Hello, I hope I am finding you all well.

In the last few months I've really had the urge to experience some of the keyboards I missed out on in the past that I think very notable. I've owned so many keyboards and brands over the years that I still couldn't understand why I had never owned a Technics - until now.

Whilst searching, I found an online store that were selling both the KM6500 & KN7000 at a very nice price so I got them both. They are in beautiful condition as well which really is a bonus. They both are really great looking instruments.

After having a good play on them both, they still sound fantastic. Yes they are few generations old but put that aside and play them for what they are and they still sound great.

However it is another new learning curve to get around the operating system and how the disc functions work, especially on the KN7000 which has my head scratching a little, it does seem the most complicated one so far to master. I am trying to find more styles for the KN7000, especially styles from previous generations like the KN2000, 5000 etc etc.. I have read that I would need to use a program called Song Manager which I don't have or even know how to find it. I didn't get any software with the keyboard, just the manual so I presume it originally had a CD that came with it? I tried to google this program but to no avail mainly because I don't know what I am looking for.

I am guessing here but is this the equivalent to Yamaha's expansion manager program? If this is so then without this program would mean I can't load any new styles in the system?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

All the best,
Danny

Hi Danny, contact Bill Norrie, he has lots of stuff you could use, just download to a SD card.

Ray

Hi Ray,

Thank you ever so much for your reply I really appreciate it.

I will contact Bill as suggested.

Thank again,
Danny

New styles such as those I produce - see www.technicskn7000styles.com - can be downloaded and unzipped before loading them one at a time into a floppy disk and then transferring that floppy disk to your KN7000 keyboard to load them for playing. You'll need a floppy disk drive attached to your computer to be able to do this. Be careful when subsequently saving them in your KN7000 keyboard to an SD Card not to try to use the more modern SDHC Cards as they don't work on KN7000 keyboards.

Hi DannyUK

congratulations on purchasing great instruments.
Check out the instructions written long ago by @technicsplayer.
SD CARD TUTORIAL

Everything you need is described there. From this link you can download Factory Rhythms for KN2000, KN3000 and KN5000. I didn't put in for KN6000 and KN 7000 because you don't need it.

Reprise KN2000 KN3000 KN5000

Hi Roger & Leon,

Thank you very much indeed for your replies, this is fantastic and I really do appreciate your help and for the additional styles.

Leon, thank you for providing those internal styles, but is there any chance you could also include the KN6000 styles (I presume they are the same as the KN6500)? The reason I ask is that after playing both keyboards, even though the styles are almost the same there are a few from the KN6500 that are not in the KN7000 which I would like to play on the KN7000, is it possible you could also attach the KN6000 styles as well?

Thank you very much,
Danny.

Hello Danny,

these are Styles from KN6000
KN6000Style

Hi Leon,

Thank you so much for these, you're a star!

All the best,
Danny

Here is Bill Norrie's web page - http://www.willumspages.co.uk/

Hi Roger,

Fantastic thank you for the link

Hi Leon,

I've tested these files and I don't think that's all of the KN6500 styles? There's a specific style I am looking for, I think its called ModSoulBallad in the BALLAD section and I can't see it in any of the 5 files, just wondered if it wasn't saved?

Other than that, the rest are fantastic, and I am beginning to think that some of the 6000/6500 styles are actually better than the ones in the KN7000, some of the Latin ones for example are exceptional.

Thanks very much.

Edit... Right so there is ModSoulBallad in the KN7000 but it's completely different to the one in the KN6500 and not as good, I much prefer the KN6500 version of it. I wonder how many more are different even though they have the same name?

Hi Danny
I don't know what's in the packages I put for download, I used KN7000 a long time ago. The last package is from KN6000, maybe he didn't have the same Stye as KN65000.
I'm glad you found good rhythms.

Hi Leon,

Thank you, yes that's fair enough, one would have probably assumed they would be the same if they were called the same and thought not to save them, makes sense but it's not when you put them side by side you can hear the big differences.

I will have to learn how to put the internal styles into the custom banks and save them myself but I don't know how to do that yet.

All the best,
Danny

Internal Style must first be copied to COMPOSER (A; B, C)
Manual page 119

After that, each memory (A, B, C) can be switched to CUSTOM.
Manual page 121

Style located in COMPOSER under A memory, you copy to CUSTOM location 1. COMPOSER B goes to CUSTOM 2 and so on until you fill all 20 locations in CUSTOM.

Hi Leon,

Thank you for your reply. Indeed after spending most of Saturday learning about this keyboard it's now very easy to use! For me, the OS reminds me a little of GEM's OS whilst also having traits of Korg, but more GEM, especially the WK8.

As you say, port the styles into those 3 memory banks and then from there into the CUSTON area, very simple but very time consuming as well. I don't know why there is the limitation of 3 (I am sure it's probably been discussed here many times and I am 20 years too late lol!!), but I would have thought there would be no reason to have at least 10 memory spaces especially on the KN7000.

I will say the KN's are fantastic keyboards, some of the styles are beautiful, some of the sounds still hold up today as well.

This is going to sound odd, but I do prefer the styles of the KN6500 overall so I am glad I've copied them all across now.

All the best,
Danny

Hi danny,
If you have not already discovered it, check out SOUND EXPLORER, for an abundance of voice variations..
You will be more than pleased.

Ray

''As you say, port the styles into those 3 memory banks and then from there into the CUSTON area, very simple but very time consuming as well. I don't know why there is the limitation of 3 (I am sure it's probably been discussed here many times and I am 20 years too late lol!!), but I would have thought there would be no reason to have at least 10 memory spaces especially on the KN7000.''
Not sure why you are doing this Danny - rather than leaving them in the memory banks and saving them to SD Card...

Hi Roger, it could be it's because I am still learning!

However, I am only guessing here, but by doing this are you not saving them as single styles rather than in a "group" or "bank" of them, eg, 20 at a time, which is how I ideally would like to load them as?

Yes. It takes about one and a half seconds to load each new style set from SD Card into the keyboard and ready to play.
I guess the only reason you would want to collect a 'bank' of them together is if you were running straight on from song to song with no gap in between.
The SD Card has a built in neat filing system of 99 banks with space in each bank for 20 songs - so that's close to 2000 songs all on one SD Card.
A bit more complicated than maybe you want right now but there is also software available that enables you to swap each song around on the SD Card should you need to do so. However one step at a time eh....