NAMM 2017 Surprise

[Koekepan]

Maybe its one of these?

http://www.korg.com/uk/news/2017/0112/

Unlikely. He said it's something nobody's seen yet.

[billysynth1]

Given that Jack Hotop is announcing this thing I don't think it's going to be something small or minor. He is up there at the top of the Korg Empire chain.

The last time I recall Jack Hotop being part of a demonstration for a futuristic Korg release item was at 2005 NAMM where he and Jerry Korvaski introduced and demonstrated the all mighty Oasys. During that demonstration Jerry did all the talking while Jack demonstrated the Oasys...looks like this time Jack is on his own?

It only took Yamaha 11 years to deliver something similar and yet the Montage only has 2 engines compared to what the Oasys had on that day in 2005, 3 engines with others that followed.

Billy.

[Hooked On Sonics]

Given that Jack Hotop is announcing this thing I don't think it's going to be something small or minor. He is up there at the top of the Korg Empire chain.

The last time I recall Jack Hotop being part of a demonstration for a futuristic Korg release item was at 2005 NAMM where he and Jerry Korvaski introduced and demonstrated the all mighty Oasys. During that demonstration Jerry did all the talking while Jack demonstrated the Oasys...looks like this time Jack is on his own?

It only took Yamaha 11 years to deliver something similar and yet the Montage only has 2 engines compared to what the Oasys had on that day in 2005, 3 engines with others that followed.

Billy.

Wow...Hope Korg can price it under 5,000 US... looking forward to hearing this Beast

[synthguy]

Just to spin this a bit more, and because I love to dream of synths. Imagine how anything KORG makes will have to stand out. What is on the market now, new and used?

Kurzweil. Even the venerable K2000 and K2VX are capable of some amazing sounds today, 20-plus year old synths. Add in some analog modeling elements, a virtual organ and the amazing KDFX processor in the PC3, and the VAST engine is still largely untapped. I think only Jordan Rudess has plumped its depths to any extent.

Yamaha has only just released the Montage, but that synth is a merging of the marvelous Motif rompler and the SY FM synths, which are both incredible instruments on their own. Add them together in one keyboard environment with fantastic effects and you have an incredible instrument people are going to be exploring for decades.

Roland. The SN synth engine in the Jupiter-50 and 80, the FA workstations, the Interga-7 and especially the JD-XA with its delicious analog synth section is just wonderful. The reverbs may not be the best but they do the job well enough. And the samples, while fairly old, are amazingly relevant today.

KORG itself has a high bar to reach with anything new. We all know about the power and sound making ability of the beastly Kronos.

The Alesis Fusion is still kicking around used, and has some amazing sound making capabilities. The VA market is rich with powerful synths, from the Alesis Ion and Fusion, Arturia's godly Origin and Vintage soft synths, Access Virus, Nord Leads of all flavors and the Modulars, Roland JD-800 and 990, JP-8000, Gaia and heavenly JD-XA, Yamaha's AN1x, KORG's own Z1, Radias and marvelous KingKORG, softsynths like Arturia's Vintage Collection, u-He's Diva, Zebra etc, Spectrasonic's astounding Omnisphere... it's a long list. And there are the analogs by Moog, Dave Smith and Tom Oberheim. Jeepers, what a time to be alive.

Whatever KORG has behind the curtain at NAMM has to be something momentous in order to bring us into The Future with style and panache.

[spaceman3]

Hope it isnt another analogue synth.

[EvilDragon]

Roland. The SN synth engine in the Jupiter-50 and 80, the FA workstations, the Interga-7 and especially the JD-XA with its delicious analog synth section is just wonderful. The reverbs may not be the best but they do the job well enough. And the samples, while fairly old, are amazingly relevant today.

Not to mention that nasty aliasing if you try and use PWM in that "super natural synth" (my ass) engine... Or using samples for supersaw, LOL Kronos is much cleaner in that regard, and to me it seems Roland is taking way too many shortcuts in their DSP.

[Kontrol49]

Given that Jack Hotop is announcing this thing I don't think it's going to be something small or minor. He is up there at the top of the Korg Empire chain.

It's a Korg 24 Karat solid Gold Kronos "Diamante Edition"

With Titanium End Panels...

Diamonds embedded Into the Knob Caps...

Endorsed by Kim Korg Kardashian and Kanye Kest...

To be featured in a new documentary called "Keeping up with the Korgashians"..

in one dramatic episode The Kronos gets stolen by a gang of armed robbers at NAMM 2017...

We haven't had one of those models yet...

[Sharp]

Hope it isnt another analogue synth.

My thoughts exactly.
My Virus Ti2 eats and poops Analog synths for breakfast.

Sharp.

[EvilDragon]

Except it really doesn't

[wma]

i belive often Jack Hotop demos flagships not entry or a mid range and he wouldn't find it to be worth it to tease for a entry or mid-range keyboard, i wouldn't say it's the successor for the kronos; it might be the real successor of the oaysis

[Bachus]

Hope it isnt another analogue synth.

My thoughts exactly.
My Virus Ti2 eats and poops Analog synths for breakfast.

Sharp.

Virtuall Analogue is currently very under rated... Virus TI2 or Nord Lead 4 show how Virtuall analogue has to offer much more then a full analogue, where the soundquality is near identical

Maybe Korg will surprise everyone with a fully modular digital synth... they sue have the power and means to create one...

[fcoulter]

Yamaha has only just released the Montage, but that synth is a merging of the marvelous Motif rompler and the SY FM synths, which are both incredible instruments on their own.

My SY-99 was able to use any waveform as an operator. The Montage uses eight waveforms, but those waveforms are built in. On the other hand, the Montage uses eight operators, while the SY-99 (like the DX-7) was a six operator keyboard.

(One way to tell that the Montage isn't a descendent of the SY-99 is that they're not providing a way to convert the SY-99 patches, but are providing a way to convert the DX-7 patches. The SY-99 could read and play DX-7 patches.)

I'd prefer to think of both the SY-99 and the Montage a descendants and improvements of the DX-7, but going down different paths. Cousins. Siblings.

[synthguy]

Roland. The SN synth engine in the Jupiter-50 and 80, the FA workstations, the Interga-7 and especially the JD-XA with its delicious analog synth section is just wonderful. The reverbs may not be the best but they do the job well enough. And the samples, while fairly old, are amazingly relevant today.

Not to mention that nasty aliasing if you try and use PWM in that "super natural synth" (my ass) engine... Or using samples for supersaw, LOL Kronos is much cleaner in that regard, and to me it seems Roland is taking way too many shortcuts in their DSP.

While this is true for the most part, even the Kronos falls down in the AL-1 engine when doing hard sync, giving it some qualities I don't like. Just about any VA does it better. The MS-20 model is too polite and refined, and some people flat out don't like it. The Triton lost the juicy multimode filters in the Trinity, and some people decried the omission. I guess the perfect synth is yet to be made.

I recall you going gaga over KORG's TR Rack, which still baffles me, as it only does a couple of cool things well. For the rest it can be rather stinkly. So what do you do when the lovely TR doesn't cut it? Use something else, maybe? That's what I do, not go on boards and mock it. But one thing I'd like to see is someone recreating the demo tracks from the Axial site. I keep coming back to them and am always re-impressed with how good many of them sound.

Quick edit: okay, I managed to finagle some time on a Roland SN synth tonight, isolated a pulse width waveform with the filter wide open, and played up and down the scale. And darn it, I have to admit that it has some nasty aliasing artifacts.

At G#8.

And they did begin to alias a bit on five or six notes beginning at G#7, but that's still pretty high. I also have to admit that the analog synths I played with, DCOs I'll admit, squealed themselves with various waveforms way up in those registers. I'm thinking maybe I won't be playing any PWM patches up in that range. Or that I ever have. However, if I ever do any Tomita sweeps up into the range of bat hearing, I'll be sure to watch myself.

i belive often Jack Hotop demos flagships not entry or a mid range and he wouldn't find it to be worth it to tease for a entry or mid-range keyboard, i wouldn't say it's the successor for the kronos; it might be the real successor of the oaysis

Virtuall Analogue is currently very under rated... Virus TI2 or Nord Lead 4 show how Virtuall analogue has to offer much more then a full analogue, where the soundquality is near identical

Maybe Korg will surprise everyone with a fully modular digital synth... they sue have the power and means to create one...

I hope both of these posts come true. KORG has the tech already developed to produce an Arturia Origin or Nord Modular style virtual modular synth. I'd be all over that too.

And fcoulter, I totally agree. Yamaha also hasn't come up with methodology for porting FS1R patches into Montage as of yet, which sounds like even closer digital DNA. But my point is much like yours, that the family heritage is there in a very nice way.

[Kevin Nolan]

While this is true for the most part, even the Kronos falls down in the AL-1 engine when doing hard sync, giving it some qualities I don't like. Just about any VA does it better. The MS-20 model is too polite and refined, and some people flat out don't like it. The Triton lost the juicy multimode filters in the Trinity, and some people decried the omission. I guess the perfect synth is yet to be made.

Sync aside, I think you're too hard on AL-1. Suggest going to the download section and downloading my AL-1 programs. Not claiming any particular programming talent (and I did 'bathe' quite a lot of the programs in loads of reverb) - but they demonstrate some of AL-1 huge strengths, most especially for polyphonic-synth sounds.

Be careful on "Unison-bass" and CS80_bass - one note is triggering about 60 oscillators! AL-1 has a "massive sound" capability rarely matched in VA's - based on 1) it's complex engine structure 2) ultra-low Aliasing oscillators 3) true polyphonic structure 4) polyphonic Unison, among many other features. It requires work but it's a monster of a VA

I alos disagree on your appraisal of MS20EX - indeed the software implementation of MS20 has been hugely popular across just about every platforms there is, because of the accuracy of the circuit modelling, and the resulting strength and accuracy of this model. I for one can get as harsh and nasty from it as is required.

I suggest you do not judge these VA's on their factory presets - you need to spend a lot of time at them ( I have, hundreds of hours) - then they deliver (in spades). They don't do everything, but they are among the very best VA's there are - and both deliver massive polyphony at near-zero latency unachievable on a computer, and have that wonderful touch screen / hardware control interface to use them with extraordinarily spontaneous and realtime control.

As with all OASYS's and Kronos's synth engines, they are under used, and under rated - so much so that I can imagine Korg not bothering to release new synth engines for a workstation for quire some time - why would they when these amazing engines are taken so for granted, mis-understood and under exploited as exemplified by your post here?

[spaceman3]

I just had a terrible thought.
What if its a synth like MONTAGE?
KORGS new flagship synth! without midi sequencer, without audio seq/recorder, without virtual analogue, no real sampler, no KARMA.
Just an overpriced performance synth.
Could this be the death of the workstation?
Whatever the new synth is.
It would have to plug into my brain and play my thoughts to make me ever part with my KRONOS, and my MX49.