KawaI FS800 | The Cheapest, Most Obscure Kawai Synthesizer

[@hermeslord]

I think the year was 1990 or 91 . A friend called me home to show the keyboard he got on my recommendation. As we were teenagers on a slim budget but big aspirations had asked him to try for a Casio CT610 . Now since this was being requisitioned through a friendly relative overseas I think the number 610 got through as what was wanted . And one morning it arrived .. a Kawai FS610 along with the vacationing relative. My friend was downbeat as in our parts of the planet, keyboards then meant Yamaha PSS/PSR or Casio MT/CT .. now this was a new one Kawai..I was aware of the K1 K3 and K5 thanks to keyboard and electronic musician back issues.. once we powered it up and did a checkout I was blown with the sound quality… which was much ahead of the measly 2 OP FM on the PSS/PSR and the grainy feeble sounds of the Casio MT/CT series… best part was it was priced similarly if not lesser than the other two. Routed through an amp and bit of EQ it sounded just great.. maybe kawai didn’t put marketing budgets behind these and not put them in as many small music stores/ supermarkets shelves on Xmas week to make the needed impact. It was definitely a good, if not a great buy. Like many Japanese companies who make great products but lose their way in the marketplace.. Kawai will find it’s name in that hall of shame..

[@pianokeyjoe]

Kawai and Yamaha made similar keyboards in 1990-92. The Kawai series was the FS line, and the Yamaha line was PSR. Both featured PCM sounds and rhythms with Midi and cheap consumer grade strip keys(keys that if one broke, you had to replace a strip of keys). The Yamaha had the DASS system(mix of FM and AWM sound sources), and Kawai was a mix of digital and PCM. Casio also had the CT and CTK early tonebank keyboards. All 3 brands were touting PCM sounds, midi, and red LED segment displays as well as elaborate rhythms and accompaniments. The KAWAI was the more advanced of the 3 and yes, it was very obscure and rare even then. I think the introduction of these FS series may have been late 89 though I can not be sure as I was in transition from moving from Puerto Rico to the mainland USA and only got to see these keyboards in action in 1991 at Service Merchandise store.

[@studiomg3212]

Very cool, thanks for sharing!

[@craigie13]

Love the space for an ipad on the right, Kawai so forward thinking....

[@asoundlab]

😂😂😂😂

[@wishcloudstudios]

This was my keyboard from my teen years! I bought mine brand new from Costco in 1993. I was saving my money, and really wanted the Roland JV 1000, but my parents talked me into buying this cheap keyboard instead. I used it for years, and got a lot of use out of it. It was actually surprisingly good for what it was. I can only imagine what I could have done if I had a DAW back then. My Kawai FS-800 died in 2000. I kept it all these years and I finally got it repaired recently. I wanted to use those classic 80's sounds in my new works. I would be overjoyed if I can find the settings sheet I wrote down for the modified sounds I created back in the day.

[@audioartisan]

Thanks for another great episode, Zack. I also love the sound of all the old Kawai synths. Not sure if you have had the chance to listen to it, but IMO the best Music using old Kawai synths exclusively was done by Patrick O'Hearn during the 80's/90's. Especially his awesome release called 'Eldorado'. If you get the chance, listen to the song 'Delicate' on the Eldorado album. Pure and beautiful Kawai KI & K4 pads you wont soon forget.

[@OscillatorCollective]

It actually does sound really good, especially for a consumer level product. Has a very interesting tonal color.

[@rfrayo_]

The sounds kinda reminds me of the Keytek CTS-2000. It was a 2 "Wavetable Nee Cross-Table" oscillator 8-voice machine with 6 stage envelopes released in Italy back in the late 1987 and was basically the last dying breath of Siel. They went under and Keytek was formed just to manufacture their last synth. It's kind of a "dollar store PPG". It has CEM-3389 analog filters. These are hindered by high-value capacitors on the intake voltage regulators, so removing them and adjusting the trimmer capacitors REALLY opens the CEMs up. It has 111 8 bit wave sequences (8 bits over 384 bytes) per 'wave'. An oscillator is a shift between 3 of these. Each 'wave' is a completely different set of waveshapes, so there are a possible 333 waveshapes per oscillator/transition. By manipulating time-start, time-end, distance, and stretch, you can skip waves and even loop them. The MIDI and SysEx implementation is crude and also largely undocumented. Manuals are out there, but they are actually the cut version of the 100+ page actual manual. The only real actual manual is in Italian. I'm translating it in my free time so the like 70 CTS-2000 owners out there will eventually understand exactly what all the parameters mean. Also parameters are in 'pages'. A page is 6 parameters giving real time control over 6 parameters at once. However, display values of editing are displayed in +/- relation to a memory's original settings, meaning you have to do some math every time you edit anything in a patch. Editing them is a chore....as you must specify whether you want to edit the parameter for the sound...or the octave....This was so it could have 5 different sounds spread across the keyboard simulating a multitimbral machine.

[@SacSynths_Jack_Z]

A quick glance at the service manual and this synth looks to be based on an IC made by Kawai themselves, the K009-FP. It looks to be handling all of the tone generation going on under the hood as the only other chips are the ROM, RAM, DAC, some logic ICs, and a couple different amplifiers. Sounds pretty good though! That case molding 🤣 LOVE IT!

[@torbenanschau6641]

"Welcome to bad gear! The show..." wait, this is Zach? Kawai btw. had a lot of cheap arrangers with Synthesizer functions, the MS-Series and the FS680 e.g. But they had real cheap synths, one of which being the KC10 Spectra which was even smaller and cheaper than the Kawai K1. Think there was a bigger version of this called the FS2000. These two probably competed best with the PSR 4500/4600 line.

[@OscillatorCollective]

A few of those patches remind me of my old K5 module I had…that’s probably the basis for the synth engine.

[@synthesizerhome2041]

The K4 is the basis. The FS 800 came out 1991-1993

[@wilorules]

Now you HAVE to do a video on the Casio HT-6000 - the cheapest, most obscure, 4 DCO, 8 analog VCF 1987 polysynth.

[@pianokeyjoe]

Upon listening, the Kawai used a mix of WAVETABLE(digital snippets of sounds both real, and synthetic), and PCM(sampled snippets of real sounds). Kinda sounds like FM synthesis from Yamaha but with some of the WAVESEQUENCING sounds, it is obvious it is wavetable(Korg Wavestation/Prophet VS), and some realistic sounds like strings and pianos(PCM though very low grade, 8bit or 12bit?). Yamaha used higher grade PCM they dubbed AWM which was like 12bit sampled, and 2 operator FM(PSS470).

[@KMNKeyboardVault]

I own the Yamaha Version it’s the PSR-4600 the PSS series is the PSS-680

[@madness8556]

The PSR4600 sounded great and had excellent accompaniments for the time.

[@pshealy69]

Looks to be similar in design the the FS610 which I had in the early 90s(91ish). It featured the one finger ad lib function and up down left right style buttons. PCM was taking hold at that time so I would expect to be an early rompler. You can find more info on that model because it was more popular.

[@pianokeyjoe]

FS610.. I had and still have that one as well as the FS630. The FS610 which was made by Kawai Italia spA, used wavetable digital synthesis and 8bit PCM maybe 10bit? It was obscure as Casio used similar tech and sounded stronger and clearer(CT670). The FS610 was a 1989 product. The FS800 Superboard came out in 1991/92 as per the catalog I had back then from Service Merchandise and from my physical interactions with these keyboards at said store in 1991 and 92. The Superboard was the flagship of the FS line. Then Kawai took off into space with the X series and so on. Another keyboard of note from Kawai of that same time frame was the PH50 which was an FS610 on serious steroids, drugs,lsd, and the kitchen sink! It featured the vector synthesis joystick of the K1 and K1mk2. Ahh the days of classic Kawai! I think the last true Kawai synth was the K5000W/S and those were wavetable additive synths too. Sad to see em all go..

[@RJPHOENIX]

Hi, I just found your review of the Kawai FS800... Thanks. I have one and as you said... they are dirt cheap! (I bought mine as a local tag sale in 1998 for $50...) I'll have to look around in my basement, because I believe I still have the user manual that came with it... In your review, you forgot to mention there is also a MIDI I/O on the right side rear... What would really help me out though, is to know what AC power supply you have for yours... I just unwrapped my FS800 today, after moving eight years ago... and the power supply that I used to use (an old HP printer ps that pushed out nearly 5amps, is missing and I cannot get the FS800 to power up with any of the 12V 2A wall warts that I have... When I went on line for a replacement, all that are offered for the FS800 are the same wall wart power supplies that I have... I don't believe a 2Amp wall wart will even get the circuits started... I would appreciate knowing what amperage your power supply has and in the mean time... I'll search out my manual and make a PDF document out it and post it for you... Cheers Bob

[@RJPHOENIX]

As promised... FS-800 user manual... kawaius.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Kawai-FS800-Personal-Keyboard-Manual.pdf

[@THESYNTHBARD]

Nice. Sounds ideal for dungeonsynth.

[@DuncanNairn]

My thoughts exactly.

[@MaxSteel-ot4ik]

I've been doing all mine on a midi keyboard for the last year.. But one just popped up on marketplace in my area... and I think I need to make my life more complicated by acquiring this for just that reason..

[@axs203]

I wish I worked in a music store and got to review synths!

[@resynthesizer4565]

I remember reading somewhere that Jonothan Caine used a Kawai consumer board on one of Journeys recordings.

[@joonglegamer9898]

It really feels like a clone of Yamaha Portasound from the late 80's, the looks of it, the button styles, the layout, the display, the cheesy drums, the strings are nice...

[@toddsmithmusic3172]

Dude Kawai pushed many classic industrial sounds ! They had a few drum machines that made the genre.

[@thisisnev]

I think the synth section might be lifted from the KC10 Spectra (probably the world's only 5-octave keytar!). That was pretty basic.

[@glenesis]

I'd classify it as a "Home Keyboard". I think it was from 1990 or 91. There were literally mountains of them in most chain music stores. On a good day it cost $99 Bucks!

[@isabellecarbonneau4744]

Hello, great video....How do I put it on PIANO sound ? It is on another instrument... Thanks for educating me :)

[@tlazohtlalia]

The bass sound is reminiscent of the DX7

[@carstenaltena]

*checks if this wasn't posted on april fools day* - all joking aside, charming instrument!

[@joeneighbour9740]

that piano sounds cool!??😩😩😞☹😇😊😊

[@ScunnyBoy1972]

The KAwai FS 800 is more like the Kawai version of the Yamaha PSR 4500-4600 keyboards!

[@muzzamilabdalla311]

hello all ,I have a brand new one for sale with the box, if interested let me know

[@soulflower8687]

released 1991

[@jaisreesantmyujikalgrup6072]

हमें आपके नंबर चाहिए हमें जूनो जी कीबोर्ड चाहिए

[@synthesizerhome2041]

The piano sounds horrible... like the most other presets. The E-Bass sound is a sample of the DX7 factory preset "Bass 1", like on many other Kawai keyboards of that time. If you like the strings or those lofi pads, buy a Kawai K4 or K1, the FS 800 has shortened samples of them.

[@danielortizdecaracas]

sounds like a FM 4op, but worst