This synthesizer has been used few times during the last 31 years and has been always handled with love and care. Thanks to its vintage custom-made wood case, this rare synth actually looks and feel brand-new. I’ve tested it extensively and it just works perfectly.
The backup battery has been replaced and the synth comes with the original (boxed) memory cartridge. This contains 50 additional patch presets / 50 additional user memory locations. If you want to save some money, the beautiful vintage wood case can be excluded. Feel free to contact me for any question.
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SYNTH The Kawai K3 is for sure one of the most underrated (and unknown) vintage synthesizers ever. Released during the mid ‘80s (the age of PPG Wave - Prophet VS - CZ Series - Juno 106..) the K3 is a professional hybrid synthesizer, a mix of digital oscillators, additive/subtractive synthesis and analog filters. It's a six-voices synth implementing two digital oscillators, one SSM 2044 analog filters per voice and one VCA per voice. Each oscillator consists of 32 factory waveforms + one user waveform programmable via additive synthesis.
SOUND Despite the digital oscillators, the K3 sounds very warm, lush and bright also on very high notes. This metal-solid synth has its own distinctive character but the sound resulting from the stored waveform, the filter and the smooth envelope generators can be compared to the PPG Wave (absolutely not to the Korg DW8000). And although the Kawai K3 is not a wavetable synth like the PPG Wave, it can sound very organic and evolving thanks to the aftertouch controlled oscillator balance. A list of its performance features :
- Velocity >> VCF
- Velocity >> VCA
- Aftertouch >> VCF
- Aftertouch >> VCA
- Aftertouch >> OSC Balance
- Aftertouch >> LFO-OSC
- Keytrack >> VCF (+/-)
- Keytrack >> VCA (+/-)
- LFO >> VCF
- LFO >> VCA
- LFO >> VCO
- Mono (12 stacked oscillators)
- Auto Bend (note glide)
USABILITY Following the trend of the ‘80s the K3 implements a flat-panel membrane buttons + single data-wheel interface. But differently from other synths, with the K3 you can directly access each parameter and each stored patch using a dedicated membrane button. In fact this synth is plenty of well organized buttons and the patch editing, such as the patches selection, is a piece of cake.
Specifications :
- Polyphony : 6 voices
- Oscillators : 31 digital waveforms + Noise + 1 programmable wave
- Filter : SSM 2044 resonant LP + HPF (low cut)
- Filter Envelope : ADSR + Amount (positive / negative)
- VCA : ADSR
- Effects : Analog Chorus (Chorus 1/2/3 - Tremolo - Chorus 4/5 - Delay)
- LFO : Tri, Saw, Reverse Saw, Squ, Inverted Squ, Rand, Chromatic Rand
- Memory : 50 patches + 50 patches (cartridge)
- Control : MIDI
