
Kurzweil K2000 Version 3.54 and 3.87 Operating System Information


Kurzweil K2000 Version 3.54 - New Features

1) Eight 32-layer drum channels are now available  (P/RAM option required).  By default, MIDI channels 1-8 are defined as drum channels. You can, however, use the DrumChan parameter on the Master page to define a channel numbered higher than 8 to be a drum channel.  In this case, the channel you choose, along with channels 1-7 will be your drum channels.  For example, if you set DrumChan to 13, then your eight drum channels will be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 13. If you set DrumChan to a value of 8 or less, however, your drum channels will always be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.
 
2) A new option, "On2," has been added for the sustain pedal (Program editor - LAYER page). When you select "On2," the sustain pedal will not catch the release of a note that is still sounding when the sustain message is received; this can be very useful in a program that uses amplitude envelopes with a long release time.

Disk Mode Enhancements"

1) MIDI type 1 files can now be imported.

2) "Verify" has been added to the Disk page. This option, which is off by default, double-checks the data integrity of all your backup, copy, and save operations. Verification also, however, increases the time required for these operations; you may not need to use it if you have a stable SCSI setup. 

3) An Info soft button is now available on the Utilities page in Disk mode. Press this soft button to display information about your disk drive(s). The More button on the Info page displays formatting information for use by service personnel.

4) Also added to Disk mode is multiple file copy. As with other Disk mode operations, use the Select soft button to select multiple files to copy.

5) The K2000 will now give you an option when you have formatted a floppy to format another one. If you are formatting several floppies you will not have to start from scratch each time.

6) The K2000's SCSI subsystem has been enhanced to accept a greater variety of devices. Support for Iomega Zip/Jaz drives has been improved (the lockup problem that occurred if the drive went to sleep has been eliminated), and many more CD-ROM drives are now compatible with the K2000 (almost all CD-ROM drives except NEC now work). Furthermore, the K2000 now supports disk drives of up to 2 Gigabytes (2048 Meg). V3.54 will work with drives larger than 2G but only the first 2 G will be utilized. 

7) Previous to v3.54, for the Backup and Copy functions, the combined size of both drives had to be under 1 gig unless PRAM was installed. This limitation no longer exists.

8) Compatibility with the PC Exchange program has been improved in V3.54.


V3.87 New features

New Feature Summary:

1) SCSI Speed Improvements. 

Now loads and saves approximately twice as fast as previous versions.

2) Export to standard MIDI Type 1. 

Now the software can import and export both type 0 and type 1 MIDI files. 

3) ISO 9660 format support:

Adds ISO 9660 format support for CD's. This allows you to read CD's in the standard format. Previously we required an "image" of the hard disk format.

ISO9660 support key points:

a) Backup, Copy, and Macro all support this new format.
b) The software supports CD-ROM XA (Mode 2) as well as CD-ROM (Mode 1)
c) The software supports multi-session CD's, but some older CD-ROM drives may not support multi-session. In this case you will only see the first session.
d) File naming conventions that work: ISO 9660 level 1, MS DOS, and Joliet. 
e) Do not select "use Macintosh extensions" when making ISO 9660 CD's.
f) Do not select "append version numbers" when making ISO 9660 CD's.
g) The maximum "path-length" (total file name, including directory names and slashes) is 64 characters, which means that files in highly nested directories may not be loadable.
h) Unicode characters do not display correctly.

4) Supports looped WAV files, both import and export. Also correctly handles tuning of WAV and AIFF files. 

Saving a WAV file will now export the loop info, if any. Importing a looped WAV file will now get the loop data, if any. The software only handles one loop per sample, so the first loop found in a WAV file is used. The tuning now works correctly.

5) Now reads 2500 programs. 

Previously, programs conatining non-default values for certain K2500 speciufic parameters such as the Impact parameter on the ENVCTL page, or any programs with KDFX settings, could not be loaded into the K2000. Now it translates them, stripping out any KDFX or other 2500 parameters.

6) Improved object save and delete times.

7) Improved sample delete times.

8) Bugs fixed:

a) Fixes problem where certain SCSI drives would be very slow.
b) Fixes "Keep" bug in song mode, where keep function  would sometimes freeze.
c) Fixes local on/off problem over MIDI. Cakewalk and some other sequencers send a MIDI local off message, which was being handled incorrectly.
d) Reverses the sense of the MIDI portamento time control (CC 5), to meet the MIDI spec.
e) Fixes a problem with certain Akai CD's where the samples have a playback rate set to zero.

A number of other bugs are fixed as well.
