Korg Legacy Collection or Yamaha PLG150-AN?

I have heard KLC (Analog) and I liked it's fat sounds. Some of the presets are really cool too. Since I have the Motif ES and I have heard about PLG150-AN from some, I wanted to know if any of you have any suggestions.

seeing that you have an ES I would probably go with the PLG150-AN and keep it all in one system....but the KLC is cool....the controllers a little lame though

Honestly I don't think that the Plg150-AN really adds all that much over the synth engine on the CS6x (I'm sure the motif engine is better yet). You can do 98% of the same sounds with the waves in the motif and some programming.

Can you say Hard Sync...

Let's Go.

Like I said, 98% of the sounds you can already do. You can get a basic hard sync sound out of the waves in the motif.

KLC! KLC! WOOHOOO!!!

::flashes chest for KLC::

Seriously, Legacy is very slick. The keyboard you can take or leave, but the sounds and capabilities are definitely worth more than the AN card.

The integration of the PLG boards into the various Yamaha synths that take them, is a bit bizarre. Not a fan of it.

Also note that although some sound editing parameters of the PGL board can be accessed from the front panel, others require a connected computer with an old operating system (not XP or OS X).

-Ron.

I have three PLG150-AN boards in my ES.

What you get that's not in the Motif voice architecture:

hard sync, oscillator FM, ring mod, step sequencer (you can switch patterns and transpose them from the keyboard!), the "free EG" which is four channels of user programmable modulator curves (can be used like an EG or like an LFO) that can be synched to MIDI and a very odd patch morphing feature. It does sound fatter and "more analog" than the Motif sampled sound engine.

Downside (and a BIG one) is that you must use a computer and the (free) patch editor to deep edit the synth and program the step sequencer. The editor itself works more like the control panel for a softsynth than your typical patch editor, in fact you can keep the editor open for 100% real time tweakage of the synth.

The editor is available for XP (but not for OS X).

I would also think that you wouldn't be able to modulate a wave's pulse width on the Motif either

perhaps the editor can be run under the Parrallel's solution on the newer Intel macs.

Well, yes and no. On the PLG board you have REAL hard sync where you can pitch and sweep the OSCs as you see fit while the Motif samples are of a few particular hard sync sounds....huge difference.

I would agree that the PLG150-AN is a waste of money if you just need a few cliche analog sounds, the Motif engine can do so many already.

The patch programming is the only real hassle but the synth sounds good enough (and is cheap, too) that I finally gave in and learned to deal with it.

This is true but you can get PWM sounds by modulating two detuned sawtooth waves instead: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Mar03/articles/synthsecrets47.asp

I thought the AN section of the EX5 was great. I've had a Motif and Motif ES too... I never liked the pure synth samples (e.g. lead and bass) in either of them... I think they sound like they are too stretched liek the presets on my Roland W30 were... I'm wondering how many multisamples there are...

I now have the Legacy and I think that its only when you use it in combo mode (e.g. with the FX and choice of polysix) that it really comes alive... I'd say it's analogue emulation is better than the AN but thats hardly surprising given how old the AN technoogy is.

The Motif really excels at acoustic sounds, electric piano and guitar, and sounds that have a lot of movement such as those lovely tinkly pads... the AN board would be a great addition to it... IMHO. Also the VL board is a bargain.

i like the AN board's sound, and i don't think it should be too much of an issue having to use a computer for some things.

you 'really' have to use a computer with the KLC.

also, AFAIK, all the editing programs for the boards will run on XP.

scroll down just a bit to find the PLG standalone editors for various OS's.:

http://www.yamahasynth.com/download/plg_series.html

it's worth taking a peek at even if you don't have an AN board, just to see what it can do. it's a bit different implementation from most others.

BTW: the editor for the VL is listed as being the 'expert' editor, but it's not. it's the 'visual' editor - sort of an easy/expert type thing.

i think the visual editor is supported by yamaha, and the expert one isn't.

the expert editor can be found at www.windsynth.org

but i don't think it's supported by yamaha, and it hasn't been updated to a newer OS.