Korg Forums

[Lith]

Hi There!
At a risk of sounding like everyone else, I just have a point or two about the earlier AI Synths. These are just my opinions

The Korg T3 actually has a really great piano sample in it in the B bank. It needs a bit of tweaking to bring out the best of it, but it is still my go to piano even though I have newer equipment. Just because I love the sound. Out of all of the AI synths, the T-Series sounds the fattest and most detailed, but it is limited by its 16 note polyphony.

The T and the 01 series sound fuller and more alive than any of the X or N series in my opinion. They really were top of the line in their day. I think the 01 series are the Pad kings but you can't overlook that lovely Dyno Electric Piano.

That being said, the X5D or X5DR has a much larger and more diverse waveform selection and you can really get some more up to date trance and dance sounds out of that series of machines.

If you were looking for one definitive machine to sum up the AI series, it would have to be the N1 or the N5ex. They have the most waveforms available and their ROM is 18 MB. The X5D is only 8 MB.

I have the N5ex and I find that it has a good selection of 01w and T series sounds in it (not all of them) and it does a pretty good job, while adding many new waveforms. When I compare the N5ex to both my 01wFD and my T2ex, it does sound quite a bit thinner. But then I believe the N5ex has a whopping 1,169 programs and 302 combinations to choose from and also 32 performance slots and a pretty good arpeggigator. It has real time control knobs and finally a sort of resonant filter (it is an effect - not a true filter.). None of the other AI series have these features, so over all it is probably the most comprehensive of the series. The navigation is a bit weird to get used to, compared to any of the others, as it is totally different... and kinda lame.

Hope that helps.

(I own T3, T2ex, 01wfd, 05rw, X5d, N5ex from the AI Series. Sold the M1 for the T3)

[jhulk]

the o1w is the first ai2 synths the m1 and t series are ai1 versions

the t series with pcm sample playback can have 48khz samples

most samples are done in 32khz as it allows 1 sample per octave

with the t series you can do a 1mb multisample this allows very good quality sounds

the ai2 series used a 8bit compression to get more multisamples into rom this range was 31250hz

the dropping of pcm loading via floppy was the big killa for the 01w because you had to buy expensive pcm cards and to roll your own 2mb versions new cards were £100 for just 2mb

while the t series aloud 1mb per floppy disk

you will find that the later ai2 use the same multisounds but use different dacs and parts to the 01w which used very nice sounding opamps and convertors and its waveshaping added a lot of magic to the sounds

to me the trinity is a t series with resonant filters

im working on a voice engine for the korg dss1 which gives you the same synth system of the t series which uses a filter per voice layer unlike the dss1 which mixes both to one filter i have made a dual 12db scf filter in series which have morphing control like the sem which morphs the lowpass to notch to hipass via filter mixing adding a lowpass and hipass filter gives you a notch response so adding a crossfade mixer you get variable notch between lowpass and hipass

this is all analog

with user pcm these machines can just grow as you can just add your own sample content

[medwaystudios]

Thanks, sorry just noticed this reply when searching for N1R again.

I ended up buying one off eBay, will have it soon to check out. Not sure if I'll keep the 05/RW or not as it might be redundant. I'm using these in a studio situation only so I don't need the extra outs/poly etc...
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www.medwaystudios.com

[Joe Gerardi]

The 05 will indeed become redundant. The N1r is a great little rack. It would have been the cat's ass with resonant filters, but as it sits, has a gazillion usable sounds.

..Joe
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Current setup: Korg Kronos 61, Roland XV-88 Korg Triton-Rack, Motif-Rack, Korg N1r, Roland M-GS64, Alesis QSR, Yamaha KX88 & KX76, Roland Super-JX, Juno-Stage, Kawai K4, Kawai K1II.