When I got my first one, my studio was far from being full as it is now...
I had much less gear available, so when I found one available for a great price, I decided to go for it!
But the main reason I got it, was because the seller was also selling a Kawai K4r, which is usually mentioned as a really nice digital synth!
This was the time when I was expanding my studio setup, and as I was getting more synths that were easy to program unlike these two Kawais...
To be honest, the interface in these machines was far from great, and programming there was pretty much a nightmare (I don't think I ended up programming an actual sound in any of them...).
So, I decided it would be a good idea to sell them both, as I would most likely not use them as much as I should...
Despite this, I have to say I quite liked the pad / choir sounds in the Kawai K1r, and actually felt it seemed to sound nicer than the Kawai K4r...
I'm not sure if it really sounded nicer, or if it just seemed like that because I had high hopes for the Kawai K4r, which I felt weren't really delivered...
Last year, I got the chance to get another Kawai K1r...
By chance, I entered an old local music store and saw it there!
When the seller told me how much he wanted for it, I decided to test it, to confirm there was no residual background noise, and went for it!
I didn't really think it would get much use, but when I saw it, I couldn't stop remembering that it actually had some nice pad / choir sounds that could still be useful to me...
Despite I added quite some gear since that first time, I can say that the pad / choir sounds were still really nice!
But like happened before, when you have other synths that are really easy to edit, you know the Kawai will most likely not get the use it deserves...
And to be honest, despite I find it sounds pretty good for the kind of sounds I mentioned, it isn't necessarily better than my Korg Wavestation EX, Roland D-550 or Yamaha TG77...
It is true those are not that easy to edit either, but each of them ends up being considerably more versatile, as well as being true classics!
Still, if you are building a setup around analog synths and want to get a cheap digital synth for some pad / choir sounds, I think this is a great choice!
It might not be an easy machine to program (despite Kawai had a controller that is supposed to help, the Kawai MM16, but I don't have any experience with it...), but it sounds pretty good and is really cheap!
Unlike the other digital synths I mentioned, which are starting to be classics, the prices haven't been going up and you should still be able to find the Kawai K1r for under 100€ regularly, which I'd say is a pretty reasonable price!
However, if you are well equipped in terms of digital synths, this isn't a machine I'd really recommend, as I don't feel it will give you truly unique sounds, and it won't be easy for you to program your own sounds with it...
So, despite it is usually said there isn't a second with a third time (or something like that...), I think the second was my last time with a Kawai K1r!
But it is definitely a nice machine, just not one that fits my needs or setup...
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