New Korg RK-100S 2 Keytar Now Available

KORG has announced the availability of the RK-100S2 keytar, an 8-voice analog modeling synth and MIDI controller that features vocoding, an arpeggiator, two ribbon controllers and a solid wood body.

Features:

  • Clear finish shows off the wood grain
  • New patch library
  • 37-note slim keyboard
  • Dual ribbon controllers
  • Battery operation
  • Vocoder function
  • Can be used as a master keyboard controller
  • Includes soft case

Audio Demos:

Pricing and Availability

The RK-100S2 is available now with a street price of around $999.

 

16 thoughts on “New Korg RK-100S 2 Keytar Now Available”

  1. Everything about this instrument is cringe-worthy, from the artisanal wooden body to the noodly-noodly-weeOOOOW physical modeling sounds. And yet I find myself drawn like a moth to a flame.

  3. The marketing makes this look like the second coming of Jesus, but the keytar actually looks like a pretty cool design. The wood is gorgeous.

    But what is it with Korg and mini keys?

    Are they trying to recreate the success of the microKorg? Do they just sell the hell out of mini key synths?

    IMHO, the microKorg wasn’t a success because it has mini keys, but in spite of them. It was a success because it had a good sound engine and it was $500 when everything else was $1,000 or more.

    I made the mistake of ignoring the wavestate when it was introduced, because it looked like it had the same keyboard as the minilogue.

    1. Again with the mini keys

      You would have to assume that they have done the research

      Mini keys are more popular because they are cheaper, take up less space and most synth users aren’t trained musicians or have shovels for hands

      personally I fall into all of these categories and I prefer mini keys

  4. The wood is a nice touch, as long as its not so heavy it becomes a source of fatigue. It adds a bit of physical toughness to a synth that’s going to get slung around a lot. The Moog Liberation was a chiropractor’s dream, though.

    I’m more keen on the longer touch strip. I think the position under the keys makes the best sense. We’ll see how many players take that beyond the classic long swoop. I hope more makers will start including them. They have interesting possibilities beyond simple bending.

    As to the smaller keys, they look more like the in-between length than minis. That makes sense in a keytar. Chords take a back seat to mono leads because of the playing angle. We’d all holler less if we sat in on a few design meetings. The story of why we get features A) and B), C) gets pushed down in a menu and D) is toast from the outset can be interesting. It can make a $500 tooling difference in the asking price.

  6. I bought the first re-issue (RK100s1) and it is a thing of beauty. Wooden body, superb finish and has the ‘heft’ that guitarists will appreciate. The original RK (1984) of course had no sounds so the microKorg (and XL) compatible synth engine is very welcome of you don’t have an external Midi source and via the librarian all of those sounds can be edited and loaded in. But just on Midi alone keytars are just plain enjoyable and the new RK is one of the best around.

  8. I have an RK-100S. It’s cool. As others have said, wish it had full-sized keys though. This looks like a re-issue with the only differences being a) new sound bank b) new wood finish. The RK-100S has the vocoder too (ha, I had even forgotten that it could do that). The RK-100S and -2 are both microKORG XLs in a keytar form factor.

    No saying that’s bad, but come on Korg, do some real innovation instead of just re-packaging!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *