EXB-Radias Vs Roland Gaia SH-01

Cesarsound · Post by **Cesarsound** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 2:48 pm

Recently I bought a module Korg M3-M and I love the sound quality. I am considering installing an EXB-RADIAS board on it, but I am between the EXB-Radias and the Roland Gaia (SH-01).

Has someone here compared the EXB Radias with the Roland Gaia (SH-01) ?

I saw that the Gaia has 64 notes of polyphony and 3 oscillators per patch, while Radias has 24 notes of polyphony and 2 oscillators per program.
Is the Roland GAIA to be sounding better than EXB Radias?

Thanks.
Julio.

McHale · Post by **McHale** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 3:50 pm

I do not like the sound of the Gaia. I love the sound of the RADIAS. The EXB-RADIAS will be integrated with the M3 to make some incredible combies and allows you to take advantage of KARMA with it. The Gaia just doesn't do anything for me...

Apresmidi2010 · Post by **Apresmidi2010** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 4:09 pm

If you got M3M and if Radias board is still available, get it.

It does amazing thing, for example I learned from alland today how to route EDS sample sound to Radias filters. I am just browsing suitable patches (EDS side) to process with Radias filters, and I am spending like a few hours happily.

I do not know Gaia. I wanted to say that with a bit more investment, it would bring M3M to a different level or simply expand the joy of having M3.

ozy · Post by **ozy** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 4:09 pm

REAL ANALOGUE

EXB RADIAS

ROLAND GAIA

Apresmidi2010 · Post by **Apresmidi2010** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 4:14 pm

Ozy: You apparently prefer GAIA.

ozy · Post by **ozy** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 4:48 pm

Apresmidi2010 wrote:Ozy: You apparently prefer GAIA.

I have always been in love with Sharon Stone,

and still appreciate her in her 50s.

Radias exb is my only VA. Not to die for, but an egregious engine.

Plastic-intensive fancy-colored borderline freakazoids and synths, on the other hand, are not my cup of tea

McHale · Post by **McHale** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 4:57 pm

The RADIAS (and EXB-RADIAS) is very capable of pulling off very convincing analog pads and leads (which is what I use it for). I consider the RADIAS one of the best V/A's on the market.

Synthoid · Post by **Synthoid** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 5:02 pm

Roland also dropped the ball with the Gaia by giving it only a 3-octave keyboard. Not cool for a polyphonic synth.

Apresmidi2010 · Post by **Apresmidi2010** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 5:04 pm

Ozy: My bad, misunderstood you from my previous experience here.

Apresmidi2010 · Post by **Apresmidi2010** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 5:11 pm

Honestly, I do not like filters of Roland synths, that includes V-Synth GT. COSM is good, interesting, but - LPF and comb filters, Korg does much better, strong. Probably I am a bit fetish about resonating sound and trembling thing that occurs when LPF is swept downwards with high resonance. That admitted, the weakest point in V-Synth GT is COSM section - though Side Band Filter is a bit interesting. Not much parameters and the effect is mild (subtle?). And that said, V-Synth GT is my favorite after more than one year tweaking - it has something. And I can route V-Synth to M3 (Radias in it) or Virus for filtering. Gaia, might be handy, but probably good for trancy music only? I do not know. And I should not talk about R here.

Muji · Post by **Muji** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 6:56 pm

Putting the sounds aside, I do like the "no menus to navigate, no pages to scroll through" approach of the Gaia. It looks like (without having played it) it would be fun to play around with.

I was kind of hoping that the Gaia would also sound cool. Is there a piece of Korg gear that also takes that approach?

Synthoid · Post by **Synthoid** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 7:09 pm

Muji wrote:I do like the "no menus to navigate, no pages to scroll through" approach of the Gaia.... Is there a piece of Korg gear that also takes that approach?

Yes, the Radias:

ozy · Post by **ozy** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 7:25 pm

muji, the gaia is good for you.

no hassle, no menus, nothing.

just grab the filter knob and twist.

Muji · Post by **Muji** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 11:21 pm

ozy wrote:muji, the gaia is good for you.

no hassle, no menus, nothing.

just grab the filter knob and twist.

Ouch!

point for Ozy

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 7:22 am

Synthoid wrote:
Muji wrote:I do like the "no menus to navigate, no pages to scroll through" approach of the Gaia.... Is there a piece of Korg gear that also takes that approach?
Yes, the Radias:

Somewhat. It has a lot of controls great for performance and editing. But if you completely ignore the screen or the menus then you're still missing out on about 1/3 of the Radias' power.

The truth is that there are some features and parameters on some synths which just aren't suited to having dedicated panel controls (not saying specifically in this Korg though). Korg has tried in the Radias to put as many controls as you would need for performance purposes, and then some. But there are interesting parameters behind the screen too that you probably wouldn't want to be tweaking as you play, but make for more expressive sounds when used in programming.