Kawai K3
If Volvo built synthesizers the K3 is what they would have made. Just like Volvo's cars, this synth is made of solid metal and would make a garbage truck flinch at the thought of colliding with it. The K3 even looks Volvoesque with the same boxyness and conservative blankness combined with blunt angles.
Oh and it's painted Volvo metallic grey too...
These synths are a primitive form of sample playback synthesis using waveforms apparently derived from additive synthesis. It can generate simplistic additive waves too. Sadly you can only have one of those additive generated waves per patch bank. There are 2 digital VCOs with 32 waves each. The outputs of the DVCOs can be crossfade mixed and this is modulatable with velocity and aftertouch. Too bad no modulating the waves though.
The rest of the signal path is analog with the very buttery and dark SSM2044 VCF. Besides velocity and aftertouch you get an LFO and 2 ADSR envelopes. Envelopes have a sluggish attack. The LFO has 6 wave types including 2 random but it has a rather small rate range.
LFO can modulate the VCF, VCA and VCO pitch. Envelopes are hard wired to the VCF and VCA. A real shame they cannot be applied to pitch...
Although there is an Autobend feature which can be applied usefully for bass and percussion sounds. Velocity can be sent to the VCA and VCF with Aftertouch routed to VCO balance, VCF, VCA and the depth of LFO into the VCO. The latter is handy since there is no mod wheel.
Usability, once again, Volvoish. Simple and functional. The spartan front panel is all membrane switches and a giant knob. One button per parameter and 3 sets of seven segment numeric readouts to indicate patch #, parameter and value. The knob does value - childsplay to program.
The sounds can range from DX7 type bells and glocks to horridly beautiful, atari game sounds, to super lush, fat pads. The overall sound is a bit dark. It's a nice contrast to my overly bright CZ-1.
I also got a few interesting Ultravox type lead sounds which are alot of fun to play with the aftertouch.
Bass sounds are insane when you set the synth to Mono. My favorites are the ones that are hollow digital in body but the VCF is set to make a earth shattering sub bass. One such patch that I created like this is by far one of the deepest and most dangerous basses I've ever heard. A real speaker-blower-upper that makes the entire house shake.
Just can't use these awesome bass tones for anything danceable thanks to the sluggish envelopes. Perfect for slow, lazy hip hop or ballads though. I used the K3 for bass in "Testimoney" and "Lessons In Trust" .
Overall, this synth is really rather classy. It is expressive to play and the keyboard action feels nice if a little heavy. You can get the best of both worlds - analog and digital. It does both very well.
Wavetables, Patches and Samples
A great K3 article by Ben Hauger
