lee/hpr-knowledge-base
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull Requests Actions Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity

Update metadata and transcripts through end of July 2026

Browse Source 
Refreshed episodes/hosts/comments/series from hpr.sql, and added
official HPR transcripts for the 180 episodes aired since the last
sync (hpr4516-hpr4695).
This commit is contained in:
Lee Hanken
2026-07-31 16:18:57 +01:00
parent 37e8274bff
commit 087f80c44d
184 changed files with 61169 additions and 41 deletions
Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files
hpr_transcripts/hpr4534.txt
+104
View File
@@ -0,0 +1,104 @@
Episode: 4534
Title: Reviving My Kawai K4 Synthesizer
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr4534/hpr4534.mp3
Transcribed: 2026-07-31 16:13:25 (official HPR transcript)
---
This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 4534, for 2025-12-18
Today's show is entitled, "Reviving My Kawai K4 Synthesizer"
The host is Claudio Miranda and the duration is 00:12:03
The flag is Clean, and the license is CC-BY-SA
The summary is "Claudio describes how he revived his old Kawai K4 synthesizer after years of dormancy."
Hey, Hacker Public Radio, this is Claudio Miranda, and I'm recording this episode on how I revive my Kawaii K4 digital synthesizer.
So this is made by Kawaii, and it came out in 1989.
I purchased this supposedly brand new in the early 90s.
So it's quite a bit old. You could say it's a vintage synthesizer.
It's a digital synth. It's not an analog synth, but it does have digital samples of different samples, and you can actually program them.
And it was, like I said, it was my main synth for a good while I used it for sequencing with Kawaii K8i tabletop sequencer that I purchased used some couple of years afterwards.
And that was before I migrated to using software on the computer for sequencing.
So around 2005, I purchased another synth, which eventually became my main synth, and this one was kind of put to pasture for some time.
And in my constant moves throughout the years, it's been sitting unused or stored away either in storage or my dad's garage or different places,
but it has been used until recently that I decided to set everything up and kind of set up my own digital studio with using QTractors to record everything mini tracks.
So I decided to buy a power adapter for this, and for some other Kawaii devices I have, which I may talk about in QTractors.
But this one, I went ahead and I ordered a generic one on Amazon, it meant the requirements for power, and it was just hopeful that it would turn on and work.
So the, once the adapter arrived that went ahead and plugged it in, you know, prayed to the midi gods and lowly hold it came to life.
However, it did give me a message saying there's to check the internal battery.
Now, I, this kind of what I was expecting from when I had been reading online, and based on an experience I had with a Corg M1.
That, I remember it was at a school that I used to work at, and they had it, and they decided to power it on because they were going to get rid of it.
And it also said that it was having issues with the battery.
So checking online, I found this page called Neil Beard and his machines, and he talks about, he has a blog post, actually, of how to replace the battery on the Kawaii.
Now he's talking about the Kawaii K4R, which is the Rack Mountain version of this synthesizer.
Basically, meaning it goes on a rack and it doesn't have keyboard, it's controlled via MIDI.
And he goes through the steps and everything and provides a few links there.
So I went ahead and took this Thanksgiving break that we had here in the US.
I went ahead and I decided to open up the Kawaii save.
Now, I didn't do this without following some instructions.
I actually, ironically enough, I found a video on how to tear down how to open up the Kawaii and get to the battery.
Now, even though the video wasn't Japanese, I kind of got to just the what he was talking about because if he was tearing down and trying to get into the part with the battery.
Thankfully, it's very easy to get into.
So I went ahead and took all the screws off from the bottom.
And I looked at the battery, looked for the battery.
Thankfully, it's a CR2032 battery, which goes on any computer you can find in any store as relatively cheap.
So I went ahead and I bought a pack of two and I went ahead and I replaced that battery.
And once I put it all together, I went plugged it back in, turned it on.
And thankfully, the message was gone.
So, but the problem was that every sound for every patch, every patch that the synthesizer had was the same.
And even the drum sounds were the same.
So I had to find a way to get the original default factory sounds back into this device.
So thankfully, Neil Beard on his blog post about replacing the battery, provides some links that show you where you can actually still get the original sounds for the K4.
And the K4R.
You know, you can talk, like I said, he talks about the K4R, but this also pertains to the K4.
Same device, just one has a keyboard and sound effects and the other one does.
And thankfully, Kawai has all of their patches and documentation and everything for their musical instruments on their downloads page.
And I'm going to find this along with information about the K4R in the show notes.
Now, the way to do this is, once you download the sound sets, there's two ways to install them.
Either through standard mini file, which you would play as a mini file and it would transfer over to the synthesizer, depending on what mini channel it's in.
Or using what's called MIDI system exclusive messages, or SISX, MIDI SISX.
So I've dealt with this in the past using some older software, but I had never done it on minutes or BSD.
Since I was working with my Slackware installations for my music stuff, I decided to do it on there.
So I went ahead and downloaded the patch set, the system X.
It's a zip file if I'm not mistaken.
For the K4, I went ahead and I downloaded that.
And then I had to configure my, I had to configure the synth to receive MIDI system exclusive messages.
So I had to unprotect the internal bank so that I can be written.
And then I used a MIDI, which is spelled A and IDI.
It's a command line tool, and I'll provide the link for that in the show, as well, along with what MIDI system exclusive messages are.
And I used that to actually transmit the MIDI system exclusive messages from the Slackware box to the K5K4.
And it does that because I've got a MIDI interface connected to the computer that goes to the synthesizer.
So doing that, I was able to get the patch sounds back in.
I decided to do a test by powering it off and then powering it on again, and thankfully the sounds were still there.
So the battery's working, everything's working.
However, I did notice, and I had forgotten about this, that one of the black keys had,
had broken.
So the way that key works actually is that there's, and there's a spring on the inside to give it that, that, that, that, that.
You know, it's just to give it that, that feel of a piano key work, you know, it goes down, comes up.
So the problem was that one of the tabs, the notches, and the back of the black key, that keeps it in place.
So the spring is causing it to lean to, the, the, the force of the spring is causing the key to lean to a side and rub against the other key.
So it gets stuck.
So I'm saying to myself, how am I going to fix this? Because I've got to find some place where I can actually get a replacement.
Now, I could probably 3D print it, which is a suggestion from a friend of mine on, master it on, but I don't have a 3D printer, nor do I know of anyone that has a 3D printer.
So I decided to look in the eBay and a few other places.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find it there, and if I did, it was very expensive, but I did find this one website that specializes in parts for synthesizers and keyboards.
As well as accessories. And the name of the company, and this is not to, you know, they're not promoting them or anything.
But, you know, it's just in case any body needs a replacement part for a synthesizer in the US, it's a company called Sintar.
So like Sintar, like a Sintar, but Sintar, so SYNTA, you are keyboard parts and accessories, and I'll provide the link in the show notes for that.
They actually have the key that I needed, and only cost me the key itself was about a little over $10 US, including shipping and taxes, came out to about 20 in change US dollars, which is not bad.
So that one I'm going to save for a future HPR episode on how I went about and replaced that, and it's going to be a little more involved because I have to actually remove the board that has the keys to get to the battery.
It was much easier because there's just one board on top, and just replacing the coin battery.
It's a solder room because I've heard situations where other synthesizers have that battery soldered on, but this sits in a receptacle that's there, and you just replace the battery.
So thankfully it was that easy. I am able to use it. I can't use that one key until I replace it, but I can still use it as a sound module, and I can control it from my Yamaha S08 through MIDI.
So, not all is lost, you know, it's still usable, and I'm just glad that it's functioning, and there are no other issues with it, and I pray it stays that way.
So anyway, that's how I revived my K4, and I've already recorded some tracks on something that I'm working on, so we'll see if I close it up here.
Anyway, if you haven't shown that you'd like to record, be sure to do so, send it up, grab an audio recorder, or grab your computer, and microphone, and record something that would be of interest to hackers, and HPR, the HPR website talks about that, what would be of interest to hackers, and go ahead and record it, upload it, and that should be your first show.
Do anything that interests you, or it can be how you got into particular technology, or how you resolve this problem, or anything, but be sure to upload an episode, as we are always in these shows, because everyone's in a while, especially during the holidays, and during the summer, the queue gets pretty low, and we have to dip into the reserve queue.
So that's going to do it for me today, hopefully I'll be able to record some more before the end of the year, I have one that I'm still promised I'm just going to do it.
So yeah, this is going to be it for me, and tune in tomorrow for another exciting episode of Hacker Public Radio.
You have been listening to Hacker Public Radio at Hacker Public Radio.org.
Today's show was contributed by a HPR listener like yourself.
If you ever thought of recording podcast, click on our upload link
to find out how easy it is.
Hosting for HPR has been kindly provided by an AnHonestHost.com, the Internet Archive,
rsync.net, and our mirror network.
Unless otherwise stated, today's show is released under a Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license.