Vintage Synth Explorer Forums

I just forrest gumped'd my way into a pawn shop K2000 smp-k V.3. it has version 3.01.
I picked it up mainly as a controller and to see what kind of fun I could have with it.

what kind of fun can I have with it? are sounds available? do I need to invest in an scsi drive or can I live off floppys at this point? is there some sort of usb alternative? is my operating system up to date enough to be functional?

any info/insight would be greatly appreciated.
thanks

The K2000 is a deep synth and can hold its own against many 'modern' synths... how much fun you will have with it is entirely up to you but it's capable of doing quite a bit.

To get you started, check out these links and do some reading:

http://kurzweil.com/knowledgebase/k2000/
http://kurzweil.com/product/k2000/downloads/
https://www.sweetwater.com/k2000/sounds.html
http://k2000.creativebits.net/fun-tutorials/

The last OS release for the K2000 was 3.87 ... you'll have to open up the case and look at the chips to see if they are labelled C (Calvin) or J (Janis) ... you need the correct version (C or J) when you upgrade... these chips are all for sale on ebay.

I originally swapped out the floppy drive on my K2000 for a USB floppy emulator but since then, I've installed an internal SCSI-SD card reader ... the card can hold 2Gb of data so lots of room for files ... these are also for sale on ebay.

You dont necessarily need an external scsi drive but it can't hurt if you got one... I have an external scsi Jaz drive that i can use if push comes to shove but since I installed the internal scsi SD card, all of these extra modifications have become redundant.

Anyway - the synth should keep you busy for a while.... getting to grips with the VAST system is part of mastering the synth so have a read of that... there's quite a lot of info archived on the web considering it's such an old synth.

Tekhed66 wrote:The last OS release for the K2000 was 3.87 ... you'll have to open up the case and look at the chips to see if they are labelled C (Calvin) or J (Janis) ... you need the correct version (C or J) when you upgrade...

Also available as EPROM binaries here: http://dbwbp.com/index.php/9-misc/37-synth-eprom-dumps

You know, for those that want to burn their own for a lot less $$$.

Follow that link Tekhed66 posted above to the Sweetwater site. They have a metric tonne of stuff there for the K2000. Make sure you download the Pink Floyd "On the Run" patch. It literally sounds like the record and it moves back and forth in textures. I've heard the guy that programmed that patch got a job with Floyd after they head it to program their K2000, it's that good.

Get a SCSI2SD card - version 5 or 6. It's the best option for bringing old SCSI stuff up to date.