Question: What is General MIDI and is the K2000 General MIDI compatible?

Answer: General MIDI is a defined set of programs organized in a prescribed order. There is also a General MIDI drum map which puts the drums across the keyboard in a specific manner.

Although the K2000 isn't GM compatible out of the box, Kurzweil has a General MIDI disk set available. There are two versions of this - one for units without the ROM-1 Orchestral Block, and one for units with the block. 2 meg of sample RAM (SIMMs) is required to load these files. These files can be obtained for download in the Kurzweil area.

Many companies who sell sequences sell them as GM sequences stored in a Standard MIDI File format. The K2000 can read type 0 (but not type 1) Standard MIDI Files (provided they are saved to a DOS formatted floppy disk). Mac based sequences must be converted to DOS format, using software such as Access PC or Apple File Exchange, and named according to DOS protocol. (Prior to v2.07 the name must have the .KRZ suffix. Starting with 2.07, the 2000 will also recognize the .MID suffix).