"Real Drums" Expansion Card Released for Korg's PA-80

Korg USA has recently released the first in a planned series of PCM Expansion Cards for the PA-80 Professional Arranger Keyboard. "Real Drums" (FMC-PCM01) is an 8Mbyte Flash RAM card featuring 382 Drum Samples and 16 Styles to make full use of these new sounds.

Unlike traditional drum samples, where every drum is recorded individually with no regard for its final use, the samples on this card were recorded in place using a grouping of microphones set up around a live drummer playing on a real kit. The advantage of this type of recording is that every drum fits naturally into the kit, and the ambience of the recording environment is preserved.

In addition to individual drum samples, the "Real Drums" card also features groove samples (larger rhythmic phrases broken down into smaller elements). These grooves can then be re-constituted or turned into entirely new phrases, and played back over a wide range of tempos. The resulting drum patterns feature a realism of playing style, phrasing, and placement that cannot be created using traditional sequencing methods.

In all, the FMC-PCM01 features 16 Styles, 16 Drum Kits, 5 Groove Kits, 43 individual Drum samples, and 339 Groove Samples, all instantly accessible via the PA-80s PCM Card Slot.

MP3 demo files are available for listening at www.korgpa80.com.

FMC-PCM01 will be available in August 2001, with a list price of $350.00.