Welcome
KEDITOR DCO lets you program your Kurzweil K2700 as if it were a Roland Juno-106. You work on a Juno-106 panel, with the same sliders, switches and ranges, and the editor turns your settings into a complete K2700 program: four layers of oscillators and filter, the Juno chorus, and a reverb and a delay.
You hear the result in two ways: on the Mac, through the app's own sound engine, or on the K2700 itself, which follows every move of the panel while you play. A finished sound is stored on the K2700 as an ordinary program, and it opens in the editor again whenever you like.
- The whole Juno-106 panel. LFO, DCO with pulse, saw, sub-oscillator and noise, HPF, VCF, VCA, envelope and the two chorus modes, plus a reverb and a tempo delay the Juno-106 never had.
- 128 factory patches, the Juno-106's own, levelled on the K2700, and 128 places of your own laid out like the Juno's memory (A11 … B88). Juno-106 SysEx files come in too.
- Live on the K2700. Every move reaches it while you play, and its own 27 sliders, knobs and buttons move the editor's panel.
- Safe storing. The editor always asks before replacing anything on the K2700 and reads the program back to check it.
- Made to touch. Big faders, a four-octave keyboard and a bender, for mouse, trackpad or touch screen.
- Vibrato on the wheel. The modulation wheel of the K2700 or any MIDI keyboard adds vibrato, as the Juno-106's lever pushed forward does.
Key ideas
| Term | What it means here |
|---|---|
| Patch | The settings of the Juno-106 panel plus the reverb and delay. This is what you edit and what the library keeps. |
| Program | What the K2700 plays. The editor makes a program from your patch, and the patch travels inside it. |
| Edit buffer | The K2700's working copy of the program on a MIDI channel. The editor writes only here while you edit; nothing is kept on the K2700 until you choose STORE. |
| LINK | The connection between the editor and the K2700. With the LINK on, the K2700 follows the panel. |
| PRESET / USER | The two banks of the library: the Juno-106 factory patches, and your own patches. |
| HEAR | Which instrument sounds: the app (HEAR IN APP) or the K2700 (HEAR ON K2700). |
Getting started
What you need
- A Mac with macOS 12 or later.
- To hear and store your sounds on the instrument: a Kurzweil K2700 and a USB cable to its USB COMPUTER port (MIDI and audio travel on the same cable). Without a K2700 the editor plays everything with its own engine.
- Optional: any MIDI keyboard or controller connected to the Mac.
Installing
Drag KEDITOR DCO into your Applications folder and open it. The first time, macOS may ask whether the app may use your Documents folder: allow it. Your patches and settings are kept in Documents ▸ KEDITOR DCO.
Quick start
- Open KEDITOR DCO. It starts on PRESET A11 Brass.
- Play the keys at the bottom of the window with the mouse or a finger, or play a MIDI keyboard connected to the Mac. You hear the app's engine.
- Choose another sound with the GROUP, BANK and NUMBER pads, as on the Juno-106, or step with ◀ ▶.
- Drag the VCF FREQ fader up and down while you play, then try RES and the envelope faders A and R.
- To hear it on the K2700, connect the LINK (see Working with the K2700) and click HEAR ON K2700. Every move of the panel now changes the K2700's sound.
- To keep it, click WRITE to put the patch in your USER library, and STORE ON K2700 to save it as a program on the K2700.
The panel at a glance
| Area | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Top bar | ◀ ▶ to step through the library; the patch display (place, name, PRESET or USER, and EDITED once you change something); K2700 CONTROLS shows or hides the K2700 control labels; INIT loads a plain starting patch; WRITE keeps the patch in a USER place; the LINK status; HEAR IN APP / HEAR ON K2700. |
| The synthesizer | The Juno-106's sections from left to right: LFO, DCO, HPF, VCF, VCA, ENV and CHORUS, then FX, the editor's reverb and delay. |
| PATCH | LIBRARY (PRESET or USER), then GROUP, BANK and NUMBER to choose a patch. |
| K2700 | The program's NAME and SLOT (the USER ID used last), READ FROM K2700 and STORE ON K2700. |
| Keyboard | OCTAVE − / +, the BENDER and four octaves of keys, C2 to C6. |
Working the controls
- Faders. Drag up or down. A fader moves from where it is, so touching it never makes it jump. While you drag, a bubble shows the value; it also appears under the fader. Most faders read 0 to 10, like the Juno-106's.
- Switches. Click or tap to flip between the two positions; the active one is printed in white.
- Buttons. Click or tap; the red light shows when a button is on. The RANGE buttons (16', 8', 4') work as a group: one is always on.
Everything works with a mouse, a trackpad or a touch screen: there is no right-click or keyboard shortcut to learn on the panel. The panel scales with the window, so you can make it as large as your screen allows.
The K2700 control labels
Under every control a small label names the K2700 front-panel control that moves it: its sliders S1 … S9, knobs K1 … K9 and buttons B1 … B9 (for example S1 under VCF FREQ). Move that control on the K2700 and the editor's control follows. The colour tells how the K2700 receives the change:
- Blue: the K2700's sound responds to its control directly, without any delay.
- Amber: the editor updates the program on the K2700 for you (this needs the LINK). The change is just as audible while you play; it is only carried differently.
Click K2700 CONTROLS to hide the labels for a cleaner view, and again to show them. The full list is in The K2700's sliders, knobs and buttons.
LFO
The low-frequency oscillator makes slow, regular movement: vibrato through the DCO, a sweeping filter through the VCF, a moving pulse width through PWM.
| Control | What it does | K2700 |
|---|---|---|
| RATE | The LFO's speed, from a slow swell (about 0.04 Hz) to a fast flutter (about 24 Hz), on the Juno-106's scale. | K1 |
| DELAY | How long the LFO waits after you press a key before it fades in. At 0 it acts at once; at 10 it reaches full depth after about three seconds. | K2 |
The LFO keeps moving while a note fades out after you release the key.
DCO
The oscillator section: the waveforms that make the sound, their pitch range and their mix.
| Control | What it does | K2700 |
|---|---|---|
| LFO | Vibrato: how much the LFO moves the pitch, up to about four semitones. | K3 |
| PWM | The pulse width. With the switch on MAN it sets the width (0 is a square, 8 and above a thin 5 % pulse); with the switch on LFO it sets how far the LFO sweeps the width. | K4 |
| PWM switch | MAN: the PWM fader sets a fixed width. LFO: the LFO sweeps the width, for the Juno's moving, chorus-like pulse. | B5 |
| 16' · 8' · 4' | The pitch range: one octave down, normal, one octave up. | B1 (16'), B2 (4') |
| PULSE | Switches the pulse wave on or off. | B3 |
| SAW | Switches the sawtooth on or off. With both waves on they combine as on the Juno-106. | B4 |
| SUB | The level of the sub-oscillator, a square wave one octave below. | K5 |
| NOISE | The level of white noise, for breath, wind and percussive effects. | K6 |
8' has no K2700 button: it is on whenever neither 16' nor 4' is. With PULSE and SAW both off, only SUB and NOISE sound.
HPF and VCF
HPF
The high-pass filter removes low frequencies, to thin a sound out or keep it from crowding the bass. It has four positions, as on the Juno-106 (K2700 control: K7).
| Position | Effect |
|---|---|
| 0 | No cut: the full sound. |
| 1 | A gentle cut of the deepest bass (below about 60 Hz). |
| 2 | A clear thinning (below about 200 Hz). |
| 3 | A strong cut (below about 750 Hz): bright, light sounds. |
VCF
The resonant low-pass filter shapes the tone: it lets low frequencies through and darkens or brightens the sound. Most of a patch's character is here.
| Control | What it does | K2700 |
|---|---|---|
| ENV switch | The direction of the envelope on the filter: + opens the filter as the envelope rises, − closes it. | B6 |
| FREQ | The cutoff frequency: low values sound dark, high values bright. | S1 |
| RES | Resonance: emphasis at the cutoff, from smooth to a sharp, singing peak. | S2 |
| ENV | How much the envelope moves the cutoff, for plucks, swells and brass attacks. | S3 |
| LFO | How much the LFO moves the cutoff, for wah and sweep effects. | S4 |
| KYBD | Keyboard follow: higher notes open the filter more, so the tone stays even across the keyboard. | S5 |
At high RES the filter rings on the sound at its input; it does not whistle on its own, on the K2700 or in the app. A patch with no waveform and no noise is therefore silent (see Troubleshooting).
VCA and ENV
VCA
The amplifier sets the volume of each note over time.
| Control | What it does | K2700 |
|---|---|---|
| MODE | ENV: the envelope shapes the volume. GATE: full volume while the key is held, silence when it is released, for organ-like sounds. | B7 |
| LEVEL | The patch volume, from about −24 dB to +6 dB. | K8 |
ENV
The envelope shapes each note from the moment you press a key until it dies away. It drives the VCF (by the VCF ENV amount) and, in ENV mode, the VCA.
| Control | What it does | K2700 |
|---|---|---|
| A | Attack: the time to full level, from 10 ms to about 3 s. | S6 |
| D | Decay: the time to fall to the sustain level, from 13 ms to about 25 s. | S7 |
| S | Sustain: the level held while the key is down. | S8 |
| R | Release: the time to fade out after the key is released, from 13 ms to about 25 s. | S9 |
Chorus and effects
CHORUS
The Juno-106's stereo chorus, which widens and animates the sound. Press I for the gentle mode or II for the faster, deeper one; press the lit button again to switch the chorus off. Only one mode is on at a time. K2700 controls: B8 for I, B9 for II. On the K2700, K9 also changes the chorus amount; the Juno-106 has no such control, so the panel keeps the amount at its middle.
FX
A reverb and a delay after the chorus, the editor's own addition. The sends add the effect without lowering the original sound.
| Control | Range | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| REVERB | 0 … 10 | How much reverb; 0 is off. |
| TIME | 0.5 … 10 s | The length of the reverb. |
| DELAY | 0 … 10 | How much delay; 0 is off. |
| TIME | 1/16, 1/8, dotted 1/8, 1/4, dotted 1/4 | The delay time in note values. |
| FDBK | 0 … 90 % | Feedback: from one echo to a long trail of repeats. |
The factory patches open with the reverb at 3.3 and 2.0 seconds and the delay off. The FX settings are part of the patch, so WRITE and STORE keep them; they have no K2700 control.
Tempo. On the K2700 the delay follows the K2700's own tempo (its TEMPO page): the LINK does not carry the tempo. In the app it follows 120 BPM.
Playing
The on-screen keyboard
Four octaves, C2 to C6. Click a key, or touch several keys at once on a touch screen; slide across the keys to play them one after another. − and + shift the keyboard down or up by an octave, up to two octaves each way; the C labels on the keys follow.
The bender and the modulation wheel
Drag the bender left to bend the pitch down or right to bend it up, by up to two semitones. Let go and it springs back to the centre, like the Juno-106's lever.
The modulation wheel adds vibrato, as pushing the Juno-106's lever forward does. Use the wheel of the K2700, or of any MIDI keyboard playing the editor. It moves the pitch with the patch's own LFO, at its RATE: nothing with the wheel down, about half a semitone either way (±50 cents) with the wheel all the way up. It acts at once, without the LFO's DELAY, and adds to the vibrato set by the DCO's LFO fader. Programs stored on the K2700 by an earlier version of the editor do not answer the wheel: READ each one and STORE it again.
Other keyboards and the K2700's own keys
Any MIDI keyboard connected to the Mac plays KEDITOR DCO as the on-screen keys do: the app's engine, and with the LINK on and HEAR ON K2700 the K2700 too (its notes, bend, pressure and modulation wheel; not its program changes). The MIDI menu chooses which inputs the app listens to.
With the LINK on, notes played on the K2700's own keyboard sound only on the K2700: the app does not play them too, so nothing doubles when the Mac's audio output is the K2700. The K2700's sliders, knobs and buttons still move the panel.
Who sounds: HEAR IN APP and HEAR ON K2700
HEAR IN APP plays the on-screen keyboard and bender through the app's engine. HEAR ON K2700 silences the app and sends the keyboard and bender to the K2700, so you hear the instrument itself. HEAR ON K2700 needs the LINK; without it the app keeps playing and tells you so.
All Sound Off
If a note keeps sounding, choose Audio ▸ All Sound Off or press ⌘. (Command-period). It silences the app and, with the LINK on, the K2700 too.
Patches and the library
The patch display
The display shows the patch's place (A11 … B88), its name and its bank, PRESET or USER. As soon as you change anything, EDITED appears in red: the patch now differs from the one in the library. ◀ and ▶ step to the previous or next patch.
PRESET and USER
Choose a bank with the LIBRARY pads, then a patch as on the Juno-106: GROUP A or B, BANK 1 … 8 and NUMBER 1 … 8. Each pad you press loads the patch at once.
- PRESET holds the Juno-106's 128 factory patches. They cannot be changed in place: to keep an edited version, WRITE it into USER.
- USER holds 128 places of your own, A11 … B88. Empty places are dimmed, and choosing one shows (empty) in the display.
Keeping a patch: WRITE
- Click WRITE.
- Choose a PLACE. The list shows each place with the patch it holds; an empty place shows a dash.
- Type a NAME of up to 16 characters.
- Click OK. A message such as Written to A15 confirms it, and the patch becomes that USER patch.
Writing to a place that already holds a patch replaces it: check the name shown next to the place before you click OK.
Starting from scratch: INIT
INIT loads a plain starting patch: a sawtooth through a half-open filter, a simple envelope, no chorus, and the reverb at its usual 3.3.
Importing Juno-106 SysEx
If you have Juno-106 patches as a SysEx file (.syx), choose Patches ▸ Import Juno-106 SysEx into USER… and select the file. Every patch found goes into the free USER places, in order, and a message reports how many, for example 16 of 16 Juno-106 patches put into USER. Imported patches are named after their place (such as Juno A11) and open with the reverb at 3.3 and the delay off. If USER fills up, the message ends with (it is full) and the remaining patches are left out: free some places first.
Backing up your patches
Your USER patches are kept in one file, my_patches.txt, in Documents ▸ KEDITOR DCO. File ▸ Open
Data Folder (⇧⌘O) shows it in the Finder. To back up your patches, copy that file; to restore them, put it back
while KEDITOR DCO is closed.
Working with the K2700
Connecting (LINK)
- Connect the K2700 to the Mac with a USB cable, switch it on and put it in Program mode.
- Click LINK OFF at the top right. The CONNECT THE K2700 dialog opens.
- Choose the K2700's MIDI PORT and the CHANNEL the K2700 plays on (normally 1), then click OK.
The light turns green and the status reads K2700 LINKED, with the port, the channel and the K2700's software version. The K2700 now plays the patch shown in the editor, in the edit buffer of that channel: nothing is stored in its memory. Click the status again to disconnect; any notes still sounding on the K2700 stop.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| LINK OFF | Click to connect. |
| CONNECTING… | The editor is talking to the K2700. |
| K2700 LINKED | Connected: the K2700 follows the panel. |
| LINK FAILED | With the reason (see Troubleshooting). |
The reverb and delay on the K2700
The reverb and delay use two effect chains of the editor's own, DCO Hall and DCO Delay. When the LINK finds them missing on your K2700, it asks to write them (REVERB AND DELAY ON THE K2700). Click OK: only the two chains are written, no program is changed. Without them the K2700 plays your sounds with no reverb or delay.
The chains normally go to IDs 5013 and 5012. If those hold something else, the editor uses free IDs between 5000 and 5255 instead and remembers where it put them. It never writes over anything else, and later programs use the chains already there. STORE also writes them if they are still missing.
Editing in real time
With the LINK on, every move reaches the K2700 while you play: faders, switches, buttons, a new patch from the library, an imported or read patch. There is nothing to send by hand. Choosing a new patch sends the whole patch, which takes a moment; a fader move is almost instant.
The K2700's own controls
The K2700's front-panel sliders, knobs and buttons are assigned to the Juno-106 controls (see The K2700's sliders, knobs and buttons). Move them and the editor's panel moves with them, so you can program from the instrument and see the Juno-106 settings on the Mac. Changes made on the K2700 are part of the patch, so WRITE and STORE keep them.
STORE ON K2700
STORE saves the current patch as a program in the K2700's memory, in the USER range (4096 … 8191).
- Make sure the LINK is on.
- Click STORE ON K2700.
- Check the NAME (up to 16 characters) and the USER PROGRAM ID. The editor proposes the ID you used last.
- Click OK.
If the ID already holds a program, the editor shows what is there and asks first (REPLACE?): OK replaces it, CANCEL lets you choose another ID. Once the program is stored, the editor reads it back from the K2700 and compares it with what it sent; the message gives the place, the name and read back the same. The SLOT field in the K2700 strip shows the ID used last, so storing the next version of a sound in the same place is quick.
READ FROM K2700
READ opens a program the editor stored on the K2700 earlier: click READ FROM K2700, enter the PROGRAM ID (1 … 8191) and click OK. The patch appears on the panel exactly as you stored it, marked EDITED so that you can WRITE it to USER. READ opens only programs stored by KEDITOR DCO; any other K2700 program is refused with a message, since it is not a Juno-106 patch.
Storing from the K2700's panel
You can also store the edit buffer with the K2700's own STORE function. Wait a second after your last change in the editor before you do: the editor completes the program in the edit buffer a moment after you stop moving controls, and a program stored this way can then be opened with READ.
The K2700's sliders, knobs and buttons
Each program carries this control plan, so the K2700's own panel plays it. K2700 CONTROLS shows the same tags on the editor's panel.
| K2700 | Moves | K2700 | Moves |
|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | VCF FREQ | K5 | DCO SUB |
| S2 | VCF RES | K6 | DCO NOISE |
| S3 | VCF ENV | K7 | HPF |
| S4 | VCF LFO | K8 | VCA LEVEL |
| S5 | VCF KYBD | K9 | Chorus amount (on the K2700 only) |
| S6 | ENV A | B1 | DCO RANGE 16' |
| S7 | ENV D | B2 | DCO RANGE 4' |
| S8 | ENV S | B3 | DCO PULSE |
| S9 | ENV R | B4 | DCO SAW |
| K1 | LFO RATE | B5 | DCO PWM MAN / LFO |
| K2 | LFO DELAY | B6 | VCF ENV + / − |
| K3 | DCO LFO | B7 | VCA MODE ENV / GATE |
| K4 | DCO PWM | B8, B9 | CHORUS I, II |
Amber on the panel (the editor updates the program, so they need the LINK): K2 LFO DELAY, S5 KYBD, S6 … S9 the envelope, B1 and B2 the RANGE, B5 PWM MAN / LFO, B6 ENV + / −, B7 VCA MODE and B9 CHORUS II. All the others are blue: the K2700 responds to them directly.
Audio, MIDI and menus
The app plays through the Mac's default output unless you choose another. The Audio and MIDI menus list the devices connected at the moment you open them.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| Audio ▸ output devices | Where the app plays: System Default Output, the Mac's speakers, headphones, an audio interface, or the K2700 itself over USB. |
| Audio ▸ Low / Normal / High latency | The audio buffer: Low (128 samples, 2.7 ms) for a more immediate feel, Normal (256 samples, 5.3 ms) for most Macs, High (512 samples, 10.7 ms) if you hear clicks. |
| Audio ▸ All Sound Off (⌘.) | Stops every note, in the app and on the linked K2700. |
| MIDI ▸ MIDI Inputs | Every MIDI source connected to the Mac. Choose one to switch it off or on, or Enable All. Your choice is remembered. |
| Patches ▸ Import Juno-106 SysEx into USER… | Imports Juno-106 patches from a .syx file into the free USER places. |
| File ▸ Open Data Folder (⇧⌘O) | Shows the folder with your USER patches and settings in the Finder. |
| KEDITOR DCO ▸ About KEDITOR DCO | The version of the app. |
| Window ▸ Minimize, Zoom | The standard window commands; the panel scales with the window. |
The app's engine plays at 48 kHz in stereo.
The factory patches
PRESET holds the Juno-106's 128 factory patches, from A11 Brass to B88 Owgan: brass, strings, organs, pianos, basses, leads, pads, plucks, bells, percussion and effects. Step through them with ◀ ▶ or the pads to see every name.
The factory bank has been level-matched on the K2700: each patch's VCA LEVEL is set so that the patches play at similar loudness. A few short percussion and noise patches (Snare Drum, Hand Claps, Thunder and the like) remain quieter, with their LEVEL already at the top.
Eight factory patches play only the filter's whistle and are silent, on the K2700 and in the app: Going Up (A58), Resonance Funk (A82), FX Rise 1 (B27), FX Rise 2 (B28), Tomita (B35), FX Sweep 1 (B36), Toy Rhodes (B66) and Rocket Men (B85). Troubleshooting says how to bring them to life.
A selection of the factory patches can be heard on the product page, recorded from a K2700.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Check |
|---|---|
| No sound from the app | The right output in the Audio menu; HEAR IN APP chosen; VCA LEVEL and the Mac's volume up. |
| A factory patch plays nothing | Eight factory patches play only the filter's whistle: Going Up (A58), Resonance Funk (A82), FX Rise 1 (B27), FX Rise 2 (B28), Tomita (B35), FX Sweep 1 (B36), Toy Rhodes (B66), Rocket Men (B85). The filter does not ring without a sound at its input. Raise NOISE or switch on a waveform (PULSE, SAW, SUB) so the filter has something to ring on. |
| A patch of your own is silent | PULSE and SAW both off with SUB and NOISE at 0 leave nothing to play: switch on a waveform. |
| A percussion patch is quieter than the rest | Normal for a few short percussion and noise patches: their VCA LEVEL is already at the top. |
| Clicks or dropouts | Audio ▸ Normal or High latency. |
| LINK FAILED: no MIDI port named like 'K2700' | The K2700 connected by USB and switched on; then click the status and choose its port. |
| LINK FAILED: no answer | The K2700 did not reply within two seconds. Check the cable, put the K2700 in Program mode, leave any editing page, and connect again. |
| The K2700 does not follow the panel | The LINK uses another MIDI channel than the one the K2700 plays: disconnect and connect again with the K2700's channel. |
| HEAR ON K2700, but no sound | The LINK on; the K2700's volume and outputs up. |
| No reverb or delay on the K2700 | DCO Hall and DCO Delay are missing: connect the LINK again and answer OK when it asks to write them, or STORE a patch once. |
| The delay runs at the wrong speed on the K2700 | It follows the K2700's tempo: set it on the K2700's TEMPO page. |
| Notes from the K2700's keyboard sound twice | The LINK is off, so the app plays them as well. Connect the LINK (then they sound on the K2700 only), or switch the K2700's input off in the MIDI menu. |
| A note keeps sounding | A note-off was lost, for example when a cable was unplugged: Audio ▸ All Sound Off (⌘.). |
| The K2700's controls do not move the panel | The K2700's input is switched off in the MIDI menu: switch it on. |
| An amber control on the K2700 does not change its sound | Amber controls are carried by the editor: connect the LINK. |
| STORE: the K2700 refused … (being edited) | The K2700 is busy with that object, for example on one of its editing pages: leave the page and store again. |
| STORE: no free USER chain ID from 5000 to 5255 | Every effect-chain ID the editor may use is taken on this K2700: delete chains you no longer need there, then store again. |
| READ: the K2700 holds no program at … | There is no program at that ID: check the ID on the K2700. |
| READ: program … was not made by KEDITOR DCO | READ opens only programs stored by KEDITOR DCO. |
| Import: no Juno-106 patch in that file | The file holds no Juno-106 patch messages: use a Juno-106 SysEx file (.syx). |
| The app sounds slightly different from the K2700 | The app's engine is for auditioning; the K2700 is the instrument. Use HEAR ON K2700 for final decisions. |