Xref: utzoo rec.music.synth:9362 comp.sys.amiga:41311 Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!bellcore!att!cbnews!ddn From: ddn@cbnews.ATT.COM (David D. Nason) Newsgroups: rec.music.synth,comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: K1,D5 and a little bit of confusion. Message-ID: <10031@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 9 Oct 89 13:14:09 GMT References: <382@galadriel.bt.co.uk> Reply-To: ddn@cbnews.ATT.COM (David D. Nason,55211,cb,0B217,6148607812) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 65 In article <382@galadriel.bt.co.uk> stevep@galadriel.bt.co.uk (Steve Paine) writes: >Hi there. > I know youve argued about the Roland D5 and Kawai K1 before but I need a little help from my friendly net users. (grovel off!) > > Basically I have a few questions. > >1) Does multitimbral mean I can play (with an 8 voice multitimbaral machine) the full range of 8 voices with 16 note polyphony at the same time? My first >thought is that i'm going to have to sacrifice some of the polyphony to get more voices. Is this the case? The answer isn't real straight-forward (at least it wasn't to me). On the D5, you have "32 note polyphony", meaning that you can play 32 of the D5's "partials" simultaneously. "Partials" are the basic unit of sound on the D5 and they are combined to make up timbres/patches/voices/etc. Typically, the D5 "voices" are comprised of 1-4 partials. You can indeed assign 8 different voices to the 8 timbres in multi-timbral mode and play them simultaneously, but the real limit that I've run in to is the 32 partials. For example, you might have a rich piano sound which takes up 4 partials per note - there might be 5 note chords or whatever and thus there are 5*4=20 of your 32 partials. A friend of mine who has a K1 says he's run into the same thing (although the terms used by the different manufacturers are different so be careful when comparing). > >2) With regard to the D5's percussion section, does it count as one voice. >i.e can I play seven other voices along with all the percussion sounds. >(I think I'm getting more confused by the minute here!) The rhythm section is a separate timbre from the other 8. In other words, you can play all of the rhythm sounds on the rhythm timbre and still have the other 8 timbres for whatever you want (still keeping in mind the 32 partial limit). > >3) Wait for it... which would be the best machine to buy taking the following into consideration: > a) It would be a first 'real' keyboard for me. (Casio had a fair > amount of trade from me a few years ago!) > b) The technicalities of programming voices should'nt prove a problem > as I can pick that sort of thing up fairly easily. > c) I dont want some 'all singing, all dancing' 'beatbox' thats > going to be impressive for a week and then useless to me > (not neccesarily out of date) within no time. > d) I intend to start piano lessons at the same time as getting the > keyboard, so something to practice on between lessons would be nice. > (P.S. Which has the nicest sounding piano on it?) > e) I have an Amiga which i'd like to use to write some music > with. (Just for fun.) > f) I havent got a reverb/effects unit. > g) I havent got a drum machine. > >Any responses would be greatly appreciated and also any old D5 vs K1 mail would be nice. Thanks a million. > I'm not real familiar with the K1, but I've been real happy with the D5. I'm not a keyboard player, so most of the power of it for me has been realized through a sequencer that I'm using with it. The manuals are real easy to read so it's easy to learn how to use. There's a multitude of nice sounds already programmed in, some better than others. I think the piano sounds are good. I also think the D5 has much better rhythm sounds than the K5 (a particular comparison I made when I was shopping). On the other hand, the K5 has after-touch - the D5 doesn't. The K1 is a little noisier than the D5. I got my D5 for about $750. That's about all I can tell you in terms of comparisons. If you want to know more about the D5, e-mail me and I'd be glad to fill you in. david n