a plugin version of Kawai K1 now has linux version

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glowrak guy
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a plugin version of Kawai K1 now has linux version

Post by glowrak guy »

It works and sounds fine, but Ubuntu/deb users will need to install

libxcb-cursor0

:oops: EDIT: I dumbly used sudo dpkg -i
to install this, assuming there were no dependencies

Using sudo apt install name-of.deb

...will install both the plugin and libxcb-cursor0

:oops:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The plugin installs to

/usr/local/lib/lxvst ...so you may want/need to move it.

The announcement and download links are halfway down the page:

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopi ... &start=255

The dev's page has a lot for synth techies to ponder:

https://www.nilsschneider.de/wp/kawai-k1-vsti/

I will say this fills some little gaps in the current linux vst collection.
It has import functions, and there is a link to some sound-module presets

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Re: a plugin version of Kawai K1 now has linux version

Post by gauderbock »

Really looking forward to trying this.
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Re: a plugin version of Kawai K1 now has linux version

Post by tavasti »

wikipedia: The Kawai K1 is a 61 key synthesizer manufactured in 1988 by Kawai. It is an entry-level and low fidelity synthesizer

Looks like I don't need to try this one :-)

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Re: a plugin version of Kawai K1 now has linux version

Post by gauderbock »

Lo-fi is its charm 8)
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Re: a plugin version of Kawai K1 now has linux version

Post by tavasti »

I am implementing that lo-fi in music, not in instruments!

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Re: a plugin version of Kawai K1 now has linux version

Post by lykwydchykyn »

My first "real" synth was a Kawai K4, which is basically the K1 but with resonant filters and an effects processor. It's been on extended loan to a friend for about 10 years, so this plugin brought back some memories. It made me not as anxious to get my K4 back, for one thing :).

For what it's trying to do, this is a good plugin.
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Re: a plugin version of Kawai K1 now has linux version

Post by glowrak guy »

tavasti wrote: Tue Jul 28, 2020 8:11 am wikipedia: The Kawai K1 is a 61 key synthesizer manufactured in 1988 by Kawai. It is an entry-level and low fidelity synthesizer

Looks like I don't need to try this one :-)
I suggest you give it a thorough hearing, you can run through the presets in a few minutes,
and almost everyone who does, is very positive about placing the sounds in music,
and using the nice and scalable gui.

Like the Roland JV 1080, there are four buttons to help the player de-construct sounds,
which I found useful when testing sounds the dev dumped from a compatible hardware sound module.
(I realize hit songs went extinct in late 1987 :wink: )
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Re: a plugin version of Kawai K1 now has linux version

Post by WforWoollyMammoth »

It's very good for what it is. I guess something like this was missing from Linux. Despite the "late-80s" association, I think the sound should work well with contemporary music too.

However, I think it really isn't much more than just a sample player. The samples can be stacked (four of them), the ADSR curves can be edited and modulated a bit. I wish you could import samples yourself, so it'd work as a no-nonsense player for your own samples too.

I've had some GUI issues on Bitwig: After resizing the window, it can't be closed from the "close" button. I have to minimize it from the taskbar and then re-open the window from Bitwig's effects pane again. The menus for the waveforms are also really tiny. Like, they're scaled for the window being maximized full-screen, but on the default size it's hard to read the text.

No big deal, really, but the Linux version seems a bit unfinished (it also shows up named as "a library" in the effects dialog in Bitwig). I'm using LXDE / Openbox with the NVIDIA proprietary driver myself.
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Re: a plugin version of Kawai K1 now has linux version

Post by logicgate »

Has anyone tried Edit mode? On my system, the characters in every drop-down list box are extremely small (and unreadable). Here's an example image:

https://ibb.co/sR3s1dx

Is this happening to anyone else?
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Re: a plugin version of Kawai K1 now has linux version

Post by glowrak guy »

The dev has several confirmations of this, and is working on such fixes, suggested improvements,
and his own wishlist. Looks to be a solid projects. Details @

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopi ... &start=255
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Re: a plugin version of Kawai K1 now has linux version

Post by logicgate »

glowrak guy wrote: Mon Aug 03, 2020 1:37 am The dev has several confirmations of this, and is working on such fixes, suggested improvements,
and his own wishlist. Looks to be a solid projects. Details @

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopi ... &start=255
Thanks. I'll wait for a fix. :)
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Re: a plugin version of Kawai K1 now has linux version

Post by lykwydchykyn »

WforWoollyMammoth wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 10:51 am However, I think it really isn't much more than just a sample player. The samples can be stacked (four of them), the ADSR curves can be edited and modulated a bit. I wish you could import samples yourself, so it'd work as a no-nonsense player for your own samples too.
The K1 (and K4 after it) hail from a time when sample ROM was very expensive, so synth makers were trying to find ways to create realistic sample-based sounds with minimal ROM usage. What these synths do is similar to what the Roland D-series does (in fact, I tend to think of the K-series as a less well-implemented Roland D-series) in that they have attack transient samples and sustained waveform samples, and you could layer them to reproduce something like the actual sound. So instead of a single "piano sample", you have a piano transient and a piano sustain, which you would mix together with envelopes and filtering to try to reproduce a piano sound.

Of course, this opened up some interesting (for the day) possibilities for non-realistic sounds as well, like layering a guitar transient with a flute waveform. This is where you get a lot of those layered sample patches you heard a lot in the late 80s / early 90s.

I remember buying my K4 in 1990 and agonizing over whether to buy it, the Yamaha Sy-22, or the Roland D-5. The K4 won out because it had resonant filters and I wanted to do that "Tom Sawyer" synth sound. That was probably a mistake because the resonant filter was pretty "eh" and the wavetables were not so great on the kawai. Only 64 patch slots too; can you imagine that these days?
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Re: a plugin version of Kawai K1 now has linux version

Post by gauderbock »

I tend to think of the K-series as a less well-implemented Roland D-series
Heh, as a proud D10 owner back in the day I looked down on the K1 a bit :roll:

I really like this plugin though, to me the sounds fit warmly in a mix.
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Re: a plugin version of Kawai K1 now has linux version

Post by WforWoollyMammoth »

lykwydchykyn wrote: Fri Aug 07, 2020 8:13 pm
WforWoollyMammoth wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 10:51 am However, I think it really isn't much more than just a sample player. The samples can be stacked (four of them), the ADSR curves can be edited and modulated a bit. I wish you could import samples yourself, so it'd work as a no-nonsense player for your own samples too.
The K1 (and K4 after it) hail from a time when sample ROM was very expensive, so synth makers were trying to find ways to create realistic sample-based sounds with minimal ROM usage. What these synths do is similar to what the Roland D-series does (in fact, I tend to think of the K-series as a less well-implemented Roland D-series) in that they have attack transient samples and sustained waveform samples, and you could layer them to reproduce something like the actual sound. So instead of a single "piano sample", you have a piano transient and a piano sustain, which you would mix together with envelopes and filtering to try to reproduce a piano sound.

Of course, this opened up some interesting (for the day) possibilities for non-realistic sounds as well, like layering a guitar transient with a flute waveform. This is where you get a lot of those layered sample patches you heard a lot in the late 80s / early 90s.

I remember buying my K4 in 1990 and agonizing over whether to buy it, the Yamaha Sy-22, or the Roland D-5. The K4 won out because it had resonant filters and I wanted to do that "Tom Sawyer" synth sound. That was probably a mistake because the resonant filter was pretty "eh" and the wavetables were not so great on the kawai. Only 64 patch slots too; can you imagine that these days?
I know about the D50. I've never owned either a real D50 or a K1, but I think they're quite different on operating principles. The D50 still had synthesis going on and relied on it heavily.

I went through dozens of presets on the K1v and didn't think they differed in any real way from the way patches on romplers from the same era were constructed. 2-4 layered sounds, ADSR at different velocities introducing variation and a few odd sample choices to make things sound richer (like a harmonica sample thrown in the mix for an entire different instrument patch).

If you take a look at the available waveforms (the list is currently displayed with a tiny font, unfortunately), there are only a few sampled "attacks" available. The rest are just standard sampled sounds from the time period. For that matter, a rather small percentage of the presets seem to actually use the sampled attacks. For example, the trumpet and clarinet patches simply rely on the ADSR.

Sorry for being argumentative :wink:
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Re: a plugin version of Kawai K1 now has linux version

Post by lykwydchykyn »

Well, to be fair, I did say it was a worse implementation of a D-50. Same idea, just not as well executed.

I may also be confusing it some with the SY-22's "Vector Synthesis", which was really just a fancy 4-way crossfade between sampled waveforms. The thing is, all this stuff seem pretty pedestrian now, but for those of us who couldn't afford an M1 (never mind an EMU) back in the day...
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