Got "my M50", the good and not so good.

Aussie-Andy · Post by **Aussie-Andy** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 10:19 am

I finally got my M50 (61) on the weekend. After giving it a good workout, I have come to a few conclusions regarding it.

The good :
- I adore the new Piano.
- a touchscreen at this price range, brilliant, the best way to edit and generally get around your keyboard.
- the combi's are heaps of fun, far more complex and inspiring than what the competition offers.
- the sounds have a distinct, unique and individual character.
- massively tweakable to your own personal preference.
- not everyone agrees with this, but I think it looks very cool.

The not so good :
- no quick access favourite's menu ?
- acoustic sounds are generally pretty weak compared to the competition.
- to my ears some sounds appear to be very dated samples that have been recycled for the last ten years or so, all manufacturers appear to do this though, they just sound fresher with a new chip onboard.
- keyboard action is incredibly cheap and probably won't see out the decade before failing completely, I have a light touch as well, so how would it fare with someone who likes to dig in with a bit of power ?

Overall I think it's pretty good value for money though and I like Korg instruments a lot, the M50 is certainly the only real option in this price range. It buries the Juno G from Roland.

Whilst you can't drink Champagne on a Beer budget, the keys are the weakest aspect of this instrument. As good as a keyboard may sound and as many features as you pile into it, if it doesn't feel wonderful to play you may stop playing it sooner rather than later.

Enough of my rant, I'm now going to play and enjoy "my M50".
Thanks Korg.

McHale · Post by **McHale** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 3:55 pm

my .02

I "am" and "am not" with you on the sounds. When I first got mine, I heard TRITON all over it. I was kinda bummed. But The more I dug into them and started programming, my analogy would be 8 track vs. High Def Blue Ray DTS audio. It's THAT great of a difference. And there's only so many instruments in the world and they've done a good job capturing most of them. But the tools they've given us to create "synth" sounds has been GREATLY improved. There's still stuff I haven't been able to do that I did easily on my Triton, but that's probably me being slow and not a limitation of the instrument.

As far as the keybed, I agree this is one of the two greatest weaknesses (the other being the external power supply to save $1.00 on manufacturing costs). I have taken pics of the inside of my M50. I took a good side profile of the keybed removed from the synth entirely. Check 'em out:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjlarsen/M50#

I'm happy with the action of the M50 synth keybed. And I'm willing to bet there are few people here who "abuse" a keybed as bad as I do. I play hard, slide my palm across the keys (which will occasionally snag on the edge and stop me dead in my tracks) like a goofy monkey, and don't give much thought to the fact that plastic breaks - especially when abused. I just play how I feel and not worry. I've had zero problems so far and I gig 3 times a week on average.

And in the course of using the keyboard for it's life, let's say I break 10 keys. That's about $100 bucks (assuming $10 bucks per key) and about 5 minutes to replace it. Once you think of it that way, you don't worry as much. To this day, I haven't broken a key on my Triton Pro which I've had since 1999. In fact, the only synth I own that has had a broken key was my DSS-1 - and it came that way. I glued it and put it back in and haven't had a problem since.

As far as favorites menu, you have categories and you can pull up your sounds based on type or categories. You can have quite a few on screen at once. So this KIND of does that. It's how I do it anyway.

Give it a little time. You'll come to appreciate a whole lot more if you continue to explore what it can do. I absolutely love my M50 and I have the M3, RADIAS, and Triton Pro to compare it to.

-Mc

prkravi · Post by **prkravi** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 5:01 am

Just a curious question here McHale, no offense meant.

Yesterday i went and got myself an arranger keyboard to complement my M50, i was very low on budget so i got myself a Yamaha PSRS550. Im at home with it more so bcos im new to the keyboard world and i started off with Yamaha. The purpose being ofcourse, to lug it around, i am not that comfortable to take my M50 out often. And also to get me quick inspiration while composing, bcos on an arranger its fairly easy..

And i must admit shamelessly - im still to get going with the M50 too complex and technical for me.

Now that being the case, im a bit puzzled. . .and really curious to know why would someone who has a M3 want another synth (M50) which is its lower version? When i was shelling out the money at the store, i asked myself this question...i didn't have an answer, they were more like convincing myself. Maybe im still that BOY deep inside, who just cannot be away from his Yamaha Toy? dont know...

Or is this some kind of an obsession that we people have? to see us sleeping amidst keyboards? Just curious...

jacke · Post by **jacke** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 11:18 am

prkravi wrote:Now that being the case, im a bit puzzled. . .and really curious to know why would someone who has a M3 want another synth (M50) which is its lower version?

M3-61: 14kg (31lbs), M50-61: 6.8kg (14.9lbs). Add a sturdy flight case and the weight adds up...

My M50-61 with flight case is about the weight of an M3-61 by itself, and from having carried it back from my guitarist-friend's place once, I know that is my limit. (In retrospect I should just have ordered a cab and been done with it...)

McHale · Post by **McHale** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 2:08 pm

prkravi wrote:Just a curious question here McHale, no offense meant.

Yesterday i went and got myself an arranger keyboard to complement my M50, i was very low on budget so i got myself a Yamaha PSRS550. Im at home with it more so bcos im new to the keyboard world and i started off with Yamaha. The purpose being ofcourse, to lug it around, i am not that comfortable to take my M50 out often. And also to get me quick inspiration while composing, bcos on an arranger its fairly easy..

And i must admit shamelessly - im still to get going with the M50 too complex and technical for me.

Now that being the case, im a bit puzzled. . .and really curious to know why would someone who has a M3 want another synth (M50) which is its lower version? When i was shelling out the money at the store, i asked myself this question...i didn't have an answer, they were more like convincing myself. Maybe im still that BOY deep inside, who just cannot be away from his Yamaha Toy? dont know...

Or is this some kind of an obsession that we people have? to see us sleeping amidst keyboards? Just curious...

NO offense taken.

The M3 is just a phenomenal keyboard. The sounds are awesome, the features are awesome. It has a ton of more features that the M50 doesn't have.

BUT

1. I gig out several times a week. I don't need those features live (sampling, X/Y-Mode on the touchscreen - well I would like this actually), karma. I just need the bread and butter sounds. The M50 has EVERY sound that the M3 has as long as RADIAS patches aren't considered.

2. As stated above, the M50 weighs 17 pounds. My M3-73 keybed with NO modules on it weighs that much. That light weight is MUCH appreciated when you're already carrying other gear back and forth to gigs. Don't forget, I still lug around my Triton Pro which weighs about 45 pounds (and about 75 with SKB flight case).

3. If there were no M50, I'd have purchased a 2nd M3. One for the studio and one for live use. Sometimes with so many gigs I may be without my live rig for several days so I need something at home to practice and program on.

As far as not gigging with your M50, I would advise you NOT to gig with it until you're comfortable with it. I didn't. On my Triton, I can create ANY sound within a couple minutes by tweaking an already existing patch. And I understand the Korg Triton's patch parameters like it's part of my own DNA. But when I got my M50, I didn't have 10 years of patches on it to rely on and the programming, while very similar, was a little different. It took me a couple of months to fully understand and appreciate the awesomeness that is the M50. Now that I play on it as much as I do, it quickly became my favorite go to synth when I want to hammer something out or work out ideas. As you become comfortable with it, the inspiration will come.

As far as the technical aspects of the M50, start slow. Enjoy it for what it is. Enjoy the patches, drums, sequencer, etc. But when you find a sound that you want but can't find, find the closest sound on the M50 that you have and figure out what you need to do to make it sound closer. Different EQ? Different effects? A slower attack? More sustain? A saw waveform instead of a square? That's how I started. The more you do it, the more things you'll find you can tweak to get the sound better.

And oh yah, it's an obsession. I will have two more keyboards on the way (Korg CX-3 and Alesis Andromeda if both deals goes through) soon. While my tag shows all my Korg gear, it doesn't show all of my gear. I didn't have enough space for all of it.

Good luck...

-Mc

prkravi · Post by **prkravi** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 5:10 am

Got It! Jacke, McHale thanks for sharing those views!
Makes sense!! Im in KG now, will be a while for me to get there.

kikedeolivos · Post by **kikedeolivos** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 8:15 pm

I would add that I don't feel the keyboard to be sturdy enough. I'm specially concerned about the cheapo piece of plastic (horizontal reinforcement) placed below the keybed. Just slide your finger underneath and you'll see what I mean.

I know that Korg had to cut costs but I'm afraid the keyboard would flex somehow on an X stand, with no center support.

McHale · Post by **McHale** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 9:07 pm

I've disassembled mine probably further than anyone except the factory. I've basically had every piece that could come apart, apart. I'm OK with the build quality. That little piece of plastic really doesn't affect the action:

Hope that pic works. Picasa sucks...

-Mc