This video, via Perfect Circuit, offers an audio demo of the Korg Trident – an 8-voice, polyphonic analog synthesizer with three distinct, programmable sections.
The Trident features Synthesizer, Brass, and Strings sections. These can be individually tweaked and played, assigned to sections of the keyboard, or be layered to create more complex sounds.
“In this video, we show off a handful of the lush, vintage sounds that can be coaxed out of this classic synthesizer. The Trident is certainly an instrument that rewards playing its keyboard, while engaging and tweaking the different sections as a performance element.
We also showcase some of the Trident’s external CV inputs with a small set of Eurorack modules, expanding the instrument with more complex modulations than what is possible within the Trident alone.”
If you’ve used the Korg Trident, leave a comment and share your thoughts on it!
The Trident is very lush and fat sounding, but it lacks a certain bite. Compared to my Juno 60 it is not as musical and precise. Even my Korg Poly-61 has better filter than the Trident. But the built-in flanger on the Trident is quite charming, and gives it a typical late-70’s touch. I sold mine last year.
I hated the Trident way back when it was released and the video reinforces that. It’s got such an undefined, boring sound. It was Korg’s half-hearted failed attempt to compete with the Prophet, Memorymoog, Jupiter 8, and OBXa.
It was more an attempt to compete with the ARP Quadra, which also wasn’t exciting in the polysynth section.
I was sort of thinking that they were more competing with the ARP Quadra.
+1
“lush, vintage sounds that can be coaxed out of this classic synthesizer”
‘coaxed’ = very narrow musical sweet spot, not fun to program. Much better to have a synth with a narrow range in which everything sounds good than ‘unlimited possibilities’ that rarely coalesce into sonic thrills. The first few years of using synths I was always after the maximum freedom/flexibility but a synth designed to do everything rarely excels at anything.
I had a Trident Mk2 for a while. They can sound great but I would encourage folks to get a Polysix instead, get a midi retrofit, and multitrack it. The Trident’s synth section is quite limited even by the standards of the day. The P6 can also capture the vibe and magic of the Trident’s Brass and String sounds very authentically. I sold the Trident and got a P6 and later, a Lambda. I find I prefer that combo, and both together can be had for much less than a Trident these days.