the official details released about the KN7000 are described here (didn't even check the grammar properly!):
http://www.wtenaykeyboardstudios.com/SK-KN7000.html

F A N T A S T I C ! ! ! !

Thank you Alec.

This is almost exactly what I had hoped for!

[This message has been edited by Bob Hendershot (edited 03-15-2002).]

Great report Alec,thank you so much, must start saving.
Mike

Well Done Alec, thank you for an excellent in depth report. Looks like a winner once again. Thanks to Walt for providing you a space for your report.
BEBOP

Alec,

Thank you for sharing the news! Please keep us informed in any way that you can. The KN7000 sounds amazing, so far!

Tom G.

LOOking good !
many thanks for the news

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jan

Looks good to me but before I trade in my kn6500 with my harddisk hdsx6 (with many software) I wonder if the software will work on the kn7000 and if it will be possible to transfer the data from the harddisk to the kn7000.
If this is the case I will go for it.

Greetings,
Alain

Thank's for your report Alec.
GJ

Hi Alec, GREAT REPORT ! My advance order has just gone to my retailer on the strength of it!
I now need to start transferring all the stuff on my hard disc to my laptop - that's going to take a bit of time since I'll have to use Floppies (HD3 Drive) HO HUM!
Hope you managed to down a swallow or two of the old German Ale, between all the Tech stuff

Best Regards

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Willum

Hi Alec,

Thank you for your excellent report on the KN7000, and thanks to you, Walt, for providing Alec the webpage space for his report.

The essence of the report as I read it is that the machine incorporates quite a bit of additional technology. I doesn't seem to be a "sea change" keyboard in terms of its sound output, and after all, the listener could care less whether the keyboard has flash memory or a hard drive, or any of the other technical improvements. Yes, it is true that some users will appreciate, want, and use the new technological features, especially people who play gigs, but they are not for me at this stage in my development as a keyboard player. I still have worlds of learning to accomplish in order to use the features on-board my KN6000/6500 - for example: step recording; easy record; the composer; and the hard drive I installed, none of which I have used yet. I have long since lost my urge to have the latest and greatest. My quest to learn to play a keyboard is a hobby. It is unlikely I will play for an audience (unless invited, of course). I love the sounds my keyboard produces and the many features it has, so I will wait for that "sea change" keyboard to appear before buying new again. Just wanted to add a different voice to the euphoria expressed over the introduction of the KN7000.

Most Sincerely, Chuck

Absolutely.
Your existing keyboard is the same today as it was yesterday. Just because a new model appears, nothing has changed for something you are entirely happy with. The 6000/6500 is a great product and if I change I will be sorry to see it go because it has enabled me to produce better results than I have been able to in the past. I will probably be more sorry to lose the 65 with both cards than any previous machine.

I have said for a long time that these machines are better than my ability to play them.

But many of the technological advances are designed to cut down 'hassle' time eg waiting for loads to appear, finding the right floppy etc which get in the way of making music.

Some days are a struggle to get things right. Other days everything just flies and the sequence or edit almost makes itself. During these times I get frustated with saving, loading, finding that edit done before, quickly tweaking this and that until it is just right. When the creative 'swing' is in full flight you just want to get on and do it. So I look for the facilities that will minimise this 'down time' and maximise the creation process by getting rid of button pushing hassle.

The 7000 is looking good on this front to me so far, but as I said I am waiting to see what the samples and sound are like in front of me...

Hi Alain,
nothing was mentioned about previous formats. However since Technics have always enabled the previous generation of keyboard format to be loaded, I do not anticipate any problems in this area. After all the machines now load the previous 3 generations of formats!

Since the 6000Techmanager can load a 5000 backup, it would seem logical to assume that a 6000 / 6500 backup on laptop or pc will be able to be transferred to the 7000.

Obviously you will need to select files to fit in the capacilty of the SD memory card that you possess. You can't transfer 300 MB of backup into a 64 MB card...

But the advantage of the USB is that you can continually update the keyboard contents on your single card through the cable, or buy a bigger card, or have several cards if you don't want to carry the laptop. It should be a pretty flexible system in that respect.

I would hope that the TTX and TLX formats will be supported by the pc software. Then since your backups are archived in Load By Number format, you can see the full 26 character filenames to recognise what is what on the laptop or pc. The Technics lyrics would also then be preserved.

I should add that all the above is purely my supposition so we will have to see what turns up. But I see no need to be pessimistic at this stage.

Alec -- Many thanks for the excellent and quick report. I play a PR603 and agree with Chuck Piper that the changes are of little interest to me. I was wondering if the next versions of the PR-series pianos were mentioned at the show? I would hope that something more "interesting" would be incorporated into the home pianos.

I'm not sure when any pianos are due to be launched. If I hear anything I'll let you know.

Adding my name to the non-tech members :

Will the 7000 have floppy disk drive for all my style disks, and be able to convert styles from other makes, as does the 6000?

The APC has always been to me the one weak point on the 6000, not up to the standard of the SMAC1200 or KN3000. I read somewhere that this was due to a different type of processor- whatever that is....
Has this improved on the 7000?

These would be key points for me before splurging out the loot for the 7000.

Peter

Adding my name to the non-tech members :

Will the 7000 have floppy disk drive for all my style disks, and be able to convert styles from other makes, as does the 6000?

The APC has always been to me the one weak point on the 6000, not up to the standard of the SMAC1200 or KN3000. I read somewhere that this was due to a different type of processor- whatever that is....
Has this improved on the 7000?

These would be key points for me before splurging out the loot for the 7000.

Peter

Thanks Alec. Good one. If you are ever in The Scottish Borders, I'll buy you a drink.

Regards Walter.

Yes a floppy drive is there.

Think about it, the floppy drive is necessary only if you have no laptop or pc available to use the USB link.

And then only if you need to update a flash card with some floppy contents. If your flash cards have all your sets on them you never need to touch a floppy disk again.

If you copy all of your floppies to folders in an archive on your laptop or pc hard disk the USB can update the keyboard memory contents at any time.

You don't even need floppies for files downloaded from the internet - these can be saved on your laptop or pc or even better saved directly inside the KN7000 while you are online.

As far as I am concerned, as long as you have a laptop or pc with a floppy drive available, they could have left the floppy drive off this machine altogether.

Not everyone has a pc so a disk drive is there for the next few years, I guess.

If I do decide to get a 7000 I think I will end up throwing all my floppies away... Hurray! Glad to see the back of them.

Thanks for the great and detailed review!
Don't know if you can (or are allowed to) answer these questions.

What have they done with Panel Memories, do you still load them in groups of 104 (1-10 plus A,B,C)? Or larger groups? I know that load time will be quicker with SD cards!

Also, when I play w/my band, I use the "count intro" (click) to get the band started. It's too quiet, wondering if they have improved this in the 7000? What I had sent to Technics as a suggestion (~2 years ago) was the ability to modify the volume of this click, and/or allow you to select a different
sound from a drum kit, to use as the click.

Lastly, did they demo the Vocalizer/Harmonizer? Wondering if it's improved over that in the KN6x00?

Thanks again!
Jim

One more question - wondering if they have improved "layering" capabilities. On the Technics organs, for several years now, you could layer 4 sounds on the right (upper) and 4 on the lower. On the KN-6x00 you can have 2 "RIGHT" and 1 "LEFT". Wondering if they have added one more so that you could have
RIGHT1, RIGHT2, RIGHT3 and LEFT1+LEFT2. I know that others, such as WERSI, allow much more layering than Technics. [This does not include, of course, the idea that you can pre-program more layers by making your own sounds with multiple Tones [which I have done alot of]. But I like how on a Technics organ you can QUICKLY add up 2, 3 or 4 layers to get a think orchestral sound if you like.

Or maybe the new "Organ" stuff on the 7000 can be layered on top of/ in addition to
RIGHT1 and RIGHT2???

Jim

Aside from all the technological improvements on the 7000, I'd like to hear more about how it sounded. I realize a convention demo is not like playing it in one's home---and that the internal speakers where not used. However, from those in attendance, what was the first impression on hearing it? Was it a quantum leap beyond the 6500? Or, was it closer to what we're used to hearing with the 6000/6500? Were you shocked, surprised, astounded, or was it about what one would have expected? Were there noticeable or obvious improvements in sound quality?

What's a "sea change" ?

It's like an oil change but only water
you know like when you stand on a beach & the tide comes in,then the sea changes & then it goes out.

Hi Dave,

"Sea change" is an expression often used used to describe a COMPLETE change, for example: in the context of keyboards - a keyboard that has been totally redesigned from scratch. I used the expression in my post to say simply that I am not in the market at this time for another keyboard that is fundamentally the same as the keyboard I already have. Technics has taken existing technology and incorporated it into the KN7000 e.g., the USB port, larger flash memory etc., and has changed the speaker arrangement added some new sounds and so on. I class these as add-ons to an already super keyboard. They are nice to have, but in no way do they constitute a brand new approach to the design of arranger keyboards. So, I am saying I will keep my upgraded KN6000 for a few more years until that "sea change" in the design of arranger keyboards occurs. It is likely that I will have a very long wait because the technological changes in keyboards are most often evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Take care, Dave.

Best Regards, Chuck

Thank you Alec for your in depth report
and thank you Walt for giving Alec the "Platform" on which to do it

Regards

Brian

Thank from across the ditch........

Fran in Florida

Alec,

Thanks for the GREAT report. Wonderful news to hear that the KN7000 will support SD (secure digital) memory cards. Actually not that surprising considering Panasonic Matsushita is the company that developed SD cards in the first place. I hear that SD memory cards (about the size of a postage stamp) can hold up to 512 mg of data. With USB support, data transfer back and forth between the PC computer & KN7000 will be a LOT faster than currently possible with the TechManger's parrallel interface system. Alec, do you know if a desktop PC software: 'KN7000 data management software utility program' will be included with the KN7000, or will that have to be purchased separately? Will Technics be producing & supporting the software, or will they be farming this out again to a third party company such as Keysoft Service?

Sounds like the sounds in the final mix presentation demo you heard were impressive. Alec, were you able to discern the quality of any specific sounds individually? I'm curious to find out if the piano patch or any other paticular one(s) were a 'stand out'. Is the KN7000 sampling rate and/or length of the samples any higher than on the KN6500? Curious if you thought the KN7000's sounds are different (more advanced?) then the KN6500, which is already terrific sounding.

I'm also interested to find out if the KN7000 supports Technics format file to standard midi file conversion (including the accompaniment tracks)? This would allow KN7000 owners to share their songs (midi format) with people who don't own a Technics keyboard, as well as allow you to edit your Technics KN7000 created songs in an external midi sequencer such as Cakewalk Sonar or Cubase.

I also like the KN7000's 'Starship Enterprise' design cocept. Since my audiences are already wanting me to 'beam them up', it sounds like the KN7000 may be the perfect next Keyboard for me. - Scotty
http://scottyee.com

Scott,

You asked:
"Alec, do you know if a desktop PC software: 'KN7000 data management software utility program' will be included with the KN7000, or will that have to be purchased separately? Will Technics be producing & supporting the software, or will they be farming this out again to a third party company such as Keysoft Service?"

It seems to me that if you can just drag and drop stuff to and from the KN7000 memory via USB while at the PC, that this would suffice for both file transfer and for data backup. If the PC sees the KN7000 as just another disk, I don't think any special software would be needed. Stuff like we have on the KN5000 hard disk like File Load Scripts may or may not be a part of the KN7000.

Bob,

Geez, what was I thinking? What you said makes perfect sense. No additional software required. YIPEE !