Korg Forums

[bkboy]

in my humble opinion, korg made a very bad decision with trying to look 'radical' in designing this keyboard.

the tritons, trinitiys, even the M1 from the past had text silk screened outside of the button perimeter.

you are right, computer keyboards are designed to endure years of button pressing, but even my dell computer keyboard after 3 years of usage show some slight signs of wear, and the space bar key looks very 'oily' (shiny). keep in mind that i never eat and type at the same time. i am very picky about cleanliness, i always wash my hands with soap and water and towel dry after eating, before using the computer keyboard.

korg m3 has a far far far worse chassis design than the previous workstations, not to mention its half-empty sound banks. people aren't thrilled to pay $2500 for this. I would honestly think $1700-1900 is appropriate for brand new M361.

Maybe Korg can issue some recalls and take care of these pressing issues.

[GregC]

do you own the M3 ?

If not, there is no ' pressing issue '
_________________
Kronos 88. MODX8
Achieve your musical dreams
https://soundcloud.com/user-898236994

[bkboy]

no i don't own the m3, but i want to buy one because the sounds are good even if half of sound banks are empty. so, yes, it is a pressing issue.

[sparkie]

[dorremifasol]

The design is OK in the pictures but it definitely has its flaws.

Besides the problem with the button texts, the button action is very bad, sometimes you must press the button more than once. It's very unprofessional an uncomfortable to use, at last comparing the button action to the rest of my music gear (even my old X5DR).

Also, the M3 has a texture which is particularly prone to get dirty easily, because its porosity. OK it may not be a big problem but certainly it will make your synth look older than it is in less time. It is harder to clean as well.

I would have preferred a classic look, layout and action.

Not all is bad of course, the new keyboard is absolutely fantastic, and the pads too.

[Unknown Sound]

[GregC]

.." but the buttons just plain suck for tactile feedback, My Trinity is much nicer to use.

After having the M3 for about 3 months now, I have come to dislike the overal design of the thing for the aforementioned reasons. Also, the Sliders are low quality, the Color LCD smears & bleeds (just like an old passive matrix laptop screen). I think Korg cut too many corners in the quality department here. "

that sounds pretty bad.

So do you not use your M3 ? Are you going to sell it ?
_________________
Kronos 88. MODX8
Achieve your musical dreams
https://soundcloud.com/user-898236994

[bkboy]

if this keyboard was made in china, this would be acceptable. for a reputable japanese company known for its quality products to cut corners in quality is such a disappointment.

in fact, the whole poor quality chassis started with the Micro X and X50. they have the crappiest chassis available from any prominent manufacturer. novation and m-audio used to make crappy, low quality controller keyboards, but they have improved. and korg seems steady declining.

i once owned the triton extreme, and it had such a beautiful chassis. buttons were great, it didn't have the crappy porous white chassis, but beautiful blue chassis instead. it was easy to clean.

[sparkie]

I agree, the M3 buttons does have a "spongier feel" to them without the on-off "click" feel of others like Oasys, which is a little uncomfortable. Who knows maybe they used a different mfgr or something for them. I would like to see high quality touch pad buttons/sliders that are stationary, with software that allows the user to adjust the sensitivity. I.E. similiar to the Pad buttons that have a sensitivity adjustment. The sliders could be some sort of precise 8 multi separated ribbon controllers. But definitely keep the "light up" button feature. I also think the Karma feature needs to have more buttons assigned to it. It should be separated off to an area by itself without combo using the mixer and effects buttons. Continuosly pressing 1 button to select between the 4 modules is ackward..and 4 buttons to select 8 different scenes ?? and separate volume/ Any other ideas??
Sparkie

[bkboy]

actually, i would like to correct myself...

its not just korg, but roland and yamaha also have started the 'budget professional keyboard' competition: yamaha mm6 and roland juno-g also have cheaper chassis but not as bad as Korg's. but all their flagships are solid as a tank. but for korg, even the flagship (m3, not oasys) now appears cheap! that is what's unacceptable.

[MartinHines]

The build quality of the M3 will be determined over time, based on the totality of owners' usage. With any manufacturing process there can be defects. With the printing on the keys for example, perhaps there was a bad batch of printing done on a few keys. So far I have only heard of 1 person (perhaps two) who have noticed wear of the printing, which does not suggest a "product recall" is required.

If someone has an actual defect I would suggest contacting your Korg Country Distributor and have the part replaced.

Korg still has the same term warranty on the M3 as all of their other keyboards.

I wouldn't jump to conclusions regarding the long-term usability of the product.

Finally, "quality" is relative. All of the keyboard manufacturers build products to different price points, and within a specific manufacturer's products, there are different components of differing quality used. Some people may feel the M3 appears to be more fragile than products like the Triton Extreme that it replaced, but I wouldn't automatically assume the M3 uses the same components or chassis as the X50.

[dorremifasol]

I think it's pretty clear that many people disliked the buttons action or the sliders feel, regardless of the paint used on them. Those are things that can not be changed with a firmware update.

Korg must know that there are things that we don't like, it is important for future products. If we didn't complain, Korg's future products may have even worse build quality.

[Unknown Sound]

I'm already on my second M3. The first one blew up!

I haven't decided to keep it or sell it. The only other option is an OASYS but there's a big gap in that (money wise) or Motif XS, but the prices of Yamaha products in my country are criminal. I do like the sounds and UI of the M3. I just do NOT like the physical design and build quality.

_US.

[Lorenzo]

[GregC]