Just listened out of interest to the demos of the new KN70000. Here is what I thought, being a Yamaha fan myself. I will try not to be biased, and give you my own honest opinion.

Demo 1 - First impressions from the start is that the KN7000 has a "thin" sound, rather like a vintage cd player. Secondly it sounds like an organ, yes I know it begins playing organ sounds, but the accompaniment sounds like one of those huge double manual organs from the 80's. The vocal sounds were fun, but naff. Acoustic guitar I heard on the first demo sounds good, but again its not up to the Tyros guitar by a long way.

Demo 2 - a fun demo, again very hard and clean cut, and .. thin! Those drums just lacked punch for me, the brass and orchestra sounds were somewhat too bright, edgy and hard, again thin came to mind - well until the techno bit came in then the keyboard began to liven up. Nice dancey sounds, piano especially and the lead guitar wasn't bad in terms of soundstage though a bit "electronic". Cut those naff vocal scat sounds though, perhaps they tempt customers to whoo over the technology but they don't do anything for me. The organ patches are very good, if not lacking substance though the percussion is much to clean cut and polished.

Demo 3 starts with a nice thick guitar patch, but then the rock style sounds too thin, light and lacking any meat. There was a nice sax sound in there somewhere, but the drums are far too bright and electronic.

Demo 4 is a nice modern polished 16 beat, sorry but again nasty thin sounds to me, an awful thin backing that sounds like a japanese commercial. Shame, there's some nice synthy sounds in there and a tidy sax, but I thought these patches were not up to Yamaha's. The string pad was tasty though, synthy but nice.

Demo 5 - not a bad set of pipes, though a bit more atmosphere would have gone nice. However the next organ funky jazz was excellent, best I've heard so far from the keyboard. A nice lively jazz kit, though again missing out on a real bottom end kick. This demo shows to me what the KN7000 is best at, being an organ entertainers machine. Technics for me is still associated with those big double manual and pedal beasts and this demo reinforces my opinion on this.

So in conclusion from hearing these demo's, which I assume are to show off the best this instrument has to offer, I think its better suited to organists. From the reviews the keyboard packs a lot of features, including removable flash memory and audio sampling, but fails in still providing somewhat thin "digital" sounds that lack substance and warmth. Certainly there are some excellent sounds amongst what I've heard so far, but there is a lack of natural feel to the keyboard and the styles seem to still sound as though they come from an 80's organ.

Regards
Simon

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Simon G.K. Williams
simon@svpworld.com
Creative Music & Multimedia
http://www.svpworld.com
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Simon,

I agree fully ! (Thin sound, organs VERY good)

Roel

I don't agree at all.....no thin sound at all.
I also have a yamaha psr9000 pro..and I like it very much...
The kn7000 and the 9000 pro stand next to each other.
They are both very very good...

You have a Yamaha mind.....this is nothing bad ..not at all.....
I love my kn7000......I like it a lot...

technics kn7000 klinkt niet dun....wel dik...haha..
But everyone has his own taste....so don't let us start saying.....I like this better than this...etc;.

I've just heard the KN7000 demos and not impressed one bit. The sounds and styles are very weak. I own a Roland G1000, Ketron SD1, Gem Genesys and Kurzweil K2500. I've never rated Technics for sounds or styles. I still think Technics has never advanced since the KN2000. This is obviously down to personal taste, so if you are thinking of buying one, listen to them and decide for youself.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by svpworld:
[B]Just listened out of interest to the demos of the new KN70000.
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To give an honest opinion on the true sound of the KN7000 you need to have one hands on so that you can record digitally using your own preferences as to what sound set up you like harsh/soft or indifferent & what combination of voices you would like to use.
Of course to discover the ground breaking application of SD as far as keyboards are concerned & all the other delights that the 7000 offers just go along to your Technics dealer & audition one.
It seems that Yamaha are lagging behind a bit & it does not look like they will be catching up this time around especially with the Tyros not having a digital output.

You can record digitally to CD with the Genesys and it's internal sounds and styles are far better than the KN7000 (I have heard one and played one). It's alright recording onto one of those card with the KN7000, it's not the same as walking away with a demo CD.