Korg Forums

[wasteisland]

Hey all,

I'm a guitarist who is going to start playing keyboard on the side and I was wondering if the X50 is right for me.. I could get a really good deal on one. (Pretty much could get one for around.. $350 in good condition with the box and manual and adapter... which here in Canada is a steal)

So obviously I'm a complete beginner.. I'm really all about playing, so all I really need is good tones that I can tweak to my liking. Tones I would use would be such as piano, organ, strings, wind instruments, basses.. pretty much a well rounded bunch of sounds. If it is suited for this can I take these sounds and modify them? can I write the modded versions of them to patches and rename them anything I want?

I have heard mixed things about the durability of the X50, mostly being that it feels cheap.. however is it really cheap, or does it just "feel cheap"? because I have also heard people gig with it and abuse it with little to no problems.

So is it right for me? I understand that a workstation seems best for me, but at the moment one is really out of my price range and I figure even if I get one in the future I could use the X50 as a solid back up.

Also I wanted to get some really unreal sounds (really dirty dirty stuff like related to dubstep. eg. beeps, screetches, wobbles, etc) which I figured I would eventually pick up a R3 or something else for.. Also really dig the vocoder on that. Being able to pay samples would be nice but I may just pick up a seperate sampler as well.

Sorry for the excess of questions, just that the nearest place I could go try one out for myself is over 2 hours away so I'm doing a lot of research so when I do go out to compare hardware synths I dont waste too much time. I really feel that the online video demos of so many synths and worskstations to be really poor.

Thanks for reading and any replies!

[xmlguy]

The X50 is a good match for what you want to do, and it can do "dubstep, beeps, screetches, wobbles" as well. It can't sample, it can only use whatever samples it has in ROM, but that's a good collection of starting waveforms, including a stereo velocity-switched piano multisample. The X50 does flex a bit if you play with excessive force while it's on an X-stand, but that doesn't mean it will break, so I think those complaints are from people used to heavy, rigid keys. The X50 Triton engine is very powerful, sounds great, has a great editor and VST plugin. You're not playing much more than a cheapo Casio or Yamaha home consumer arranger ROMpler keyboard, but you'll be getting a pro quality synth. It also can play General Midi songs.

[babarosa]

Here is a link to a video where the keyboardist plays the X50 like a guitar. The video's general sound quality is poor, so the X50 sounds very thin in this video, which does not correspond to reality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRYjZRdkxVU&feature=watch_response

Here is one with better sound quality
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy9ocVOHHkI&feature=related

[Naethryn]

i have an x50 and for gigging its pretty much perfect, especially at a budget. does it feel cheap? i wouldnt say that, it feels like what you would expect a lower end keyboard to feel like. i think the Triton just set expectations to high. i have had mine for a while now and it held up pretty good. the power button fell off so now to turn it off and on i have to plug it in and out lol and one time i broke the power jack because im dumb and didnt use the wire holder thingy. basically i treat it like my own red headed step child and it plays and works fine. if you pretend to take care of it even a little it'll do. the sounds are also pretty awesome. and ya, you can tweak everything. when i got mine at 800$ i thought i was robbing the place, 350 i would buy it again honestly.
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m50-88, x50 (r.i.p.), microkorg, Triton classic