Korg has announced “stunning new colour options” for the Korg M50, microKORG XL and padKONTROL.
Now – I love me some Korg gear, especially anything with the word Electribe on it – but there have been a boatload of interesting electronic music gear announcements in the last six months – and Korg is giving us pretty colors for their gear?
Has marketing replaced innovation?
Note to Korg: There are two colors for electronic music gear: black & matte black.
Think I’m being too harsh on Korg? Let me know what you think in the comments!
sadly, i'm not minding those colours too much. something about the yellow appeals to me quite a bit.
Maybe I'm just in the wrong demographic or something!
I just know that black is going to look good as long as I own the instrument.
What about silver?
Colors are good, but beige? Seriously?
Excellent! I got a studio full of dull looking black and silver synths. Yellow and red would be most welcome;-)
The Z1 didn't have much plastic, mostly Aluminium. What a beauty!
For cheaper plastic kit, a choice of colours makes sense to me.
Electric blue…like SH-101 and CS-1X! Great colour!
i’d say i’m looking forward to red/black combos without metal sheens. something like the clavia nord.
on the other hand white hardware would look sleek.
yellow would be elektrikkkk!
My Korg Prophecy is silver and it looks great!
Wait a minute, you love the Electribes, but think synths should only come in black? :/
Yeah, as Alex points out, the SH101 had colour options, the CS1X was blue, Nords are red…
nords… one of the most respected stage keyboards… red
wurlies… came in yellow, green, beige, red. iconic, music changing instrument.
melotron… white, brown, wood.
hammand b3… wood
some of korgs older stuff is brushed metal (tritons)
black is boring… they're smart to make their keyboards distinguished and recognizable.
Clearly I'm out of touch – because everybody else seems to think day-glo synths are hot.
I'd still rather see Korg announcing a new music production workstation, like the Beat Thang; a new control surface, like the Novation LaunchPad; or something entirely new, ike the Eigenlabs' Eigenharp.
And if they make it in Black or Matte Black, even better.
Clearly I'm out of touch – because everybody else seems to think day-glo synths are hot.
I'd still rather see Korg announcing something really new. Maybe a new music production workstation, like the Beat Thang; a new control surface, like the Novation LaunchPad; or something entirely new, ike the Eigenlabs' Eigenharp.
And if they make it in Black or Matte Black, even better.
I think you can still get the M50 in its original stunning black/matte black duotone scheme if that's what floats your boat.
I'd much rather see new synths rather than new colors for old synths!
The new colors don't bother me – but why? Maybe its' a Japan thing.
Lots of musicians appreciate things visually as well as well sonically. Look at all the bands that started in art schools. I have to admit I love the yellow one. If i needed a hardware workstation I would be tempted.
i dunno.. i'm siding with synthhead on this one. i find it hard to take a blue or yellow synth seriously.
red is only ok if its a Nord, and silver is ok, if youre going for 'retro' or 'avant garde'
white, brown, or wood is only ok if its really old (like a wurlie or mellotron)
All the best classic synths and keyboards are black – moog modulars, SCI's Pro One & Prophet 5, Korg's MS synths, Rhodes suitcase.
Offering Korg gear in fashion colors means that they're spending their money on figuring out what colors people like, instead of developing cool new gear.
How about skipping the color selection and adding another row of knobs or using higher quality materials, instead?
Black IS dull. Colour is the new black.
If my Kaossilator wasn't bright yellow, I'd never be able to find the damn thing!
Yup. The only thing I hate about electronic music gear is that it's usually only sold in dull black.
Yup. The only thing I hate about electronic music gear is that it's usually only sold in dull black.
Except possibly even worse is the decent colours coming along only *after* you've sighed and settled for a boring one…
Of course, black is as cool and groovy as any colour scheme except for the fact that it's generally 'standard' and I want 'special / a bit different' and yes, that does offer some functionality. Colours do stuff to your brain.
I reckon all synths should come in black for one very good reason. The only proper coloured synths are ones you painted yourself!
Seriously, nothing says "I love my keyboard" like cracking the shell off it and giving it some custom love.
Cracking the shell off it and giving it some custom love is always a good prescription.
Why is this even considered weird? The weird thing is that more synth companies don't do this. Almost everything in the world comes in a variety of colors: cars, bikes, guitars, clothing, houses, ipods, even people…but somehow synthesizers only rate one color?
In three words: Economy of scale.
If they make 10,000 cases in one colour, each individual case will be a lot cheaper than if they made 1000 cases each in 10 different colours. Black is arguably tthe most universally unoffensive and practical colour so if you can only pick one then that's the one that usually gets chosen.
If a product comes in many colours, that is usually a sign that it is a mass market consumer product. I think synthesizers are little too niche for that.
I'm still vexed there's not more demand for PINK and GREEN synths!
Some other colored oddities that come to mind would be the Guitar Center (and later expanded to other places) versions of the M-Audio Axioms that were red and yellow, the Waldorf Q, and the Fizmo's paint job. But I've seen some very cool custom-painted MPCs.
Colored synths don't carry much practical use for me unless I was toting them live, to, you know, be seen as well as heard.
if i get to choose between two instruments that sound the same, I'll take the one that looks cooler. It'll be more fun to use, and thereby more inspirational to me.
It also suggests that marketing has taken priority over design.
i own orange Waldorf XT and a blue Novation supernova, i love them.
Humm… black and matte black ?
I have.. Kurzweil K2000VP (blue) Novation Nova (Blue) Roland JP8080 (Blue) Roland JX305 (Blue) Yamaha CS2x (Light Blue) Virus C (Black)
colours are good, but why the hack they can't make new electribes?
The same reason why Roland won't give us a new analog… lol
hey korg, sell us some bananas!
I love the new Maserati/Ferrari YELLOW M50. Just bought mine!
hey! what's the price???????????
Uh, I love my yellow Waldorf Q! The PPG was a pretty blue. If Wolfgang Palm can participate in the creation of strikingly colored synths, what is wrong with Korg doing it?
I respect Korg making a lot of great, and affordable synths available to consumers. I love my bright blue Monotron Duo.
So… what about Waldorf Colours? Microwave, Q, MicroQ. Nord is Red, Yamaha is Blue, Korg Electribes have been Red, Blue, Brown, Green… Focusrite was RED, Drawmer also abuse of Yellow and Silver.