Did anyone own a Korg SG Rack or SG Pro X before the SV1?

[HowardK]

I used to own a Korg SG Rack which was driven by my Fatar Studio 900.
I ended up trading all of my gear and craigslisting i for newer items including a Yamaha P95 and Juno Gi. I wanted a more portable setup.

I am thinking of getting an SV1, I really have always liked Korg's sampling of the Steinway. The piano is more mellow and does not have a sharp attack.

Has anyone else here owned an SG product and how do you compare the acoustic pianos on the SV to them?

[eki70]

I had an SG Pro X for quite a few years, which I recently sold and bought an SV-1. I play mostly electric pop/rock music with a band, and I found the Pro X to be excellent in the way it cut through the mix - not perfectly realistic but highly usable in a rock setting.

When I tested the SV-1 I immediately fell in love with the sounds, the playability and the touch, especially with the EPs. The acoustic pianos also sounded excellent when tested solo. However, in a band setting the AP initially didn't cut through the mix well enough and I had to tweak it a bit. After some EQ I found the AP very good in a band mix, clearly more playable than the Pro X.

All right, a couple of weeks after buying the SV I upgraded the OS and started experimenting with the soundpack #2 sounds. And I must say that the APs in soundpack #2 are superior to the ones in the older soundpacks. After uploading soundpack #2 I simply could not be happier with the instrument, be it APs, EPs or any of the other sounds. Also I haven't had any of the issues mentioned on this forum by some other users (knock on wood).

All in all, in playability, versatility, sounds, and the way that the instrument overall reacts under your fingers (in an "analogue" way, if you get what I mean), I highly recommend the SV as an upgrade after the SG!

[JukeFox]

Has anyone else here owned an SG product and how do you compare the acoustic pianos on the SV to them?

Yes...and still have both. My SG is the ProX and my SV1 is the 88.

While the two keyboards are truly not comparable "head-to-head," there are a few categories of things that I am happy to contrast for you.

1) Fidelity: As far as the actual sounds are concerned, the SV1 is an order of magnitude beyond much of anything the SG has to offer, although there are still a few of the SG sounds I prefer, not because of their authenticity, but for their own unique characteristics.

2) Playability: This is a split decision for me (pun somewhat intended...read on). While I love the RH3 graded-hammer action (and have not had any of the issues with it that some others have voiced here and in the Kronos group), the SV1 does not seem to allow one to set up splits and layers "on-the-fly" ala the SG ProX. That said, the ability to tweak other performance parameters (such as amp models, modulation, eq, etc.) from dedicated front-panel knobs is powerful, and the 2nd version of the sounds addresses many of the split and stack solutions I missed in the 1st edition, although not all of them...and the split points don't seem to be editable, nor do the layer ranges.

Unfortunately, these are hardware/HUI issues that are not easily solvable, although the "function" button could offer a pathway to a set of remedies in a future OS update, if KORG so desired. I have not tried working with the editor, but this would necessarily be a pre-production activity and I tend to do quite a lot "on-the-fly," as it were. This has become a huge limitation, at least for me.

If transposition is important to you (it isn't really to me), this is quite a bit more cumbersome on the SV1 as well, requiring nearly 4 seconds to execute, while waiting for a button to respond to your request to put the keyboard in the mood (mode) to transpose, selecting the desired interval and setting it.

3) Portability: SV1 is MUCH lighter and substantially less deep, occupying only a fraction of the available depth on most stands.

4) Soundsets: This is pretty much a draw as far as the types of sounds included in each instrument, although the SV's sounds are much more pristine and realistic.

5) Appearance: No contest in my mind. The SV1 is just about the coolest-looking keyboard out there, complete with a Jetsons-esque user interface. I just wish it had a Vox-style Z stand, although it really isn't deep enough dimensionally to be able to pull it off.

Conclusion: if you're looking for one keyboard that covers all of the "bread and butter" sounds quite well (better than any other dedicated "piano" on the market, IMO) and looks GREAT doing it, the SV1's your axe. I am unaware of anything else out there (particularly at this price-point) that can touch it!

That's my two cents...hope you find it helpful.

Best,
Fox

[orangefunk]

I started with an Rd300s and added the pro-x module after seeing a write up in Sound on Sound (1998?) While the Sg piano has a realistic tone it is not particularly dynamic and for me was way too bright. This was annoying in the bands as the piano was way too clangy and unchanging. In the end I used the rd for piano on gigs with the Sg module being used for epiano clav and organ.

Skip to 2010 and now I have a SV-1 and the general playability of the piano is vastly improved from the Sg. Lots more variety and I am sure you could coax a Sg piano out of it if you wished.

[oy5t3h]

Never owned an SG myself, so I can't comment on the accuracy, but the stock factory sound set preset Bank 2 Number 4 is a "SG-1D Piano"

[Rodney]

Never owned an SG myself, so I can't comment on the accuracy, but the stock factory sound set preset Bank 2 Number 4 is a "SG-1D Piano"

I had an SG Pro-X, but sold it because of the weight. One feature I particularly liked was being able to set up a partial layer, so that I could play piano on the whole range, and add an acoustic bass sound to the lower part of the keyboard without losing the piano sound in that range. I also liked being able to save programs with different tunings. But it's a very different kind of instrument -- the SGProX had a lot of cosmic sounds and a lot of capabilities in a complicated interface that took a lot of work. The SV1 only does vintage keyboards and pianos. It does a lot less, but does it a lot better.