and K5, wich were very interesting synths.
I haven't bothered looking through comments for it this time. Fun fact: the VM synth waveforms were created on the beloved K5 (the K5 was runner up with the DX7 MK II to the Roland D50 in Sound on Sound's best of awards '88 DON'T PUT IT ON YOUR LIST without consulting Jarre or Jan Hammer: "I shut off the TV monitor, stop thinking about the show [Miami Vice >50% K5] and just go fool around with anything - it might be playing with the Fairlight Series III or trying to create a new sound on the Kawai K5"
yes the K5 was heavily used by Jan Hammer on the season 2 to 4 of Miami Vice. . he used also the K3 on some episodes and one of the preset of the k1 seems to have been sampled in Jan’ s studio cause it s so close to one sound of crockett theme!
Finally!!! I have been waiting for - a what if 90's coolio was hanging out with 80s techno nerds in a 70s soviet time machine creating zero years crunkcore for a hyperpop trap future - jam on this channel! That's def in my top 1,345 electronic music genres! Maybe my top 962!
The LFO preset was 'Arrangement' Do I win a prize? This synth worked fine in my early 90's indie band, wouldn't recommend for electronic music, though it seems to have its fans. Nice use of Stalker in the end song!
Damn i knew someone was earlier. Bought a K1m back in 2015 and played around with this preset for the first days. Sold it this year because of the plugin and i rarely used it thanks to better gear i own now, but i always keep it in my heart.
@@squishmusic Actually, some of the pads are quite nice and useable, but the lack of a filter makes it pretty limited for anything else. I remember EMF hammering one on TOTP, but I don't know if it's actually on their recordings.
Bought one of these instead of a midi keyboard a few years ago because the keybed was better than the M-Audio next to it, and now it's a staple texture in my studio!! Love this little synth ❤
@@AudioPilz Even more obscure is Cheetah's MQ8 sequencer, which was years ahead of its time for performance features - on-the-fly key changing on selected tracks, anyone? Only snag is the manual, which you need a magnifying glass to read!
My friends' industrial project was a K1, a K4 and an SR-16 sequenced with Cakewalk and mixed through a Mackie onto minidisc. Peak 90s? Anyways the Kawais were great for sounding like a low budget Nitzer Ebb.
I love seeing these older, partly lesser known synths. Nice vid again! 😊 It's kinda sad that Kawai stopped developing synths. All of them have something "special" to them. I'm especially interested in the Kawai K5000 as it is one the few hardware synths that use additive synthesis. I only know of the Synclavier and the Waldorf Wave, which offered additive synthesis in some way as well. Can't imagine what Kawai would've come up with by now, if they'd still be in the synth market. ^^
I have a K5000w from the 90s, and my first synth in the 80s was a K5. The K5000 is actually a great sounding synth, although pretty neigh impossible to program the additive engine from the panel. The workstation version I have doesn't have some of the panel controls the standard has, but I remember loving the sequencer and the extra PCM samples. Nowadays I hang onto it because of sentimental reasons, but occasionally the additive engine makes it into a mix.
@@hallucigenia it's easier with an editor for sure -- i like ru-vid.com/show-UCdurwMU6dD80Do6KJ14WLKQ videos like ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lEKb7MGvCqI.html
I am sincerely hoping for a new additive hardware synth. Additive doesn't need to be hard to program, I am confident that with a clever UI design, a modern and actually programmable additive synth could be made. I know that this kind of synthesis really shines when the levels of the individual harmonics are dynamically modulated and I am also fully aware of the fact that setting up modulations for 32 or 64 harmonics would be a Sisyphos Job. However, this is not necessarily required, as dynamic additive sounds could be easily achieved via intelligently made macros or via pairing additive with wave table synthesis. Think of the Hydrasynth, where you can create your own wavetables per patch via selecting your waveforms of choice. Imagine a synth where you'd have a wavetable with 4 or 8 waveform slots and instead of picking static waveforms, you'd instead create additive waveforms with 32 or 64 harmonics inside of each slot and then morph between these slots in the typical wavetable style. This would be a perfect modern additive/wavetable synth in my opinion. This would also make the need of using software editors for wavetable creation obsolete, as you could now make any imaginable wavetable directly on the hardware. I was honestly disappointed when the Waldorf Quantum / Iridium was introduced and while being a true synth powerhouse with several synthesis types, they've missed that opportunity. I really hate it when there are synths being so close to perfection and then just missing out on the last steps.
Coincidentally, there was a Kawai K-1II for sale this week for $100, but I didn’t buy it because I bought a Kawai K1 this summer, also for $100. I also own a K3 and a K5. Kawai, the unsung heroes of musical equipment.
The k3 was my first synth when I knew nothing about synths. It was simply the only thing that fit my budget. It had a good sound with the analogue filter but the single knob that had limited steps made it somewhat difficult to use it for dynamic performance
Thanks for pointing me in the direction of that K1 vst... I've had K1 and K1m and really liked them paired to my beloved Kawai q80ex sequencer. Right now my current setup includes a Kawai kc10 Spectra for those lovely gritty, cheesy tones
@@AudioPilz It's a very stripped down to basics k1. Just two romples per patch, just two patches per multi. Super light in every possible way. you can put a strap and play keytar style if you dare...
K1 II was my first synth when i was like 14YO, could not afford a Korg M1 so this was the alternative but it was so cool, I had it hooked up to an Amiga via midi running Music-X and the 8 voice multitimbral nature of the synth made it perfect for midi sequencing. You can get much better sounds then the stock patches and I would find and store patches via SysEx and mess with them on my computer which was easier than via the controls. Yes limited in many ways but for a 14 yo in the 90s it was just magic. I still have it setup next to me right now 30 years later but this time just as a midi controller for triggering sounds from my DAW of choice FLstudio..
The K1's joystick really is *not* similar to the SY-22. SY-22 patches store the *trajectory* of your joystick movement. This programmable trajectory envelope is what makes the SY-22 a real vector synthesizer, like the TG-33, SY-35, Wavestation series, and Prophet VS. The K1 is not: its joystick is just a real-time performance gadget. The K1's secret weapon is its ringmod, which is still used to this day by lofi producers to make all sorts of weirdness.
agreed. However the Joystick on the K1 can be used as a data value contoller, something the SY/TG didnt implement but should have! (TG33 did have a data knob thankfully) :D
Sadly the K1 stick does NOT output MIDI data as the Sy35/TG33, but it still useful to inject life to pads, great for dnb or ambient, really great for subtle movements and so on
I managed to pick up a K1R (rack version) for £40 by pure chance when I went out on my lunch break about five years ago. Best £40 I've ever spent and I still have and love it.
For those who like the Kawai K1 (original model), there is a perfect vst re-creation for free on "plugins 4 free" (as mentionned is the video). It sadly doesn't have midi learn. I don't know of any other vst re-creation of a vectorial wavetable synth that is free (there is from Korg the vst of the M1 and wavestation, but they arn't cheap). Anyway, as always, a nice and fun Bad Gear episode. note : my first comment that said about the same was deleted by youtube. The allmighty algorythm can by a pain in the behind, its not like my message was promoting violence or had bad language or anything.... maybe is the mention of "plugins 4 free" that automatically deletes my message ?
Been waiting for this one! Goes nicely with analogs. I had the k1rII for a long time, sold it, then someone gave me the keyboard one. It was meant to be I guess. I like it. It's so bright.
' given the limited polyphony of sixteen voices ' ,... Okay, yes there's that. I'm pretty sure only professionals or die hard, OCD gear nerds are going to care that much 🤣😂. I love that you have a sense of humor about your reviews. Flashing a screenshot of Danny Trejo is priceless 😂🤣
Who needs a filter on the K1 - its not aimed for analogue-type of sounds, it really shines when the ringmod comes in underlining its digital character - so its a different perspective - a move away from the filter-centric dogma - and its truly refreshing - still, after all the years
Man, the crunkcore banger was my favourite so far amongst all others you've produced. Moody trance dark wave sh*t coupled with suspenseful agitating imagery I could listen and watch for hours. Pretty damn well executed.
2:13: take that, muffle it, and you've got 40% of the Amiga MOD basslines ever written. Seriously though: much as I love the C64's SID, it _shouldn't_ have ages better than the Amiga's Paula. And yet! Thank you, Bob Yannes, you god amongst synth designers!
oddly i love my K1ii,, its my goto synth mainly because some of the buttons on my M1 need fixing.. I love the bonkers way new patches can be made from the existing PCMs... Also it works really well when I sequence using my amiga via midi. Also the reason i got mine was firstly its cheap and because of the bomkers patch 'arrangement' used on lfo lfo.
I do feel like the lack of filter on these did definitely harm them as there's a reason why the D50 was so dominant even with it's somewhat unusual and simple digital filter(that's actually responsible for a surprising amount of iconic "filter sweep" sounds)
It was much more expensive to implement a DSP filter in 1988/89, that's why only the higher end digital synths like the D50 had filters in the late '80s.
@@twiff3rino28 I might be wrong on this but as far as I know the D50 doesn't have a DSP filter - it's actually a phase distortion synth (that's why closing the filter all the way down gives you a sine wave).
True story: I implemented a synth engine on a device with only one button, and all the editing happened onboard! (I made firmware for a lightsaber, and the blade colors are generated by a simple synth engine where the oscillators oscillate through a 2D colorspace, and there's only one button on the hilt, so ... had to cram an awful lot of controls into just one button)
I just picked up a Roland SH-32, but not before quickly plugging it into RU-vid to see if you had covered it before. Turns out you haven't, and this thing is definitely Bad Gear worthy material.
The joystick was pretty cool, even more at those times when it came out. but if I remember correctly, it wasn't possible to record the joystick data as controller data (i don't know if it was possible with K1 II, i had the K1), which was sometimes annoying because you had to sample it right away. Nevertheless, the result of the crossfade effects were more than impressive in the price range at the time. You could edit that with an external effect like reverb echo chorus and you got super spacy spherical sounds that blew you away.
