Sunday Synth Jam: This video, via KurtzMindfields, is a Berlin School style synth jam, inspired by the 70’s work of Tangerine Dream.Â
Technical Details:
Demo of the KingKorg, great virtual analog synthesizer, actually programmed as 6 differents vintages analogs synths: OBERHEIM S.E.M synthbass (step arpeggio) , MINIMOOG lead, PROPHET V Pad, MELLOTRON Church Organ, Choir and Strings & KORG MS20 Noise effects … live records session on Magix Sequoia, 6 tracks, no effects added, sounds playing with direct knobs controller: Filters, Resonance, LFO amount different waves, split possibilities, ect …
Inspired by “Sorcerer” (TD)
I keep telling people how great the King Korg sounds. It sounds fab. If you are wanting an affordable polysynth and you can’t stretch to a P-6 or OB-6, this synth will cover those bases and way more besides. Don’t be put off by the goofy name and the cheesy gold color (or buy the black one!)
I share your sentiments, and in fact prefer it to any of the DSI offerings as this is oncredibly flexible and the tonal range and depth is stunning. I really hope that Korg will finally release a rackmountable version of this synth. I would purchase two if they did.
I think a rack /desktop version would be a great idea!
I’d they did a Real version, I would totally grab one. The fact that I do not need another keyboard is the main reason I haven’t bought one.
But a few years I tried out a Prophet 12 besides a King Korg and I liked the King Korg[‘s presets] better.
Awesome track! Love it
I got one of these via impossibly cheap Craigslist deal. I like it for what it is but it comes up short in a lot of ways. If I’d paid full price I’d be bummed.
Some of the good: Sounds really really good. Lots of waveforms for the (up to) 3 OSC. In addition to the VA synthy stuff, it has very playable Rhodes and Whirly and organ patches. Also a small set of good mellotron patches (flutes, choir and strings being stand outs). Actually, strings in general sound great including some lost-in-tubeway-army string machine sounds. Great musical effects. Good responsive filters.
Some of the bad: The effects are on the left and take up a lot of space that would be better dedicated to synth controls. Maybe this is perfect if you’re left handed, I dunno. It’s the opposite of the signal flow, including the ‘tube’ thing which is last in the chain. You wind up menu diving for some simple stuff like aroeggiator latch. Vocoder is neat but not very responsive. Menu diving to get it going. Splits seem needlessly complicated to set up.
The whole thing just feels sort of lost between geeky VA synth and staple style player’s keyboard. It does have a lot of nice features and yeah, definitely punches above its weight sound wise. If you’re gigging, it’s super light weight.
I think it would be most comparable to a budget Nord if those existed. Mainly in the way that it’s not terribly deep but most things you do on it ‘sound good’.
Actually sat and played mine tonight for a while after writing the above on my phone. Forgot a big ‘un for “not quite a player’s keyboard” category: no aftertouch. And not quite as big but meh inducing: you can’t leave the modulation wheel in a given position as it’s a spring back joystick. You can use a pedal input to latch the position when pressed but that’s goofy. A single button above the stick next to the octave buttons would have been a great improvement. Also, wall wart on a synth that costs this much is just wrong. And 20-30 second boot. 😕
To add to the good column: The menu pages are mostly linear and there are something like 50 of them. You can get through them quickly by moving any control on the panel—it will jump to the first menu page relevant to that control section. Also, the Favorites system might seem goofy but with hundreds of presets it’s really very handy and quite easy to use. Also also, very fast ENVs and LFOs. And yeah, it sounds incredibly good plus there are lots of interesting sound possibilities that aren’t obvious. SEM(ish) filter over a combination of Mellotron Choir and some DW-8000 waveform? Yep. And while there is menu diving, it’s not like a Kurzweil or anything.
Would have been cool if you could use the Vocoder input as a regular audio pass through input. Even if it couldn’t use the effects or filter or whatever. For some situations, it could mean leaving the mixer at home.