I was a real Technics lover right up until the 5000, then the 6000 came out and i lost interest i guess. Although i still played Technics keyboards after that, now i own a KN-920 and i've owned the KN-1500, KN-5000 and KN-6000 in the past. Still searching for a decent KN-7000

One thing that struck me about Technics was that the buildquality is excellent, the onboard speakers are incredibly well balanced! And the soundquality is still out of this world.

Not the sounds themselves, because well let's be honest, a KN-7000 sounds much more dated in most of the sounddepartment then the Tyros 1 does, but the richness and thickness off the overall sound.
BUT! I have to give it to Technics, their Accordeons, Flutes, Saxophones and Trumpets and Strings are still superbly realistic. Not compareble to the Super Articulation sounds, but they can still hold their own.

Anyway, because of the Technics love, i decided to record the Demosongs of the KN-920 for you to enjoy, AND i recorded a great Jean Michel Jarre song on this machine.





What are your experiences with Technics Keyboards?

The KN5000 was my all time favorite Technics arranger KB.
after that I didn't like playing both 6000 series kbs...returned both, and the sunken keybed of the 7k was dreadful for many reasons.

Sunken keybed was a big hindrance on both ends especially to swipe when playing.

The 5000 was a phenomenal keyboard, had very great wide sound. The 6000 was a step back in terms of speakers i would say, and indeed... Don't get me started on the keybed of the 7000, i thought it played "okay" but it wasn't better than keyboards 1/10th the price..

Unfortunately, as i'm writing this, the keybed of my 920 is handicapped.. This happened 5 minutes ago..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3StEHPBP-U&feature=youtu.be

It's a shame they are out of the game now ....
so many disappointed loyal fans....what were they thinking?.

anyway enjoy here's some Technics conversions to Korg & Yamaha can't vouch hopw good they may be ....you will have to try them....have fun.

Yeah, what if they would still be here to compete with Genos?
Maybe we'd got a Technics KN-X1 or something.. Too bad they stopped after the KN-2600, we can only dream..

Unfortunatly i don't have a Yamaha keyboard at my side that can load styles, well, technically the K1 and PSR-E403 can, but not converted for the 3000.

For the real Technics fans i've got a nice stylevideo coming up, just me showcasing all the 128 styles in the KN-920. The Brushes in that keyboard are really great, not compareable to the Genos but i would say on par still with the Tyros 3!

And those latin styles!!!

iv'e also a great fondness for technics..my pride and joy was a kn 800,got it from a local music shop in the early 90's..coming from yamaha pss mini keyboards...the technics looked so professional' and as life moved on ,settled down with a family,i eventually lost interest and sold it....and now over 40 years later..i regret letting it go....any thread mentioning kn keyboards seem to bring back the nostalgia

Well, you could still find them online fairly affordable.
Here in The Netherlands a KN-800 goes for 50-75.
The only one that's still very expensive for it's age is the KN-2000, that thing can cost up to $300!

Anyway, here is the stylevideo!

Latin styles start around 1 hour 16 minutes
Swing styles start around 44 minutes and 30 seconds

have things really changed up to today that much?

Yes or no, Donny ... what do you think?

I'll say not that much Tony if you really think about it

I'm still using my Technics KN7000 to great effect in www.theabbaholics.co.uk and www.sultansofswingers.co.uk and enjoying it's enormous versatility.

Technics was my first 'real love' when got muy hands on arranger keyboards,
and I got sad when they ended developement and production of the KN series.
But as they say, time heals most wounds.....

Unfortunately yes, the KN-2000 goes between $100 for the examples that are in rough shape to $300 for examples that come with the original box and are almost new.

Sometimes you can find one for $150 from a person who has no idea what it's worth, but then it's sometimes also a guess how good it still works..

I got my KN-920 for $50, when i got it home a few buttons didn't work, the screen had a line missing, and yesterday a key broke off..

My first AKB was the technics Kn1000, a really nice easy board to use and gig with ... created a lot of my own back-up files, and was able to immediately switch to style play ... the Dynamic Accompaniment was a great feature ...
Then came the kn6000 and I could never understand the displeasure some people had with this board ... Still the best Alto sax sound of any KB before or after IMHO ...
Then went to KORG Pa600 and now the KORG Pa900 ...
But the technics Kn series was always ahead of the curve ... and would be today if they were still around ...
But, life goes on ...

does anyone know the real reason why they folded?......
something had to be amiss?

http://www.synthzone.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/319852/Why_did_Panasonic_pull_out_of_

They didn't fold. Panasonic bought the company and probably decided there wasn't enough profit involved in arrangers.

I had a KN5000 for a while the disk player went bad, and sold it. I bought the KN7000 shortly afterward, and WOW!. I was the best I had ever played until the Audya later on. I was especially happy to see the the floppy replaced by the SD system and the wheel. I wasn't put off at all with the closed in keybed like Donny, but then, I don't play like Jerry Lee. It took a long time to get back to the Technics quality. BTW, I read that they kept R&D going because it was a pet project of the CEO, who died. That was the end, and Panasonic pulled the plug, claiming that that division was too small to bother with anymore.

You're right Don, they did not fold. If my memory still work fairly well, it was Matsushita that owned both Panasonic and Technics.
Because of less sales and predicts of even less sales world wide, they desided to shut down Technics electronic music instrument division.
This is probably the short version, and the real reason is most likely more complex.

Anyway, I had the pleasure to own and play K450 (I think it was), AX7, KN800, KN1000, KN2000; KN3000 and KN5000.
My top favourites was KN1000, KN3000 and for me the best T-KN ever: KN5000.

Yes, it was a disappointment, the Kn series was a fantastic keyboards.

1-The display came up and you could slant it if needed.
2-You were able to display what you wanted to see in the display. One display if you were recording. Another if you were playing live. It was programable.
3-I lay a chord track for a song I was going to sequence faster than my Pa4x.
4-If a wrong note was recorded in a song it could be easily changed. And not by finding the measure and counting to find where the note was. The Kn showed a music staff to make the change.
5-In creating a style you could select a Acc. track, an intro, or an ending from another style.
6-Writing in step time included length and velocity. (Emotion)
7-In creating a sequence you were able to change everything you wanted to change and put into one of the reg memories. Then place the change where you wanted it.
8-You were able to create a sequence and add photos. I took pictures of the condo I was to play in -- recorded in a sing-a-long with the pictures and displayed it on the house video screen while I was playing.

There is more, and there were set backs also. The reason I sold my Kn7000 was because it fell short when I played contemporary music. I added a sub-woofer and sent my drums to a separate channel of the mixer; this way I could add more of what was needed. OPINION – It was lacking in the same way a Yamaha is lacking against a Korg. I also feared the thought of repairing an aging keyboard.

Please keep in mind that the Kn7000 was created many years ago. Ahead of it’s time? Yes.

I often wonder why most of my recording and playing was when I owned a Technics. I’m betting it was because I did not spend so much time on technology.
John C.

You could import and convert styles from other keyboards, at least you could Roland styles.
However it is the only brand on which I ever had to worry about breaking keys. They were not that strong. I remember replacing several.
My friend DickieT bought a KN800 because I had one at the time. He left it in the trunk of his car and the plastic case melted. It still worked but it was really ugly.
I had 800, 1000, 2000, and 5000. I sold the 5000 to DNJ. Still selling him stuff.

Thank you

Then I traded it to uncle Dave for the Ketron X1

I can fully acknowledge that.. My KN-920 had a key breaking of during me playing it 2 days ago..

The KN5000 will always be one of my favorite arrangers.

Well, even Casio could do that.
My old CTK-731 came with a Floppydisk that had 3 songs on it and some style convertion thingy.

It could import (i kid you not) Roland styles and even some Technics styles. The Roland styles always worked flawless, but the Technics styles were troublesome, 98 out of the 100 styles didn't work.

then theres the question of how many styles does one really need anyway?

Out of the 300 on the Tyros 1 about 290 were useful so...

Honestly my max on styles is roughly 50 tops,
to cover and sing just about any song..

Donny, I'm not picking on you, just presenting an alternative viewpoint. First and foremost, when was it EVER a good idea to restrict the number of choices....for ANYthing? As a trained volunteer in a program sponsored by the Unitarian Church, I used to teach a course in decision making to inmates in our local prison (the program was called THRESHOLDS). The idea was that the cause of most of their problems was poor decision making. One of the main premises of the program was that the more possibilities one had to choose from, the better the decision-making process. This didn't GUARANTEE a good outcome but it did improve the chances. I think that theory applies here as well. Besides, it kind of arrogant to think, 'because I only need a few, you should also only need a few', don't you think? Freedom of choice, baby, that's 'where it's at' .

chas

Let's see Chas,.... The English grammar police,
and now the Style enforcement task force?
.... Sheesh what's next.?

Some people on this forum are elderly and maybe have trouble spelling, other people are from a foreign country and can also have trouble spelling, like myself... So what ? As long as you can understand what we're trying to say then that's all that matters to me.

Actually I think the writings here are far better than what I've seen on other sites, especially Facebook, as mentioned.
My main gripe is when so-called professional broadcasters and writers butcher the language.

Taken from another post:
"As for what we hear on TV, especially during sports broadcasts, I am often amazed at the fact that the announcers, analysts, etc. are all graduates of prestigious universities - allegedly. And unfortunately, it is not limited to TV or radio. Every day I find typos, poor grammar, misspellings, etc. in our one and only statewide newspaper. In fact, today in a sports article it said "... showing how venerable a team can be", when the writer meant to say "... how vulnerable a team could be".

The shame is, it is only going to get worse, as the younger generations use more and more abbreviations in their texting.
And the fact that many (most?) schools are no longer teaching script opens up a whole new conversation."

No 'next'. I just don't think anyone should tell someone else how many styles they need. I mean, nobody told YOU, right? Besides, I did say at the beginning of the post that I was just presenting another opinion. BTW, I noticed that your punctuation improved noticeably in this post . Good job.



Your BFF,

chas

Chas please enlighten us on where you read into my post I am telling people how many styles to use vs my own personal choice?
....I would rather you comment on the Melodica Jazz demo I posted in another post instead.

Back to 'The love for Technics' ... I recorded "Europa" (inspired by Gato Barbieri's version) on my Kn6000 sometime around 2003 - 2004

https://app.box.com/s/ssdwwv209h6eshsuz1mwmt37lfaiqohd

Great song Tony thanx for sharing.

That Technics to this day has some really great sounding drum sounds! Not in a realistic way but very very powerful!
The overall experience of a Technics is something you can't compare with a Tyros or Genos.

Not to diss the Tyros or Genos, but they sound pretty thin and don't cut through a mix as well as a Technics does!

And the Panel Memory made 'building' a song so very easy ...

Never actually used that.. I'm not much of a song creator in the machines, i LOVE to create styles

If Genos or Tyros soundsto thin? The edit the sounds, espescially Genos has a huge set of DSP... more then enough to. Make any sound cut through the mix like a hot knife slices butter...

I am pretty much convinced a huge part of technics techollogy made its way to the Yamaha tyros 1.. in which the two main technics engeneers where involved...

Bachus, many players are just not techies, nit picking editor types, adjusters, or perfectionists type players. But instead many want to just pick a Style, using the OTS sounds, and enjoy the keyboard with the factory OOTB settings, some do not know how to make the adjustments, etc, etc, others do not, and there is nothing wrong with that. Everyone has different musical priorities, as playing music is a personal prerogative for sure.