MEM: a black beauty

[ozy]

I hate the early-2000s-mercedes-benz grey-aluminum cases of Korg current synthesizers.

They stick like a sore thumb among my black-and-wood analog setup.

AND: the white pads and controls disappear against a whitish background, and that's bad when improvising live.

So, I had my M3M customized.

Here are the pictures of the black beauty.

http://www.dagnyt.com/ne/m3black_006.jpg

http://www.dagnyt.com/ne/m3black_002.jpg

http://www.dagnyt.com/ne/m3black_003.jpg

http://www.dagnyt.com/ne/m3black_004.jpg

http://www.dagnyt.com/ne/m3black_005.jpg

http://www.dagnyt.com/ne/m3black_001.jpg

and finally, look at the vintage "Korg" logo on the back. (Korg, DON'T YOU DARE copying the idea and putting this logo on the Monotone, Mononucleo-tron, Mini-toon, or wazzisname. Only REAL synths, pls).

http://www.dagnyt.com/ne/m3black_007.jpg



Some details of the rack are still incomplete (a wooden frame will encompass the m3m, the doepfer and the DSI modules).

KUDOS to: Jeff Toman at www.customsynth.co.uk who did a nice job

Prize: I will entrust him turning my oberheim mc2000 black as well

SHAME on: Korg Italy, whioch took 6 months to provide me with the spare parts, made me pay an arm and a leg for them, and took the liberty of even patronizing me.

They know what the prize is. Best wishes.


PS: the Akai Miniak is a placeholder. A Virus Redback is the usual left-hand bass keyboard below the m3m.

[cminor]

looks fantastic man...
nice work.

[Davidb]

looks fantastic man...
nice work.

Indeed!
Certainly much better than its original color.

Congrats

[RI Producer]

I want one. Thats korg logo is Sweet.

[Sharp]

Kind of have mixed feelings when I see this. I think the fact that you have a custom M3 is seriously cool and by the looks of the images the workmanship is top quality. But it just doesn't suite the M3 to have a black finish and white buttons.

Here's a 3D model made of the M3 for example.
http://www.irishacts.com/misc/m3-custom1.jpg

Regards
Sharp.

[Stefanus Wayanartha]

Wooow the 3D images version is very damn cool!!!
its as cool as black triton extreme
is is possible to polish our M3 into like this??
great job

[kimu]

very nice!!!

i see you have also a miniak and the Dark Energy, do you think are a good synths?

[ozy]

it just doesn't suite the M3 to have a black finish and white buttons.

It fits into the setup (and was designed expressly for that): the prophet, the doepfer, etc have all black metal layout and white/silver finish.

And: I don't like neon, dance-oriented atmospheres (the glowing buttons).

i see you have also a miniak and the Dark Energy, do you think are a good synths?

Don’t badmouth me, I don’t “have a Miniak”.

It was there as a placeholder for a keyboard momentarily not available.

The Miniak is probably the WORST synth I have played (for 3 days) in DECADES.

The Dark Energy is a mean little motherf234er.

I use basically ONE patch, gently tweaking it live, and it perfectly NAILS a ‘80s ARP2600 solo voice.

It is NOT the “modular with infinite possibilities” that Doepfer tries to sell. Its patching capabilities are fairly limited,

But the filter hurts and the single oscillator feeds the filter with plenty of harmonics to crunch.

I paid it less than 300 euros, second hand, used for a month, full warranty. For that price, you buy some lame patch bank for the M3 or a couple of volume pedals.

Mega Bang for the buck.

Not your only synth.

As your only synth, the mopho is better.

[kimu]

thanks. never tried live the Dark Energy, but from youtube demos i have impression it sound really great even with single osc.

so it's not so patchable as other semi-modular like mfb or futureretro?
but i guess it 's sound great in the mix for solo, bass and fx? correct?

[ozy]

so it's not so patchable as other semi-modular like mfb or futureretro?
but i guess it 's sound great in the mix for solo, bass and fx? correct?

I don't know the MFB, but the future retro is definitely more patchable

I discussed the issue with mr Doepfer and, as much as I appreciated their sound,

it looks like he deliberately sold a synth which FORCES people to buy some other doepfer modules.

It's an "appetizer".

Problem is, once you get hungry,

1) the thing can't be rackmounted with the other modules
2) it's black and the other modules are white
3) patch points don't allow for easy use as an integrated module,

So finally you'd get a black box on your desk, with spaghetti coming out of it and going into some rackmounted dopefer modules.

naaaa...

It's a little mean thing, to be used as a standalone nasty lead or bass or squelch generator.

As for the sound: as you may see, I use plenty of DSI and OB synths, for that "orchestral" and "vocal" patches: articulate, velocity- and aftertouch-sensitive.

Once I am am in full swing comping with those sounds, the Dark Energy cuts through two layers of prohet like a knife (think of the final solo in "Birdland").

But that's NOT "the first step of your modular system". That's just "one single patch of a vintage synth in a little unexpensive box"

[snowbrow]

it just doesn't suite the M3 to have a black finish and white buttons.

Oh I dunno. I think it's kind of cool; I've always felt the "iKorg" look lets the M3 down badly in the face of what a great machine it is, so for me this is definitely an improvement. Top class workmanship for sure, looks sweet. Congrats.