Cosmetically it was in great condition but upon firing it up the machine gave me an Internal Battery Warning.
Contrary to what I'd expect, fixing this was very easy. There isn't much about it online however, hence me writing this post to help anyone else in a simliar situation.
First thing to do is to get a Cr2032 battery. You can get these EVERYWHERE! Mine cost me a quid.
Next open up the beast; as you can see from the photos the battery is easy to find AND in a clip holder, so no desoldering required.
Remove old battery and insert new one. Screw the beast back up.
You will have now lost all your preset sounds but do not fret, KAWAI have them all available for download! How cool is that!
These can be transferred to your machine either with SysEx using something like SysEx Librarian or Elektron C6 SysEx Manager or with a MIDI file using any MIDI sequencer program that can play it.
I decided to go for the MIDI sequencer file option.
Import the downloaded .mid file to your favourite DAW. I used Logic.
Set the K4 to: INT PROTECT = OFF, RCV EXCL = ON and RCV CH = 1.
Then play the file on your DAW - make sure the track header is set to external MIDI.
And hey presto you're up and running!
I love this machine already so more Kawai K4r posts to follow...
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4 comments:
Thanks, Neal. I've had my K4 since at least 1996, but went to fire it up today and had the same problem. Coincidentally, the CR2032 battery is what i just bought for the key fob for my Prius. So i guess it's off to the store to buy another. I love my K4.
Domer
Hey guys, I had the internal battery replaced in my Kawai K4. Unfortunately I'm not very tech savvy,and haven't been able to recover the factory sounds. Any tips on how to get a "step-by-step" guide on how to download the files into the K-4? Right now I can't even open the sys files on my computer. I'm stuck... I appreciate any help on the issue.
Buy cartridge off eBay or me
I read some where that you can change the battery with the power on to avoid losing your sounds. I'm comfortable doing that but not sure if it something for everyone.
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