Kiwi Technics has introduced the Kiwi-1000,an upgrade for the Oberheim M1000 rack mount synth module that’s designed to turn it from a ‘difficult to edit preset module with a poor midi interface into a full featured synth’.
“This is not a M1000 with the MIDI fixed,” according to the company, “it is a completely new synth with MIDI as it should be.”
Features:
- 1000 Tones can be stored and all can be edited. It is also possible to edit any Tone using the front panel or midi.
- Expanded DCO Range and separate clocks for DCO 1 & 2. The original M-1000 had a single clock for both DCOs with limited range select. Each DCO now has the range 2′ to 64′. The CEM chip waveforms get a little out of shape at the high extremes as we are pushing the CEM3396 to it’s limits.
- Tones are stored in Flash memory so no battery is required.
- MidiCC & Sysex support for parameters edits and Midi Sysex support for Tone Dump & Load. The Oberheim midi issues are fixed. The Kiwi1000 will support full midi control and editing in real time.
- Key Assign Modes are Poly Single, Poly Dual, Poly Triple, Unison & Solo
- Each Key Assign mode can have Staccato/Legato, Steal/No Steal with five steal modes (Highest, Lowest, Oldest, Newest, Quietest)
- Portamento in all modes
- DCO Key Assign Detune available in all key modes. In addition there is a ‘Analog Feel’ parameter that add an adjustable small random frequency to each note. Detune is best used with Poly Dual, Poly Triple or Unison keying modes for greatest effect
- Three independent envelope generators. These are traditional ADSR type. Each ENV Mod can select from ENV 1 – 3 and has an Inverted or Normal modes.
- Three independent Low Frequency Oscillators with 6 waveforms each. Each LFO Mod can select from LFO 1-3. LFOs can be plus and minus base note or plus base note only.
- Internal Master Clock with the range 5-299 BPM and rate can be set using a tap timer.
- Full Matrix mod system that can channel any mod source to any mod destination.
- A Front Panel Overlay is provided with the Kiwi-1000 upgrade.
Pricing and Availability
The Kiwi-1000 upgrade is available now for US $295.
Ooooh, would be nice when they bring that for the Oberheim Matrix 6(R) too …
Still missing some information though:
– Is it still sysex compliant with the original? Probably not. So is there a conversion between the original and the new (extended) parameter set?
– Where are soundcloud and / or video demos?
Bob G. made a nice update for Matrix-6. Check out his OS update version 2.15:
http://tauntek.com/Matrix6Firmware.htm
I think this kind of 3rd party product upgrade is fantastic! Take a cool synth and breath new life into it.
Sounds like they really did great planning work and brought a super-impressive feature expansion. Makes it well worth the modest price.
Except that it’s not a simply an upgrade. More like they changed it into a different synth. You win some functions, you lose some functions. I don’t really care for many of the added functions (arp, seq), but feel some characteristic functions have been omitted. So no ‘sidegrade’ for me.
Looks cool .. but too complicated to install from what I gather reading the manual .. I’m a player not an electronics engineer with fine soldering skills .. but cool for those that are.
I might setup to do a few conversions for some who are in the US.
Placed order, hope to get it installed soon!
where are you based? i’d be interested in having someone with the know-how help me with this.
Denver, CO. Please contact me through my site. http://www.millionmachinemarch.com, on vacation right now, till the end of the week. So please be patient with the response.
New features but you lose M-1000 original voice compatibility and some source and destination modulations options, env, ramp generator, tracking, etc. And too much agressive instalation.
I think you lose a bunch too and same options like sequencer have no sense.
Atractive for those who want transform the M-1000 in a very different machine but a cost for those new things.
For me is not the best way to improve this synth but is my opinion.
Cool! Glad no-one bought my unit when I was selling mine. Looking forward getting that mod!
Would be cool if that yellow sticker would cover the whole front as mine has seen worse days.
Oh, I assumed the installation was done by them. The low price is more understandable, now.
I was quite exited when I first heard about this upgrade. But the more I read about it, the more it seems they took out a lot of things that make the Matrix series special. Where’s env delay, tracking, ramping, dco click, vca2, env dadr mode, lfo lag, and probably some other things I’m missing? No idea why they would leave that out. I hope the idea behind wasn’t that they got rid of some functions they thought most users would never use. I for one do.
These functions are what define the matrix series for me. They allow me to make sounds on an analog synth that can even compete with modern digital synths in terms of complexity. Right now, the upgrade seems to turn it into a rather standard analog synth with a rather thin version of the Oberheim sound. So I guess I’ll just wait for an M1000 with the MIDI fixed. And I have to say that installing the 1.20 chip is a step in the good direction.
I like the Matrix-1000!! It is an underrated synth. I do like the separate clocking, but I will probably leave mine as-is… though the firmware upgrade/fix is kind of exciting; I almost want to try it but am not enthusiastic about bricking my synth…
Nice, but mine both units remain intact. I love it the way it is.
I need some more info is that a ship to install or it s more complicated please send me some info .
It would be good if Kiwi could come up with a tailored version with some features like tracking remaining. The sequencer is certainly of least interest to me as sequencing is delivered by other means in my setup.