[betawave31]

Hi,

Just p/u my first ever Kurzweil product a K2000 sample opt, orch rom and hard drive .Great sounds for its time esp the strgs and piano.

Ok. I want to use the K2000 as a multitimbral synth module and controller sort of like the XP50. So I can save my setups for gigs and not have to change patches.

I need some tips on how/if I can do this. I just want to use a few midi channels with sounds from the K2K and use my external sequencer to control the K2K.

If you have any ideas how to do this so I can save the setups for multi use I would GREATLY appreciate it as I plan to use this beast on my next release.

Please email me.

Thanks in advance.

[The Puppeteer]

Did you get the manuals with the synth?

If so, I suggest that you read the chapter on setups and the chapter on Quick Access Banks.

Basically a setup lets you assign patches to 3 different MIDI channels and control it from the keyboard in real time. The keyboard can be layered and/or split however you like (and with the use of keymaps in the program editor this is incredibly flexible).

The rest of the channels are then available for your external sequencer, though you can, of course also sequence the channels in the setup, if you desire.

The quick access banks allow you to change setups/programs with a single button press using the keypad. Each button will call up a program from a mini list that is a subset that you define from the existing programs and setups. Great for live use. Not much use for anything else.

Personally, I work mainly in Setup Mode when I gig, utilizing the arrangement editor from the Kurz's internal sequencer. I have the setup configured so that I can do an entire gig with just one setup, tho occasionally, I'll add a few others keeping ensuring that they all share the same studio (tho this is K2600 talk, so feel free to ignore it)

Blah, enough Rambling, hope this points you in the right direction.

[The Puppeteer]

I also just saw you post on the Kurzlist.

If you want to mute a channel go to

MIDI -> Chan and use the Chan/Bank Buttons to the left of the screen to scroll through the channels (displayed on the top line of the screen). Toggle Active (or whatever it's called) On or Off.

Also, you can select Silence as a keymap if you want to mute the sound but use the Kurz to trigger other synths. The K2600 can do a better job of this because of the more advanced controller options.

[betawave31]

Hi,

Thanks for the insight re: multi timbral use of my K2K.

Ok so I am now using it 3 part multi timbral. In fact I tried this last night and it did work but I have almost no control over efx settings for all three midi parts i.e. you change the efx mix on one channel of the setup and they all change PLUS I can only use three 3 midi channels/parts.

Q: Is there another way of using more midi channels and then saving the setup in the K2k?

Perhaps I want to use 5 midi channels with 5 dif programs. Can I do this? Or will I need to rig the internal song mode as a performanc esetup and just trigger the sounds via my ext seq.

I really appreciate the help. BTW I think the piano and strings sound better than the Triton LE which is really not much said for Korg.

Regards,

Greg

[The Puppeteer]

Unfortunately the K2000 only has a single FX buss, but you can route sounds to seperate outputs for treatment with External FX.

You can also emulate many of the effects using VAST, so all is not lost, though you'll probably chew up a few extra voices doing it this way.

There's no way to use more than 3 channels in the setup with the K2000. The K2500 and K2600 can use up to 8 channels.

You can however still access these channels if you have an external sequencer. All of the channels are always active, so sending note data on the desired channel of the K2000 will make that channel sound. If you set the K2000 to local+MIDI and reroute the MIDI output via the sequencer to the Kurzweil's MIDI input on a different channel you should be able to get an additional channel out for live use.

An easier way though is to get into the program editor and merge a couple of programs, by creating some extra layers, or by importing layers from other programs.

If you have the latest OS (V3.87) and the PRAM option, then each program on channels 1-8 can have up to 32 layers with the rest of the channels having 3 layers each (though bear in mind that you can only have a maximum of 24 layers sounding on the synth at once.)

Each of the layers imported into a program can have it's own keysplits and can be layered the same as in setup mode.

The setup mode is just a more convenient way to do this, and has the advantage that you can control sounds on 3 channels. On the K2600 setup mode is a whole new beast, but we'll leave that for another day.

The output assignment (ie the use of internal FX) can also be controlled in the program editor. Press Edit -> More>>> -> More>>> -> Output and then change the OutPair parameter to B(Dry).

The sound will now come out of the B Outputs or will be routed as a dry signal to the Mix out's, if you have nothing plugged into the B outputs.

The A and B outputs are actually channel inserts and you can insert an external FX module on the inserts before recombining it at the Mix output.

Note that the A Outputs are PRE internal FX, so you can put an external signal through the Digitech FX unit if you so desire.

Also, another thing that you might want to look at is the Master Table. You can save this to disk, and it will save all of your current channel assignments. It might be a quick way for you to change all of the channel assignments on the synth. All 16 channels (though be careful, because ALL settings are saved in this table)

The song mode will do the trick, but it's a bit of a messy way to do it. The song mode is pretty powerful though. The arrangement mode can be used like a phrase sequencer, and it can also send MIDI data out to other sound modules, if you desire. Using it to just do program changes is possible, but the Master Tables are a neater way to do this if you are careful.

Hope this helps some.

[The Puppeteer]

Also, if you didn't get a copy of the manuals, you can download them from http://www.kurzweilmusicsystems.com

[betawave31]

Hey,

Thanks again for all the usefull information.

I guess for now Ill just have to use the K2K with three midi channels although I think it was STUPID in their design to not incorporate a Multitimbral or Performance mode which the Korg M1 had many years prior.

I will download the manual from that site as well.

Its very cool to see thesuch support for the instrument. There is no way of converting my K2k to a K2500 aside from buying another syth is there?

Regards,

Greg

[The Puppeteer]

The K2000 is ALWAYS in multitimbral mode.

You can ALWAYS access all 16 MIDI channels at the same time via MIDI.

Setup mode is just a little tool to allow you to output the physical keyboard to 3 of those channels simultaneously.

Setup mode was actually designed as kind of a controller keyboard mode allowing you to control the K2000 and/or other modules in your studio.

And no way short of some pretty serious electonic engineering hacking of upgrading a K2000 to a K2500.

What does the M1 Performance Mode do that the K2000 won't. Please let me know, because I'm sure there's a way around it.

The K2000 is a different way of working than most other synths. It takes a little getting used to, but once you work it out, you are forever wanting your other synths to work the same way.

[The Puppeteer]

OK - This was getting to me, so I went and found a M1 manual.

The Kurzweil can do EVERYTHING that the M1 combi modes can do.

Layers can be done in Program mode, up to 32 layers, and if you need more, then use setup mode to layer 3 of these to give you 96 layers all triggerable from a single keypress (though you will run out of voices well before you get here).

Splits can be done in program mode. In fact if you use the keymap editor you can split a different sound for every key if you wish, with up to 8 velocity levels on each key. Again, the setup mode can extend this and do splits as well with up to 3 of these programs.

This also covers velocity splits, though there's lots of other cool stuff you can do with velocity crossfading using program mode and different layers. Velocity can be used to control any thing that you want basically, from triggering a sequence, enabling sounds, modulating envelopes, LFO's, ASR's FUN's, Filters, FX or just about anything else you can think of.

Multi's can also be done in setup mode for up to 3 channels, or by loading a master table, you can load up all 16 sounds plus all of the other synth settings in one go, if you really want to.

The is 8 part multitimbral, whereas the K2000 is 16 part multitimbral, though this is somewhat misleading, because 1 part of multitimbality in the K2000 can actually accomodate an awful lot of sounds.

The M1 must be in a special mode (Multi) to act in a multitimbral sense, whereas the K2000 is always ready for duty on all 16 channels.

Basically the easiest way to get a M1 multi on the K2000 is to use program mode, if you want all of the programs to respond to the same MIDI channel (you can use the Import Layer function to do this really really easily), or use the Chan/Bank buttons to put the programs on different MIDI channels.

Hope this gives you some comfort that you purchase was not wasted.

Cheers