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K2000 Compatibility
K2000 Compatibility Files
Appendix B
K2000 Compatibility
K2000 Compatibility Files
Included as part of your K2500 accessory disks are two disks of K2000 compatibility files, for
your use when playing K2000 programs on the K2500. The Kurzweil K2000 has been a widely
used platform for several years, and the VAST architecture and programming interface is
largely the same in the K2500. Therefore, an attempt was made to organize the K2500 factory
objects in a way most compatible with existing K2000 files. However, several improvements
have been made to the Base ROM objects, and therefore not all K2000 support software will
play correctly in a 2500 without some minimal translation.
The purpose of the files on the two K2000 compatibility disks is to allow you to play programs,
sequences, and other objects that were created on a K2000, so that they can be re-saved in a
"native" 2500 format.
If you never owned a K2000 and you do not have existing material programmed on the K2000,
you probably do not need these files.
Here are the main differences:
ROM Drum samples. While most of the samples in the base ROM are compatible between the
K2000 and the K2500, the drum samples are not. The K2500 drums are made from new
recordings, and a slightly different selection of drums is offered (e.g., three ambient snares
instead of four). Furthermore, where all drums and percussion had been grouped in one multiroot sample (Sample #20 Drums and Percussion), they are now available as separate samples
addressed by number.
ROM Effects programs. These were re-programmed for greater signal-to-noise ratio, and re-
organized for ease of use. The Effect page in the program editor always points to an Effect
program, and has several parameters for real-time control. Many programs developed for the
2000 series utilized those factory default effects. When these programs are loaded into a K2500,
they will not call the correct effect.
ROM Keymaps. An effort was made to keep instrument keymaps in the same order as in the
K2000, because the keymap must be correct for a program to sound correct. Keymaps 20-38, 61,
70, and 173-176 have been replaced or deleted, and subtle improvements in volume have been
made to others.
About the compatibility files:
There is one main file on this two disk set, K2KBASE.K25. It contains all the necessary objects
for a K2500 to play any program made on a late model K2000, including drum and percussion
samples. If you do not have sample memory, you can still use this file for some compatibility,
but the drums will not play.
The idea is to temporarily overwrite the ROM in the K2500 with these objects, so that K2000
programs can be loaded, played, and then re-saved with their dependent objects.
If you use the compatibility files often, you will find that sometimes you only need to load
some of the objects from the big file. This can be done with the Load Object feature. As a
convenience, we have provided a file which only contains effects programs, K2KFX.K25, for
one such case.
We also included a file for Orchestral ROM compatibility, K2KROM1.K25. It should be loaded
in tandem with the K2KBASE.K25 file only if you have the Orchestral ROM option installed.
(There are very few differences between the 2000 and the 2500 in the Orchestral ROM bank, so
this file will rarely be used.)
Appendix B-1
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K2000 Compatibility
Converting K2000 Files to K2500 Files
Converting K2000 Files to K2500 Files
There are five steps to convert a K2000 file to a K2500 file:
Before you start, make sure you have saved all user objects to disk, because memory will be
cleared.
Step 1 Load the compatibility file as Everything/ Overwrite. (Everything/Merge mode will
work too)
Step 2 Load the file(s) you wish to port into any memory bank from 200 through 800.
Step 3 Save these objects with dependents to new files.
Step 4 Delete everything.
Step 5 Load the new files to make sure they play correctly.
Happy porting.
Appendix B-2
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Converting programs from the K2500 to K2000
Converting programs from the K2500 to K2000
There may be times when you wish to take a file you have created for your K2500 and load it
into a K2000. As we have mentioned in the above section on loading K2000 files into the K2500,
most objects are compatible.
There are, however, a few things of which you should be aware. The following sections will
explain.
Programs using Drum samples
Since the K2500 has new drum samples, these programs will not translate correctly. The K2500
drum samples are not available on disk to be loaded into the K2000, so these programs simply
can not be converted so that they will sound identical.
However, if you have some K2500 programs which take advantage of VAST programming and
wish to use them in a K2000, you can load the program into the K2000, then edit the program to
change the keymaps to the corresponding drum keymap. If the keymap is one of the 5 octave or
2 octave kit keymaps, you will find that for the most part, the type of percussion sound will
match up, though there may be a few which don't. Keep in mind though that the sound itself
may be quite different, since the samples are different.
K2000 Compatibility
Effects Programs
The preset effects programs in the K2500 are different than in the K2000. However, since these
effects programs consist simply of different values for the various editable parameters, a K2500
effect can be loaded into the K2000.
Here is the simplest way to include a K2500 effect in your file with the program. On the K2500,
call up the program that you will be porting to the K2000. Press edit and go to the EFFECT
page. Press edit again to enter the Effects Editor. Now press save to save that effect to RAM.
Once it is saved, press exit. You will now see that the RAM effect is assigned to the program.
Press exit and save the program before leaving the editor. If the effect was saved to the same
bank as the program, and you are saving the entire bank, both objects will be saved to the file. If
the effect was saved to a different bank or you are selecting only individual programs to be
saved to disk, be sure to answer yes to the "Save Dependent Objects?" question and the effect
will be saved along with the program.
If you have a great number of programs that you want to convert and don't want to edit each of
those programs, there is another method you can use. You can create your own K2500 effects
compatibility file, similar to the K2000 effects file. This method will require more work initially,
but once it is done, the file can easily be used again and again.
To do this, start with the K2500 cleared of all RAM objects. (Go to Master and delete
Everything.) Now go to Effects Mode, call up each effect one by one, going into the Effects
Editor and saving that effect to RAM. Save the effect back to the exact same number it was
originally at, choosing Replace. For instance, save effect #17 back to location #17. (If you have
an editor/librarian software program for your computer, you can get all the effects in one shot
and save them to the same RAM locations.) Now save an Everything file to Disk. You now have
a file similar to the K2KFX.K25 file on the compatibility disks. You can use the exact same set of
five steps documented in the section on converting K2000 files to the K2500, but this time you
will be loading the files into the K2000. (Don't forget to delete Everything in the K2500 when
you are done creating the compatibility file.)
Appendix B-3
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K2000 Compatibility
Converting programs from the K2500 to K2000
Keymaps
The following keymaps are either different in the two instruments, or they do not exist in the
K2000: 20-30 & 173-191. (Keymaps 169-172 have different names in the K2500 but are identical
to the ones in the K2000.) Keymaps 23-30 & 189-191 use drum samples and are therefore can not
be converted to the K2000 (see the section on Drum Samples, above). But keymaps 20-22 & 173188 can easily ported to the K2000. To do this, you will follow the same procedure used to
convert effects programs, documented above. Follow those exact steps, but instead of going to
the EFFECT page, go to the KEYMAP page in the Program Editor.
Additional Considerations
Impact
Impact, on the ENVCTL page, is a feature that is new with the K2500. Keep Impact set to zero if
you are planning to use a program on the K2000.
Amplitude Envelopes
The K2500 Amplitude Envelope page allows for attack times that are quicker than those
allowed by the K2000. Keep in mind, then, that a program with an attack amplitude faster than
.02 seconds will be automatically adjusted by the K2000 to use a slightly slower attack time.
Appendix B-4
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