Technics Keyboard Capers Club

11/03/2023

In this video, Reg Siger demonstrates how to bend notes for expressive playing, without using the pitch bend wheel

26/01/2023

USING TECHNICHORD
This is one of my favourite features on the KN keyboard and in my humble opinion, very under-used. Technichord offers wonderful opportunities to greatly enhance the way you sound, but most people I have encountered simply use the feature in it's default state which is either RIGHT 1 or RIGHT 2, unaware that it can be assigned to almost all of the remaining parts. Plus the fact that you can give any of those parts and sound you wish via the PART SETTING mode, and furthermore, as if that wasn't enough, you then have the option of selecting a particular type of Technichord from a chance of several. It really is wonderfully valuable asset and here is how to use it:
1. Press and hold down the Technichord button until the display changes
2. The new display shows you what Technichord type is selected at present
3. Press 'Display Hold'
4. Now go up a page and you are in Orchestrater Part Conduct
5. This will be showing either RIGHT 1 or RIGHT 2
6. From here you simply select the part you want to play your Technichord
7. You now go to 'Part Setting' and assign any sound you want to it.

IMPORTANT the very essence of how well Technichord sounds is down to a particular factor, and that is VOLUME. So be extremely careful with it as it can make or break you. I find that between 60 and 90 is suitable for most needs but perhaps a little higher when using a big band registration.

07/01/2023

THE REVERB EFFECT

The reverb effect within the Technics Keyboards enables you to create a picture when building a registration.

With Technics developments in the technology, the Technics offer sixteen types of Reverb effects, and the option of setting different depths for the various sections on the instrument.

Encountering the facility for the first time can seem a little bewildering, but if time is taken to set this up, this section then dividends can be achieved.
Firstly: we must understand that the various type of Reverbs are to create the effect of the venues that we can imagine to be in.

Here is a way of putting into perspective the type and their uses.

Rooms
Room 1-A large lounge.
Room 2-A small function room.

Plate
Plate 1-A type of reverb recreating an effect needed in a recording studios in the the past.
Plate 2-Echo effect.

Concert
Concert 1-The Albert Hall.
Concert 2-The local Town Hall.

And so on.

Picking the right type effect will make or break the realism of a particular sound.

Registration: Pipe and Theatre Organs, which are usually found in larger venues benefit from either of a Hall Reverb. This is also the case for Orchestral registrations. Should you be after a Grappelli (Jazz Club) Violin rather than a Menuhin (Concert Hall) then changing to a Room type can make the world of difference to the same voice. The room depth for each group helps to shape the overall sound.

Firstly: you can imagine yourself in the front row at a classical orchestral concert. The musicians closest to you would be Violins, Cellos, Brass and Woodwind, Basses and finally the percussion section.

As they play, the sounds roll around the concert hall and further each section is from you, the more its sound would reverberate before it got to you. By setting different depth for each section on the Technics this phenomenon can be recreated. The Reverb volume level on the left-hand side of the instrument will then adjust the overall effect.

Press Program Menu on the keyboard.
Press Reverb & Effect on the screen.
Press Reverb on the screen.
Here you will come across the various effects.
　
You will now hear the keyboard come alive.

Good luck.

30/11/2022

'Morning In Cornwall' Played on the Technics Keyboard.

11/11/2022

How to take your music from the keyboard and make it into an MP3 and onto a video..
Once you have recorded a piece of music, it stays on the keyboard as a sequencer and you save it to your floppy disk/SD. Before you can send that music over to your computer/laptop, you need a piece of software to change it into an MP3. Example ‘you can buy on line, or there is a program called ‘Audacity’ - it’s free. Keep the program on your desk top.
Now you will need a cable with jacks both ends - long enough to connect from your keyboard to your computer/laptop. A larger size jack from one end of the cable that will fit where the headphones go into your keyboard and a smaller jack the other end of the cable that fits into your

PC.
Once this is set up, you download your piece of music that you’ve recorded to your keyboard, make sure the cable is plugged in each end and bring up the Audacity .- then click on the start button on your Audacity and then press on the start button on you keyboard. Tthis is now transferring your music across. Once the music is finished click stop, this is where this will bring up another box so you can listen to it before you save it as an MP3. Once you have listened to it then save it to your desk top where it's easier to find.
Before you put this on Facebook or Youtube, use ‘Windows Live Movie Maker, you should have this on your PC.
Download appropriate photos/pictures from various websites - save them onto the desk top again, easier to find and transfer them to the ‘Windows Live Movie Maker’ ‘Add Video and Photos’ that you have saved. To move around the photos/pictures on the movie maker you can drag them to where you want them. Click on 'Add Music' in which you've saved your music on desk top. Before you listen back from the movie maker you’ll need to fit to music, click on the ‘Project’ at the top of the ‘Movie Maker’, then click 'Fit to music'. You can then listen to it back before saving it to ’Save Movie’ top right hand side in which it will go onto your desk top. It’s a real interesting program.
Have fun

14/06/2022

USING THE PANEL MEMORIES

What are panel memories?

The panel memories are locations for storing varies settings of the keyboard for recall either before or during a performance.

You ask the keyboard to just store information relating to Sound and Balance (Normal Mode) or you ask the keyboard to store whatever you want to store (Expand Mode).

By using the Expand mode filter, you can select what information or data you want to store when you set panel memory location.

On the KN6000, there are 13 banks of 8 Panel Memories. That means that there are 104 possible locations in which to store your information.

Banks are identified as follows:

Bank A First Bank
B Second Bank
C Third Bank
1-10 Forth to Thirteenth Bank

You can rename any Bank or Memory Location by pressing Bank View and then by pressing either Bank Naming (To change a bank name) or Memory Naming (to change a memory location name).

Once you have set your required panel memories, you can save these setting to disk for future use.

Setting Panel Memories:

Firstly, you need to decide in which bank you want to set your panel memories.
Press Bank View and use the Bank keys to scroll to the bank of your choice.
(It is often best to use Bank A Location 1 to start with).

To set a panel memory, hold one finger onto the Set button, keep pressed and use your other finger to press (PANEL MEMORY) button. Your settings will now be set into your chosen location.

Changing the Information that you wish to Set:

If you want to set more information or data changes into your panel memories, you will need to be in the Expand mode.

Press and hold the set button., select the expand mode. Now when you set a setting into the panel memory, all the information pre-selected in the EXPAND MODE FILTER will be set for recall.

If you need to change these settings, Press and hold Set. (Use the page key to go to page 2). You will now see the Expand Mode Filter. Use the up and down arrows to alter the filter type and use the on/off switch to tell the keyboard what you do to do not want to set.

Panel memories can be changed by using the panel memory buttons themselves, or by assigning panel memory changes to foot pedal or other pad buttons.

The foot pedal can be assigned to changes when the pedal is pressed and change back when the pedal is released. PAN MEM inc/Dec.

Or the pedal can be set to go through your settings one by one. PAN MEM incremental.

To access this menu, use the PROGRAM MENU and CONTROL MENU and then the FOOT CONTROLLER MENU.

You can also assign the Music Style Arranger to step up your panel memories, (1-4) by pressing your MSA button and holding. Now change the mode to PANEL MEMORIES.

Don't forget to save to a floppy disk or if you have the KN7000 save to SD before you switch the keyboard off.

07/06/2022

'Big Band Sounds'
Do you remember the sounds on the Technics keyboard Pads….!!

03/01/2022

Arren Mendoza de Guia

Asked the question and wonders whether any members can help.

May technician po ba ng technics keyboard near Nueva Ecija Philippines ?

Is there a technics keyboard technician near Nueva Ecija. Philippines ?

05/12/2020

See https://www.technicskn7000styles.com/
For free zipped style files for the KN7000

23/08/2020

Useful contact: https://www.synth-parts.com/en/keyboards/technics/technics-keyboards/?p=2

Synth-parts offers you complete service as well as spare parts and repairs for Technics Keyboards key instrument. Visit our online shop or book an…

22/08/2020

Transferring MIDI Files to SD Card using a PC

It is not possible to just copy and paste MIDI files directly to an SD Card using your PC, if the files are destined to be played through the KN7000’s sound system.
The KN7000 operating system expects all MIDI files on an SD Card to be structured in a particular format and just Dragging and Dropping or Copying the files from a PC folder directly to the SD Card, does not construct the required format. Although you can ‘see’ the MIDI files on your PC, the KN7000 will not recognise them.

The KN7000 does allow MIDI files to be transferred from a Floppy Disk in its Drive, to an SD Card in the KN7000, but this can only be done one file at a time. If you have a batch of MIDI files which you wish to transfer to an SD Card, using the KN7000 system is not really a feasible solution………..

The following procedure, can be used to transfer a batch of MIDI files to an SD Card.

PROCEDURE.

1. Create a folder in the root of the SD card called IMEXPORT.
Alternatively, on the KN7000, load a MIDI file, save it to SD sound as a MIDI, then go to SD Tools\SD Sound menu and export it. This will create the IMEXPORT folder for you (you can then delete the MIDI file it contains).

2. Now on the PC, just copy all your midis to the IMEXPORT folder.

3. Insert the SD Card in the KN7000, go to SD Tools\SD Sound and import them. You can select all, or selectively select and importantly create and name the playlists you want as you go.

4. When finished, empty the IMEXPORT folder on the pc and copy the next batch.

Work in batches of ~40 because it is manageable in the selection list, or in batches of wanted playlists. You can always re-edit/order playlists afterwards.

The SD sound folder can then be copied between SD cards on the pc without limitations, including all your playlists.

When finished empty the IMEXPORT folder since all the midis have been copied to the SD Sound folder, and the originals are just a waste of card space.
With thanks to Alex Pagida and Willum for this information.

19/05/2020

Useful chart detailing what style files work in which technics keyboards..

18/06/2019

Hello and thank you for visiting this page. I’ve set it up to offer advice and help to Technics keyboard owners whatever their model, drawn from years of vast experience playing and setting up these wonderful machines.

15/12/2017

Adding an additional melody track to an existing sequence.

To add a track on say Part 4......

Load the original sequence > Press Program Menus > Sequencer > Record/Edit > Realtime Record > Mixer. Select the 'Sound' section (Top left Button) then press the PT4/Tr4 button at the bottom of the screen, to highlight the 'Sound' changing option. Press the desired sound group button and then select the individual sound within the sound group and press Exit once to return to the mixer screen.

The selected sound should then appear in the sound section for Part 4. Save this setup in a Panel memory and press Exit once to return to the recording screen. Press the 'P4' button at the bottom of the screen until a Red 'REC' flag appears and then press the Start/Stop button to begin the recording. The original sequence will start playing and the counter melody track can be added. When the sequence ends, press the Rec Stop button.
To listen to the new sequence just press Start/Stop again.

If you don't like the added track, just stop the playback, reset the sequencer to the beginning (press Fill-In 1), Press the 'P4' button at the bottom of the screen until a Red 'REC' flag appears again and then press the Start/Stop button to begin another recording on track 4.

This process can be repeated using other tracks (8 - 16) to add more counter melodies or harmonies etc.

22/11/2017

Putting four sounds into Part Select Part One or Part two of the Conductor

Press "Program Menus"
Press "Sound Edit" on the screen.
Press "Tone" You have four sounds come up.
Press 2nd on the left of the screen.
Press long scroll bar on the bottom of the screen-until you come to "Concert Str 2"

Press 3rd on the left of the screen.
Press long scroll bar on the bottom of the screen-until you come to "Blues Harm"

Press 4th on the left of the screen.
Press long scroll bar on the bottom of the screen-until you come to "Trumpet"

Make sure all is ON
Press level to what sounds you want to hear.
Press "ToneCopy"
Press "OK"
Press "Exit" twice under "display hold"
Press "Write" on screen-Press "OK"
New sound is now in "Memory" Sound group.

When you have conquered that-then try putting your own sounds in.

Good Luck

Midge

11/11/2017

GUITAR SLIDE.
Check your Sound Edit, whether you have the following features:

1. TONE - Tone Dynamics
2. PITCH ¨C Pitch Envelope

Of course there are other features too but I think the above are the most important. I’m sure KN2400, KN2600, KN7000 and PR54 have the above mention features but not sure about the rest of the models.

The example below is based on KN7000. Now follow these steps to create a guitar slide sound:

1. Select your favourite guitar sound: Brilliant Folk Guitar for example.

2. Press PROGRAM MENUS / SOUND EDIT / TONE.

3. Turn on the 2nd tone and change the parameters in all the pages exactly the same as the 1st tone.(This also apply to AMPLITUDE, FILTER and LOF)

4. Go to TONE page again and use the PAGE button to go to page 4/4 the TONE DYNAMIC page. In the 1st tone, set the VELOCITY to 0 - 110. You can alter to suite your liking, range from 0 to 127. In this case means when the velocity reached 110 the sound started to bend. The higher the value the harder the pressure you will need to apply to produce the bending sound when pressing a key.

5. The moment you change the value in the VELOCITY, the remaining values will appear in the second line (it is not the 2nd tone) in this case 111 ¨C 127, so set the LEV to -100 (negative) as we do not want to hear any sound that goes beyond 110 in the 1st tone.

6. Now activate the 2nd Tone and change the VELOCITY exactly the same as the 1st tone but set the LEV to -100 in the first line instead of the second line. This means no sound is produced from 0 to 110 in the 2nd tone. Just remember it's the opposite way to the 1st tone.

7. Until now if you try to play some notes on your keyboard you actually do not hear any changes in the pitch so to actually bending the sound let us go to the PITCH menu.

8. In the PITCH menu, go to PITCH ENVELOPE in page 2/3. Set the values of the 2nd tone as below:

a. START PITCH = 0
b. ATTACK = 80
c. PEAK = 3
d. DECAY1 = 48
e. SUSTAIN1 = 15
f. DECAY2 = 48
g. SUSTAIN2 = 15
h. RELEASE = 30
i. STOP PITCH = 15
j. TOTAL DEPTH = 50

You don’t really need to follow the setting exactly I did, try to change the values and experiment the result. Compare the edited sound with the pitch bend wheel to get the effect you want. It’s amazing.

9. Now try to play some tunes from soft to hard you will notice without using the wheel when pressing hard the Guitar Slides! Cool!

10. Finally don’t forget to save your sound to your disk.