Korg Forums

[cfurlin]

[Bubba]

I've actually witnessed that being done as well. It wasn't a GC but it was a very big music store that sold a lot of Korg gear. The Oasys was connected to some top of the line studio monitors and the M3 was hooked to a bottom of the line keyboard amp. You get the picture. I can't believe how good the M3 sounds through my AKG headphones.
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Bubba
Gear: Yamaha CP-300; Trinity V3; Triton EX-76

[BADMANN]

i might try that next time i go too gtc i did notice that the oasys is hooked up too some nice monitors and the m3 is hooked up to guitar amps but the m3 is 24 bit compared too the triton extreme which was 16bit so im sure theres a great difference is sound quality in the m3 but isnt the oasys 32 bit?

[cfurlin]

[cfurlin]

[MartinHines]

[cotler]

IMHO, the best way to evaluate the different workstations is to spend some quality time with each, running through your favored "auditioning" headphones. I find my very portable AKG k26p phones to be a good "shopping for keyboards" companion.

That's better than leaving as crucial factor as "how does it sound?" to the setup skills of some kid with a high school diploma and a bad haircut (which covers both of my local Guitar Centers).

As for my M3M (with Radias), I've had it almost a month and I think the overall sound is outstanding. One of the first things I did when I got it home was to export the demo songs as wave files on flash ram, burn those files to CD with a Sony USB DVD burner, pop the CD into a good sound system and turn up the volume. The results reinforced my opinion from the music store, and that is Korg nailed the piano and drums. And as a long time MS2K owner I can't say enough nice things about the Radias card.

It all comes down to having a personal connection with an instrument. Any synth can have spectacular specs and be very cool and powerful, or it can be some old thing with less processing power than an Atari. But unless I can connect on a creative and emotional level it's not money well spent.

As for Kurzweil, it has its own sound well beyond the specified polyphony and ROM size. I owned a K2500 many years ago, and I would grab the K2661 in a hearbeat IF its price was in line with the age of the technology and the board's limitations. In my opinion, the K2661 shoud have a street price of 1,000-1,100 USD.

The first thing that Kurzweil's new owners did was jacking the prices on all of the old models, which doesn't inspire great confidence in the new management.

[Lorenzo]

[Lorenzo]

anyway, just to clarify, kurzweil is a really difficult and complex keyboard that lets you do many things the other simply can't... (try to slave a v-synth XT with a triton as a master.... , or try to put more than 10 layers of sounds in a program...). The problem with kurzweil isn't the price range, is that people think they have to use it as a classical workstation. They should make course about useing kurzweil K series and release a licence to put your hand on one of them... I think that only a few in this world would own one
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http://www.synthaddicted.com

[KingJ]

The M3 sounds good, and it has some sounds I'd love to have, but the overall sound quality isn't as good as the Yamaha Motif ES or XS in my oppinion. However, the Oasys, especially with EXs3 and MOD7, is in the same league with the Synclavier, the best synth ever made. Listen to Mike Conway's demos of the Oasys. Wow! The HD1 sample playback engine in the Oasys alone now has more sample RAM than even the Motif XS, and all of the Oasys's samples are uncompressed, so they sound clearer than most synths out there. Not only that, but the Oasys also has many different methods of synthesis, including physical modeling, virtual analog, organ modeling, and FM, in addition to it's sample playback. I considered the M3M, but after I heard the Oasys, my heart is set on getting one when I get the money. I already have a Motif and a Tyros2, so after I get the Oasys, I should never run out of sounds and inspiration. I know this is the M3 forum, but I have to say that a lot of people have complained that the M3's build quality is very poor. However, the Oasys is built solid, like a tank.

[GregC]

[KingJ]

[drama1]

Just putting my 2 cents in this conversation, but I have the M3-73 and I personally believe it has the potential to be a killer board when new programs are released. The programming is aimed at the WOW factor when you hear it in the store. For live players, right now it is sorely lacking in combis and programs in re to bread and butter sounds. The build quality, sorry Korg, but IMHO you are going to have to handle this board with kid gloves. On the M3-73 there is no bottom. There's an aluminum bar that goes across the bottom and the cable connecting the keybed to the module is exposed. I can just imagine one of our roadies getting his dirty little hand caught in the cable. The other HUGE drawback in the M3 is the slow screen draw for live performance. When you hit one of the program or combi buttons there is a VERY noticible delay and sound cutoff when changing programs/combis. Even the Triton is faster in changing programs/combis. The Oasys is lightning fast. That's why Rudess can get away with just using one board. There is only a split-second when changing programs/combis on the Oasys. To me the Oasys and M3 sound like Korg synths. I've checked them both out extensively and to my ears the Oasys is certainly better sounding, but the difference simply is not that much different where I wouldn't even consider the M3 for my Korg needs, especially when new programs are released.

I notice Lorenzo mentioning Kurzweil. I have the PC2X. For live performance you can't beat it as far as changing programs or combis. It is every bit as fast as the Oasys and even better because it has seamless program/combi changing, which I believe makes for a MUCH more musical passage when changing sounds. The sounds of the PC2X is dated and you have to be an engineering genius to figure out programing the damn thing. Kurz will be releasing the PC3 soon and almost sounds too good to be true. I will certainly be checking that out when it is released hopefully in a 76 key version.

I hope Korg is able to do something with the slow screen draw on the M3 because I really like the board, but I'm still using my Triton-Pro for live performance, even though the M3 is a cut above the Triton sound-wise. I know, I know, use two boards. I'm old and I'm not lugging an extra board just because I can't get quicker program changes. I know there's no perfect board, but to me a lot of this is just common sense. I want a board that sounds great, which most do, loads of programs for live performance, seamless patch changing, 88 weighted keys, and only weighing about 25 pounds. I just may have to attend NAMM and hope.

[KingJ]

The build quality problem is not just in the M3 either. The Yamaha Motif XS6 and XS7 is not built near as solid as the ES6 and the ES7, and there are still a lot of unresolved bugs in the Motif XS's OS. The XS8 is built just as solid as the ES8, but not the XS6 and the XS7. I can tell you this because I have an XS6, and it just doesn't feel as solid as past Yamaha synths.

[Synthoid]