This zipped archive
contains version 4.00 of the operating system (OS) for your Kurzweil
K2600X/2600/2600RS. There are a
total of 3 files that are included: (2) OS files and this README.
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Operating System
Files |
Text File |
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K26V400A.KOS |
README.htm |
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K26V400B.KOS |
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OS v4.00 REQUIREMENTS
-
Any K2600/2600X/2600R
- v3.00
Base Objects (minimum)
OR
- v4
Base Objects(Best of VAST)
optional **
**(use of the v4 Base Objects require BOTH the Orchestral
&
Contemporary ROM Blocks)
Version 4.0 adds General
MIDI 1 support. For complete information on features and operation please refer
to the Version 4 (GM Mode) User's Guide.
The following bugs were fixed in OS V4.00:
1. There was a bug in triple mode programs with
monophonic mode turned on. When you held down the sustain pedal, notes would
not sound.
2. There was a bug in triple mode programs, where
the XFadeSense parameter on the output page had no effect for Triple layers.
3. There was a bug where the default pitchbend sensitivity could not be changed via MIDI RPN messages.
4. There was a bug where the OS could crash while
switching between grooves while the groove was playing.
5. There was a bug when switching between grooves,
where sometimes a groove would have the previous groove's tempo and programs.
OS
Installation Instructions
The complete procedure for
installing the operating system is included in Appendix A of the K2600
Performance Guide. For your convenience, here's a summary of the procedure:
We always recommend that you save any RAM objects to disk before doing any OS or Objects installations.
1. The Operating system is in two parts. Copy the files K26V400A.KOS and K26V400B.KOS onto two DOS formatted floppy disks.
2. Start the K2600.
3. Press and release the Exit key while the "Please wait..." message is displayed. This brings up the K2600 Boot Loader.
4. Insert the floppy with the file K26V400A.KOS, then select "Install System" from the K2600 Boot Loader to install the new operating system. Follow through the dialogs to install the file from floppy.
5. The Boot Loader finishes installing the first file and returns to the Boot Loader screen with Run System highlighted. Insert the floppy with the file K26V400B.KOS, then select Install System again and repeat the installation for the second part of the operating system file.
6. As mentioned in the requirements, you may also need to install new Base and Option objects, depending on what version you are upgrading from. Please check your currently installed Object Files to determine what Objects you may need to install/reinstall.
7. When the installation is finished, choose "Run System" from the Boot Loader.
While you won't normally
need to reinstall the operating system, you should still put the disk in a safe
place, just in case you may need it again.
Note: you can also install
these files from a DOS or Kurzweil formatted SCSI disk. When the display asks
which device you want to install from, change the parameter to the appropriate
SCSI ID. You can only install files from a SCSI disk which is 1 gig or smaller.
We recommend performing a
hard reset after installing and running the new system. Choose the Reset soft
button from the Master page.
Fixes a bug that would
cause a soft reset when Live In was selected as the Mode on the Sample page.
1. Fixes a sampler peak measurement bug. At the start of sampling, meters would report a false peak, and the reporting at end would also report the false peak as possibly incorrect max level.
2. Previously, even though you could assign MIDI controller numbers 98-101 to a physical controller, they would not be sent. Now they are correctly sent.
3. Distortion for
low-level signals has been improved.
1. Fixes a song loop bug
(for very short songs)
2. Fixes a problem in the studio editor where it would hang if a bus had no FX preset selected (because all the PAUs had been used by other busses) and you try scrolling the value.
Version 3.0 is the
official release for the new version of KDFX, which was first unofficially
released with v2.20 Beta. It contains two bug fixes:
1. During the redesign of the Effects Mode for the new version of KDFX, the DigOut parameter, which allowed you to choose between 16 bit and 20 bit word length, was left out. The parameter has been restored, and can now be found on the CTRL page in Effects Mode.
2. Some times after loading a file with Studios, the correct effects would not be selected even though the display showed the desired Studio. This was because the Studio was not linking to the correct effects. This has been fixed.
The KDFX v2 User Manual
can be downloaded at: kdfxv2ma.pdf
Version 2.20 adds the new
version of KDFX. Once officially released, it will include a new Supplement
Manual, which will thoroughly document all the new features, including details
on the new FX Algorithms. For this Beta release, we have written a set of basic
notes to help you familiarize yourself with the new features. These new
features fall into three categories: (1) a new set of pages for KDFX mode, (2)
effects chaining, and (3) new FXAlgorithms.
The new KDFX pages allow
all FXPresets within an FXStudio to be seen at once. They also provide controls
for bypassing a Studio's input EQs or effects individually, as well as for
per-bus audio muting. Effects chaining, the most powerful new addition, allows
effects to be placed in series on a bus, up to four in a row. This makes paths
of up to five FXPresets in series possible, including the Aux bus.
Furthermore, Kurzweil's
DSP engineers have created more KDFX algorithms for your processing pleasure.
There are 26 new FXAlgorithms, including new EQ, compressors, distortions,
timbral effects and more. 93 FXPresets and 20 FXStudios have been added as
well. With improved flexibility, power, and even more sonic possibilities than
before, Kurzweil is proud to present KDFX V2.
1. New KDFX Mode pages
The most immediately
noticeable change is the re-design of the old Effects Mode page. Unlike the
older system, the new KDFX Mode pages are accessible whether or not you are
inside one of the other editors in the system (Program, Setup, Song, etc.),
simply by pressing the Effects button on your unit's front panel. The new MAIN
page displays the Studio and the names of all the Presets (up to 5 can be used)
that are employed by that Studio, so you can see all the effects in a Studio on
one page. This page also displays PAU info and bypass status (to be discussed
later) for each effect. The six 'soft' buttons under the display are new as
well. From left to right, they are labeled: MAIN, CTRL, EQBYP, FXBYP, BUSMUT,
and BypAll. Anywhere in this mode, the MAIN button remains fixed as the
leftmost soft button, and is used to return to the MAIN page. You can think of
it like the Back button in a web browser. The CTRL button leads to a page much
like the old Effects page, where you can set the effects control mode, effects
channel, dither-all the stuff that you're used to seeing (including the
Digitech effects for K2500 users.) The other buttons lead you to additional new
pages where you can: bypass the Studio's input EQs, per bus (EQBYP); bypass any
of the Presets used by the Studio (FXBYP); mute individual busses in the Studio
(BUSMUT); or bypass all EQs and Presets together (BypAll).
Now that effects
bypassing, as well as EQ bypassing and signal muting, can be done on an
individual basis, you can create a custom bypass scheme by using the soft
buttons on the EQBYP, FXBYP, and BUSMUT pages, to help isolate sounds or
effects while creating a complex mix. You can then toggle between an
all-enabled state and your custom scheme by pressing either of the Chan/Bank
buttons to the left of the display, while in KDFX Mode. The system indicates
whether anything at all is bypassed or muted by showing "Bypass" at
the far right of the top line on the display; if nothing is bypassed, this
field shows "Enable." Any settings from the FXBYP page are also
indicated on the MAIN page as either a "B" (bypassed) or a
"-" (enabled). If you exit this mode with anything bypassed, the
Effects button's red LED stays lit to remind you that something is not active.
Also, whenever anything is bypassed, the BypAll button changes to say
"Enable." Pressing this button will make all EQs and effects active,
and will change the button back to "BypAll." Pressing BypAll will
always reset the various pages' settings to a default state of all EQs out, all
effects bypassed, and all busses active.
Previously, pressing the
Effects button while inside an editor performed a global effect bypass. You
could not bypass effects outside of an editor. Global bypass, inside or outside
of an editor, is now accomplished by pressing the Effects button and pressing
BypAll, or by pressing the Effects button and one of the Chan/Bank buttons, in
the case where no custom bypass scheme has been created. Pressing the Effects button
again, or pressing Exit, puts you back where you were.
2. Effects Chaining
The addition of effects
chaining allows the 4 PAUs of processing which are shared among Busses 1-4 of a
Studio to be used in series, chaining one FXPreset into another, into another,
up to four in a row, until you run out of PAUs. This is done by removing
processing "blocks" from one bus, and adding them to another. As no
effect is less than 1 PAU, and only 4 PAUs are available across Busses 1-4, any
Studio may have a maximum of 4 blocks, arranged however you please, in which to
select Presets (not counting the Aux bus which is not affected by chaining).
The Display of the FXBUS
page has been changed to accommodate the effect chaining. The chained effects
are shown at the top of the display (underneath the top menu line). As an
example, start with Studio 700 Flanger Trio. You can see that this studio has
three Flange effects, followed by a reverb. Notice they are numbered 1a through
1d indicating that they are all part of FXBUS 1, instead of four separate
effects busses. Now go into the Studio Editor. The top of the display shows the
four effects chained together. Each block contains an abbreviation based on the
Algorithm used by the Preset.
The name of the FX Preset
for the currently highlighted block is now shown underneath the signal path
graphics. In this example, you will see the FX Preset Ned Flangers if the first
block is highlighted. You still have 2 Bus Overrides (or Bus Mods) per block,
which appear just below the name of the Preset.
Use the left and right
arrow buttons to select each block. When a block is selected, moving the alpha
wheel or pressing the + or - buttons will select a different FX Preset (you can
also change the Preset by highlighting the FX parameter).
Notice that the unhiighted
blocks have a box around them. This shows they are active. Since this studio
has 4 blocks, each block can use only 1 PAU. If you select an effect that uses
more than one PAU, one of the blocks will become inactive and the box
surrounding that block will disappear. For example, if you change the first
block to FX preset 183 NarrowResFlange, the box around block 4 disappears. The
top line of the display shows you this FX Preset uses 2 PAUs. As in the past,
if the Allocation parameter is set to Auto, the higher number blocks have
precedence, so block 4 is the one which becomes inactive. If you highlight
block 4 at this point, you will see the FX Preset shown in parenthesis, again
showing it is not active.
The Channel/Bank buttons
still move you through the four FXBUSes. Since no effects are available in this
case, you will see a line with no blocks on them if you look at any bus except
FXBUS 1.
The Studio editor has some
new soft buttons and pages to accommodate effect chaining. When the FXBUS page
is selected, an Add and a Remove button appear, for redistributing the 4
available processing blocks among the four busses. The FX Send and Aux Send
fields and graphics that were previously shown on the FXBUS page are now found
on their own new page, FXSEND. Pressing the right more> button, reveals the
FXSEND soft button, as well as the familiar AUXFX and OUTPUT buttons. The
INPUT, AUXFX, and OUTPUT pages have not changed at all.
When chaining Presets
together, it is sometimes necessary to adjust the levels between blocks, most
often to pad the level going into the next block to prevent unwanted clipping.
While most algorithms have both an In Gain and an Out Gain parameter, In Gain
is not selectable as a Bus Mod. In fact, any Preset beyond the first in a chain
cannot use In Gain, and will display the value inside the Preset in
parentheses. We suggest, when necessary, choosing Out Gain as a Bus Mod to
adjust the output level of an effect, instead of trying to pad the input of the
following effect. Of course, you can always edit FXPresets directly and
customize them for your chain.
For examples of Studios
with chains, check out studios 700-719. By setting the FX Ctrl parameter
(KDFXMode:CTRL page) to Master, and the OutPair parameter (MIDIMode:Channels
page) to KDFX-A, you can scroll through Programs on a given MIDI channel and
audition these Studios as they were intended to be heard, with a variety of
input source material.
3. New FXAlgorithms,
FXPresets and FXStudios
Besides the new mode pages
and effects chaining, the KDFX upgrade also provides an expanded palette of 26
new FXAlgorithms and 93 FXPresets*, as well as 20 example Studios using effects
chaining. Lists of the new objects are included in a separate PDF file, which
can be found in the version 2.90 Base Objects zipped archive.
Newly added FXAlgorithms
range from simple filters to frequency and pitch mutators to outrageous effects
that are built to walk the line of instability and chaos. For example, Degen
Regen (Degenerator/Regenerator) is a double-tap delay with 4 bands of EQ, pitch
modulation, distortion, and compression - all inside a loop with feedback that
can exceed 100%, making growing delays and self-oscillation possible. Chaos! is
another algorithm which can also generate its own sounds, with or without
input. Although FXPresets have been provided which demonstrate a few of the
possibilities of these effects, taking the time to fiddle with the many
parameters in these algorithms is highly recommended. Real-time manipulation of
key parameters, via FXMods and controllers, can result in interactive sonic
experiences inexpressible in words. When playing on the edge of instability, do
take care to learn what makes an algorithm scream. We don't want any damaged
ears or monitors, so keep a master volume control handy, at least until you're
familiar with how an algorithm works. Most of all, enjoy yourself and your
sounds. Happy programming and happy listening.
* K2500 users get the same
new objects, plus 3 additional FXAlgorithms, 87 additional FXPresets, and 29
additional Studios, all of which K2600 users already have, strengthening
cross-compatibility between the two platforms. The 3 Algorithms are different
flavors of rotary speaker emulation. 16 of the 87 Presets and all 29 Studios
were created in the development of the K2600 Program set. The remaining 71
additional Presets (800-870) were created to help users replace the Digitech
effects on older Programs or Setups (pre-KDFX) with KDFX-based FXPresets programmed
to 'match' the Digitech Preset Effect of the same name, but with the cleaner,
wider-bandwidth and better quality sound of KDFX.
In addition to the new
KDFX features, the following bugs have been fixed:
1. The Portamento Time controller previously worked in reverse from normal. It now works correctly.
2. A problem with converting Ensoniq files, introduced in v2.0, has been fixed.
3. Previously, sysex control over KDFX parameters would not work on FXBUS 4. This has been fixed.
Version 2 adds two major
new features - Triple Modular Processing and Disk Partitioning Support. Both of
these features are thoroughly documented in the Version 2 Supplement manual. If
you do not already have this manual, it can be downloaded from our web site at k26_v2
addendum.pdf.
An enhancement has been
added to the keymap editor. Now the
CHAN/BANK buttons let you scroll through the key ranges instead of velocity
ranges. Although this is a redundant control, it provides a more user-friendly
way to access the key ranges while editing other parameters. Any keymaps which have velocity ranges
will now show the velocity range as a normal parameter in the keymap
editor. If a keymap has no
velocity ranges, the velocity range parameters won't display.
Support for Removable
Disks has been added to the Disk Macro feature. This allows you to switch disks
or CD-ROMs during the loading of a Macro. Details can be found in the Version 2
Supplement manual.
In addition to the new
features & enhancements, a number of bugs have been fixed:
1. In previous versions, the floppy drive could get into a state where it would not recognize known good floppy discs.
2. A Standard MIDI File type 1 import bug, in which event times might be translated improperly if a track had an end time that was earlier than the song end time, is fixed.
3. Loading of unsupported WAV formats (e.g. compressed WAVs) is now blocked.
4. A bug was fixed which caused possible display redraw problems in Disk Mode, occurring when loading a file that contained a Master Table.
5. An envelope release calculation problem, where engaging the sustain pedal during envelope release would cause the release portion of the envelope to be miscalculated, is fixed
6. AMPENV display scaling, now shows "1/1" when all envelope times are set to 0.
7. A bug was fixed in which the old Digitech effect softbutton was being displayed when editing KB3 programs is fixed. (The Digitech is not used in the K2600 - it was in the K2500.)
8. The proper Studio was not being used, after loading a file that contained both the Studio and a Master Table with an FX mode setting of Master. Now the correct Studio is selected.
9. After recording a song and hitting the Stop button, if you immediately tried to audition the new song before actually saving, notes would get stuck on when you hit the stop button again.
10. Sending Song Select from an external device now will correctly update the Song mode display, and if the song is looping, the new song is now selected when the loop occurs.
11. It is now possible to select the Digital I/O Format
when there is no sampling option installed (you would need the DIO-26 option to
send digital audio).
12. A bug where the Previous page button was not
always jumping to the previous page is fixed.
13. A bug was fixed in a few user dialogs, where user
input was not being range checked properly, allowing bad values to be entered
via the keypad.
This version contains one
new parameter, Song Control, found on the COMMON page within the Setup Editor.
This parameter has two possible values: Song or Setup. This parameter works in
conjunction with the Song parameter on the COMMON page. If a Song is called up
from within the Setup, if the Song Control parameter is set to
"Song", the song plays back exactly as recorded. If Song Control is
set to "Setup", all events except for Notes are filtered out when the
Song is played.
This parameter has been
added for use with the preset Groove Setups in the K2600. The K2600 contains a
number of preset songs, found in the 0s bank. Many of these preset songs
originally contained no program change or controller messages - the programs
and controller settings were called up by the individual Groove Setups which
were designed to use these songs.
Although the songs would
play perfectly in the context of the Setup, if you went to Song Mode, these
songs could sound strange. Since there were no program changes in them, the
sounds you would hear would be whatever happened to currently be assigned to
the MIDI channels in those songs.
To avoid potential
confusion, and to allow users to use these songs themselves for their own
purposes, we have added program and controller info back to these songs in the
version 1.03 Base Objects file. However, this could cause a conflict between
the program changes in the songs themselves and the program change messages
being sent by the Setups. So it is for this reason the Song Control parameter
was added, adding the ability to choose either the Song or the Setup to be in
control of selecting the programs and other controller info.
In addition, this version
contains a couple of bug fixes for Song Mode and the Diagnostics.
End-