KORG M3 WORKSTATION/SAMPLER

[Anderton]

Things are heating up on the synth front, and I'm noticing that hardware is making a comeback (just ask Dave Smith!). I think part of it is the whole "control surface" aspect - when you have something that's as deep as an M3, it's convenient to have actual buttons, switches, and sliders instead of having to do everything virtually. The other aspect is that companies like Korg and Yamaha are embracing computers, rather than fighting them. In fact, one of the things I'm really looking forward to checking out is the M3's computer integration aspects, as well as its KARMA engine (although it might make my brain explode, it's pretty deep).

I like to start off pro reviews with a bunch of photos so we know what we're dealing with, as well as other resources. An outstanding resource is http://www.korgforums.com (first image), which is kind of a misleading name because it offers lots of downloads and a news section in addition to forums.

Another good resource is http://www.korg.com/service/support.asp (second image) where there are documents and FAQs on Korg products. Select M3, and there are lots of tutorials and other helpful docs. (I suspect I'll be downloading the "KARMA Level 2 Introductory Tour" PDF pretty soon.)

Speaking of KARMA, there's also lots of M3-oriented info at http://www.karma-lab.com/m3 (third image). This web site is run by Stephen Kay, the inventor of the KARMA process. BTW if you don't know what KARMA is, it does algorithmic-based processing of notes, arpeggiations, drum patterns, and more. One particularly cool part of the site is the M3 Online Virtual GUI at http://www.karma-lab.com/m3/gui/main.html (fourth image), which gives you a feel for the interface. For example, if you want to know what the sampling screen looks like, click on the Sampling button.

The UK service site is at http://www.korguksupport.co.uk. It also has downloads, FAQs, etc. as well as UK-specific news for our friends in England.

Our final resource (at least for this post!) is a review from Keyboard magazine that is really quite comprehensive...it provides an excellent overview of what the keyboard is all about. You can read it at http://www.keyboardmag.com/article/korg-m3-61/Jul-07/29800 .

[Anderton]

I've often said each Pro Review has its own gestalt, but one thing I learned from doing the Motif XS6 Pro Review is that when it comes to a deep synth like the M3, this review is going to take a while (the Motif XS6 one still isn't done, and some Pro Reviews have been open and active for close to a year). So please, if you have priorities about what interests you, please post here. For example, if everyone is particularly interested in the sampling aspects or KARMA or using it with RADIAS or whatever, I'll put that at the head of the line.

Pro Reviews of something this deep can really suck the reviewer (that would be me) into somewhat of a black hole. So, I'm going to try to limit myself to an hour or so at a time on the review, and do more frequent, shorter groups of posts than less frequent, longer posts. Hopefully this will a) present information in more digestible chunks, and b) keep me from going insane.

The Korg person who will be monitoring this review to help answer your questions and, perhaps most importantly, correct me when I'm wrong :) is Jerry Kovarsky, who is about as high up on the food chain as you can go when it comes to the M3. One thing you should know is that Jerry is an extremely good keyboard player and musician, so you can expect that his comments will reflect that mentality as opposed to being a "marketing guy." I'm also hoping we can get Stephen Kay to participate when we hit the KARMA part of the review.

Okay, let's look at some pictures.

[Anderton]

You can get the M3 is four main formats: with 61 note keyboard, 73 note keyboard, 88 note keyboard, or as a separate "head" with just the electronics. In fact, the M3 module can be removed from the keyboard as well as tilted up or lie down. With the 73 and 88 note keyboards, there's room to slide in a RADIAS module next to it, or another M3 module. We have the 73-key model here for review, but I have photos of both the 61 and 73-note versions.

The first image shows the right side of the module. These buttons are mostly for the "housekeeping" functions - bank select, sequencer, sampling, main interface button, tempo control, and the like.

The second image shows the middle of the module. You can't really see that the TouchView screen is full color, but it is. BTW it's not just a touch screen for selecting parameters, but also does KAOSS pad-type functions (that's what the X-Y mode button in the upper right is all about). Below the display are 8 pads that can be used for triggering drum sounds (as expected), but also do single-touch chord functions and a lot more, actually.

The third image shows the left side of the module, and this is where the more "fun" controls are. The eight sliders can be a mixer/control surface for the M3, or a control surface for other programs; the five control assign buttons along the left determine the slider functionality. The buttons on top do mute/solo functions (among other things), and the lower buttons relate to KARMA and drum track functions.

The fourth image shows a long view of the 61-key version, with the module lying flat. And see the joystick in the lower right? It really does glow blue, it's lit in a really cool way. I'll include a close-up shot of it later.

[Anderton]

Before signing off for now, I wanted to include some shots of the back as well as a couple other things.

The first image shows the control pedal and several of the I/O options. From left to right you can see provisions for Damper, Switch, and Pedal connections, and below that, two FireWire expansion ports. To the immediate right is optical SPDIF digital I/O, and to the right of that, the stereo inputs for sampling and processing (with accompanying level control and mic/line level switch), and the four individual audio outputs below. Not visible: Two main audio outputs off the right side of the picture.

The second image shows the MIDI ports to the right, and to the left, two USB ports and a USB "host" slot. So, not only can you connect the M3 up to your computer via USB, you can use USB peripherals (like memory sticks) with the M3.

The third image is the joystick, with a ribbon controller below. You gotta love that cool blue illumination. As you've probably figured out by now, I do :)

All right, more to come later. I think the first thing I should do is download the 512 new patches that Korg just introduced for the M3. Stay tuned...

[Anderton]

Stephen Kay emailed me the following:

"Thanks for mentioning my web site. One other thing you might mention if you have a chance is that not just korgforums is an active forum for the m3; my own forums for the m3 are quite active and a lot of sound development/sharing is going on there presently:

http://www.karma-lab.com/forum

Users can click on the M3 icon at the top to go to the M3 sub-forum. I personally answer many m3 related questions and issues, and it's not just
about KARMA.

The downloads and sound-sharing area presently is at:

http://www.karma-lab.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=211

Thanks!"

[Anderton]

Must...resist...temptation...

Of course I want to just keep playing the M3 and generate some audio examples, but I must do my Professional Reviewer Thing and make sure everything is up to date.

First step is to download the new programs and OS, then the new Editor Software. Let's see how difficult or easy it is. Meanwhile, as I await 29MB of new operating system to download, here's a link where you can see the system requirements for the Editor software:

http://www.korg.com/service/downloadinfo.asp?DID=1385

Okay, here's a doc that says "How to Update M3." That seems obvious enough, and the updating process is obvious as well: You copy the OS to a USB stick, plug the USB stick into the M3, turn on power, then in the Global screen, tell the M3 to update system software. Turn power off, turn power on: Done.

Cool. No installing drivers in your computer, hooking up cables, and the like.

However, you have to do this twice: Once to update the operating system, and once to load the 512 new programs. Apparently the 512 programs are included in the "system section" of the keyboard as preload data, so if you ever have to re-initialize the machine, the programs will still be there.

Let's do it a second time...yup, it's loading the program data. And let's hit a few bank buttons...yes, they're all in there.

Two things are immediately clear:

1. The sounds are really good.
2. I could really get used to the touch screen interface.

I'm going to duck out for a few minutes and boot up my music computer, then record some of the sounds so you can hear some of the factory programs.

[Anderton]

We'll start with preset 1, called BPM Dense Modulations. You'll hear a couple important things in this one: First, there's a Drum Track that you can turn on and off with the "Drum Track On/Off" button. Second, the left hand is holding down a couple of notes that are being modulated for a rhythmic effect...sort of a built-in AdrenaLinn :) The right hand is playing the block chords.

BTW all these examples are being played in real time into Sonar, not recorded as MIDI and tweaked - no quantizing or anything. I'm not the greatest keyboard player in the world, so take that into account - the main thing here is I want to make some sounds happen for ya.

Preset 2 is an acoustic guitar, with a mellower drum track, which I decided to leave on. I'll attempt to do a fingerstyle pickin' sorta thing here...

Preset 3 is legato strings, with orchestral percussion. As you can hear, you can pretty much hit anything and it sounds okay. Speaking of which...

I then called up preset 6, which is a cool acoustic bass. The first part is just me sort of jamming away, and then I decided hit the KARMA on-off button to see what happened...check out the patterns in the last several seconds. KARMA is clearly something with a lot of potential.

Bottom line: I haven't read the manual yet, but I'm having fun...off to dinner, more tomorrow.

[Anderton]

Reviewing a workstation like the M3 is not easy, because it's not a single-function device. Is it a sampler? A drum machine? A composition tool? A live peformance keyboard? Plug-in for your favorite host? Recording studio? Computer peripheral? Answer: It's all of them.

So the problem for a reviewer - whether in print or online - is how can you use a linear medium to describe a device with multiple parallel processes? Well, you can't. Fortunately, one of the great things about a Pro Review is that we can at least take the space (and include graphics and audio examples) to describe these various parallel processes in detail.

However, before jumping in to individual elements, let's give a bit of an overview.

The M3 has several modes.

Program mode is closest to what we think of as a traditional synth: Call up a preset, play keys, make sounds. However, there are some differences compared to, say, a classic analog synth:

You can have a drum pattern going along with your playing, as shown in previous audio examples. I must say this can be quite inspiring; I always like playing to a drum part better than a metronome.

A KARMA module can generate phrases. For example, if you're playing a bass part, KARMA can generate variations.

You can sample external signals or resample your performance. This is not the same thing as the sampler mode, which we'll cover later. This is sampling applied to performances, as opposed to sampling for the process of creating new sounds that get converted into programs, or creating the virtual equivalent of "audio tracks."

Combi mode is something that reached early maturity in the Korg M1, but the M3 takes the concept further. Of course, it can serve as a 16-channel multitimbral sound module (no surprises there) but to me, the main Cool Feature to me is the ability to use four KARMA modules to generate phrases on multiple parts. You can also do the same sampling/resampling tricsk as in Program Mode.

Sequencer mode seems to me like a variation on Combi mode, but with the foundation being MIDI tracks for driving various instrument sounds. These feed a mixer with pan, level, automation, EQ, and the other usual suspects. As with Combi mode, four KARMA modules can come into play for generating phrases and variations. That's all as expected. But also...

Korg is clear the M3 isn't an audio recording system, but it has what Korg calls "In-Track Sampling" (translation: it does audio recording), which creates a note-on event that triggers any audio you recorded where you recorded it. Not that this means it's an audio recording system...:)

Now, I know what they mean: The M3 isn't designed to be something like a VS-880-style (or D888, if you want a Korg reference!) stand-alone hard disk recorder. Nonetheless, if you want to add acoustic sound sources to a sequence, you can.

You can assign recorded patterns to individual keys, then play them back. This reminds me somewhat of the "arrange" mode in Cubase, in that you can trigger blocks of patterns to create an arrangement, or of the old days of loop-based music, where you'd record multiple loops on a keyboard and play them back in whatever order you like. Or, the patterns can be little "licks" to add interest to an arrangement.

[Anderton]

Korg bills the M3 as a "workstation/sampler," and yes, it's a sampler with its own Sampler Mode. Compared to the hardware samplers of yore, though, the M3 can sample through effects. There's very good waveform editing (I wonder if when using the M3 as a plug-in you can edit waveforms on your big computer screen...hmmm...well, we'll find out) and decent loop point editing as well.

As expected you can also create multisamples that map across the keyboard and convert them into programs for later use. But one of the more unusual features is that you can add a USB CD-ROM drive, and sample directly from audio CDs.

The two remaining modes are more utilitarian.

Global mode is where you do housekeeping - do MIDI sysex dumps, create drum kits, do global settings like tuning, and set up assignments for footswitches and pedals. Extra credit: This is also where you set up alternate tunings.

Media Mode issues press releases and shoots videos. Just kidding! Actually, this makes heavy use of the USB 2.0 port. With a CD-R drive you can create audio CDs out of WAV files, as well as read multiple formats of files (Korg, Akai, SoundFonts 2.0, AIFF, and WAV). RAM samples (not the ROM samples included in the M3) can also be saved out via USB as WAV or AIFF files. So, not only can the M3 import various files, it can be used to create files and as a sound design tool.

All right...that gives you an idea of what's available "under the hood." Now to figure out which are to cover next...maybe we'll start with drums. I'd also like to get into describing how the UI works, but I'll wait to see if I can get something to grab M3 screen shots as that will make it much easier to explain.

[Anderton]

In case you were wondering why I didn't do any posts yesterday on the M3, it's because I spent hours trying to get the editing software installed--without success. I felt it was important to install the software because the editor tells a lot about what's going on with the M3, and I thought being able to post screen shots from it would be helpful. But no matter what I did, I couldn't get the MIDI/USB driver to show up.

So I contacted Korg, and they suggested several possible reasons why the M3 wouldn't talk to my computer. One of these involved the infamous Windows XP MIDI port limitation problem. Actually, I had run across this problem before when reviewing the Yamaha Motif XS6, so I should have known better (and even wrote about how to solve this problem in a Tech Bench article for EQ magazine; I've attached a PDF of the article in case any of you need to fix this problem). But I didn't think I'd installed THAT many MIDI ports in my computer...

Anyway, I read my own article :), followed the directions, and found that the Line 6 TonePort KB37 interface was using FIVE MIDI ports! Why? Well, when I first got my PC Audio Labs computer, I had some USB issues with audio interfaces (which was solved by installing a PCI USB board for audio, and using the motherboard USB only for non-audio devices like hard drives and other USB peripherals). So I had plugged the KB37 into multiple USB ports, and yes, Windows happily installed a new driver for each one. So I deleted all of the duplicate entries except one, made another attempt at re-installing the Korg software, and bingo--everything worked just like it was supposed to.

Within a minute, I had imported all of the programs from the M3 into the editor. Yay!! Thanks, Korg.

[Anderton]

The 73-note keyboard on the M3 being reviewed has synth action, not weighted action, but it has a firm, classy kind of feel. The velocity response is predictable; I like the way the velocity value correlates to my playing.

But the really big deal here is the aftertouch. Now that's a yawner topic, right? Wrong. If you don't like aftertouch, or haven't used it much, that might be because with many keyboards, "aftertouch" is more like "afterswitch." Sure, you can press hard on a key and introduce vibrato or whatever, but traditionally, it's been very difficult to get a truly nuanced, predictable effect with aftertouch.

Well, Korg claims to have redesigned the keyboard from the ground up (including the aftertouch), and I believe it. Well actually, I had a hard time believing the response at first, so I fired up Sonar and pressed on a key as evenly as a could so I could see what was going on. Check out the first image with the aftertouch curve, and how even it is: That is the smoothest aftertouch curve I've seen on a keyboard.

But the real shocker comes with the second image, which shows the actual data values in an event list. You can see the aftertouch step through individual values one value at a time. Even with hardly any pressure applied, there are no jumps: The aftertouch travels smoothly though 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. It isn't until it hits the 20s and 30s before you see the occasional value being skipped, and I can't guarantee that isn't due to my not pressing smoothly.

This is extremely impressive, and makes aftertouch a truly expressive, nuanced function with a great deal of musicality. The M3 gets exceptionally high marks for this.

[Anderton]

Aftertouch has eight different response curves, as shown in the first image. Velocity has nine different response curves, as shown in the second image.

However, they both offer a feature I haven't seen before: the choice of having the response be "PreMIDI" or "PostMIDI." This allows equal flexibility when using the M3 keyboard as a master controller, or using just the sound generator part as a tone module (as you would with the M3-M rack).

The PreMIDI curve is applied right after the keyboard. So, if you're driving another module with the M3 keyboard, you can choose the velocity or aftertouch curve for the data that gets sent to the module. Also with the PreMIDI setting, when the M3's used as a tone module, the sounds respond in a standard linear fashion.

The PostMIDI curve happens just before the tone generator section. In this case, the keyboard produces a linear response, whereas the tone generator can respond to MIDI data according to your curve of choice. So if, for example, you've recorded MIDI data in a sequencer and find that the velocity doesn't have the right curve for the effect you want to produce in the M3, you can set the curve to PostMIDI, which will modify the incoming velocity curve and (hopefully) produce the results you want. With PostMIDI selected, the keyboard sends out velocities based on a linear curve.

Aftertouch works similarly, but has one less curve option.

[Anderton]

The Pads (used for triggering drums, patterns, etc.) can be set for velocity response or have a user-settable fixed velocity. I was curious if the pads were affected by the velocity curve options, and whether they had aftertouch, but they don't.

The feel of the pads took me back a bit, as I was expecting something with less "travel" and a more rubbery feel. Once I got used to them, though, it was easy to produce consistent velocities. I also get the feeling these are built to take musician-level abuse, and also, you don't have to smash them to get a satisfying response--good news for those with a tendency toward RSI (repetitive stress injuries, like what you get from typing or playing keyboards too much and always in the same way).

Speaking of which, here's a tip that has nothing to do with the M3 but you might find it helpful.

I'm often asked why I don't have RSI problems, given how much I type. I don't have an answer but I have a theory: I usually have two computers going at once, my "office/writing" computer and my "music" computer. Sometimes I'll have a laptop computer off to the side that's also doing something. All three have very different keyboards, at different elevations and angles, so I think that alternating among these may account for why I've been lucky enough not to have RSI problems. With today's USB keyboards, you can try the same thing: Get two entirely different keyboards, and set one keyboard behind the other, with the far one elevated somewhat, and alternate between the two when typing...switch every 15 minutes or so. I don't know if this is a solution--as I said, it's a theory--but if you're plagued with a tendency toward RSI, this might help.

And on that note, that's enough M3 for today...although I may just fire it up this evening, put on some headphones, and groove on the sounds. :)

[Jon Chappell]

... So I contacted Korg, and they suggested several possible reasons why the M3 wouldn't talk to my computer. One of these involved the infamous Windows XP MIDI port limitation problem. Actually, I had run across this problem before ... so I should have known better (and even wrote about how to solve this problem in a Tech Bench article for EQ magazine; I've attached a PDF of the article in case any of you need to fix this problem). ... So I deleted all of the duplicate entries except one, made another attempt at re-installing the Korg software, and bingo--everything worked just like it was supposed to. ...Thanks, Korg.

Craig, this is TOO funny. I had the same problem today trying to install the editor/librarian for the Korg Pandora PX5D. No matter what I did, the device would not show up in a MIDI port (though it recorded and played back audio seamlessly in my DAWs).

Giving up for the day (after scheduling a phone appt. with the Korg folks for the next day), I decided to do some forum surfing and ran across your exact same issues. I downloaded the pdf, followed the instructions, and voilà! I now have two-way data communication with my PX5D!

To all: Download Craig's article and keep it in a safe place! It saved my bacon! (Well, it saved me a little embarrassment in front of the Korg guys at least. ;))

I'm following your M3 tour with great interest. Very cool stuff about the velocity and aftertouch resolution. Looks like one deep machine!

[Jerrythek]

Credit where credit is due department:

When we first started releasing products with USB-MIDI drivers we ran across this issue supporting customers, and I found the answer from some well-written documents at RME's website. Thanks RME!!

Since I've now surfaced, I might as well point out that you should really fix the 62-key reference in your earlier post - we're getting calls from a lot of customers asking for the one-key we owe them.

:poke:

I'm here when you (or anyone reading) needs me. Keep up the good work.

regards,

Jerry Kovarsky
Korg Technology Senior Product Manager

[Anderton]

Jerry, if this Korg thing doesn't work out for you, I can always use a proofreader.

[Anderton]

But seriously...ever have one of those days? Well, today was one of them. So what better way to try to salvage it than by playing with a cool keyboard?

Uh...I mean...working on a Pro Review. ;)

Anyway, there are a lot of programs in the M3...512 pre-loaded programs, another 512 free programs that became available after the M3 was introduced, programs for use with the optional EXB-RADIAS board, GM2 programs...lotsa stuff. So the question then becomes how do you access all this stuff? In the heat of a session, when you're looking for a string synth program, can you find it easily or do you have to hunt? Let's find out.

[Anderton]

Programs are organized as banks, and there are dedicated buttons for each bank. The image shows where the buttons are located - toward the upper right corner. The upper row of buttons selects internal banks, and the lower row, user banks. Of these banks, 1A - 1D (each bank has 128 presets) contain batches o' patches, 1E has 32 vocoder-based patches and the rest are user patches, 1F is for EXB-RADIAS patches but unfortunately, if that board is not installed, the bank is essentially "dead." 1G is an overachieving General MIDI set of patches.

As for the User banks, the U-A through A-D banks contain the 512 new patches that Korg made available to users recently. A-E, A-F, and A-G contain user patches. However...although I haven't gotten too much into the whole USB storage thing yet, I'm assuming that you can shuttle user patches in and out via USB sticks or hard drives. Note that the user banks can switch between M3 and EXB-RADIAS programs, but you have to decide this ahead of time by using a global command to set a bank to one option or the other.

A quick aside: One of the things that really appeals to me about the M3 is the EXB-RADIAS option. I reviewed (http://www.keyboardmag.com/article/korg-radias/Aug-06/22440) the RADIAS for the August 2006 issue of Keyboard magazine and really fell in love with it. I seriously considered buying it but at the time, my bank account was arguing with me about the wisdom of that decision, and I didn't. It's nice to know that if I can scrape up the bucks for an M3 at some point, I'll be able to get a RADIAS in there too. And by the way, if you saw Dr. Walker's synth tour at the Frankfurt show in the Harmony Central Theater, you'll know he's a big fan of the RADIAS too.

Of course, you can choose programs by hitting a Bank button, then using up/down arrow buttons to scroll through programs in the bank. One question with any type of synth is how long does it take to switch programs, and whether it gets ugly if you're switching from a program with, say, a long decay to one with a short decay. The M3 is actually very good in this respect if you're just incrementing and decrementing. If you spin the data wheel to select programs, there is some lag as it moves through the programs, although it's about par for the course.

But something that did surprise me was that if you're sustaining a note from one program by holding the key(s), then switch programs, the sustained notes from the previous program will continue sounding as long as you hold down the keys. Of course there may be a timbral change if there's a change in effects, but still, that's cool.

I must admit that as I scrolled through the programs to test the response as detailed above, I got hung on many of them. The KARMA+drum track feature is wonderful, as you can call up a sound and get lost in the patterns and changes...I've attached an audio example of the "Cosmic Furnace" patch in action. The Drum Track is providing the drum track, and KARMA is adding the rhythmic changes to what I'm doing with the right hand. Partway through the example, you'll hear me working the ribbon controller, which is assigned to some kind of filtering. (And to those into French dance music from the 80s, yes, that would be the ideal pattern to put behind a remake of Philippe Russo's Magie Noire--still one of my favorite tunes of that era.)

What?!? My hour is up for today? Okay. Well, tomorrow we'll find out if there's any kind of decent search function for finding sounds of a particular genre or style.

[Anderton]

Craig, this is TOO funny. I had the same problem today trying to install the editor/librarian for the Korg Pandora PX5D. No matter what I did, the device would not show up in a MIDI port (though it recorded and played back audio seamlessly in my DAWs).

To all: Download Craig's article and keep it in a safe place! It saved my bacon! (Well, it saved me a little embarrassment in front of the Korg guys at least. ;))

I'm following your M3 tour with great interest. Very cool stuff about the velocity and aftertouch resolution. Looks like one deep machine!

I'm glad that my embarrassing myself in front of the Korg tech support folks saved you from doing the same. Having already embarrassed myself in front of Yamaha over the same issue, I'm actively looking for other keyboard manufacturers in front of whom I can embarrass myself. All in a day's work :) If it's any consolation, Korg indicated this is a problem they have to deal with constantly. So it's not just you and me. Hello? Microsoft? Anyone home? Does the XP SP3 service pack solve this?

Agreed about the velocity/aftertouch, particularly the aftertouch. I'd go so far as to say that until you've played this controller, you haven't experienced what aftertouch can really do. If only it was poly aftertouch!!!! But sadly, that seems to have died with Ensoniq.

Memo to Korg: Consider releasing a master keyboard controller with this keybed.

[Anderton]

First of all, I gotta say the color touch display is great. It's spoiling me with respect to gear in general...it's a great way to interact with an OS.

Second, this may be in the manual somewhere, but what's the recommended way to clean fingerprints that accrue over time from the touch display screen? Diluted Windex? Warm water? Chamois? Any cloth? Paper towels? Inquiring minds want to know...

[Anderton]

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 (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Korg-M3-Music-Workstation-Keyboard?sku=701817) is going for $2,199, the 73-key model (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Korg-M3-73-Key-Music-Workstation-Keyboard?sku=702660) for $2,599, and the 88-key version (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Korg-M3-88Key-Music-Workstation-Keyboard?sku=702703) 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.

[Jerrythek]

Second, this may be in the manual somewhere, but what's the recommended way to clean fingerprints that accrue over time from the touch display screen? Diluted Windex? Warm water? Chamois? Any cloth? Paper towels? Inquiring minds want to know...

Many of our users have found (and we agree) that microfiber cloths are a great method. A touch of water and not much pressure works fine.

I also personally will use eyeglass cloths or cleaners, like I would on my computer screen. But I've found that the cheaper the brand the more wet they seem to be, so I prefer Bausch & Lomb (for example) over cheap generic one.

A search at either forum will bring up many discussions of cleaning both the surfaces and displays of our products.

That's what's so great about the 'Net communities.

regards,

Jerry

[Anderton]

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.

[Anderton]

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.

[Anderton]

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).

[Anderton]

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...

[Anderton]

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.

[Anderton]

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 :)

[MuzikB]

So, it not so many words.....

The M3 is the BOMB!

That is all.

[Son of HuHefner]

I have been an M3M owner since May 2007 and i think its a superb instrument by Korg

You are doing a great job going thru it

[EJ2]

Thanks, Craig. That was a very comprehensive and well balanced review. No doubt prospective buyers of new gear would be wise to add your reports to their reading lists before or after checking out the M3. In fact, I think a few M3 newbies would find your reviews quite informative. I'll pass the link along to some of the other groups I participate in.

[Anderton]

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!

[MuzikB]

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!

1. Improved sequencer over Triton Series

2. Drum Pads

3. More Realtime control over Triton Series

4. Built in Kaoss Pad

5. Radias Synth expansion

6. Radias Step Sequencer

7. Radias Vocoder

8. KARMA advanced arpeggiator

9. Computer connectivity

10. Component modular design of the keyboard. Gigging musicians tend to tear up the chassis of keyboards. Now you can replace the chassis and keep your synth. No need to buy a whole new synth.

[EJ2]

1. KARMA 2 technology on board. What else can I say about the myriad possibilities for crafting patterns, motifs, mini compositions that can be controlled, modified, enhanced, augmented, altered in real time. This is leagues beyond arranger workstations.
2. Intuitive ergonomic layout of realtime controls for changing, modifying riffs (KARMA Generated Effects) on the fly.
3. Drum Track - a very cool enhancement over predecesors Karma and OASYS. Integrated (with KARMA ON or OFF), programmable and switchable, this is a very handy tool for driving your grooves.
4. While the touch screen has been reduced in size from its big brother's (OASYS) size, it has a couple of tricks up its sleeve - Vectoring with X/Y Mode, Hold (lock) response, Motion start/stop. I prefer this over the OASYS Vector Joystick.
5. I love working with 8 assignable and touch sensitive pad/triggers in conjunction with playing the keyboard. The ability to easily assign massive or simple chords individually to each pad adds another dimension to playing a progession (in any order or pattern you choose).
6. Did I mention the RealTime Controls handling multiple duties, especially the ones connected with KARMA 2? As far as I can determine, there is nothing comparable on the market. As an example, imagine, with the flick of a switch or moving a slider, a simple snare hit can be turned into a rapid fire drum roll that punctuates a moving four module groove.
7. Of course, one of the biggest draws for me, in any consideration for a piece of equipment, is the sound. The quality of timbres/programs Korg has loaded into the M3, is amazing, especially with the infusion of the extra 512 recently delivered. The ability to employ up to 16 of these within a combination or sequence presents a great potential for creativity, most expressively within a "fully KARMA-fied" combi with all 4 KARMA Modules running.
8. The input/output configurations on the rear are very generous - two different USB ports (one for loading or storing and one for computer connectivity), 2 Audio Inputs with line or mic options, In/out S/PDIF, etc. etc.
9. Innovative Keyboard - Module/component technology, with special mention of Korg's new keybeds. I have to agree with you about nudging Korg. Hey you guys, listen up. Can you give us a KKC "Korg Keyboard Controller"? These keybeds are awesome.
10. Korg and 3rd party support is truly very helpful. I can get online answers, contributions, suggestions, information, tutorials etc. right from the head honchos (those who played a major part in bringing the M3 to life) themselves. Jerry Kovarsky (Korg USA), Stephen Kay (Karma Lab), various sound designers/programmers et al are present and participate on karma Lab Forums (http://www.karma-lab.com/forum/index.php?s=) and Korg Forums (http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/index.php). So are a host of knowledgeable veteran Korg users. These forums constitute two of the best online musicians' communities I know of.

Of course there is so much more to report on, for example EXB RADIAS, but that's enough from me for now.

[akliner]

Your review makes it so tempting...but when I upgrade my Triton Extreme, I think it will be to the OASYS. :love:

Maybe.

[Anderton]

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.

[Anderton]

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.

[Anderton]

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.

[Jerrythek]

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 is a "connection" between the M3 and the OASYS - it starts with the fact that we developed the chip for the EDS system at the same time that we decided to test the waters with making the STG (software-based tone generator) approach at the heart of the OASYS. So we developed the main PCM synthesis architectures to be very similar. This means you can look at the M3 synthesis as being very close to the HD-1 engine of the OASYS.

Of course the OASYS does add it's own special power to that, with even higher fidelity, wave-sequencing and the ultimate envelope/LFO speed and resolution in our product offerings. But overall they are very related designs.

We did work hard on both platforms to improve the interpolation/aliasing all too common in PCM playback synthesis, and that is part of what you are hearing.

As for expandability you are correct. The software basis of the OASYS allows us to do much more in adding new forms of synthesis technology as compared to any chip-based system. That's why we have been able to start with three main forms of synthesis in the OASYS, and then have added four more since its release.

On the M3 we add new synthesis through hardware, not software. In time you'll be getting into exploring the EXB-RADIAS so I won't do a commercial for it now. But that's the approach.

And we can add additional PCM libraries through USB PCM expansions, which are upcoming. Keep the review alive for a while and who knows, we might just be able to include one...

:-)

And of course we can upgrade aspects of the operating system and functionality as we have been proud to do for many of our products over the last ten years.

OK - I'll go back to lurking - I'm here when you need me.

Regards,

Jerry

[Anderton]

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.

[Anderton]

It's not difficult. First of all, there's a dedicated Sampling button among the various Mode buttons. So if you want to do sampling, you...hit Sampling.

Once you do that, you'll enter sampling world, which has a variety of pages (first image)- the ones of interest to us right now are Recording, Sample Edit, and Loop Edit.

The Recording page (second image) is where you'll start off. I went up to the Menu and selected the Auto Sampling Setup page (third image). This shows that recording is being set up through the audio input (as opposed to resampling through effects), the source is Audio instead of S/PDIF and it's listening to the left input only to create a mono sample. The audio will be saved to MEDIA, which in this case, is a USB stick although you can also save to RAM (which is the default).

I decided to record a guitar string. It took me a while to figure out how to record by setting a threshold, as shown in the second image; I think there may be an error in the manual on page 113 - step 1 under Record should say "Press the SAMPLING REC switch and then the START/STOP switch." At that point, when I wanted to sample, I just played and when the signal exceeded the threshold, it got recorded. Hitting the Start/Stop switch again terminated sampling. At least that's what worked for me.

If you just do traditional, non-threshold-based sampling, it's obvious: Hit Start/Stop, play note, hit Start/Stop - simple. Note that no matter what way you decide to sample, the M3 is always sampling, so you can set a "pre-sample" time to make sure you don't miss a crucial attack transient. This is a wonderful feature.

Another useful feature is that the display will show you when the A/D converter is being overloaded, even if you aren't in Record mode. This lets you set the level control on the back so the signal level is "in the ballpark." You can also monitor through the headphones, and if you hear distortion, you'll know to turn the control down; apparently monitoring occurs after conversion, which is a VERY good thing. After all, you want to know what's happening after the signal hits the input stage, not what's happening before it goes into the M3.

Creating additional samples is easy: You just flip back to the main Recording page and create a new "index" (basically, a container for a sample. Another cool feature is that after recording, you can just hit trigger pad 1 to hear the sample play back - you don't have to futz with finding the right key.

[Anderton]

Yup, you can do it. When I first plugged in a USB stick, it wasn't recognized. I thought maybe it needed to be formatted, so I did, but I think as long as your stick is FAT16 or FAT32 you're probably okay. What seemed to make the difference was turning on the M3 with the USB stick inserted. Once I did that, it was recognized.

There may be some more efficient way to get the M3 to recognize the USB stick other than powering-up with the stick inserted; I hit the Media button to see if there was anything there, like "click here to recognize newly inserted media," but didn't find anything like that. Calling Mr. Jerry K: If you have any advice about this, let me know in case I'm missing something obvious.

BTW samples saved to stick are WAV files, so you can also just remove the stick and put it in a computer-based digital audio editor, then put it back into the M3, which will think it's the original sample. Cool!

[Anderton]

Well I've already gone over my allotted time for today, so I'll get into the details of sample editing later. But I couldn't resist seeing how far I could get with editing just by poking around, and the answer is: Pretty far.

I had recorded one sample without using the threshold option, and wanted to cut some "air" off the beginning. I figured the "Sample Edit" page was the place to go, and it was (first image). I just touched the Edit Range Start parameter, and spun the data wheel so that the area of the sample I wanted was within the sample range (the blue overlay in the picture). Then I hit the zoom buttons so I could make sure I was at the exact place I wanted to trim the sample.

Hmm, what's next...right! Check the Menu options. Sure enough, there was an option called Truncate, and invoking that removed anything that wasn't in the designated region - the air was gone.

Flushed with success, I called up the Loop Edit page (second image) and zoomed in. This shows a guitar string sample, and if you've ever tried to loop a cycle at the end of the decay, you know it's a hit or miss proposition. I first tried loop points in between the two big cycle waveforms, but couldn't get a good loop - there was a little bit of buzzing. When I switched to the loop points shown in the image, perfect! The loop was smooth, on-pitch, and ready to rock.

More to come...but suffice it to say, the sampling is really pretty easy, and the editing options and ability to zoom mean you can do your editing right in the M3.

[Rabid]

I would like to mention something I really appreciate about the M3 line, the M3M. Lighter than a keyboard, more usable than a rack. A true tabletop workstation. It is a great way to refresh an old keyboard. I have a Fantom76 at my parents' house that is worth more as a controller than the current market value of an outdated workstation. When I visit for the weekends I take my M3M and connect it to the Fantom. From bedroom studio to back deck to parents' house to sitting in with friends. I can take the M3M and connect it to what ever keyboard is available. That gives me consistent sounds, splits and interface without having to carry a bulky keyboard. Not to mention the ability to work on a song at any of those locations or in a hotel room and keep the same familiar unit.

Robert

[Anderton]

Yes, I agree 100% - the M3M is a great box, very versatile and a good way to bring the M3 mojo into an existing setup. But I also need to add that the M3 keyboard has a fantastic feel and the aftertouch is nothing short of amazing, as shown early on in this review...so if you need to upgrade your controller as well as your sounds, the M3 has a lot to offer.

[Anderton]

After specifying a particular edit range, you can do a lot with the digital audio editing - including Truncate (as we discussed previously), Cut, Clear, Copy, Insert, Mix, Paste, Insert Zero (basically, insert silence), Normalize/Level Adjust, Volume Ramp (what the rest of the world calls "fade"), Sample Rate Convert, and Reverse.

For example, I sampled a guitar's high E open string and wanted to normalize it, because it was at a super-low level (okay, so I wasn't that careful when I set levels) - see the first image. No problem; the second image shows the Normalize screen. Range shows the range being normalized; note that you can set a normalization level, you're not just limited to normalizing to 0. You can save to a new sample, or overwrite the existing one.

Then I wanted to add a fade at the end. The third image shows how the edit range has been shifted to the end (note that the waveform has now been normalized), and the fourth image shows the Volume Ramp screen. Simple: Choose fade in or out, with a linear or power (log) curve.

One small, but very cool feature, is that you can audition just the range to be edited by hitting the Sample Start button.

Of course, you can also do sample management like copy, delete, rename, convert stereo/mono, and the like. It's also easy to create multisamples, but I thought hey, I have this sample...let's see if I can turn it into a program - preferably without looking at the manual, just to see whether the process is transparent or not. Here's what I found.

[Anderton]

Problem #1: I couldn't extend the sample's range downward. But that's because the M3 thought some of my attempts at sampling were actually intended to be samples. I simply deleted the Index located below the low note of my existing sample, and I could then extend the range of the single sample across the entire keyboard.

While I was at it, I thought I'd see how well the M3 handled aliasing on the high end of the keyboard. The answer? Extremely well, which I think might account for why the sound is so clean. There was no problem taking that high E guitar string and having it cover the entire range of the keyboard - and sound very musical, as well. I was very pleasantly surprised.

After assigning the sample to an oscillator in the program, I figured I'd better save it. Like all naming functions, when you hit a little T (text) button on the screen, a pseudo-typewriter keyboard appears in the display. The first image shows the little T you touch to bring up the keyboard, but I couldn't get a picture of the keyboard itself. (But hey, it looks like a keyboard mapped on a touch screen.) As someone who's wasted far too many hours hitting arrow buttons to go to the next character and then spinning a data wheel to find the right character, this is a godsend. Program names can have up to 24 characters, so you have the luxury of giving Real Names instead of something like "GTR-E-01."

Next, it seemed like a good idea to copy the sample to another oscillator to thicken the sound. I tried the copy function - no dice. So I went back to the basic oscillator page, and sure enough, you could specify single oscillator, dual oscillator, or drum mode. I enabled dual oscillator, and then was able to create a copy. I offset the first sample by -0.3Hz, and the second by +0.3Hz, and got that nice chorusing kind of sound which I figured would sound even nicer once I added chorusing effects.

Then it was Amp time, because I wanted some enveloping (to soften the attack a bit) and add velocity. I also noticed an EQ option, as shown in the second image, which allowed beefing up the low end while taking a bit of the high end to make the sound less bright.

By this time I was really getting used to how you do page selecting in the M3, making it easy to jump back and forth among pages. After setting envelope and velocity I went back to the pitch page and added vibrato - triggered by that exceptionally expressive aftertouch, of course. The third image shows the OSC Pitch screen; the highlighted parameter is modulation intensity, and as you can see, Aftertouch is the parameter directly above this field.

Before long I was tweaking filter settings, tying filter frequency to velocity, adjusting envelopes, and acting as if I'd been using the M3 all my life. Well, that's probably an exaggeration, because I'm sure I was missing out on a lot of options. But in the course of an hour or so, I'd gone from sampled sound to actually useful keyboard program, and even saved it.

Feeling like I had the thing licked, I thought I'd add some reverb and chorus. So I went to the IFX page, and...my head exploded! I figured it would be way too complicated to figure out, and it was time to call it a day.

Wrong. Within two minutes, I had my reverb and chorus (the fourth image shows the available parameters for the chorus effect - not too shabby, eh?). If you want to hear the results of my amateurish patch creation, check out the audio example. The reason why I say "amateurish" is because I'm taking advantage of about 0.01% of what the M3 can do, but even within that constraint, it's kind of cool I was able to create something musically useful without looking at the manual.

[Anderton]

Let's take stock for a second. This is a very deep keyboard, and we're doing a Pro Review. A Pro Review doesn't mean just describing features, although that's an important part; the "review" part is where the rubber hits the road. You're following this review not just to find out what the M3 does, but how well it does it - and frankly, also to see how someone who's been working with synthesizers for several decades sees this instrument in the context of today's market.

Instruments like the M3, Yamaha's Motif series, and even soft synths (like Cakewalk's Rapture) have a degree of functionality that was only dreamed of in the past. But with deep functionality comes the responsibility not just to pile features on an existing base (e.g., Microsoft Word!), but to continually re-invent the concept of a user interface so that these deep functions are accessible. Sure, it might take you a year to figure out all the functions: But that should be a year of playing with the instrument, not nine months of reading the manual and three months of playing.

The M3 is daunting. Or is it? Its feature set is indeed daunting; it seems that this is a keyboard that can do just about anything. But if you isolate any individual aspect of the keyboard, it makes sense. As the above showed, when I wanted to sample a sound and create a program - without reading the manual - I could. This doesn't mean I now know anything about the sequencer, or KARMA, or using the M3 with a computer because I was able to sample and put together a program. What it means is that if you take the M3 a function at a time, the individual components make sense. (We'll see what happens when I hit KARMA, though, which is a whole other way of thinking about music.)

The key to this is a hierarchical operating system with not a lot of levels. The top level is the buttons on the instrument itself. There aren't a lot of them, but they are the gatekeepers to subsections like Programs, Combis, KARMA, controller assigns, and the like.

Once you're within a sub-section, there are three powerful aides to get you on your way: The Page Select buttons (these take you to logically-grouped pages of particular functions), the Touch Screen display, and within the Touch Screen display, the Menu options. This hierarchy is the way you basically do anything on the M3 - it's an operating system "rosetta stone" where once you've learned how to navigate around, say, creating a program, you know the navigation process for creating a signal or adding signal processors. Don't minimize the value of the touch screen: It's a very direct way to interact with an instrument. Instead of having to parse what button controls what function, you simply touch the function and adjust the desired parameter.

The bottom line is it doesn't matter how many functions a device has if they're a pain to access. The engineers at Korg must have put a whole lot of thought into how to interact with this instrument, because the OS is a thing of beauty.

It's unfortunate that this is the type of feature you appreciate only after working with an instrument for an extended period of time; it's not something that will reveal itself by playing with the M3 at a Guitar Center for five minutes. But that's why Pro Reviews exist - so I can spend a huge amount of time with something and distill the results for you.

Keep reading...

[Jerrythek]

I'm here - sorry, I was in Japan all last week with limited access to the Internet.

You can easily get the M3 to 're-scan' the USB ports - in the Media Mode, select the Media Info Tab and from the Upper RH Menu (we call those the Page Menu Commands) there is a command to "Scan USB Device" and any media currently attached will then show up.

Here's another cool trick with the TouchView Menus - you can direct-dial any of the Page Menu Commands by holding ENTER and typing a number. So in this instance there is only one command on this page, so hold ENTER+0 and it'll bring up the command directly without having to touch that arrow on the upper RH of the screen. Much quicker.

So on the Media Load tab for instance, hold ENTER+4 to "Load Selected".

In Program Mode, ENTER+0 will always bring you to the Write Program" command.

In Sampling Mode (since you're currently working there), ENTER+3 will always bring you to "Copy Sample". And so on.

Regards,

Jerry the K



Yup, you can do it. When I first plugged in a USB stick, it wasn't recognized. I thought maybe it needed to be formatted, so I did, but I think as long as your stick is FAT16 or FAT32 you're probably okay. What seemed to make the difference was turning on the M3 with the USB stick inserted. Once I did that, it was recognized.

There may be some more efficient way to get the M3 to recognize the USB stick other than powering-up with the stick inserted; I hit the Media button to see if there was anything there, like "click here to recognize newly inserted media," but didn't find anything like that. Calling Mr. Jerry K: If you have any advice about this, let me know in case I'm missing something obvious.

BTW samples saved to stick are WAV files, so you can also just remove the stick and put it in a computer-based digital audio editor, then put it back into the M3, which will think it's the original sample. Cool!

[Anderton]

Before we get into the Sequencer and KARMA (I suspect that once I start working with KARMA, no one will see me for months!), let's look at how effects are handled.

I'm not sure Korg always gets the credit it deserves for effects, but that just might be a personal thing because I've always been more into the keyboard/synth/tone module aspects. But two things got me more into Korg effects: The effects included with the Legacy Collection soft synths, which I often use on tracks regardless of whether I'm using any soft synths, and the PX5D (the subject of another Pro Review (http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1973177), by Jon Chappell) which sure is packed with features, especially given the cost. And it makes some really good sounds.

The M3 has three different places where you can "park" effects: Insert, Master, and "Total." You can insert up to five insert effects for a given program, a given track in a sequence, or a given element in a Combi. The Master effect is more like an aux effect, as it has send/return for connections and sequencer track. The "Total" effect can be thought of as the final effect before the whole thing hits the real world. This is the effect for when the producer says "I like the sound of your keyboard, but can you make the whole thing a little bit brighter so it cuts better in the mix?" Also, note that these effects are in addition to the "built-in" EQ for programs and tracks.

First, let's take a look at effects in programs. The first image shows the main screen for a program. You won't see any effects here, but I included this so you could see the three-band EQ (fixed frequency low and high boost/cut controls, and sweepable mid with boost/cut but no Q). This EQ, circled in red for clarity, is really for tone-shaping on a general level; if you want serious EQ, then you can use a sophisticated parametric or graphic EQ as an insert/master/total effect.

Hit the page select button, and you get the helpful "here are your options for the various pages" screen. Page 8 is for insert effects, page 9 for master and total effects. The second image shows Page 8, and the important thing here are the tabs: Routing, Internal FX setup (where you choose effects and effects chains), tabs for individual effects parameters, and finally, a tab for the common FX LFO.

Anyway, as the second image shows the Routing page, let's investigate further.

The M3 uses a bus structure, where you can send the oscillator outs to various buses or in this case, particular effects. For example, if you're sending an oscillator to the internal effects, it can feed into the input of any of the five available insert effects. Or it can go to the main audio output, bypassing the Total effect, or sent without processing to individual outputs (for example, if you want to add your own processing). Another option, the FX Control bus, lets an effect's audio input be controlled by a different sound - more on this later. There's also a conventional aux bus option. All of these are shown schematically in a mixer shown on-screen. (By the way, effects can also be part of sampling and re-sampling.)

But note these are not necessarily mutually-exclusive options; you could send the oscillator signals to an insert effect that appears at the main outs, but also send the dry signal to an individual out. Example? Sure! Treat the dry as the subwoofer out from a bass sound, while feeding the bass through internal effects to get a big stereo image.

[Anderton]

The attached image shows the internal FX setup page, and there's quite a bit going on here.

The left side of the screen basically lists the effects that are in play. This is also where you can enable/disable effects, as well as choose the effect for a particular slot. (Incidentally, note the insert effects on/off switches: These are paralleled by the play/mute/solo switches located just over the 8 real-time faders, so it's easy to do hands-on effects enable/disable.)

Note the "Chain To" option: It's currently set to IFX3, so IFX1 feeds IFX3. But this can be changed. For example, setting it to IFX4 means that both IFX1 and IFX3 (which is also set to chain to IFX4) will feed IFX4. Essentially, this is what gives series/parallel effects options, although there are additional series/parallel combinations of effects that can go into slots. We'll show this shortly.

If you disable chaining, then instead of the little line going to the effect it feeds, the effect goes directly to the sort of "mixer/routing" section to the right. Take a look at the section circled in blue, as this shows where IFX4's output goes. First, it hits a Pan control, then gets sent to your choice of bus (in this case, outs 1/2 - the effect below, IFX5, goes to the main L/R outs). You can also specify an Aux/Ctrl bus to send the effect (for IFX4, that's 3/4), with a parameter for the amount of send - in this case, 127.

Flexible enough for you? Yeah, I thought so. I'm actually looking forward to using the M3 as an guitar amp effects rack, using the external inputs with my guitar. But that's for later! Let's move on to the types of effects that are available.

[Anderton]

In the previous post, you probably noticed the little right-pointing arrow next to the effect name. This is Korg's universal symbol for "touch here to select stuff," and touching here opens up a screen with tabs for different effects families. This is where you choose specific effects.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so rather than type, I've taken screen shots of each family of effects. We'll look at the interface for selected effects, but for now, let's get an overview of what's available.

The first image shows the five dynamics effects. These are all "bread and butter type" effects, but the Multiband Limiter is particularly interesting - it's a "maximizer" type of device that makes for a good Total effect.

The second image shows the 12 EQ/filter effects. In addition to a 4-band parametric and 7-band graphic EQ, the Isolator is sort of like a DJ "kill" feature; also notice the Decimator for lo-fi effects, wahs, and other more esoteric filtering effects.

The third image is all about amp modeling effects. This is something that I believe Ensoniq pioneered, by mixing guitar effects with keyboard patches to give cool keyboard sounds. Also check out the mic modeling effect, and hi-gain wa; these are just begging for me to plug my guitar into the input and check them out. Must...be...patient...

The fourth image relates to phasing, chorusing, and flanging. There's also vibrato, an envelope flanger, and a dead ringer for the Polysix's Ensemble effect. I like it when companies don't forget their past, but instead bring it into the present.

[Anderton]

Moving right along...the first image shows modulation and pitch shifter effects, as well as rotating speaker options. And yes, fans of the weird - there's a ring modulator! The Grain Shifter is really cool, too. Quite a few of these deserve audio examples as we dig deeper.

the second image illustrates the delay options. Not surprisingly, a lot of them sync to BPM. There are also "reverse tape" effects, panning delays, and the like.

The third image displays your choices in reverbs. This is the usual "various room algorithm options" approach, along with an early reflections effect. Putting reverbs in series or parallel can give extremely rich, big effects.

The fourth image lets you select combinations of two mono effects. The screen shot is misleading, because there are another 16 effects that would be visible if you could scroll the picture to the right. These are mostly for convenience and saving "slots" for effects, as you can create the same combinations with the individual effects.

Similarly, the fifth image has parallel combinations of mono effects, and there are 29 additional combinations not shown in the screen shot. There are some particularly hip combinations, like parallel compressors for when you want squashed drums but still retain dynamics - one compressor squashes like crazy, the other applies light compression. Wah in parallel with compressor is good for bass sounds, as you can compress the fundamental, deep bass sound while "layering" the wa effect on top of it.

Incidentally, the same roster of effects is available for the Master and Total slots.

[Anderton]

I'm back from Summer NAMM, I've finished my videos and the Summer NAMM trailer for the front page, and now, it's back to Pro Reviews. So...

Before leaving the world of effects for things like KARMA, the sequencer, and the 424,332 other features in the M3 (just kidding! There are really only 67,455 more features to cover), I thought it might be fun to come up with a guitar processing rig and see how well it did guitar sounds.

Part of this is the "because we can" syndrome. But part of it involves cost. The M3 isn't expensive for what it does, but it's not a budget keyboard, either. If it can be pressed into providing other useful functions, then that helps justify the expenditure above and beyond it being a great-sounding keyboard. As it so happens, the M3 can serve as a 4-in/6-out effects processor with (as shown in previous posts) a wide roster of effects, serial/parallel options, control surface options for parameters (e.g., footpedal or joystick control), and the like.

According the manual, you can process external inputs when in Program, Combi, Sequencing or Sampling mode. I figured I'd start in Program mode, as that way I could name and save the preset for future use. So, naturally I wanted to route the external input to the Program...

[Anderton]

The manual wasn't particularly clear on how to route the input to the Program; it acted as if the signal just kind of magically appeared, and you didn't have to do anything. Surprisingly, that's actually the way it works. I thought that perhaps I needed to select an Audio Input under the Sampling or Global options, and that setting would be carried over to the Program. As an experiment, I set the input for both Sampling and Global to SPDIF; as the guitar was going into the Analog 1 input, I didn't expect it to show up in the program...but it did. From what I can gather, the Program basically always has the input available if you want it.

However, it seems the input hooks into the signal chain just before the insert effects. Therefore, you can't use the synth's filter and amp modules to "play" the filter frequency, or "chop" the signal with the VCA. But you can insert suitable effects that do the same thing, i.e., multimode filter or noise gate, so not being able to use the synth modules isn't really a limitation.

The attached image shows the start of the preset construction process: I decided to use User Bank F as a home for signal processing presets, and named the first preset in the bank as Guitar Overdrive. Now, let's construct our guitar rack.

[Anderton]

I thought I'd start with a simple serial connection of insert effects, as shown in the first image. Here's the roster of effects.

IFX1: Stereo limiter. A little sustain is always a good thing with guitar :)
IFX2: Overdrive/High-Gain Wah (second image). This is basically a distortion section with an amp cabinet simulator. Don't expect Guitar Rig; there's only one distortion and one cabinet algorithm in this section (although there are other cabinet options, such as for bass, in other algorithms). For distortion, you can choose Overdrive or High-Gain.
IFX3: Pitch shifter (second image). Octave division is hard to pull off, so I figured I'd throw something hard at the M3. There are some interesting aspects to the Pitch Shifter: You can choose slow, medium, or fast detection modes (I found slow distracting, but medium worked fine - fast enough, and accurate enough). Also, there's a feedback option (hooray!!) with delay, so you can have ascending or descending "bell trees." I'll give an audio example of this later on.
IFX4: Reverb Smooth Hall. A little reverb at the end never hurts, right? Of course, I could have done this as a master effect...but I wanted to keep things simple for now.
IFX5: This is set to On in the screen shot because I thought I was going to need a Noise Gate, but I didn't.

Referring back to the first image, you can see the serial connection. Incidentally, just to play it safe, I turned off the oscillators on the main program page so if I hit a key accidentally, nothing nasty would happen. And by the way - this was another instance where the operating system was transparent. I was able to get this happening just by poking around, based on what I'd figured out so far about effects.

So far so good...how about some audio examples?

[Anderton]

The first audio example is the M3 doing octave division, with the high-gain algorithm, cabinet simulator, and plenty of overdrive to add dirt and nastiness. I was surprised by how well the octave division tracked, despite using the medium instead of slow tracking setting.

The second audio example is the M3 doing octave multiplication, i.e., multiplying the signal by two. This produces those Hendrix-like "Octavia" effects.

The third audio example is a downward "bell tree," produced by feeding back the pitch-shifted sound (transposed down by a semitone) and adding a delay of about 300 ms.

The fourth audio example is an upward "bell tree" - same thing as the previous example, but with pitch shift set for a semitone up rather than down.

The fifth audio example uses the wah from the overdrive algorithm. I hooked up a pedal for this one, and assigned it to the wah filter frequency.

[Anderton]

The previous audio examples were simply designed to give a hint of what the M3 can do. If the M3 were an effects processor, we could still do a pro review on just that - demonstrating serial effects, parallel effects, using aux effects, adding more variations of MIDI control, etc. But, I think we've made the point, and it's time to move on to more synth-specific features. The main conclusion here is that the effects are not just tacked on to the M3, but an integral part of shaping not just the M3's sounds, but external sounds as well.

(Oh, and one more fine point: When I talked about how the audio just appeared in the program, I should mention that under the Global section, Audio tab, I made sure the input was going to the IFX1 chain.)

[Jerrythek]

Craig wrote:

"However, it seems the input hooks into the signal chain just before the insert effects. Therefore, you can't use the synth's filter and amp modules to "play" the filter frequency, or "chop" the signal with the VCA. But you can insert suitable effects that do the same thing, i.e., multimode filter or noise gate, so not being able to use the synth modules isn't really a limitation."

If you want to have that sort of fun, you can with the optional EXB-RADIAS board. That synthesis engine does allow an osc source to be an audio input, and from there the sound-mangling fun can begin. Your review unit has the board installed, and the Programs are located in INT-F bank, so it's waiting for you...

:-)

Regards,

Jerry Kovarsky
Korg Guy

[Anderton]

Thanks, Korg Guy. I stand corrected: I have 67,456 more features to cover, not 67,455.

[semmi78]

Hi Anderton

thank you for this wonderful review so far. I own an M3 myself. Its the 88 key version with EXB-Radias. I really like this instrument very much and it sounds great. A great replacement for my good old Trinity with Prophecy board (though I never sell the beauty).

About using the M3 as guitar rig:
Your topics about the m3 as a guitar rig processor is quite informative. Yesterday I connected my Ibanez to the M3, set the effect routing to IFX1, dont forget to set the switch to LINE (NOT Mic!), and just scroll through the preset sounds. you will hear some pretty cool effects in combination with the guitar and they do sound really really good. It is good fun to just get an impression on what the M3 is capable of as a 'guitar rig'.

I will try to give some examples of combinations/programs that do sound great for guitar.

;)

[Anderton]

I will try to give some examples of combinations/programs that do sound great for guitar.

That would be very cool, thanks. I was fooling around with the M3 earlier and also found that it does some very cool effects with vocals, too.

It's a pretty multi-purpose device... :)

BTW how do you like the keyboard feel on the 88-note model?

[semmi78]

Well, I play 88 keys for lots of years right now, so I pretty much prefer a fully weighted action over a semi-weighted any day. I play both classical and progrock. For that purpose I find the RH-3 keybed wonderful. Really, its not too stiff and very dynamic for playing piano. With velocity setting 9 the piano really comes to life. Furthermore I find it also very comfortable for any other keyboardwork like for example synth lead sections.
So yes, :thu:

[Anderton]

The M1 was the keyboard that pretty much popularized the concept of putting a sequencer inside a "workstation," and here we have the M3 with - of course - an internal sequencer. It's 16-track (along with a master track for tempo/time signature), and holds up to 210,000 MIDI events.

So is it MIDI-only? Not quite. If you record digital audio, the M3 does what's called "in-track" sampling where it will create a trigger for the recorded sample if you record it while the song is playing. How this differs from straight-ahead hard disk recording eludes me, but hey, Korg wants to call the process in-track sampling and so it shall be. Furthermore, you can re-sample as well as sample when in Sequencer mode. Of course, you can also use the sequencer to drive external MIDI gear.

All of this happens in RAM, so everything's basically lost when you power-off unless you save to a USB memory stick or CD (not included; you need to use an external USB drive). However, you can save a template file with track parameters as a place to get started.

Like most sequencers, the M3 works on a Pattern/Song basis, where patterns (user patterns or factory patterns, i.e., drum patterns) get strung together into songs. But of course, it can also do linear MIDI recording and step-time recording. In addition to recording all the usual messages (notes, controllers, etc.), it can also record and play back system exclusive messages.

The M3 holds up to 128 songs, but then you're looking at under 2,000 events per song. If you're just doing notes you probably won't hit that, but if you're doing lots of tracks with lots of controller data, don't expect to hit the limit. As to the songs you have stored in memory, the M3 has a playlist function (they call it "cue list") where you can string together songs.

These are just the basics, but I wanted to give a sort of "frame of reference." Although on paper the M3 sequencer doesn't look that different compared to what's come before, in practice the "feel" is more like a hard disk recorder than an old-school MIDI sequencer, and there are a lot of editing options to keep you busy. Let's check out some of the functions.

[Anderton]

The M3 includes 12 demo sequences, so you have something you can play with immediately to check out the various functions (except for RPPR, which we'll get into later) and get a feel for how they work. So, that's what I did.

But first, I should point out that to make this happen, I actually had to look at the manual. But I have a good excuse: The demo material has to be loaded separately, using the Global function. One that was in memory, it was back to using the touch screen and page select/number buttons to fumble my way around.

(At this point, I can imagine people from Korg getting seriously weirded out: When is he going to start reading the manual? He's missing this feature, and this feature, and this feature... Well, I will get to the back corners of the M3. But this is a review, and one of the aspects that's of paramount importance to me is how easy it is to get the basics down on a piece of gear. Honestly, if I can record, play back, mix, process, and edit, I'm not so concerned if I'm missing out on some function that allows batch processing all controller 4 data and transferring it to another sequence. I will try to pick up the loose ends at some point - bearing in mind that to cover everything the M3 would take months, if not years - but I think it's crucial to see if a sophisticated piece of gear fights you or hugs you. So far I've been getting hugs.)

The centerpiece of the sequencer consists of the two sets of Program and Mixer screens. Each one of these covers eight tracks (1-8, 9-16). The attached image shows the program page for tracks 1-8. At the top, you can see where you do the "housekeeping" - call up the sequence, check out tracks, set track resolution, tempo, time signature, etc. This remains the same for both program pages.

Below that is the area when you select programs. There are separate options to select Category and Program, which is convenient when you're rummaging around trying to find the right sound. Below the program selection area are Play/Mute and Solo buttons (note that the first two tracks are muted). The Solo buttons default to being additive, e.g., you can hit Solo for Track 1 to hear it, then hit another Solo button for Track 4, and now you'll hear both Tracks 1 and 4. But if you go into the infamous Menu touch button in the upper right, you can choose an "Exclusive" (i.e., "radio-button") Solo mode, where hitting one turns off any current Solo buttons. This is also where you can decide whether you want the front panel controller buttons to control Solo. Otherwise, they control Mute/Play.

When in non-exclusive Solo mode, I looked for a way to turn off all Solos that are on at once, perhaps by double-clicking on an already "on" Solo button...but to no avail. Maybe that's one of the hidden functions where I need to read the manual :).

[Anderton]

The sequencer’s mixer, shown for tracks 1-8 in the attached image, has a pretty basic interface: Pan and Volume. There’s no way to adjust pan using the touch screen; you need to touch a Pan control and use the Value slider or Data Wheel. The Volume sliders, as I’m sure you anticipated, tie in with the physical sliders on the control surface (they also can’t be adjusted directly from the touch screen). However, if you want really fine control over volume, you can do so with the data wheel – change one value at a time if you want.

My take is that the mixer is happiest when used for a set-and-forget type of compositional situation (you can automate track parameters if you want it to remember changes) as opposed to live performance-based remixing. Still, if you put your “most need to tweak” channels in either the 1-8 or 9-16 layer, you can use the sliders to do some serious remixing as long as you need to do that only with eight tracks. Of course, you can also switch over to the other “bank,” but that’s not the same thing as having instant access to 16 channels at once, which at least for me, is pretty much a requirement for live remixing. (That’s a limitation that I also find in most control surfaces, and a big reason why I still use Peavey’s PC-1600 for my live remix act.)

[semmi78]

There’s no way to adjust pan using the touch screen; you need to touch a Pan control and use the Value slider or Data Wheel.

interesting point! The Trinity featured the option to adjust the Pan settings on-screen. By holding-on a slider the forementioned slider would popup in a large scale onscreen, allowing you to adjust the slider my moving the finger. Since the Trinity was somewhat slow in response, this was not an easy to use option back then. But the initial idea to control everything onscreen is very cool and with a reponsive screen like on the M3 this function could be worthy.

[semmi78]

A little sidestep to previous discussed Guitarrig possibilities. As promised some example of the M3 being a Guitar rig.The following examples show what the insert effects are capable of. just connect a guitar to the input, set to IFX1 and scroll through the programs.

I-A005 Attacking synth: flanger with limiter
I-A011 r&b planet: compressor/flanger/ wahwah
I-A018 dirty guitar + ac30: set gain to 100 for even more heavyness
I-A076 Paddylicious: dreamy guitar!
I-A066 Xfade guitar: flanger, biphase mod, gain
U-C048: Blues tweed
U-C060: New fuzz guitar: guitar in talkbox. Very good sounding.

Ok, now back to sequencing business :thu:

[Anderton]

As promised some example of the M3 being a Guitar rig.The following examples show what the insert effects are capable of.

Great choices, thanks. I recommend that any M3 owners who play guitar check these out as well :thu:

[Tony Scharf]

Craig:

Thank you for doing this review. I am currently in the market for a workstation for stage use, and the M3 (along with the Motif XS and Roland G6) are the three I am considering (what else is there??). I am finding your review most helpful.

Initially, I had written off the M3m because it has significantly less sample RAM than either the Motif or the G6, particularly when you consider it ONLY samples at 48khz. However, if I am reading your review correctly, your saying that you can sample directly to a USB stick and treat it like essentially more RAM. Is that a correct interpretation? 30 minuts of sampling time would not be enough for me, however 80 minuts would be more than enough It would also make the in-track sampling more of a real feature for me. Perhaps you or 'the korg guy' could clarify this?

Thank you for this review.

[Anderton]

First off, you're very welcome! It's been kind of a tough review to do because for some reason, I've had an insane travel schedule this summer...normally things slow down, but I guess not this year. Anyway...

Actually, the sampling is a bit more flexible than you might think. As you probably know it has 64MB of RAM built in, and you can get the EXB-M256 expansion board for another 256MB. So with the expansion board in place, you have about 23 minutes of stereo sampling time. Also note that you can load WAV, AIF, Akai S1000/3000, and SoundFont2 files into the expansion board.

However, not only can you sample directly to a USB memory stick, you can sample directly to a USB hard drive. This gets stored as a standard WAV file, so you can plug your USB peripheral into a computer if you want to do sophisticated editing, apply noise reduction, etc. However, there are two limitations:

* The largest size of a sample file (mono or stereo) is 80 minutes. If you're sampling in stereo, that's 880MB.
* If you want to use the sample as a sound generator waveform, it needs to go into the M3's RAM, so you have that 320MB maximum RAM limit. In other words, you can't load samples from the hard drive/stick that are longer than 23 minutes into the M3 itself. From what I understand (Korg Guy, correct me if I'm wrong!!) the USB hard drive is not like a "swap file" where if the M3 runs out of RAM, it pulls data from the drive. Instead, it's a way to store samples (and do resampling) that would otherwise not fit in the M3's internal memory.

You'll find having a USB memory device is very important, because whatever you store in the M3's RAM is lost on power-off (it's not flash memory, just regular RAM). If you have a USB hard drive, you can save all your samples/files using those samples, as well as sample to it.

Hope this helps! By the way, I think there's a general consensus that while the sound sets for the M3 and XS are both strong, the M3 has the edge for electronic/synthetic sounds, while the Motif XS has the edge for acoustic sounds. But not everyone agrees, so you'll need to check them out side by side to decide for yourself.

Having worked with both machines, I'd say I generally agree, although there are many other differences that may mean much more to you than any perceived sonic differences - for example, only Korg has KARMA, and only Yamaha has the tight integration with Cubase SX.

[flatfinger]

Great review ,

My first question is about the amount of storage for samples. Let me first explain that I have learned all about synths starting from software and am now getting into the hardware side of things , so , I might be coming from a "software-centric" paradigm here!.
Is the need for all those minutes of sampling time related to ambient , evolving pad type of stuff ? I mean most of the old romplers could make a hell of a lot of sound from 32mb of waves, right ? When you say up to 80 minutes of time , it makes me think someone needs a recording deck , not a workstation!


That said , it seems to me that the Motif XS , having 8 "elements " ( is that like rapture x 2 ? ) all with different ways to trigger them ( so you can vary the samples into articulation groups ) makes me think of soft samplers like Kontak with scarbee Black bass and key switching . But that is an instrument that streams from disk and takes up 1.5 gig !! Still the motif is very sample (rompler) centric with it's big ass Rom ( lots of waves there) and has a beefed up DSP ability , so it sounds great !! There a some keys that act like the "key switchihg" in those soft samplers and allow you to switch between say a heavy plucked sound or a harmonic or a slapped sample , so I think for doing natural instruments , thats quite a set up !!

I like that the M3 has the RADIUS option ( can be had for the time it takes to fill out a form and send the PDF now!!) so you have an VA option, But I am a little bummed that neither is offering FM methods at all ( FM is quite popular in soft synths now )

I myself really dig the new style to ( Being called the I-KORG !!) And Think the touch pad LCD is quite an advantage !!

[flatfinger]

and only Yamaha has the tight integration with Cubase SX.

Which makes a Sonar user like me wonder how well they play together !!!
Since Roland is now in with sonar , they better catch up soon!!!!!



Which reminds me Craig , You Still need to get into the optional FW card and the KORG implementation of " studio connectivity. I went by the forum and there are some doubts about how that facet of the M3 is going !!! also the synth editor for PC needs a look (Crackes the Whip whilst laughing manically !!!:eek:)


Cheers:thu:

[Tony Scharf]

Craig:

Thank you for clearing that up. I think I get it now.

I have demo'd both the M3 and Yamaha Motif, and I concur with what other shave said: the Motif has better accoustic sounds and the Korg has more 'synthy' sounds...and thats exactly what I am after.

I am also looking forward to hearing more about the FW card, if you have that to review. I am curious what it gives you that the standard USB connection doesnt.

[Anderton]

Craig:

Thank you for clearing that up. I think I get it now.

I have demo'd both the M3 and Yamaha Motif, and I concur with what other shave said: the Motif has better accoustic sounds and the Korg has more 'synthy' sounds...and thats exactly what I am after.

I am also looking forward to hearing more about the FW card, if you have that to review. I am curious what it gives you that the standard USB connection doesnt.

That will be covered too. I had a choice with this Pro Review: I could whip through it fast and trade off detail for speed, or I could take a long time and get into a lot of the features in serious details. I chose the latter because I believe (and this is true of the XS as well) that this is a keyboard with "legs." Whether Korg will keep manufacturing it or not I have no way of knowing, but I just don't see this being replaced in the next six months - it's a deep, well-thought-out instrument that I think would keep users occupied for quite a while.

[Anderton]

Great review ,

My first question is about the amount of storage for samples. Let me first explain that I have learned all about synths starting from software and am now getting into the hardware side of things , so , I might be coming from a "software-centric" paradigm here!.
Is the need for all those minutes of sampling time related to ambient , evolving pad type of stuff ? I mean most of the old romplers could make a hell of a lot of sound from 32mb of waves, right ? When you say up to 80 minutes of time , it makes me think someone needs a recording deck , not a workstation!

You can never have enough sampling time :)

Seriously, you could set up the M3 in a corner of your rehearsal room, record the entire rehearsal, then burn it to CD (the M3 can do that with an external USB burner) or chop it up into loops. Thing is, I don't think it takes that much more effort to engineer the ability to record 80 minutes of samples instead of, say, five minutes. So...why not? If the user has the storage space and the need, then the feature is there if they want it.

[Jerrythek]

* If you want to use the sample as a sound generator waveform, it needs to go into the M3's RAM, so you have that 320MB maximum RAM limit. In other words, you can't load samples from the hard drive/stick that are longer than 23 minutes into the M3 itself. From what I understand (Korg Guy, correct me if I'm wrong!!) the USB hard drive is not like a "swap file" where if the M3 runs out of RAM, it pulls data from the drive. Instead, it's a way to store samples (and do resampling) that would otherwise not fit in the M3's internal memory.


Yup, you're correct, Craig. An important aspect of this resampling to media is that this is how you can "record" a final stereo mix of your tunes and then burn them to an audio CD, all within the M3 (and an external USB CD-R drive).

Another cool application is making an audio loop from the M3, perhaps using KARMA interactively, or playing the realtime controllers (including the X/Y touchscreen) and then bringing that back for more creative fun.

Slice it up and play at any tempo, or use it as a Drum Track, or trigger using RPPR (realtime Pattern Play and Record) within the sequencer - there's plenty of ways to have fun.

So don't only think of sampling as a way to make a new waveform for new sounds, not that there isn't plenty of application for that as well!

Did I over-answer enough?

:-)

Jerry

[thedude5000]

A little sidestep to previous discussed Guitarrig possibilities. As promised some example of the M3 being a Guitar rig.The following examples show what the insert effects are capable of. just connect a guitar to the input, set to IFX1 and scroll through the programs.

I-A005 Attacking synth: flanger with limiter
I-A011 r&b planet: compressor/flanger/ wahwah
I-A018 dirty guitar + ac30: set gain to 100 for even more heavyness
I-A076 Paddylicious: dreamy guitar!
I-A066 Xfade guitar: flanger, biphase mod, gain
U-C048: Blues tweed
U-C060: New fuzz guitar: guitar in talkbox. Very good sounding.

Ok, now back to sequencing business :thu:

so are you saying all i have to do is just connect my guitar to the m3, no amp or nothing, just a straight connection to the m3 and this will work?

[Tony Scharf]

well..I did it. I pulled the trigger on my CC and will be accepting delivery of an M3-61 this week..

I look forward to reading the rest of this review, and trying some of the excercises in it myself!

[Anderton]

so are you saying all i have to do is just connect my guitar to the m3, no amp or nothing, just a straight connection to the m3 and this will work?

Yes! But you'll get the best sound quality if you use a buffer board or preamp between the guitar and line-level input. You can think of the M3 as a signal processor as well as a keyboard.

[Anderton]

well..I did it. I pulled the trigger on my CC and will be accepting delivery of an M3-61 this week..

I look forward to reading the rest of this review, and trying some of the excercises in it myself!

I really don't think you'll be disappointed. I thought I knew the M3 pretty well before starting this pro review, but it keeps doing more things that I expected...!

[Tony Scharf]

My M3 arrived a week ago now...WOW. Very deep instrument. So far, I have been most pleased with the following aspects:

1. The keybed is the best I have ever played. It is so comfortable and controllable.
2. Sampling is very simple, and the sound quality of playback is exceptional.
3. Karma - I havnt gotten my head around it yet, but its way more than I thought it was
4. It looks really cool in the dark.

I am still too much in the afterglow of the purchase to notice any blemishes. I am having trouble getting the Firewire interface and plugin to work, but I blame my crusty computer for that one..

[Anderton]

Make sure you download all available updates for the editor and such.

I've been playing with the sequencer all day prior to doing some more posts, and one thing to be aware of is that while there may not be a function called "Undo," you can use the Compare button to revert to, say, a track before you made changes to it. Maybe The Korg Guy knows whether there's an undo function hidden somewhere...

Glad you're digging the M3!

[Anderton]

Oh, and one more thing: Dedicate a USB stick to the M3 so you can save songs and such. Otherwise, you lose them when you power down.

[Anderton]

I figured the best way to get into the sequencer's operation is to sit down and create a tune. I thought I'd start with a template sequence (I chose the Techno/Trance one) but realized that in general, I prefer to start from scratch so I left the template in place, but made quite a few changes along the way. Then again, I guess that's what templates are about :)

The first thing is to set up any desired preferences, like whether you want newly-recorded notes to overdub or replace existing notes, how you want the metronome to make itself known, and the like. You can record either with "high resolution" (the sequencer's maximum resolution) or quantize your notes on the way in.

Once those things are squared away, recording is pretty easy to figure out: You select a track, hit the Record button, hit the Start/Stop button, and start playing. To record on a different track, you just select it instead. As we already covered changing preset sounds and mixing, we won't get into that here.

But of course, recording is only half the story as there's also editing. The first image shows the main track edit screen, which reminds me of the good ol' days of Passport's Master Tracks Pro - you can see all 16 tracks, and measures that have notes show up as little rectangles. This is a great way to get an overview of what's happening in the sequencer, but as with the other screens, it's the little downward-pointing triangle in the upper right that reveals all the good stuff.

Unfortunately I can't grab that screen, but you can select Step Recording, Event List view, Erase/Copy/Bounce Track, Erase/Copy/Delete/Insert/Repeat/Move Measure, Quantize, set Fast Forward/Rewind Speed, Modify Velocity, Shift/Erase Note, Erase Controller Data, Create Controller Data, Set Location, and more. For example, suppose you select Quantize; the second image is what shows up. "Kind" is interesting, as you can choose just notes or various controllers, or all so that controller data moves with the note. Considering how long it took for this to show up in some sequencers (ahem!), it's great to find it in the M3's sequencer.

Also note that you can specify the edit to occur over a specific number of beats and note range (this is in other editing functions as well). Of course there's the resolution value to which you want to quantize, and Offset, Intensity, and Swing. (By the way, in case you haven't discovered the power of swing in general, this is one parameter you shouldn't ignore. Even a little bit of swing can make sequenced material sound far more interesting.)

Of course, you can also do "old school" editing and just punch where you want to make a change. You can do manual punch-in with either a button or hitting a footswitch, or select a range and do an Auto-Punch. You can also do Loop Recording, which is precisely what I did for recording the drum track so I could do kick first, snare next, hats next, etc. You can even set up a Multitrack Recording mode, which I'm not totally sure I "get," but it seems to let you put the sequencer in a sort of "record-ready" mode for all tracks, and when the sequencer is stopped, you can click the Record button for whatever track you want to record on, without having to select a particular track first. One other cool thing: The Play/Mute button status is recorded - handy when playing loops, and you want to mute some and have the sequencer "remember" where they were muted.

[Anderton]

But what if you want really detailed editing? Well, there's the Event Editor. While I prefer working with a computer-based sequencer with a piano roll view and all those other goodies, I'm a realist! And I actually do use event lists quite a bit when doing computer-based sequencing, so I was happy to see that Korg's implementation is pretty user-friendly, given that you're not using a 19" monitor.

When you first go into Event editing, you have the option to Set Event Filters (see the first image) so you don't have to scroll through, say, every single pitch bend event as you look for a rogue note. The screen shot shows only Notes being selected, because I wanted to delete a note that had been quantized on top of another note.

The second image shows the Event List itself. While it seems straightforward (you can alter where a note falls, the pitch, the velocity, and length), there are a couple nice twists. First, in the "let's hope other companies steal this idea" category, there's an indicate for where bars begin, and you can change meter here. Second, if you touch any field for a note, it plays the note. It was a fairly simple matter to play the sequencer, note that the doubled note was somewhere toward the end of measure 24, and look in the list to find two consecutive entries with the same pitch and start time. Incidentally, it seems that if there are a bunch of notes with the same start time, they're sorted on the basis of pitch, making it particularly easy to find doubled notes. Also, note that you can insert, cut, and copy events, as well as play to hear the results of your edits without having to leave the screen.

[Anderton]

Time for a bit of a sidebar. Having created a sequence, it was time to learn about the details of saving to an external USB device - something you must do if you ever want to see your data again.

When you hit the Media button, it shows a directory of files on the drive as shown in the first image (the directory doesn't "filter" only the Korg-specific stuff, it "sees" just about any extension). Before saving, you go to the upper-right and choose what you want to save - usually Save All, so you can be assured that things will play back properly (programs won't be "replaced," etc.)

Upon saving, you'll see the familiar progress bar (second image). When the writing is finished, your work is safe.

Question for The Korg Guy: What's the maximum USB memory stick size the M3 can address?

[Jerrythek]

Question for The Korg Guy: What's the maximum USB memory stick size the M3 can address?

MUCH larger than any sticks they make - we support drives up to a terrabyte in theory... Picture draggin THAT USB stick around behind you...

:-)

regards,

Jerry
Korg Guy

[Jerrythek]

I've been playing with the sequencer all day prior to doing some more posts, and one thing to be aware of is that while there may not be a function called "Undo," you can use the Compare button to revert to, say, a track before you made changes to it. Maybe The Korg Guy knows whether there's an undo function hidden somewhere...

You've already found it - COMPARE is the UNDO function.

Regards,

Jerry
Korg Guy

[Anderton]

MUCH larger than any sticks they make - we support drives up to a terrabyte in theory... Picture draggin THAT USB stick around behind you...

The way prices are going, I'll probably be able to get a terabyte stick at Office Depot next year for $99.95...

Think I'll go out, get an 8GB stick fopr $28, write "M3" on it, and just save everything to it.

Thanks Jerry!

[Stephen Kay]

Hi Craig,
Great job you're doing here. :thu: I wish I had time to stop over more often.

I hope you won't mind me making an announcement that should be of interest to every M3 owner or prospective owner:

http://www.karma-lab.com/forum/klpix/kl20/kl20-wiki.jpg

================================================== =========================
Karma-Lab unveils the Karma-Lab Wiki, a new resource for Korg M3 and KARMA users
================================================== =========================

Based on the concept of popular community-authored web references such as Wikipedia.com, the Karma-Lab Wiki (wiki.karma-lab.com) aims to build a library of useful "how to" information for working with the various keyboards, music workstations and software incorporating KARMA technology. Not only does it contain articles about KARMA technology, but general articles covering all aspects of the products that incorporate KARMA (such as Korg Keyboards like the M3, OASYS, Karma Workstation, Triton w/KARMA software and more). Over 90 articles are available at the moment, with more going up daily.

While forums can be an immense repository of wisdom and helpful advice, finding specific information can be difficult due to their conversational nature. The Karma-Lab Wiki is based on the idea of enabling the community to share useful information in an organized manner that facilitates finding the answers and advice they need quickly.

You can search for articles by category or by using the community-assigned tags in the sidebar. For example, use the category menu at the top fo choose the Korg M3 category for all articles specifically located in that category, click on the "korg-m3" tag for all articles that relate in some way to the M3 Workstation (but may also be in other categories), or click on the "pads" tag to see all articles that relate to using the pads on various keyboards.

Thanks for reading!

[Anderton]

I don't mind at all, it's useful information as opposed to mindless hype. :)

Hopefully when I get into the KARMA section (which isn't too far away...) you can pop over and at least let me know if I'm getting anything wrong.

[Jerrythek]

Hi Craig (and Pro Review readers):

As if you didn't have enough to do, we've just made this review a whole lot more interesting, and deep.

Read about it here:

http://www.korg.com/m3

Info, new MP3's and the OS will be available for download in the next few days.

So... get back to work around here!

;)

Regards,

Jerry
Korg Guy

[Anderton]

Yes, I had heard rumors this was forthcoming...hence a bit of "holding back" the last few weeks (why write about something that's going to change?).

BUT the rumors didn't really indicate just how deep this update is :) That's pretty cool. As people can probably figure out by reading this review, I'm quite taken by the M3 and if it does even more...well, guess I'll find out.

[Stephen Kay]

Hi Craig (and Pro Review readers):

As if you didn't have enough to do, we've just made this review a whole lost more interesting, and deep.

Not to mention:

KARMA M3 Software for the Korg M3 Announced (http://www.karma-lab.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12756)

What’s new in KARMA Version 2.2 for the M3 XPanded (v2.0) (http://www.karma-lab.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12758)

Sorry to heap more things to look at on you! ;)

[Tony Scharf]

I had just purchased my M3 in early August - its absolutely exceptional. I cant wait to get my hands on this update and particularly on the Karma software!.

Not to sound like a fanboy, but than you Korg!

[Jerrythek]

Yes, I had heard rumors this was forthcoming...hence a bit of "holding back" the last few weeks (why write about something that's going to change?).

BUT the rumors didn't really indicate just how deep this update is :) That's pretty cool. As people can probably figure out by reading this review, I'm quite taken by the M3 and if it does even more...well, guess I'll find out.

The new OS was posted last Friday so have at it:

http://www.korg.com/service/downloadinfo.asp?DID=1432


Other files and locations that will help/apply include:

Revised Editor with improved FW latency performance:

http://www.korg.com/service/downloadinfo.asp?DID=1385

Converted RADIAS + EDS Combis:

http://www.korg.com/service/downloadinfo.asp?DID=1384

Nice Wiiki article from Stephen Kay/Karma-Labs:
http://karma-lab.wikidot.com/korg-m3:updating-custom-sounds-to-os2

I thought Craig would want to take the user's perspective of what downloading and installing the OS is like - after all, he's got plenty of extra time for these things, right?

:rolleyes:

Enjoy!

Jerry
Korg Guy

[Anderton]

I thought Craig would want to take the user's perspective of what downloading and installing the OS is like - after all, he's got plenty of extra time for these things, right?

Guess it's time to do some serious file downloading...

[Anderton]

I'm downloading now...256MB...

[Anderton]

Here's a link to the upgrade instructions (http://www.korg.com/downloads/pdf/M3_HowToUpgrade.pdf) so you can get an idea of what's involved. Note that you need a USB device with 512MB of storage.

[Anderton]

Well, that was totally painless. Eveything worked as advertised, and after the second update, the Xpanded logo and the V2.0 messages showed up.

I need to update the editor next and bury myself in manuals for a while...don't know if I'll have a chance to post more before I go off to a session, but there's definitely more to come.

First thing I noticed: The sequencer has a piano roll view!

[Anderton]

Okay, now Korg has me wanting a touch screen for my desktop computer...

See the attached image for a picture of the piano roll view. Nostalgia fans will appreciate that it's a lot like the vintage Mac sequencer, Master Tracks Pro (and this is a good thing).

Anyway, you can do all the things with this piano roll view you'd expect (zoom), and some things you wouldn't expect (adjust individual controller values). I did find it was convenient to take the stylus from my Palm Centro phone to do things like adjust velocity rather than use my considerably fatter fingers :)

See the toolbar in the upper right? You can draw notes, extend their lengths, move them around, show a variety of controllers in the controller strip along the bottom, and so on. If several notes land on the same beat, and you want to adjust velocity of one of them, as soon as you touch the note its associated velocity "handle" turns blue, making it easy to adjust one velocity tail out of a cluster of them.

The only limitation I'm seeing is no undo - and Compare doesn't seem to apply. Maybe the legendary Korg Guy knows the secret of undo.

But to get back to the bigger picture, having a piano roll view is HUGE. It makes editing on the M3 an absolute breeze - for the first time with a keyboard's on-board sequencer, my reaction to editing is "Okay, let's fix that note" instead of "Oh crap, I need to fix a note." The piano roll takes the M3 sequencer from scratchpad to way cool production tool.

This is only the first new feature I've checked out, and it's already extremely impressive...good job.

[MuzikB]

The upgrade is sick!

The new piano is fabulous. I haven't messed around with the horns yet because I'm still stuck on the piano. :D

The new touch screen functionality really does make it the "iKorg."

[semmi78]

This update is incredible! The horns sound absolutely fabulous and authentic and just what I need to play some movie/orchestral stuff.
The addition of the velocity meters is also very practical :thu:

[Tony Scharf]

I had completely written off the Korg M3 piano before. it sounded every bit as bad as the one I had on my Triton. Not so anymore! I actually *love* the new piano, and it made it into a track the first afternoon.

Actually upgrading the ROM in a synth after its release is just unheard of! I am just amazed by this upgrade.

Also, the VSTi editor works perfectly now in both Live 7 and Cubase 4, where I had previously had no success with either.

now if only they could update the portomento on the EXB radias to allow for a 'fingered' mode..

[Anderton]

Well, the comments posted above completely mirror my thoughts about the new sounds...so I'll move on to more functions we haven't yet covered. (As the review progresses, I'll try to record some examples using the newer sounds so you get an idea of what they sound like.)

One M3 feature is the ability to record up to 100 user patterns - drum, bass, chords, whatever. These can be up to 99 measures long, in any time signature from 1/4 to 16/16 (including the "usual unusual" ones like 5/4, 7/4, 7/8, etc.). Basically, you can think of this as working the way most drum machines work, where you create patterns and string them together. As to how you string them together -- well, that's in the next post.

Anyway, the first image shows the Pattern Edit screen. Like a drum machine, you can keep overdubbing as the pattern loops, and you can also erase data by holding down the Rec/Write switch as the pattern plays. You can quantize your playing as you record, or set it to "high resolution" which is essentially unquantized. Note that you can also enter patterns in step time, but [warning! personal bias alert!] I don't think that's a lot of fun - I'd rather play. Besides, if you want to edit something because you had a hard time playing it, you can always go a pattern Event Edit screen (second image) that's like the one in the sequencer, including the ability to filter data so you can see only the data you want to alter.

If you go to the "Magic Upper Right-Hand Menu Button" (my term, not Korg's - don't worry, their marketing department hasn't gone off the deep end), there are additional functions: Pull in a loop from a track, copy to a track, convert to a drum track pattern, and the like.

[Anderton]

"RPPR" stands for Realtime Pattern Play/Record. Basically, it means you can take patterns and play them sequentially or simultaneously, with suitable sync so that the patterns are always working together (as in Ableton Live's Session View, where when you fire off a pattern, you can make it wait until it's supposed to start playing, like at the beginning of the next measure). Another option is more like a trigger mode, where you can start a loop and it will play through to the end before stopping - good if you want it to keep playing while you occupy your fingers elsewhere.

You can also record what you play as a performance, which is a lot of fun if you have multiple loops loaded up and want to play them against each other. Your key presses are recorded as a track data in whichever track holds the pattern you're playing.

The attached image shows the RPPR setup screen. This is where you locate patterns and assign them to particular keys. Note that while these keys are dedicated to RPPR, any keys that don't trigger patterns play normally. So, you could stick drum loops on the bottom octave, bass loops on the top octave, and play an instrument sound over the loops in the middle.

[Jerrythek]

Here's a link to the upgrade instructions (http://www.korg.com/downloads/pdf/M3_HowToUpgrade.pdf) so you can get an idea of what's involved. Note that you need a USB device with 4GB of storage.

Hi Craig:

I'm not sure where you came up with that figure... The file you download is 256 MB zipped up, and easily fits on a 512 MB stick...

???

regards,

Jerry
Korg Guy

[Anderton]

Hi Craig:

I'm not sure where you came up with that figure... The file you download is 256 MB zipped up, and easily fits on a 512 MB stick...

Hey, it's your fault! I was so smitten with the piano roll and new sounds I temporarily lost my ability to type. I have since edited my original post in an attempt to remove all traces of Moderator Stupidity. But c'mon...haven't you missed a decimal point every now and then?

But since you're obviously following the thread, damn, that update is nice! Seriously. Next time I'll concentrate on my typing rather than playing the M3. Although I will say, I have a great little groove thanks to my lack of attention to typing...

[Jerrythek]

Hey, it's your fault! I was so smitten with the piano roll and new sounds I temporarily lost my ability to type. I have since edited my original post in an attempt to remove all traces of Moderator Stupidity. But c'mon...haven't you missed a decimal point every now and then?

But since you're obviously following the thread, damn, that update is nice! Seriously. Next time I'll concentrate on my typing rather than playing the M3. Although I will say, I have a great little groove thanks to my lack of attention to typing...

LOL, who can argue with that response?

:lol:

Keep enjoying, there's a LOT of nice stuff in this release.

I'll be lurking...

Jerry

Korg Guy

[Anderton]

Okay, now that KARMA is up to version 2.2, it's time to check it out. In case you wondered, KARMA stands for Kay Algorithmic Realtime Music Architecture (named after is inventor, Stephen Kay).

Trying to sum it up in a few words isn't easy, but I'll try. Basically, KARMA is not about creating or recording sounds, but creating music. Probably the closest point of reference is an arpeggiator, because the arpeggiator creates new music based on what you're playing. However, that's also kind of like saying that the way to understand a Lamborghini is to compare it to a tricycle. KARMA can create variations on drum patterns, strumming effects, crescendos, changes in phrasing and dynamics (as well as "internal" tempo changes within something like a glissando), and more.

But what makes KARMA more than a lab curiosity involves two aspects: Musicality and control. Regarding musicality, KARMA is not just a randomizing-kinda deal - it's obvious some thought went into how KARMA goes about making musical decisions. As to control, you can vary the extent to which KARMA-ization gets introduced into what you're playing, and as the acronym states, this is all real-time stuff. As a very simple example, imagine a drum part where you can introduce changes with a slider - subtle in some places, complex in others.

This is gonna be a fun part of the review.

[Anderton]

Before going any further, I have to say that the M3 was in my dreams last night. I dreamt I was in the studio with someone who saw the M3 and thought it was a work of art, not a keyboard, because of the pearl white look, the soft blueish-white glow on the joystick, and the red accents from the LEDs and buttons. I was trying to explain that it was a musical instrument, but the person kept arguing with me that I was wrong. For some reason (hey, it was a dream, don't expect logic), I never played anything and just looked at it and said "You're right, it is a work of art."

I think this dream came about because I've also been playing with Yamaha's Tenori-On lately, which is indeed a work of art that also makes music. The M3 and Tenori-On seem kind of philosophically similar in terms of look (a Japanese thing, maybe? My daughter just bought a Japanese dress that included white, red, and gray).

I also realized that with both the M3 and Tenori-On, the look makes you want to play these instruments. Coming from a guitarist's perspective, this reminds of how when I see a gorgeous guitar, I really want to pick it up and play it. I'm happy to see that instrument designers are getting away from boring black boxes with a little LCD and calculator-style keypad, and designing musical instruments that you'd be happy to plug in and hang on your wall.

I think it's important not to underestimate the salutary effect of playing an instrument that also looks beautiful. Korg seems to be heavy into this - their Zero4 and Zero8 mixers come to mind as well.

Okay, so much for that little rant...thanks for indulging me...

[Anderton]

I think that before we investigate KARMA's practical applications, we need to get "under the hood" a little bit. I'm going to simplify things as much as possible, because the object here isn't to be a rocket scientist - just to give a feel for how KARMA works.

The core of KARMA is what's called a "Generated Effect." If you've used MIDI plug-ins, you can think of the GE as a MIDI plug-in on steroids that's hidden within the system, so only the ability to vary crucial parameters gets exposed to the user. A GE has a repertoire of over 200 internal real-time parameters (RTP) that can be KARMA-fied; again for an analogy, think of these as similar to a microprocessor's instruction set - the list of operations a microprocessor can do.

Not all parameters are applied to all sounds. What you'd want to vary with a drum part is probably somewhat different from what you want to vary with, say, a bass line or guitar part. As a quick example, you might want to create a "strum" effect with guitar, but you probably wouldn't want to create a strum effect with a kick drum. As a result, there are several GE "modules" for different purposes. These include models that affect LFOs, melodic repetitions, gated controls, drum/percussion, bass/lead, etc.

The crucial aspects of these models are brought out to sliders and switches that allow you to affect the sound in real time. You can also use MIDI control mechanisms, like footswitches and pedals, to influence KARMA. This is what keeps KARMA from being just an "algorithmic randomizer" kinda deal; KARMA influences the sound, but you can influence KARMA.

So what kind of sliders and switches are we talking about? Quite a few, actually - 8 sliders and 8 switches, for starters. But you can also store 8 "scenes" of slider/switch settings. The eight pads can be a part of KARMA control as well.

[Anderton]

In Program Mode, you can use one KARMA module to generate a particular phrase or pattern. In Combi mode, you can use up to four KARMA modules, with each typically applied to a different program within the Combi. Let's pick a program and check out what KARMA can do.

The first image shows the main program screen for the Log Drum program. Normally I wouldn't bother showing this, except note that "C.S." (Control Surface) indicates that KARMA is in play for this preset, because I pressed the KARMA button instead of the Real-Time Control button. So, now the control surface sliders and switches are all about KARMA control.

The second image shows the KARMA GE page. This displays which GE module is active, but note that while many programs come with pre-programmed GEs, you are in no way limited to the existing selections - you can choose from a variety of GEs. The third image shows the screen from which you can choose a category (left tabs) and a specific GE. For example, here we've chosen a Melodic model, producing a "Syn Techno Riff."

The fourth image shows the KARMA RTC (real-time control) screen, which is where things get really interesting. The sliders affect various aspects of the sound; note the abbreviation below each slider (Swing %, RhyCmpl, etc.). In many cases, these abbreviations are enough to let you know what's being controlled. But if not, moving the slider gives a more complete description in the SL field toward the middle. For example, if you move the RhyCmpl slider, the field shows "Rhythm Complexity."

Above the sliders, you can see what the eight switches do. When you press a switch, the SL field turns into an SW (switch) field and again, gives a more detailed description of what the switch does. As one example, the enigmatically-labeled NtSclTy switch is revealed as the "Note Scale Type" switch.

In case you haven't been keeping track, we're talking about a serious number of adjustable parameters. So what does it sound like, you might ask? Let's boot up the music computer and do a little recording.

[Anderton]

Here's what you'll hear in the attached MP3 audio example. I had originally thought of breaking it up into separate segments, but running it continuously gets the point across a bit better about how this is a real time process.

The example starts with me just playing a few notes from the Log Drum program, without any KARMAfication.

Next, KARMA gets turned out, and you'll start hearing the pattern. At first, no sliders are being adjusted.

The first adjustment (about 7 seconds in) is to Swing, whose effects I'm sure you'll be able to hear. At about 10 seconds, Swing gets turned off, and the Rhythm Complexity slider gets turned up. At around 15 seconds, the note duration gets turned up; at 17 seconds KARMA starts affecting the number of repeats, and at around 19 seconds, transposition of the repeats kicks in.

This is cool stuff! But that's also enough for today - more to come.

[Rob Sherratt]

Hi Craig,

I recently ordered an M3, due for delivery next week, and in the meantime I'm learning so much about the M3 internals from you that your review could also be a training manual! Fantastic job you are doing, thank you.

I can't help wondering whether you have a job for life ... by the time you finish the detailed review(s) of M3 Expanded OS v2.0 and Karma v2.2 and the Karma PC Editor for the M3 and the Korg M3 PC Editor ... the next releases will probably hit the streets :lol:

Incidentally, I also found the M3 video materials produced by Stephen Kay very informative as training aids: Karma Labs M3 Videos (http://www.karma-lab.com/vp/klvp2.html?playID=40)

Best regards,
Rob

[Anderton]

Hi Craig,

I recently ordered an M3, due for delivery next week, and in the meantime I'm learning so much about the M3 internals from you that your review could also be a training manual! Fantastic job you are doing, thank you.

I can't help wondering whether you have a job for life ... by the time you finish the detailed review(s) of M3 Expanded OS v2.0 and Karma v2.2 and the Karma PC Editor for the M3 and the Korg M3 PC Editor ... the next releases will probably hit the streets :lol:

Well, now that the AES videos are done I just fired up the M3 for another installment...I really thought I'd be done by now but the thing is so deep I drdastically underestimated the amount of time it would require!

Okay, it's booted up now...let's see, what to cover next...

[cbertels]

Craig, I may have missed it somewhere looking through you review, but how does the Radias EXB compare to the stand alone module? I have been in love with the Radias but alas, my pockets are also not deep enough at this point in time. Now that the EXB is available for the M3, are the same kinds of control over the parameters available as with the Radias? If there is one thing I love about hardware synths is knobs and it seems the m3 may suffer some in terms of real-time control. AMAZING review btw.

[Anderton]

Well, we may need Korg guy here because he thinks I have the EXB installed, but when I try to change the user patches from EDS, there's simply nothing else there. However, I believe I was sent an EXB so if it's not there, I can install it. This is definitely something worth covering. I'm with you on the Radias - a great, great synth.

I spent yesterday getting my media thing together - consolidating everything I've saved externally on a single USB stick (bought a 4GB stick just for this purpose, that should hold me for a while), investigating the new presets more, and the like.

[Tony Scharf]

I have an M3 with the EXB and had a Radias module up to a few weeks ago.

they are very very close, but not quite identical. You loose the drum mode of the radias (which is a terrible shame), the step sequencers, and the arpegiator and some of the neat things you can do with it and the mod sequencer. Another thing I found unfortunate was loosing the drum mode for OSC1. You could use that and the mod sequencers to create really cool pseudo wave sequences.

On the other hand, you gain very tight integration with Karma and the ability to layer it in combinations with the normal M3 sound engine. This is pretty powerful stuff, and you can use the EXB as a kind of FX processor for the normal part of the engine.

You loose the knobs...but you gain a touch screen. Thats kind of a wash.

I found the two close enough to not feel the need to also have a dedicated Radias module. I also bought my M3 when they were giving away the EXB-Radias (dont know if thats still the case) so It was an even bigger bonus.

[cbertels]

Thanks Tony! I haven't been able to demo the M3 and the Radias module seperately to get an A/B view from them. I'm glad to hear that the core functionallity was retained. I need to weigh for myself if the loss of knobs and arpeggiator is worth the cost of the radias module or the EXB. The M3 and the Radias module do look amazing side by side.:thu:

[Anderton]

Very helpful info, Tony. I must say, though, the idea of a Radias with a touch screen appeals to me :) Besides, there are plenty of knobs and arpeggiators in the M3!

[Jerrythek]

All true things listed so far... other considerations besides the abundance of knobs the hardware RADIAS offers:

The RADIAS-R has it's own effects 2 per Timbre, while the EXB-RADIAS shares the M3's system resources (5 Insert, 2 MFX and 1 TFX).

The RADIAS-R has PCM waves besides drums, which can be creatively mangled in interesting ways.

If you have more questions I'll try to answer them.

Craig - look at the start-up screen when it boots, it'll tell you. Or go to Program bank INT-F.

Regards,

Jerry

Korg Guy

[Anderton]

Well it's time to install the EXB-M256 memory expansion board (it costs $99 from Korg; don't bother googling, the prices everywhere else seem higher). Not just because more memory is a good thing, but because I've finally had a chance to get to the version 2.0 sounds in detail.

The upgrade consists of three separate expansions, two woodwinds/brass and one piano, each of which fits in the M3's internal 64MB of RAM. However, if you want to install all three, then you need the EXB-M256 memory board. Which perhaps not coincidentally, would have space for two more PCM expansions should Korg feel so inclined...

I listened to the original expansions individually by loading and unloading the sets; each sample set replaces existing samples in the programs, upgrading the overall sound quality of presets using those samples. However, what I soon figured out was that the improvement in quality was such that it really justified adding more memory.

So, I'm going to add the board and then I'll report back on how long that takes.

[pause]

Except it was so simple, I didn't need to do an extra post. Following the instructions in the manual, you just unscrew two screws, take off a metal plate, slide in the memory board until it snaps into place, put the metal plate back on, screw in the screws...done.

[Anderton]

Okay, now that the memory's installed...

The way this works is you load the PCM Expansion sounds from the USB stick to internal RAM. The first image shows the screen that appears without the EXB-M256 installed. The stereo piano is loaded; you can see this takes 63.9MB of "RAM 1," which is the internal RAM, with 5% still free. The bottom line for RAM 2 is blank, because that shows the RAM capacity of the EXB-M256. Note that the piano is selected, and shown as "Loaded."

If you want to load a different expansion set, you need to first unload what's already in memory to free up space. You do that simply by selecting the PCM Expansion, and touching "Unload."

The second image shows the setup after installing the EXB-M256. There are several differences: First, all of the PCM Expansions are loaded, and there's still 133MB of RAM left over. Second, they're all shown as "loaded." Third, the little boxes to the right of each PCM Expansion are checked (i.e., they have a red center). This means that, assuming the USB stick with the PCM Expansions is in one of the M3's USB, these will load automatically when the M3 boots up.

But what if you have programs that use the older sounds? They're not exactly compatible, but that's because programs using the new samples simply sound better. I didn't find any instances where I thought the previous sounds were better, but if you disagree, just don't load the new sounds.

[Anderton]

We already covered the sequencer Piano Roll view, touched on KARMA 2.2, and showed how you upload PCM Expansions. But, there are other aspects to the 2.0 upgrade and we need to circle back on them before we cover other things.

In addition to the Piano Roll for detailed editing, there's now a Track View for the sequencer as shown in the first image. Not only can you see MIDI data in the track, you can do operations that affect multiple measures, such as erase and move. Although you can use your fingers on the touch screen to do this, I found that a Nintendo DS-type stylus (or the kind used with Palm Centro or Treo phones) make it a lot easier to do complex or detailed operations.

We'll get some more into these features, but it's getting late...yawn...

[Jerrythek]

I listened to the original expansions individually by loading and unloading the sets; each sample set replaces existing samples in the programs, upgrading the overall sound quality of presets using those samples. However, what I soon figured out was that the improvement in quality was such that it really justified adding more memory.



But what if you have programs that use the older sounds? They're not exactly compatible, but that's because programs using the new samples simply sound better. I didn't find any instances where I thought the previous sounds were better, but if you disagree, just don't load the new sounds.

This reads a bit confusing to me, so let me help clarify.

The ROM of the M3 was revised in Version 2, and the only "old sound" that was replaced was the original stereo piano. So any of those piano Programs have been revised to use a new sample set. That is the only instance where you'd be comparing any sounds (mostly from memory - your memory, not the unit's!).

Recently, we even brought back the original ROM piano as a 4th free expansion, which can be downloaded here:

http://www.korg.com/service/downloadinfo.asp?DID=1457

There are some internal programs and Combis which use the EX-PCM03 new piano, and they are clearly labelled with EX3 in their name. If it is not loaded the piano part will be silent/absent.

As for the Brass and Woodwind expansions, they are all located in User-Bank E with Programs that are newly voiced to show off the new samples, not versions of the ROM sounds with just the samples replaced...

And if their samples aren't loaded these User-E sounds will have silent or missing elements. This is clear in the Programs, but you may not be sure what is missing in the Combis, which often blend both Brass and Woodwinds together.

Any Brass and Woodwind Program located in INT-D bank use the original ROM samples, and are not affected by loading/unloading the expansions. So you are getting additional samples with the expansions, not replacing/affecting the ROM.

:confused:

I hope this helps.

Jerry

Korg Guy

[Anderton]

Thanks Jerry, that does indeed help. Of course I couldn't compare a "2.0" M3 with a "pre-2.0" M3 so I was going from my memory, and apparently, what studies show about auditory memory is true...

But this also brings up an interesting point. I work with a lot of synths from a lot of companies, and when I get back to the M3 after a period of inactivity, I'm always struck - again - by the clarity of the sound. This time, due to the "doing-videos-after-AES madness," it was a long time before I got back to the M3 and yes, I was again struck by the clarity. I figured this was due to having installed 2.0, but apparently not...well, except for the new brass and piano patches, of course.

Thanks again for clarifying things and for continuing to monitor this thread.

[Anderton]

In fact, now that I think about it...Jerry, I know Korg calls their synthesis process "EDS." But without giving away any trade secrets or anything, could you shed some light on the technology responsible for the M3's particular sonic signature?

[Anderton]

There are some demo sequences in expanded version that show case some of the new sounds, so I figured it would make sense to post some of that here.

The first example is called "Mighty Edelweiss" and showcases the new piano, but there are plenty of other cool sounds that are worthy of note.

The second example, "Greetings from Eldar," really showcases the piano and also has some pretty bitchin' playing. Maybe Korg Guy can identify who was doing the playing...

[Anderton]

Here are two examples with samples drawn from the EX1 expansion (you'll hear why it's important to get the memory expansion so you can take advantage of all the new samples...).

"Horn Heroics" has a somewhat classical vibe, whereas "Brass - sFz" goes more into brass section land - think "Tower of Power," but in this case, a little more mellow.

[Anderton]

"Trumpetations" is also from the EX1 expansion sounds, and it's pretty daring - just some solo trumpets, so you can really hear what they sound like...impressive.

"Ablondigas" is another snippet based on the EX1 sounds that gives more of an ensemble feel, while "Flutessence" uses sounds from the EX1 and EX2 expansions...check the very impressive articulations. It also makes a nice segue into the next post, which has some EX2-based examples.

[Anderton]

"X-Y Inventions" is a sweet little Bach tribute...I kinda wish it had gone on longer :)

"Sax-5-ophones" is extremely impressive. Remember what used to pass for sax sounds with a synth or sampler? Well, we're definitely not in Kansas any more.

And of course, for all the clarinet fans in the crowd, there's "Clarinet Moods." Now, even if you're not a clarinet aficionado, this is another track that gives a really good idea of the kind of articulations available with the M3.

[Jerrythek]

There are some demo sequences in expanded version that show case some of the new sounds, so I figured it would make sense to post some of that here.

The second example, "Greetings from Eldar," really showcases the piano and also has some pretty bitchin' playing. Maybe Korg Guy can identify who was doing the playing...

Hi Craig:

Errr... that would be a guy named.... Eldar!!

http://www.eldarjazz.com/

;)

He's a pretty amazing musician, huh?

Regards,

Jerry

Korg Guy

[GrahaM3]

Okay, now that the memory's installed...

The way this works is you load the PCM Expansion sounds from the USB stick to internal RAM. The first image shows the screen that appears without the EXB-M256 installed. The stereo piano is loaded; you can see this takes 63.9MB of "RAM 1," which is the internal RAM, with 5% still free. The bottom line for RAM 2 is blank, because that shows the RAM capacity of the EXB-M256. Note that the piano is selected, and shown as "Loaded."

If you want to load a different expansion set, you need to first unload what's already in memory to free up space. You do that simply by selecting the PCM Expansion, and touching "Unload."

The second image shows the setup after installing the EXB-M256. There are several differences: First, all of the PCM Expansions are loaded, and there's still 133MB of RAM left over. Second, they're all shown as "loaded." Third, the little boxes to the right of each PCM Expansion are checked (i.e., they have a red center). This means that, assuming the USB stick with the PCM Expansions is in one of the M3's USB, these will load automatically when the M3 boots up.

But what if you have programs that use the older sounds? They're not exactly compatible, but that's because programs using the new samples simply sound better. I didn't find any instances where I thought the previous sounds were better, but if you disagree, just don't load the new sounds.
Firstly, thanks for the VERY informative thread. This, along with numerous YouTube videos and hours of research, has basically made my mind up on which workstation synth to buy! It was a toss-up between:

- Korg M3-61
- Roland Fantom G6
- Yamaha Motif XS6

I'm miles away from anywhere that can demo these to me, so I've had to be very careful in my research. I gotta' be honest, the looks of the M3 didn't really float my boat to start with, but the most important things are the sound and interface. The Fantom looks great, and has a glorious screen for sure, but everything I saw and heard just didn't have the "oomph" that the M3 has. I'm really more into synthy, swoopy, soundscape-type sounds, and the complexity and dynamics that KARMA add just blew me away.

So, decision made, just need to get the CC out! ;)

In the meantime, I have a question on the three new sample banks that are available. Am I right in saying that these basically live on the USB stick, and are (if you want them) automatically loaded into memory on boot-up? I also take it then, from that point on, if you save a "project" that uses one of those new sounds, that bank always has to be loaded in the future for that project to work properly? Makes sense.

While I'm here, what formats are supported when outputting a sequenced track to USB?

Thanks again for this great resource - I'll let you guys know when I get this beast. Go easy though, I'm an "enthusiastic hobbyist" at best, and play for fun. This will be the first synth of its kind I've ever owned, and I can't wait!

[semmi78]

In the meantime, I have a question on the three new sample banks that are available. Am I right in saying that these basically live on the USB stick, and are (if you want them) automatically loaded into memory on boot-up? I also take it then, from that point on, if you save a "project" that uses one of those new sounds, that bank always has to be loaded in the future for that project to work properly? Makes sense.

While I'm here, what formats are supported when outputting a sequenced track to USB?



hi GrahaM3

Congrats on your choice. The looks of the M3 is debated so much. I agree its not as stunning as the Fantom or even the older Trinity but you made a right choice to look inside the box. :thu:

Yes, the 3 new sample banks are loaded from USB memory. You can manually switch on/off what you want to load at the startup. Please keep in mind that without the extra 256 mb addon, you can only load one sample bank. Enough for the piano bank, but to make full use of the Orchestral expansion you really need the extra 256. I just ordered one myself.

If you record a song with tracks that makes use of the EXB banks, it is indeed necessary to load them everytime. Otherwise you won't hear any sound for that particular track/section.

Well, I don't understand your question about the format of a sequenced track? I guess this would just be MIDI.

Semmi78

[GrahaM3]

Well, I don't understand your question about the format of a sequenced track? I guess this would just be MIDI.

Semmi78
Hi Semmi78

Thanks, really looking forward to getting this! I've decided to hold off until after Christmas now as things have just got really busy at work and home, but I'll keep reading these forums for sure!

With regards the the file format, I meant that once you have got your track sequenced and finalised, surely there must be an option to "output" that track to a standard audio file? For example, telling it to create an MP3 of your sequenced track onto an attached USB drive.

[Tony Scharf]

Hi Semmi78

Thanks, really looking forward to getting this! I've decided to hold off until after Christmas now as things have just got really busy at work and home, but I'll keep reading these forums for sure!

With regards the the file format, I meant that once you have got your track sequenced and finalised, surely there must be an option to "output" that track to a standard audio file? For example, telling it to create an MP3 of your sequenced track onto an attached USB drive.

I believe you can do this by resampling the output and streaming it to disk as a .wav. This would output at 48khz, of course, and then you could convert to MP3 using your computer.

At least, thats how I think you would accomplish this.

Tony

[Ork]

HI!
I would like to thank everyone who took part in creating this great review! It helped me a lot to make a final decision to buy an M3, not a PA2XPro.
However there is still one thing I didn`t find out. In arranger workstations there`s a function called harmony, which does some work for you: when you simultaneously play chords with your left hand and single notes with your right hand, those single notes are transformed in chords.
Would anyone please explain me if there is any function like this in non-arranger workstations, particularly in M3?
Thanks in advance and sorry for any grammatical or spelling errors, because I`m not from an English-speaking country.

[GrahaM3]

HI!
I would like to thank everyone who took part in creating this great review! It helped me a lot to make a final decision to buy an M3, not a PA2XPro.
However there is still one thing I didn`t find out. In arranger workstations there`s a function called harmony, which does some work for you: when you simultaneously play chords with your left hand and single notes with your right hand, those single notes are transformed in chords.
Would anyone please explain me if there is any function like this in non-arranger workstations, particularly in M3?
Thanks in advance and sorry for any grammatical or spelling errors, because I`m not from an English-speaking country.
Hi,

Are you talking about "auto accompaniment"? If so, that terminology is reserved for "Arranger keyboards", things like the Korg PA2X Pro and the Yamaha Tyros range. These have pre-configured backing "styles" that you can play along to, and are often favoured by live performers, or those who want to create music quickly but do not want to spend the time creating entire songs from scratch.

The Korg M3 is a synth workstation, and does not have these auto accopanying styles. However, it does have "combis" and the famous Karma engine which essentially give you a level of accompaniment that is very different, but at the same time, very powerful.

Read up on Karma here:http://www.karma-lab.com/main.html

A couple of great examples of what a combi can do for you are on these two YouTube videos of the new Korg M50:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TryfvWydCUM
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg8xlAvLvCo

Essentially, you can achieve a whole lot with a whole, well, little! :lol:

By the way, thanks Tony for your response. I was kinda' hoping that you would just be able to "push a button" so-to-speak, and then have it just create the file for you onto a USB dive. The format is irrelevant really as you say, because it can always be converted later.

[Ork]

Hi, GrahaM3!
First of all, thanks for answering.
It helped me to understand that... I have very bad english, and I can`t explain the things the way I want to. However, let me try again.
I DO know what Auto-Accompaniment and KARMA are, and, to be honest, I`m not interested in either. What seems more interesting to me, is a very simple, yet very nice feature that is called ENSEMBLE.
Here is the main difference between ENSEMBLE and Auto-Accompaniment:
-with Auto-Accompaniment on, you can press any key IN CHORD SCANNING AREA, and it will play like a chord; if you press any key NOT IN CHORD SCANNING AREA, it will sound just like a single note;
-with ENSEMBLE on, you can press any key NOT IN CHORD SCANNING AREA, and it will play like a chord; however, for this to work, you have to play (at the same time) any chord with your left hand, letting the keyboard know what kind of chords you want for your right-hand party; BUT!!!
In the final mix you can remove the chords played with left hand and just leave the chords played with right hand. In other words, ENSEMBLE is a simple way to play chords.
Of course, you could play the chords manually with your right hand, but it`s not easy to create smooth transisions between chords if you are playing a fast tune.
Hope I could explain what I was looking for. If someone has any info about whether such a feature is implemented in non-arranger keyboards or not, please let me know!
Sorry again for any grammatical or spelling errors!

[GrahaM3]

Hi Ork,

Let me see if I've understood you correctly. Do you:

1. Hold down, let's say, 4 keys with the left head to play a chord

2. With the right hand, hit one key, but instead of playing a single note, it plays the chord that you are holding with the left hand

???

I do know that you can assign chords that have up to 8 notes to the velocity sensitive pads, but I know that isn't exactly what you are talking about. If you are not interested in KARMA at all, are you sure the M3 is the most suitable board for you? I guess you've done your research so who am I to question eh?!

Sorry if I didn't understand your question - this is all pretty new to me, and I haven't even ordered the M3 yet...and I mean, yet! ;)

[Tony Scharf]

not to be cheeky, but how about you learn to play chords with both hands :P?

seriously though, Karma is so deep, I wouldnt be surprised if it could do what you want in some configuration or another. I am not the Karma expert though.

[Ork]

To GrahaM3: yes, you have understood me correctly. Even if it`s difficult for you to imagine the results of playing with the ENSEMBLE function turned on, I must say that the result is great, you just have to try it yourself! (Even a very simple arranger keyboard - like Yamaha PSR-450 - will do for it).
To Tony Scharf: you are right, it seems that if I buy an M3, I`ll have to learn to play chords with both hands.

[GrahaM3]

Well guys, after sleeping on it some more, and watching a ton more YouTube videos as well as reading reviews and forums, I've decided to not go for the Korg M3-61.

Nope, instead, I've gone for its slightly bigger sibling, the M3XP-73 ;)

I noticed on a lot of videos with 61 keys, people were at the limits of the board regularly, and octave shifting quite a lot compared to people with 73 keys. Of course that's kinda' obvious and to be expected, but I figured that there are going to be enough times where I'd long for that extra octave, especially when splitting into zones, so threw caution to the wind and went for the higher model. I know I don't want or need the 88 key version because we have a Yamaha CLP-340 for my wife and daughter. The keys are too heavy for my liking, and I rarely (if ever) need the entire octave range in any one performance (if you can call my amateur racket a performance!) Apart from that, the 73 key version also allows you to install a full RADIAS-R rack module alongside it, which I plan on doing in the future now. Weight is not an issue, as this thing is going to be sat on an stand near my desk, never to move again unless it's to install something!

I placed the order today, along with an EXB-RADIAS board, 256MB RAM expansion, and a pair of active speaker monitors. Being the newly XPanded model out of the factory, I'm not sure when it will arrive, but I opted for that over manually updating an older M3 that was in stock. This is because I called Korg technical to discuss the XPanded version, and it actually has a revised memory architecture and includes an internal SD card with the additional three soundbanks already installed, so no need to constantly have a USB stick plugged in to load the sounds from. Minor, you could say, but major enogh for me to wait...but I hate waiting! :facepalm:

Oh well, nearly Christmas ;)

[semmi78]

@GrahaM3
wow, didn't know the XPanded models included the EXB banks in the SD memory?

The pre-xpanded models do also have an SD card if I am correct. I remember seeing one when opening the case to install the Radias.

[GrahaM3]

@GrahaM3
wow, didn't know the XPanded models included the EXB banks in the SD memory?

The pre-xpanded models do also have an SD card if I am correct. I remember seeing one when opening the case to install the Radias.
There could well be an SD card on board previous models, but I'm not sure what it is used for. Can you copy to it?

I guess for the sake of a weeks extra wait it is worth it to not have the USB stick in for the sounds. I know you need some form of storage for saving to, but I'd much rather have all of the sounds internal if possible (at least until the XPanded+ model ;))

The store called and said that the one they have is not XPanded, so they have requested one direct from Korg. Should be with them by the middle of next week.

[Jerrythek]

Being the newly XPanded model out of the factory, I'm not sure when it will arrive, but I opted for that over manually updating an older M3 that was in stock. This is because I called Korg technical to discuss the XPanded version, and it actually has a revised memory architecture and includes an internal SD card with the additional three soundbanks already installed, so no need to constantly have a USB stick plugged in to load the sounds from.

This will not be the case in all markets, in the US no models are like this and won't be for many, many months to come.

Regards,

Jerry
Korg Guy

[Tony Scharf]

Ive been following this review for a while and like everyone here, I really love my M3.

There is one thing I can't figure out, and while this may not be the appropriate place to ask this question, I cant find another dedicated forum for the M3 to ask...SO...

Is there a way to set the trigger pads to 'latch'? What I mean is that you press it once and it sends a note on, but does NOT send a note off until you hit the same pad a second time? I had this on my old Roland Fantom X6 and my MPC, but I sold those to get the M3. Its not a 100% neccessary thing, but it would make certain performance issues easier as I gear up for some live gigs coming up.

Thanks

[semmi78]

Hi Tony

I don't know the answer to your question, but did you try www.karma-labs.com/forum ?

They are pretty dedicated to the M3/Oasys.
:thu:

[Cpluse]

" This is because I called Korg technical to discuss the XPanded version, and it actually has a revised memory architecture and includes an internal SD card with the additional three soundbanks already installed, so no need to constantly have a USB stick plugged in to load the sounds from."


I would like to know if this is true. Is there a new revised model. Or is it just the same M3 and Xpanded, even if you bought separately?

[Anderton]

Well it's time for another round in what someone called "a job for life" - doing a Pro Review of as deep and sophisticated a workstation as the M3 :)

This time, I want to focus more on using the M3 as a VSTi. To do that, it's necessary to add the EXB-FW FireWire expansion board, which provides two FireWire ports on the rear panel.

Updating is painless and requires only a Phillips head screwdriver. You remove a cover plate on the bottom of the M3, screw the board to two posts, then fasten the board to the front panel.

The first image shows the board snuggled into the M3; it's the board below the ribbon cable, which provides the electrical connection between the board and the M3. The second image shows the M3's rear panel, where you can now see the two FireWire connectors.

[Anderton]

I figured while I was in an expansive mood, I'd also add in the RADIAS expansion card. This was also easy; it mounts on the underside of the cover that was removed to install the FireWire expansion. You can see the board in the attached image.

[Anderton]

Well, it took me a long time to figure out how to get everything tweaked up, but now I've installed the editor, and the M3 is working great as a VSTi. The basic problem was that despite installing it, in Sonar I couldn't get the M3 to show up in the list of plug-ins, or in stand-alone mode, transfer data between keyboard and computer.

Now, I have a really nice PC Audio Labs computer that doesn't screw up, and I know that Korg has its act together in terms of running their instruments as VSTi devices - they've been doing this for a while.

And then I remembered: This happened to me with the Yamaha Motif review, and to Jon Chappell with the new Korg Pandora. Yes, it was the infamous dreaded 10 port MIDI limitation in Windows bug (also known as the "Why would anyone ever need more than ten MIDI devices?" bug). So I went through the laborious process of going through the registry, weeding out duplicate MIDI port entries, and then firing up the M3...yup, that was it.

You'd think that if you tried something that violated a Windows rule it would throw up a screen that says "You have exceeded the MIDI 10 port limit" or at least "Screw you, figure out what's wrong" but no. So, take it from me: If you're using gear from a company that knows how to do drivers and they don't drive, make sure you're not exceeding the MIDI port limit.

BTW the editor is completely bidirectional: If you tweak a control in the editor, it gets tweaked in the M3 as well.

Anyway, think about the implications of this mode of operation. You can boot up your DAW, load in the M3 "plug-in," and you now have access to a complete multi-timbral workstation with great sounds and a very nice control surface - the M3 itself - with virtually no CPU loading, other than the minimal amount presented by the plug-in editor. And it doesn't cause any distress because it's not really a plug-in but an editor - the M3 does all the heavy lifting.

Guitarists who use virtual instruments and amp sims, take note: This means that if you create your instrumental backing tracks in the M3 to start off a song, you can play your guitar with very low latency - you don't need to increase the latency to accommodate running a bunch of CPU-hungry soft synths.

The editor itself is rather plain, in both a disappointing way (no cool eye candy) but more importantly, in a very good way (highly obvious, readable, and easy to use). I'm going out of town for a few days, but will post a bunch of screen shots of the editor so you can see what I'm talking about when I get home.

Meanwhile, the attached image will give you an idea of the editor's basic look. And the overall summary is this: Korg M3 + Included Editor Software = DAW Plug-In that Works Really Well.

[Anderton]

Let's dig a little deeper into using the M3 as a VSTi, because the more I use hardware synths as VSTi devices, the more I realize you need to do things right or your system will go off in a corner and pout.

I checked over the PDF on how to use the M3 with Sonar, but that was one of the few hosts that wasn't covered (there was info on Logic, Cubase, Ableton Live, Digital Performer, and Pro Tools). So, as a public service to those who own an M3 and Sonar, as well as to illustrate how one works with hardware VST instruments in a typical host-based scenario, let's do a step-by-step description of how to get the M3 working in Sonar 8. This is all based on trial-and-error, so if I'm doing something wrong, I'm sure someone from Korg will corekt me.

But first, the most important thing: In the Global >Audio Options screen, DO NOT select the Korg ASIO drivers! Ditto MIDI devices. The Korg FireWire driver magically takes care of all the transfers "behind the scenes." For Audio, choose your standard audio interface. Note in the first attached image how the Korg drivers are unchecked in Sonar.

1. Make sure you have installed the most recent Korg FireWire driver and M3 Editor on your computer. If you've already installed these, go to www.korg.com and see if there's a newer version.
2. Connect your computer FireWire's port to the M3 FireWire's port while both are turned off.
3. Turn on the M3. Gaze in awe at the beautifully illuminated joystick while you wait for the M3 to boot up.
4. Turn on the computer and boot Sonar. If this is the first time you've opened Sonar since installing the M3 editing software, Sonar will scan its VST plug-ins in order to recognize the M3.
5. In Sonar, go Insert > Soft Synths > vstplugins > M3 Plug-In Editor.
6. Specify the options you want for the M3. I'd suggest checking MIDI Source, Synth Track Folder, and Synth Property Page. If you want to use the M3's individual outputs, click on All Synth Audio Outputs Stereo. If you want to mix within the M3 and simply present a stereo output to Sonar, check First Synth Audio Output.
7. If Sonar asks if you want to scan for the M3, go ahead. Otherwise, Sonar, will detect the M3 and synchronize the plug-in editor with the M3 itself. After scanning, the editor GUI shows up, as shown in the second attached image.
8. Go to the Utility button and choose what you want to bring into the editor - specific combis, all combis, a particular bank, etc. I saved a Sonar template for the M3 that automatically calls up the "Songwriting Combi" I want, which is the easiest way to go. But let's pretend I didn't do that, and just want to open up a particular combi and work with that. Select it on the M3, then from the editor's Utility menu, select Receive Current Combi (third attached image). When asked if you really want to do that, click on OK.
9. Tweak away! Note that communication is bidirectional, so if you tweak in the VST plug-in editor, the values will change on the M3 as well. Conversely, you can think of the M3 as a control surface for your VST instrument. Nice :)

[Tony Scharf]

Craig: Great review. I have owned an M3 for a while now, and it *is* a deep instrument, which I just dont seem to be able to find the bottom of. I love mine, and its already paid for itself.

That said, while exploring its depths, I have found one very annoying behavior. When saving a bank of sample data (either has 'save all' or 'save all sampling data') the system absolutely will NOT overwrite files that already exist. All the other types(PCG, SEQ, etc.) it prompts me if it wants to overwrite - but NOT the sampling data. If I have a bank loaded, make changes to it, and want to resave the data over the old, I need to first go in and manually delete the directory containing all the sample data and THEN save all.

I cant find an option, and I remember my Korg Triton did this as well - so this must be designed this way on purpose? Perhaps the 'Korg Guy' can shed some light on this, but for me it is terribly inconvenient. In such an otherwise perfect instrument, its really a confusing issue. The process should be as it is with every other type of data - Select save, if it exists, prompt to overwrite - if I say 'yes' then its my own fault if I overwrite something I shouldnt have.

Thanks again.

[justmusicamps]

Tony,
I think that this is something done on purpose, as I heard that there have been complaints with other systems that files were being overwritten way too easily, and that this was put in as an extra safeguard. It's a small price to pay for an incredible system!
Gregg

[Tony Scharf]

Tony,
I think that this is something done on purpose, as I heard that there have been complaints with other systems that files were being overwritten way too easily, and that this was put in as an extra safeguard. It's a small price to pay for an incredible system!
Gregg

I can understand not overwriting files without prompting the user. I cannot understand not allowing the user to overwrite them under any circumstance. Its counter to every other system I have ever used (and I have used just about all of them).

It would be nice if there was at least an option that could be switched, but I guess Ill just continue living with this.

[Rob Sherratt]

Craig,

Thank you again for your Pro review. I look forward to the next installment(s). Your information about setting up the Korg M3 VSTi under Sonar was extremely timely since that's exactly what I'm doing right now.

I had difficulty running the Korg USB MIDI device driver on my Dell Windows XP laptop computer. I wanted to have both my Pa2x and my M3 accessible via USB MIDI. The problem I faced was that neither the M3 Editor nor Cakewalk would recognise the Korg USB Midi device driver as an input/output option.

The problem was not caused by hitting the "10 MIDI device driver" limit that you mentioned. In fact the latest Korg USB MIDI Installer utility has an "uninstall" option which is very good at sorting any problems with duplicate or unwanted MIDI device drivers - it recognises all MIDI devices in the registry (including non-Korg ones) and it allows you to uninstall any duplicates or unwanted MIDI devices without having to hack the registry. However if you uninstall the M3 Firewire MIDI driver, the M3 Firewire audio driver is also removed.

Instead, the problems on my PC were caused by a USB Web camera device driver, which I uninstalled and then all the problems with MIDI over USB went away. Everything is working like it should!!!

PS This thread gave me the hint about a USB Web camera driver interfering with USB MIDI. However if anyone is having similar problems, then I recommend uninstalling any USB web camera driver using the "Control Panel -> Add/remove programs" rather than trying to patch the registry.

http://forums.techarena.in/windows-xp-music/559307.htm#post3948208

Best regards,
Rob Sherratt

[frankiben123]

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[WorkingDJ]

That is an impressive piece of equipment. I've reviewed similar components and are critical of its functions.