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Kawai is one of those brands that most people have heard of but few really know much about, and true, they havent produced nearly as many synths as have Korg, Roland, Yamaha etc, but...their boards are for the most part sonically truly uniqe. The last one was the K5000s, probably the best additive synth ever. Actually it had two parts: the additive & high class S+S part, and two filter knobs, incredible versatile and complex. Also the K4 synth (1989) is truly special, digital but with a resonance filter: warm & fuzzy, ever-evolving stuff was easily optained from this one. The SX-240 is also a very underrated synth, powerful analogue-monster somewhat similar to the Jupiter 6 soundwise, but more advanced! Also the Teisco 110F(early Kawai) is a great analogue machine from around 1980, that sounds GREAT! My humble suggestion is if you can get hold of any of these, esp. at a reasonable price,....buy it! They are all unique sounding unlike many of the Rolands, Korgs etc. And now, a few words about the S100F...Whats really unique with this one: its a 1 VCO, no MIDI or compatible CV/Gate, no memory, no LFO s/hold synth, it doesnt even have a sub-osc!! Then I ask you: What is the most important part of an old analogue? Oh, yes, THE FILTER. And, this one can run ext audio through, not only the filter, but envelopes (thats right, theres more than one), and it can be mixed with the osc and/or noise: rippin , trippin, OUTSTANDING is what it is. And, for the record the 1 osc is quite phat, more like two osc to my ears, nothing like i.e. the Arp Axxe soundwise, if you know what I mean. Good phat basses and noises are available with little effort. I personally think its better than an SH-101 or MC 202, even though those have sub-osc. I wouldnt swap it for no SH-09 either, although that is a good machine. It was analogue-guru Vince Clarks first synth, and I read somewhere that he thought it was TERRIBLE(?!), but in that he was referring to the CV/gate (that wasnt there), I believe. The synth has unique envelopes and filter (it actually has two, also a highpass filter without resonance. so all in all: Its unique, it sounds good, its quite rare and it is relatively cheap. Nuff said!
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