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One thing I forget to mention in the beginning is the price range, especially since there was a recent price drop. So I checked at Musicians Friend and found the 61-key version is going for $2,199, the 73-key model for $2,599, and the 88-key version with the weighted-action keyboard for $2,999.
This kind of price range may take it out of the "beginner" class, but based on what I've seen so far, considering what you get in return this is pretty competitive pricing.
There are now eight music videos posted on my YouTube channel, including a cover of "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," which joins "Little Pieces", "Black Market Daydreams," and "When the Grid Goes Down" (complete with disturbing video 
)
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The M3 categorizes programs based on categories such as Keyboard, Organ, Strings, Vocals, Brass, Guitar, Bass, Slow Synth, Lead Synth, FX, Drums--15 total--and two user-definable categories.
The main program screen itself shows the category; in the first image, at the top you can see the Bank (USER-A), Category (00 Keyboard), and program name and number (000: 4-Way Stereo Grand). If you touch the Category label, it opens up a menu that shows all programs in that category, as shown in the second image.
In the lower left, you'll notice a Jump to Sub (-Category) button. Touch that, and it does one more level of sorting based on particular sub-categories. For example, the Sub-Categories for Keyboard are Acoustic Piano, Synth Electric Piano, Real Electric Piano, and Clav/Harpsichord.
When you save a program, you can specify both a category and sub-category. However, there are no other "tagging" options (such as author, date created, etc.), nor are there any search functions other than browsing categories and sub-categories.
The main program screen itself shows the category; in the first image, at the top you can see the Bank (USER-A), Category (00 Keyboard), and program name and number (000: 4-Way Stereo Grand). If you touch the Category label, it opens up a menu that shows all programs in that category, as shown in the second image.
In the lower left, you'll notice a Jump to Sub (-Category) button. Touch that, and it does one more level of sorting based on particular sub-categories. For example, the Sub-Categories for Keyboard are Acoustic Piano, Synth Electric Piano, Real Electric Piano, and Clav/Harpsichord.
When you save a program, you can specify both a category and sub-category. However, there are no other "tagging" options (such as author, date created, etc.), nor are there any search functions other than browsing categories and sub-categories.
There are now eight music videos posted on my YouTube channel, including a cover of "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," which joins "Little Pieces", "Black Market Daydreams," and "When the Grid Goes Down" (complete with disturbing video )
)
I know this is early in the review, but I'm already smitten by the aftertouch, the touch screen, the sound, and also, the editing software which is very helpful.
For example, check out the Browser section of the software shown in the first image. The left side shows the various categories, and to its immediate right, you can choose whether to show programs from that category in all banks, or individual banks.
The software is bi-directional in the sense that if you single-click on a program in the browser, it's selected automatically at the M3 itself. However, in the browser, the editor's "virtual keyboard" is inactive. I wish this wasn't the case, because if it was, you could click on a program, click on a few keys, and decide if it's the sound you want. (Yeah, I know, I can reach over and hit the keys on the M3...)
Double-click on a program in the browser, and it opens up in the editor software. At that point, the keyboard becomes active, so you can edit--click key--edit--click key--edit etc.
In the software's Preferences section, you can specify an audio interface, as shown in the second image. When running USB, audio is not transferred (that happens only with the FireWire interface). However, what this means is that you can feed the M3 outs to the audio interface's audio inputs, and it's ready for recording into any software you happen to be using; or you can monitor the interface's audio output and hear the synth in action.
This was actually a useful discovery, because a lot of times when programming I use headphones to pick up on small sonic nuances. This means I don't have to swap the 'phones back and forth between the M3 headphone out and audio interface out--I can just leave them plugged into the interface and whether I'm playing the M3, working with a sequencer, or editing with the editor, I don't have to change where the headphones are plugged in.
For example, check out the Browser section of the software shown in the first image. The left side shows the various categories, and to its immediate right, you can choose whether to show programs from that category in all banks, or individual banks.
The software is bi-directional in the sense that if you single-click on a program in the browser, it's selected automatically at the M3 itself. However, in the browser, the editor's "virtual keyboard" is inactive. I wish this wasn't the case, because if it was, you could click on a program, click on a few keys, and decide if it's the sound you want. (Yeah, I know, I can reach over and hit the keys on the M3...)
Double-click on a program in the browser, and it opens up in the editor software. At that point, the keyboard becomes active, so you can edit--click key--edit--click key--edit etc.
In the software's Preferences section, you can specify an audio interface, as shown in the second image. When running USB, audio is not transferred (that happens only with the FireWire interface). However, what this means is that you can feed the M3 outs to the audio interface's audio inputs, and it's ready for recording into any software you happen to be using; or you can monitor the interface's audio output and hear the synth in action.
This was actually a useful discovery, because a lot of times when programming I use headphones to pick up on small sonic nuances. This means I don't have to swap the 'phones back and forth between the M3 headphone out and audio interface out--I can just leave them plugged into the interface and whether I'm playing the M3, working with a sequencer, or editing with the editor, I don't have to change where the headphones are plugged in.
There are now eight music videos posted on my YouTube channel, including a cover of "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," which joins "Little Pieces", "Black Market Daydreams," and "When the Grid Goes Down" (complete with disturbing video )
)
I already mentioned the superb aftertouch response and velocity, but before going too much further, let's cover the remaining real time control options.
On the back, you have 1/4" jacks for assignable damper, expression pedal, and sustain switch. These are assignable to various functions, e.g., the footswitch can do modulation, portamento, program select, tap tampo, sequencer control, etc.
To the left of the keyboard, there's a 4-way joystick, ribbon controller, and two switches. The first image shows the joystick and ribbon controller; that cool blue look on the joystick is internal illumination, not nifty studio lighting. It looks REALLY cool. The action is good - just stiff enough to give a little resistance, but easy to move rapidly.
(As an aside, I always wonder how design teams deal with this kind of decision. Do they have tons of musicians come in and fill out a form where they can check off "too stiff," "not stiff enough," or "just right?" Do engineers get into impassioned arguments - "It needs to be stiffer" "No, you're a moron, it's too stiff already!" Or does some springy material show up, they put it in, and say "good enough for me?" In any event, they got it right.)
BTW the joystick is assignable, so you don't have to use it to control the defaults (pitch bend, vibrato, and filter LFO).
The one inconvenience with a joystick is that unlike a mod wheel, you can't leave it set to a specific position, as it returns to center when left alone. The way Korg gets around this is with the multi-purpose switches, which you can see in the second image. Among other talents, you can assign the second switch (SW2) to lock the joystick position - in other words, if you find a joystick setting you like, push the switch and the joystick value will remain even when it returns to center. However, only the axis you've selected to lock remains fixed - for example, if you lock the Y axis value, you can still use pitch bend, or vary whatever else is assigned to the X axis. Incidentally, you can program the switches to be momentary or toggle (push on, push again for off).
On the back, you have 1/4" jacks for assignable damper, expression pedal, and sustain switch. These are assignable to various functions, e.g., the footswitch can do modulation, portamento, program select, tap tampo, sequencer control, etc.
To the left of the keyboard, there's a 4-way joystick, ribbon controller, and two switches. The first image shows the joystick and ribbon controller; that cool blue look on the joystick is internal illumination, not nifty studio lighting. It looks REALLY cool. The action is good - just stiff enough to give a little resistance, but easy to move rapidly.
(As an aside, I always wonder how design teams deal with this kind of decision. Do they have tons of musicians come in and fill out a form where they can check off "too stiff," "not stiff enough," or "just right?" Do engineers get into impassioned arguments - "It needs to be stiffer" "No, you're a moron, it's too stiff already!" Or does some springy material show up, they put it in, and say "good enough for me?" In any event, they got it right.)
BTW the joystick is assignable, so you don't have to use it to control the defaults (pitch bend, vibrato, and filter LFO).
The one inconvenience with a joystick is that unlike a mod wheel, you can't leave it set to a specific position, as it returns to center when left alone. The way Korg gets around this is with the multi-purpose switches, which you can see in the second image. Among other talents, you can assign the second switch (SW2) to lock the joystick position - in other words, if you find a joystick setting you like, push the switch and the joystick value will remain even when it returns to center. However, only the axis you've selected to lock remains fixed - for example, if you lock the Y axis value, you can still use pitch bend, or vary whatever else is assigned to the X axis. Incidentally, you can program the switches to be momentary or toggle (push on, push again for off).
There are now eight music videos posted on my YouTube channel, including a cover of "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," which joins "Little Pieces", "Black Market Daydreams," and "When the Grid Goes Down" (complete with disturbing video )
)
I've mentioned that I like the touch display, but it's not just about the touch; it also is good at conveying information you want to know.
For example, check out the first image. This shows a typical program screen, and note the section that's outlined in red: You can see that pushing on SW1 sends the sound an octave down, while SW2 locks the joystick and ribbon controller. JS-Y means that it locks the value when you pull the joystick toward you; had it said +Y, it would lock the value when you push the joystick away from you, and JS Y means that it locks whatever is selected on the Y axis.
The switches also allow for momentary or toggled changes, such as adding modulation. This varies from program to program.
C.S. tells what the control surface with the faders controls. In this case, the screen shows how the sliders vary KARMA parameters, but there's more to the story...we'll get into the details later. It probably goes without saying that if you alter any preset assignment, any changes show up in the display, and are saved with the program if you save it.
The second image shows the screen that indicates what the control surface faders do. For the faders, this is "read-only" - you can't vary the faders from the display. Then again, why would you want to, when you have real faders you can adjust...
For example, check out the first image. This shows a typical program screen, and note the section that's outlined in red: You can see that pushing on SW1 sends the sound an octave down, while SW2 locks the joystick and ribbon controller. JS-Y means that it locks the value when you pull the joystick toward you; had it said +Y, it would lock the value when you push the joystick away from you, and JS Y means that it locks whatever is selected on the Y axis.
The switches also allow for momentary or toggled changes, such as adding modulation. This varies from program to program.
C.S. tells what the control surface with the faders controls. In this case, the screen shows how the sliders vary KARMA parameters, but there's more to the story...we'll get into the details later. It probably goes without saying that if you alter any preset assignment, any changes show up in the display, and are saved with the program if you save it.
The second image shows the screen that indicates what the control surface faders do. For the faders, this is "read-only" - you can't vary the faders from the display. Then again, why would you want to, when you have real faders you can adjust...
There are now eight music videos posted on my YouTube channel, including a cover of "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," which joins "Little Pieces", "Black Market Daydreams," and "When the Grid Goes Down" (complete with disturbing video )
)
The controller feature is a good thing, but there are actually five "pages" for the controllers so there are more real-time control options than it might appear at first. Looking at the first image, you can choose whether the controllers affect the Mixer, do RealTime Control (what's currently selected), send data to External gear, cover Tone Adjust, or edit KARMA parameters. So you could, for example, hit the KARMA button and do real-time KARMA manipulation, then hit the RealTime control button and do things like mess with filter cutoff, resonance, and the like.
Let's talk about that External option for a second. If you select the Setup option, there are 101 templates for a bunch of common soft synths and programs - the second image shows the template for Reason's mixer. There are of course templates for other Korg gear and their Legacy Collection soft synths, but you'll also find templates for instruments from Arturia, Applied Acoustics, BFD, Garageband, MachFive, Digital Performer, Cubase, PlugSound Pro, various Steinberg instruments, etc. etc. A PDF is included on the M3 distribution CD that shows the parameter values for all the presets.
External presets 102-127 let you program (and save) your own controller setups. For example, the third image shows External Set 127 being set up so that the sliders generate controller #007 ("licensed to change levels") on channels 1-8.
I found that the external signals are always transmitted through MIDI regardless of which page you have selected on the M3. The External switch is basically for selection and programming.
Let's talk about that External option for a second. If you select the Setup option, there are 101 templates for a bunch of common soft synths and programs - the second image shows the template for Reason's mixer. There are of course templates for other Korg gear and their Legacy Collection soft synths, but you'll also find templates for instruments from Arturia, Applied Acoustics, BFD, Garageband, MachFive, Digital Performer, Cubase, PlugSound Pro, various Steinberg instruments, etc. etc. A PDF is included on the M3 distribution CD that shows the parameter values for all the presets.
External presets 102-127 let you program (and save) your own controller setups. For example, the third image shows External Set 127 being set up so that the sliders generate controller #007 ("licensed to change levels") on channels 1-8.
I found that the external signals are always transmitted through MIDI regardless of which page you have selected on the M3. The External switch is basically for selection and programming.
There are now eight music videos posted on my YouTube channel, including a cover of "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," which joins "Little Pieces", "Black Market Daydreams," and "When the Grid Goes Down" (complete with disturbing video )
)
A Pro Review is a bit of a balancing act, because I don't want to just drown you with facts and specs, or just observations, or just audio examples; it needs balance. So let me inject some opinions in here.
The sound is just gorgeous. It's detailed and clean, without being clinical. I don't know what Korg has done from a technical standpoint but OASYS notwithstanding, this is the best Korg product I've ever heard; the quality is stunning by any standards.
It's unfortunate that an MP3 can't really convey this, whether you're listening to what I'm posting here or what's on the Korg site. There's a subtlety that is obvious when listening to non-compressed files, so if you're curious about this keyboard, you might want to hit your local store, strap on some headphones, and listen to what I'm talking about.
Also, I know I've mentioned the touch screen before, but I'll say it again: It rocks. Learning any synth as sophisticated and complex as the M3 is not easy, but the touch screen sure makes it easier.
Finally, the look of the M3 is really quite appealing. Anyone who comes into the studio and sees it does a double-take; the lines are clean and functional. I realize that looks don't affect performance, but I can't help but have the looks influence how I relate to the M3. It's an inviting keyboard to look at as well as play.
So far, I'm really, really impressed. Hopefully I'll find something to complain about soon to keep this interesting
The sound is just gorgeous. It's detailed and clean, without being clinical. I don't know what Korg has done from a technical standpoint but OASYS notwithstanding, this is the best Korg product I've ever heard; the quality is stunning by any standards.
It's unfortunate that an MP3 can't really convey this, whether you're listening to what I'm posting here or what's on the Korg site. There's a subtlety that is obvious when listening to non-compressed files, so if you're curious about this keyboard, you might want to hit your local store, strap on some headphones, and listen to what I'm talking about.
Also, I know I've mentioned the touch screen before, but I'll say it again: It rocks. Learning any synth as sophisticated and complex as the M3 is not easy, but the touch screen sure makes it easier.
Finally, the look of the M3 is really quite appealing. Anyone who comes into the studio and sees it does a double-take; the lines are clean and functional. I realize that looks don't affect performance, but I can't help but have the looks influence how I relate to the M3. It's an inviting keyboard to look at as well as play.
So far, I'm really, really impressed. Hopefully I'll find something to complain about soon to keep this interesting
There are now eight music videos posted on my YouTube channel, including a cover of "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," which joins "Little Pieces", "Black Market Daydreams," and "When the Grid Goes Down" (complete with disturbing video )
)
MuzikB, Son of HuHefner, and EJ2 - thanks for the feedback! Obviously, there's a lot more to cover...
It would be kind of fun if the three of you would list your top 10 favorite M3 features. I'm curious to see if they'd cover the same territory, or be completely different. It would also help me decide what to cover next.
EJ2, thanks very much for passing along the links - the more, the merrier!
It would be kind of fun if the three of you would list your top 10 favorite M3 features. I'm curious to see if they'd cover the same territory, or be completely different. It would also help me decide what to cover next.
EJ2, thanks very much for passing along the links - the more, the merrier!
There are now eight music videos posted on my YouTube channel, including a cover of "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," which joins "Little Pieces", "Black Market Daydreams," and "When the Grid Goes Down" (complete with disturbing video )
)
As another issue of the Harmony Central Confidential newsletter is put to bed (you do subscribe, don't you?), that means I get to play with the M3 some more...uh, I mean, work on Pro Reviews.
Anyway, let's look at Combi mode. Mulitimbral devices came into existence fairly early in MIDI's lifetime, but if I recall correctly, it was the Korg M1 that really put the "combi" concept - where the synth straddled the line between mixer and instrument - on the map. I was curious what the M3 adds to that original concept.
But first, there's my usual M3 Pro Review ritual:
1. Start with good intentions to write something.
2. Call up a preset.
3. Get totally sucked into playing for a while, then figure I should probably record the results to give y'all another idea of what the machine can do...
Which I did. The audio example was just me messing around with the Combi preset "Cogs in the Machine." I played the little bass riff with my left hand, and the block chords with my right, and let the M3 do the rest. Then I hit the control surface's KARMA button, and messed with two sliders: One changed the density of the drum part, while the other controlled something related to note duration. The results were very musical to my ears...
But I'm getting ahead of myself, so let's look at the Combi thing.
There are now eight music videos posted on my YouTube channel, including a cover of "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," which joins "Little Pieces", "Black Market Daydreams," and "When the Grid Goes Down" (complete with disturbing video )
)
Your review makes it so tempting...but when I upgrade my Triton Extreme, I think it will be to the OASYS. :love:
Maybe.
Well, let me tell you, this is a pretty tempting keyboard. It seems that no matter what button I press, something cool happens...
From what I understand, there's a lot of the OASYS under the hood with the M3. If that accounts for the clarity of sound, I wouldn't be surprised. However, and maybe Jerry Kovarsky can chime in on this, I think the OASYS is designed to be more upgradable as there have already been several updates with additional forms of synthesis. Admittedly, the M3 has gone from V1.0 to V1.2, but I think this is more about making additions to what's already there than adding entirely new synthesis engines. However, as to future plans for the M3, that's not something to which I'm privy.
There are now eight music videos posted on my YouTube channel, including a cover of "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," which joins "Little Pieces", "Black Market Daydreams," and "When the Grid Goes Down" (complete with disturbing video )
)
Think of a Combi as a 16-channel mixer, where you can assign a different program to each channel (or think of this as a "track") and adjust the level, panning, keyboard range (this is how you do splits), and response to MIDI input (the mechanism for doing layering). Adding this "metadata" to a program creates what Korg calls a "timbre." So far, that's pretty standard for any multi-timbral synth.
There are several ways to call up a Combi, including hitting front panel switches, using MIDI program change commands, or even using a footswitch - handy if you're playing live. There are 384 (3 banks x 127 programs) of factory presets, and another 1,408 user programs. As with programs, you can rummage through categories to find specific types of Combis although also as with programs, there are no deep search functions like using keywords or other tags.
As you go through the various factory Combis, you'll note that they have drum tracks and KARMA functions. The KARMA options are on a separate page, but again, we're getting ahead of ourselves.
The first image shows the Program Selection page for programs 1-8. There's a second page for programs 9-16 which is essentially identical. From these pages, you can select a program for each channel by touching the Category or Bank/Program parameter for that channel. You'll also see a row of Play buttons, which if you touch them, turn into Mute buttons. These are paralleled by the eight buttons above the real time control faders so if you're controlling parameters with the faders, your fingers don't have far to travel to select play or mute. They're also significant because another button lets you choose whether these buttons control channels 1-8 or 9-16, so you can leave (for example) the screen showing channels 1-8 but have the buttons controlling the mute/play function for channels 9-16.
The row below has Solo buttons if you want to listen to individual channels. The Solo buttons are additive, in the sense that you can solo multiple channels at once.
The second image shows the mixer page for channels 1-8, and again, there's another almost identical page for channels 9-16. Here the main features are pan and volume faders. If the control surface Mixer page for the corresponding page of channels is selected, then the control surface works the faders. Although the faders themselves aren't touch-sensitive with respect to level, you can touch one and control it with the Value fader, data wheel, or typing in a value with the numeric keypad. So, if the control surface isn't controlling the faders, you can still do "spot adjustments" for individual levels.
I couldn't find a way for the mixer control surface page to control pans; you touch the pan control and use the value fader, data wheel, or numeric keypad.
Note the "Hold Balance" on-screen button: It's basically a grouping function (in fact, why didn't they just call it "Group"?) where moving one fader moves all the others ratiometrically (not linearly, which is a good thing). In other words, if you move one fader down to half its values, all the other faders will go to half their volume as well. There's a bit of a "memory" function as well: If you bring all the faders down to zero, then bring them up again, their relationship at the time you clicked on the Hold Balance will be preserved.
There are now eight music videos posted on my YouTube channel, including a cover of "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," which joins "Little Pieces", "Black Market Daydreams," and "When the Grid Goes Down" (complete with disturbing video )
)
I find it ironic that many software samplers can't sample: They can only import files you've already recorded. There are some exceptions (e.g,, E-mu X2) but they're the exception.
So while pureplay hardware samplers have faded into the background over the years, now we have keyboards like the M3 picking up the slack, and incorporating traditional hardware sampling options within a workstation context.
The M3 can record through the two unbalanced analog inputs (see attached image), via SPDIF digital, or thorough FireWire (if the FireWire expansion board is installed), as well as "rip" from CDs playing back in an external USB CD-ROM drive. (The M3 doesn't have a CD drive, which doesn't bother me given the option to add any kind of CD drive you want via USB.) Sampling rate is 48kHz/16-bit.
The main limitation in the sampling audio input section is that the input impedance is fairly low, which means you can't sample electro-mechanical instruments like guitar and bass directly. Well, that's not quite true. You can, but the highs and level will take a serious hit. Bottom line: If you're not using a mic or line level signal, you'll need some kind of impedance converter (buffer, stomp box compressor, etc.).
A secondary limitation is that the mic input doesn't have a balanced XLR jack but an unbalanced 1/4" jack, and doesn't offer +48V for mics requiring phantom power. Then again, I think that if someone is really a purist about this, they'd likely use their mic preamp of choice, and treat it as a line input.
So, what do you sample to? There are several choices. The internal memory that comes stock with the M3 is 64MB, which is enough for almost six minutes of stereo sampling (11 minutes, 40 seconds of mono sampling). You can add another 256MB with the optional EXB-M256 memory expansion, which adds another 23 minutes of stereo sampling. However, this is a separate block of memory. You can't, for example, spread a single sample across both blocks of memory.
If you need more time, you can sample to an external USB device. I'm going to try doing this with a memory stick instead of a hard drive, just to see if I can. It shouldn't be a problem; granted it takes longer to write to a USB stick than read from it, but asking it to record two tracks doesn't seem too onerous.
Oddly, the maximum file duration you can save to a USB device is about 80 minutes (mono or stereo). I don't think this matters; I somehow can't picture people taking an M3 around to do remote recordings of a two-hour concert. And if you want to capture the full decay of a piano note, if 80 minutes doesn't do it for you, nothing will. Besides, that's more than enough to record a full-length CD.
As to the total number of samples you can stuff into memory at one, that's spec'ed as 4,000 individual samples or 1,000 multisamples. Somehow I don't think that's going to disappoint anyone.
You can also import samples, as opposed to record them. Supported formats are AIFF, WAV, Akai S1000/S3000, SoundFont 2.0, and Korg's own proprietary format. Hey - no Ensoniq format import! Oh well.
Another element of sampling is what Korg calls "In-Track Sampling." They don't call it "hard disk recording" because with a stock M3, it isn't; it's "RAM recording." But the end result is the same: If you sample something like a vocal part while listening back to a sequence, the M3 will create a trigger to play back this sample at the same point in the sequence each time. So yes, you CAN overdub acoustic guitar parts or vocals.
Finally, before turning from theory to practice, it's worth noting that you can sample straight into the M3, or through effects. You can also resample sounds you've created in the M3 - for example, resample something with KARMA effects added. Whatever you sample, it can then play back through the M3.
There are now eight music videos posted on my YouTube channel, including a cover of "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," which joins "Little Pieces", "Black Market Daydreams," and "When the Grid Goes Down" (complete with disturbing video )
)
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