KORG M50 OR ROLAND GW-8

[SARANGA]

I request some guidance to go in for M50 or Roland GW-8. I would prefer using my new one for live performance and hence the performance easines and also the tones out put may be evaluated.

[cabobs]

Welcome to this forum!

I have some difficulty understanding what exactly you want to know. This is partly a language problem, partly lack of information:
- Do you usually perform or will you be performing alone or with other musicians?
- What style of music do you have in mind?
- Do you have a limited budget?
- Do you want to program your own patches etc. or are you satisfied with presets?
- Will you be needing a sequencer?

You see, if people are to help you, you will have to give a better idea of what it is you want to achieve. Once you have done that, I am sure you are going to get the help you need.

[somnambulist]

Funny you should ask this. I owned a GW-8 and I traded it in for an M50. I agree with cabobs questions you need to answer those to know which is for you. This is because the M50 is a workstation and the GW-8 is an arranger. I would read up on the differences between the two types as this will inform your decision greatly. The M50 has a great sequencer, a fantastic synth engine (creating your own sounds), RPPR, way more effects options, patterns, arpegiators, and other configuration options out the wazoo that the GW-8 doesn't have. The GW-8 has an arranger 'one-man-band' section and it does these job well. It boils down to the type of role you need the keyboard to play. If you one man band, probably the GW-8. If you compose, score, create sounds, the M50 is definitely the way to go. For performance it depends on what you want. If you want to interact with other machines MIDI or perform custom sounds the M50 is the way to go. If you prefer the sound of Roland and want to just plugin and play live then go with the GW-8 (although I would probably refer you to a Yamaha S90ES or Korg SV1 for that). The M50 touch screen makes a world of difference in ease of use for the complex features.

I don't know if was just a one-off experience but my GW-8 would shift pitch after startup and I returned it. Also the sequencer sucks. I just used my DAW.

The stuff that can be compared side by side would be the sound. I thought the GW-8 sounded fantastic and I actually preferred a lot of the acoustic sounds to M50. Roland also does some of the voice performance stuff like little guitar slides, that Korg doesn't sample in the main patch (I could be wrong on this, haven't played with it much). I really liked the pianos also but I never performed them live in a mix so I don't know how that would work. It wasn't as good on electronic or retro classic sounds, and this is where Korg relly shines. Rhodes, clav, wurly, etc are much better on Korg as well as pads and sweeps.

If you are in doubt, they cost about the same (M50-61 key anyway) I would go M50. Only go GW-8 if you NEED an arranger (that was why I bought it) or you want sheer simplicity.