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Lost User's Guide for Technics KN



Tomas Kubec

Prague, 1997

 

Introduction

This manual was created on trial-error basis and can be incomplete or even wrong in some parts. However it can be perhaps a bit helpful and if you don’t have a manual it’s better than nothing. This document involves Technics KN400 keyboard but I hope there are many similarities in KN-series and the document can help also owners of slightly different keyboards. If you know something not mentioned here or if you know that something written here is wrong, please let me know.

Topics I don’t know or I’m not sure about are marked with (?).

 

License agreement

You can use and spread this document freely. It must not be reprinted or sold for any price without written permission of author.

 

Author

E-mail: e-mail

 


Contents

 

Introduction

Contents

Basic features

Advanced features

Advanced Hardware Information

Questions without answers

 

 


 

Basic features

Rear Panel

The rear panel of KN contains the following connectors (jacks) and switches:

MIDI

MIDI IN enables another MIDI device (e.g. computer) to control KN and make it to play

MIDI OUT sends events (e.g. keystrokes) from KN to another MIDI device (e.g. KN is used as a master keyboard for a computer)

MIDI THRU lets pass MIDI events from MIDI IN to another instrument – it's for a complex chain of MIDI instruments.

Output

LINE OUT output to an amplifier/recorder - either 2 big mono jacks or 1 stereo big jack (?)

PHONES output for phones

Pedals

FOOT SW Foot switch – an on/off pedal – usually sustain pedal (also called hold/piano pedal)

EXP PEDAL Expression pedal controls expression (or volume) – probably good for organs

 

Voltage switch 120/220V

 

Music parts

KN uses something I'll call music parts – sets of instruments that can be played together in some modes – e.g. sax, accompaniment and drums. They are:

 

POLY1 primary instrument

POLY2 secondary instrument – left hand instrument in split-keyboard mode

BASS 1 octave lower transposed bass instrument, not polyphonic

ACCOMP 1-3 see Rhythm & accompaniment

DRUMS Each key represents one drum (or nothing)

 

These parts are important for many functions and for MIDI.

 

Main controllers

These controllers have the same function in all modes of KN.

 

POWER Power on/off

MAIN VOLUME Amplification level valid for all music parts

PITCH BEND moving the wheel smoothly changes the pitch +/- 2 semitones, perfect for rock-guitar solos. (Can it be redefined (?)) The slider switches modulation (vibrato) on/off.

 

SOUND SELECT – selecting instrument

Instrument of for the active part is selected. Of course, each part can be assigned with another instrument.

The instrument is selected from a matrix of instruments like in chess – JAZZ GUITAR is 2nd row button and 3rd column button, order doesn't matter. Each instrument has 2 variations/timbers – they can be altered with right VARIATION button

Bass instruments are only 16 and so only column buttons are relevant, no variation is available either.

 

CONDUCTOR – selecting part

Conductor determines which part is active - Drums/Bass/POLY1/POLY2. Upper POLY2 splits keyboard so that upper part of keyboard plays POLY1 (e.g. piano) and the lower one POLY2 (e.g. organ). See KEY SPLIT.

 

Rhythm & Accompaniment

KN can help you with music playback, so that it adds rhythmic section, bass and accompaniment to your music, or only some of these. Most of the work does it on its own.

 

RHYTHM SELECT

Rhythm is selected the same way as a sound – through a matrix of rhythms – again DIXIE is 4th column button (i.e. 4th in the row of buttons) and 2nd row button (i.e. 2nd button in the column of buttons) Variation is also possible.

 

Rhythm & Accompaniment Playback

START/STOP To start the playback press START/STOP button, to stop it, press the button again.

INTRO/ENDING If you want to start the song with an overture, press INTRO/ENDING button and then START/STOP. To end the tune with a nice ending, press the INTRO/ENDING again instead of START/STOP.

FILL IN plays a rhythmic break during playback

SYNCHRO Synchronizes the playback or start of the playback to your key-hits

 

AUTO PLAY CHORD

Not only drums can be added to your music but also accompaniments such as bass-line and background chords. This section helps you to select whether to use it and how to use. If all these switches are off, only drums are used. ONE-FINGER and FINGERED are two methods how to control the accompaniments.

 

ONE-FINGER With this on, just press a key in the lower part of keyboard (see KEY SPLIT) and the accompaniments will play music corresponding to the chord of this key. How to decide minor/major - gods know (?)

FINGERED With this on, just press keys in the lower part of keyboard (see KEY SPLIT) and the accompaniments will play music corresponding to the chord of these keys

MEMORY If this is off accompaniments will stop after key release and only drums will go on. If it’s on KN ‘remembers’ the chord.

 

ACCOMP PART

For each rhythm there can be up to 3 accompaniment parts, different rhythm to rhythm - e.g. strings part, piano and guitar part. Switch them on or off to change the fullness of the accompaniments.

MANUAL PERCUSSIONS

These 3 pads represent 3 drums for easy solos and fill-ins during you performance without necessity to switch to KEYBOARD PERCUSSION part. You can assign any drums to them (see Advanced section)

ONE TOUCH PLAY and MUSIC STYLE ARRANGER

These buttons help you with arranging of music accompaniments. They select ‘optimal’ tempo and instrument for you. You must hold ONE TOUCH PLAY for a few seconds. Differences between them (?).

 

BALANCE

Use these 4 up and down arrows to change the volume level of DRUMS, ACCOMPs, POLY2 and POLY1. Each number on the display represents one volume level between 0 and 9.

To change volume levels of each accompaniment separately (BASS, ACCOMPANIMENT1, ACCOMPANIMENT2, ACCOMPANIMENT3) press SUB BALANCE and use the up/down buttons as described above. When you are finished with volume adjustments, press SUB BALANCE twice so that the LED is off again.

 

EFFECT

DIGITAL CELESTE adds depth and 3D effect to the instrument. It usually cannot coexist with VARIATION.

SUSTAIN holds the tones as a piano sustain pedal does.

 

KEY SPLIT

This button defines how is the keyboard split into 2 parts (if it is split, of course). You can use 3 versions. Press the button repeatedly to change the split point (it is indicated by 3 LEDS - the lit one is the split point)

 

TECHNI-CHORD

It involves only modes with auto accompaniments active. If it’s on and you play the right part of keyboard. It adds to the tone lower harmonic tones according to the played accompaniment chord.

E.g. active chord is C major and you play E note so it adds lower C and G. This may make your music more rich and harmonic and it can still be technically very easy. On the other hand the selection of the lower tones need not be always the best.

 

TEMPO

You can select tempo of the rhythms. Just press UP to speed up and DOWN to - guess what. Press both UP and DOWN simultaneously to reset the tempo to 120.

 

TRANSPOSE

Transpose the pitch of all the parts up or down by semitones in range of 1 octave. Again UP+DOWN = reset to C.

 

TUNING

This enables tuning of KN, up or down. Both buttons reset the tuning to 440 Hz for A.

 

PANEL MEMORY

You can pre-define some values for the keyboard and store them as 4 presets. To activate the preset just press one of the 4 preset buttons. To store the preset values press SET + one preset key. The involved values are: SOUND-SELECT, KEY-SPLIT, AUTO PLAY CHORD, EFFECT, BALANCE, TECHNI-CHORD, ACCOMP PART and (?)

 

DEMO mode

This mode demonstrates some features of the keyboard by demo songs. Press DEMO to start the mode. Press START/STOP to start the main demo song.

To select demo for an instrument select an instrument in the SOUND SELECT as described above. You must first select the row (buttons in column), and then column, only blinking sounds are available. To stop the tune press START/STOP.

To select demo for a rhythm select a rhythm in the RHYTHM SELECT as described above. You must first select the row (buttons in column), and then column, only blinking rhythms are available. To stop the tune press START/STOP.

To exit demo mode press DEMO again

 


 

Advanced features

COMPOSER

You can define four your own rhythms and accompaniments (from now called styles), COMP 1 - 4. Variation has probably no influence.

Creating and editing styles

To create or edit a style select one of COMP 1 -4 and press RECORD. The LEDs in column will start blinking. Press the button of edited style again. There will be ALL on the display.

Now you can delete all the style by pressing CLEAR.

You can also define whether to use ¾ or 4/4 beat with BEAT button. It will not work if the rhythm is already recorded, you must clear it before.

You can also change QUANTIZE (level of rhythmic corrections made - however this may make the rhythm to exact or even wrong , because of lower rhythmic resolution). Press the button repeatedly to change the level.

Press RECORD again. Now you can record drums. There is a metronome on the display. Dots represent position in the beat and underscore/minus represent 1st respectively 2nd beat. Play the drums and they are recorded. You can delete only the drum part by pressing CLEAR.

Press RECORD again to record the bass figure. You can select from the SOUND SELECT which bass instrument to use. Play the bass figure (max. 2 beats). Otherwise same as drums.

Press RECORD again to record accompaniment 1 then 2 and 3 and once more again to finish recording. Now you can use your very own new rhythm and accompaniments.

Is it possible to edit INTRO/ENDINGS/endings and fill-ins (?)

Copying styles

To copy either your ore pre-defined music style, select the style you want to copy. Press RECORD and select one of COMP styles as destination. Now you can edit the style as described in Creating and editing styles section. It copies also intros, endings and fill-ins.

Defining MANUAL PERCUSSIONS

Select any COMP style. Start RECORD and get to drum section. You should press START/STOP if you don’t want to modify the style. Now press simultaneously the drum key you want to assign to the drum pad + a drum pad you want to redefine + INSTR ERASE. The drum pad should be now redefined to a new drum. You can repeat this step with the same pad or more likely with the other 2 pads. When satisfied press so many times the RECORD button so that you get out off the recording mode.

 

SEQUENCER

Sequencer records or plays back your recorded songs. This KN has a 3 track sequencer.

Playback

Using the POLY1, 2 and ACCOMPANIMENT buttons select which tracks you want to play back. You can play back more tracks - voices at one time. To start the playback press START/STOP.

To stop the playback press START/STOP again .If pressed again it will continue from the point where stopped.

To ‘rewind’ the sequencer switch the track buttons (e.g. POLY1) off and on again.

Pressing FILL-IN will do the same job plus it will change SOUND SELECT to default instrument. How is this defined (?)

Recording

Using the POLY1, 2 and ACCOMPANIMENT buttons select which tracks you want to play back.

Press RECORD.

Using the POLY1, 2 and ACCOMPANIMENT buttons select which track you want to record. Play.

When finished press RECORD again. Do not use START/STOP to stop recording as this will start rhythm pattern instead, which is also recorded.

STEP RECORD (?)

This button probably involves ACCOMPANIMENT/CHORD track only. With this you can record the chord sequence step by step. You can select the chord from the lower part and specify its length wit keys in keyboard SEQUENCER range, define loops and perhaps other things.

Press STEP RECORD. Press the chord AND a key representing note length and repeat these steps. If you press a key representing note length only. There will be rest for this time during playback. Pressing loop icon loops the recorded sequence..

Example:

C major + whole note

A minor + whole note

F major + whole note

G major + whole note

Loop

 

You can use this track either together with other two tracks or with rhythm & accompaniments as pre-defined accompaniments. In the second case the chord sequence is applied to current rhythm and you can even use INTRO/ENDING and FILL IN.

 

MIDI

KN can receive and send via all 16 MIDI channels at least the following events:

MIDI Output

KN sends Note on and Note off events if a key is pressed or if you play back sequenced data. KN sends something as well if you start rhythms or demo songs, but I didn’t manage to record it yet (?)

PITCH BEND sends Pitch bend event within standard range,

MODULATION sends Modulation 0 or 127,

SUSTAIN ( doesn’t matter whether button or pedal) sends 64 Hold (Sustain) event 0 or 127,

DIGITAL CELESTE sends 93 Chorus depth 0 or 127.

BALANCE sends 7 Volume event - the very right one sends this event through MIDI channel assigned to POLY1, the very left one sends this event through MIDI channel assigned to drums, etc. Of course BASS & ACCOMPANIMENT sends nothing, you have to use SUB BALANCE controllers (see above) to control channels assigned to BASS and ACCOMPANIMENT 1-3.

SOUND SELECT sends Program Change through active part’s MIDI channel. The programs are assigned this way (POLY1, 2):

 

R / C

Col. 1

Col. 2

Col. 3

...

Col. 16

Row 1

033

034

035

...

048

Row 2

017

018

019

...

032

Row 3

001

002

003

...

016

 

and for BASS 1 -16 only.

 

RHYTHM SELECT does virtually the same but in the drums MIDI channel.

COMPOSER RECORD resets modulation and Pitch Bend.

ONE FINGER sends Controller 80 0 or 2

FINGERED sends Controller 80 0 or 1

INTRO ENDING sends Controller 82 0 or 3

 

These events can be probably also sent from sequencer.

Expression pedal doesn’t seem to send any MIDI event.

 

MIDI IN

KN receives at least the following events: Note On/Off, Pitch Bend, Modulation, Sustain, Program Change, Volume, Chorus. It can also record from MIDI IN to sequencer memory.

 

MIDI SETUP

Press twice SUB BALANCE /MIDI - the display should display MIdI. Within approx. 3 seconds press a TEMPO arrow. Now with TEMPO you can select which music part you want to set-up. They are:

 

Display

Meaning

PL1

POLY1

PL2

POLY2

bASS

BASS

AC1

ACCOMPANIMENT 1

AC2

ACCOMPANIMENT 2

AC3

ACCOMPANIMENT 3

dr

Drums

 

and 2 special parts:

 

Ctl

Control (?)

FUn

Functions (?)

 

In order to return from MIDI Setup, press SUB BALANCE / MIDI again.

 

Part-specific settings

For almost every music part you can assign a MIDI channel. First, select the part and then use SOUND SELECT buttons in the row to assign a MIDI channel 1 - 16. If KN only beeps a few times, the channel is already assigned to another music part.

You can also decide whether the selected part should play through KN’s speakers or only send MIDI events. To select this switch right VARIATION on or off.

It is also possible to set values 0 - 9 for almost every part with BALANCE POLY1 up and down. What’s this good for (?)

Overview

 

Part

MIDI CH.

Output on/off

Value

PL1

Y

Y

0-9

PL2

Y

Y

0-9

bASS

Y

Y

0-9

AC1

Y

Y

0-9

AC2

Y

Y

0-9

AC3

Y

Y

0-9

dr

Y

Y

-

Ctl

Y

N

-

FUn

N

Y

Special

 

Programming Foot Switch (Pedal) - FUn Part

Unlike by an acoustic piano you can change function of the pedal. To do so, activate MIDI setup, part FUn, now, with BALANCE POLY 1, you can change the function. Possible values are:

 

Display

Meaning

Function

SUS

Sustain

Classical sustain pedal

GLd

Glissando (?)

Pedal slides the tone 1 semitone down and when released 1 semitone up again. No MIDI event is assigned. This function works only with some instruments such as guitars or some brass.

tEC

Techni-Chord

Techni-chord mode (see above) controlled with the food switch.

Str

START/STOP

START/STOP controlled with the food switch.

FIL

FILL IN

FILL IN controlled with the food switch.

End

INTRO / ENDING

INTRO / ENDING controlled with the food switch.

 

General Settings

There are also some switches that seem to be common for all music parts. They are controlled with RHYTHM SELECT buttons in the row and with SYNCHRO and START/STOP. They can be on or off independently on the other switches.

 

Button

Function

16 BEAT 1

(?) Lower degree of polyphony, only POLY1 enabled, CONDUCTOR disabled

16 BEAT 2

(?)

JAZZ ROCK

Remaps SOUND SELECT and RHYTHM SELCT buttons contra Program Change in a strange way.

FUNK

Disables MIDI Pitch Bend and other Controllers (Modulation, Sustain, Chorus)

SWING ROCK

Disables MIDI Program Change

DISCO 1

(?)

SYNCHRO

(?) Display turns to ---.

START/STOP

(?) Probably something with MIDI clock


 

Advanced Hardware Information

 

Expression Pedal

The pedal input expects a resistor connected. If the resistance is about 0 Ohm the expression or volume is maximal. Resistance (very approx.) about 1000 Ohm represents minimal expression.

 

Foot Switch

Expected values on this input are either short or open. The short circuit represent released foot switch and the open circuit represents active/pressed pedal. The open circuit must be really open as resistors about 5K don’t matter. The current is approx. 0.5 mA and voltage about 4.5 V.


Questions without answers

 

If you know the answer, please, let me know:

 


© Tomas Kubec 1997, 1998