I have just bought a KN5000 for about £ 250 (about $ 500) . I thought the price was pretty good ,so I bought it from an auction. It seems in nice condition,judging from the photos (I did not receive it yet). I know that it's not the latest arranger keyboard,(my choice would have been a new Roland E-50,but right now I did not want to spend more than twice as much).
I needed something to compose music with,as I am taking a definite decision as to whether I'll keep using my laptop or whether I'll go back to ol' times and just use dedicated hardware,maybe older,but at least you switch it on and you worry just about the music,not Windows. I don't perform live,or play in bars,so to me,for writing music with,the kn5000 at that price seems pretty good. What do the veterans here think of the KN5000?
Is it a lot better than the KN1400 or KN1600? (I was buying one of these-for about the same price- just before I saw the KN5000).

[This message has been edited by santantoni (edited 02-24-2007).]

Hi,
I was Technics user for many years. Probably my favourite keyboards over the years.

KN5000 was top of the line model back in the very late 90's ( I think ). I luved it.

There's a large Technics user group on Synthzone, be worth checking out.

No need to give up on your software arrangers, I currently have 2 keyboards
( Ketron sd1+ & PSR1500 ) plus I still use my OMB software ( even though I own a psr) & I use BIAB software.

The styles differ between the various keyboards , & keyboards don't have some of the style genres available in BIAB.

best wishes
Rikki

[QUOTE]Originally posted by santantoni:
[B]I

Congrats, you'll gonna love it!!

Even if it's not among the brand new ones today, it's sure does
the job. I still have mine.
Take a look at http://www.bigfoot.com/~gunjongo to start prepare
using your new baby.

Happy Playing.
GJ

Btw, if it's a HD in it, you'll love it even more.

[This message has been edited by Gunnar Jonny (edited 02-24-2007).]

I actually loved my old KN5000 got mine from Don mason years ago it was top of the line then & I made mucho dinero with the KB.....its a bit dated now.....
& even though I tried the 6k.6500.7k....
I always enjoyed the sound of The 5k best....after a yr or so mine ended up in Uncle Dave's studio

Hi Rikki,I just wanted to go back to 'ol times and see how it feels with dedicated hardware again. I have also started to use BIAB and OMB...I think I prefer the latter...BIAB is a great program,but the enormous amount of options is distracting. Omb has less options,but I really love the Arranger window,you really can put togheter a backing track in no time! Very cool program,I hope it grows and grows! But I want to try to just get a machine like the KN5000,forgetting about everything else ,and just focusing about writing music.

What I want to do is writing music with something like the KN5000,and then,only after I made a complete midi file of the whole track,after the music has been created,then I can import the file on my laptop and substitute the sounds with Kontakt samples etc...
But basically,I just find that it's hard to write music with a computer...zillions of possibilities,but not great reliability ( I hate it when I am really in the mood to try to write something,and you see the error message 'illegal operation xxxxx' on the screen, or things like that...Just annoying interruptions. I am sure I would never get that on the KN5000 or one of these machines.

Sure, it has not even 10 per cent of all the styles,samples etc that I have on my laptop,but the difference is that the KN was built solely for music purposes.
But no,I am not giving up on my computer...I just think it's great to use AFTER the music has been written. Then you can relax and if something is not working straight away,you just know that the music has been created...so you can take your time and work on the problem. But I just get mad if that happens when I am making music.
Computers got really powerful,but can they beat an hi-tech,luxury 'musical scratchpad' like the KN5000 or your favourite board?...I think not.
Eh eh...I am also dying to get something like the KN5000 since I remember staring at it into the music shops ,many years ago


[This message has been edited by santantoni (edited 02-24-2007).]

[This message has been edited by santantoni (edited 02-24-2007).]

[This message has been edited by santantoni (edited 02-24-2007).]

thanks Gunnar,I have started checking your website,very cool. Within minutes I have already got a pretty good idea of how the KN5000 works.
Thanks also to all of you. This forum is really great

hi santantoni,
basically why I ended up with a couple of keyboards again.

Sold all 3 of mine ( including a kn7000 ).

Happily went without a keyboard for a couple of years, then needed a keyboard fix. haa haa

Still regret having sold my kn7. Don't see them pop up on EBay over here in Aust. oh well. I suppose even if I managed to find one, hubby would probably say , no. I may be pressing my luck wanting 3 keyboards again haa haa

Enjoy your new toy.

best wishes
Rikki
[QUOTE]Originally posted by santantoni:
[B]Hi Rikki,I just wanted to go back to 'ol times and see how it feels with dedicated hardware again.

After I wore mine out, I unloaded it on DNJ.
JUST KIDDING.
It was a great keyboard with excellent sounds and styles. The main advantage the newer boards have is more and better storage. The 5K didn't have a vocal harmonizer. I think I sold it to get a Yamaha PSR8000, the first arranger with a really good VH.
DonM

funny that you mention the PSR-8000,while I was considering the KN5000 ,just before I bought it,I was also considering a PSR-7000...it seemed similar in specs to the KN5000,and I also happen to like deep black keyboards
but then I managed to snatch the KN5000 off the auction for a lower price than the PSR,so you know the rest

hi Rikki,I think I am going through the same phase as you went: a keyboard fix,eheehehe



[This message has been edited by santantoni (edited 02-25-2007).]