My first synth, the Kawai K1-M

When I was about 16, my interest in synthesizers was originally peaked. I'd been taking classical piano lessons for almost 10 years and I had just quit and decided I wanted to make some "real" music. At the time I remember really liking the music of Howard Jones, Camouflage, and other 80s synthpop bands.

A music center had recently opened nearby our home offering lessons for guitar, bass, drums, and keyboarding. The center would then organize the kids taking lessons for the various instruments into make-shift bands that would perform at malls and zoos and other places around Salt Lake. I began taking keyboard lessons and needed a synthesizer. The instructor convinced my parents that the perfect keyboard for me would be a Casio.

(A blurry picture similar to the model to what I had.)

Yes. A Casio. One of those fairly cheap awful ones with no velocity control or weight in the keys, and with all the awful rhythm patterns so you can play "rock" or "march" or "bossanova" for no one who would ever care. I think the instructor was also a Casio dealer or something. So it was purely self-interest that he sold us this keyboard assuring my parents who specifically asked that this would be all I needed and that I would not grow disinterested in a year and want a better keyboard.

I grew disinterested in about two months.

So I convinced my dad to go to a real music store where they actually sold real equipment. Since we had just recently purchased a keyboard, we were steered toward a synth module rather than a full synthesizer. A module is simply a synthesizer without the keyboard part. That's when we got the Kawai K1-m.

Here are some page that gives some details about the K1m as well as links to other K1m resources:
http://www.retrosound.de/k1m.html
http://homepage.mac.com/synth_seal/html/k1.html

At the same time we also purchased one of the earliest versions of the software "Cakewalk" for sequencing and a special MIDI card for our new PC. I was able to hook up the Module through the Casio and use them both together to create music. I mainly used the Casio for it's built in drums and its slightly better piano sounds. The rest I relied on the Kawai to provide.

I used the sound module for about 3 or 4 years. I used it to do most of the keyboards and sequencing for my first band in high school, Narrow Escape. And used it quite a bit in college making my own songs. I have most of the songs in my sketchbook here (scroll down to the bottom of the page. Pretty much everything there from 1990-1993 used the Kawai module).

Gumby Sketchbook Music section

I still own this Kawai sound module to this day. I've been through quite a few other keyboards and synthesizers since I first purchased this the K1m, yet I've held on to this one. I don't remember the last time I actually turned it on and hooked it up. It might not even work anymore, provided I could even find the power cable. But it will always be special to me for being the first instrument that allowed me to start being creative musically.

Link to the original owner's manual should I ever turn the module on again:
http://www.kawaius-tsd.com/OM/K_SYNTH/K1_Synth.pdf