Kawai K-5000W (c. 1996–1998)
The K-5000W was the workstation version of Kawai's late-'90s K5000 additive synthesizer line. It sat alongside the sequencer-less K5000S and the rackmount K5000R. The surviving record is thin and mostly promotional - a short news item, an editorial mention, and the spec copy from Kawai's own ads. It's enough to sketch what the machine was.
Sound on Sound (November 1996, p.19) noted that rumors of a serious new Kawai synth had been circulating for months before the K5000W finally appeared, demoed on Kawai's US website. The same brief said all three K5000 models shared the same core: 128 harmonics, individual envelopes, a 128-band formant filter, and a 24 dB/octave resonant filter.
The fuller picture comes from Kawai's own advertising in the same magazine (February 1998, p.49), which explained the "Advanced Additive" engine. Each wave set held 64 harmonics, and each harmonic had its own five-stage looping amplitude envelope. A 128-band formant filter simulated natural tonal characteristics. 123 PCM samples, including classic analog synth waveforms, added color. Up to six elements could be combined into one timbre. The spec block listed a 40-pattern, 11-mode arpeggiator with chord gates and triggers.
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