New from Korg - EK50

karmathanever · Post by **karmathanever** » Tue Sep 11, 2018 12:01 am

https://www.korg.com/au/products/synthesizers/ek_50/

musiccankill · Post by **musiccankill** » Tue Sep 11, 2018 1:36 am

It does sound pretty cool and will find its way in the market if the price is right i think!
Though it is missing one very important feature (at least for now as the media button seems to do nothing).It is missing user styles!
Without them i don't see any reason for anybody to chose this instead of a yamaha (which has user styles and better sound)...
Lets hope korg will support this entry level arranger!

karmathanever · Post by **karmathanever** » Tue Sep 11, 2018 6:29 am

They are estimating under US$400.

Mr_SamDoogie · Post by **Mr_SamDoogie** » Tue Sep 11, 2018 7:44 am

There are also new Slimline nano's and a new site for cases and such .

chelsea4023 · Post by **chelsea4023** » Thu Sep 13, 2018 10:42 pm

Hi Guys,
I am currently at a keyboard Festival in Hemsby U.K. and today I had a one on one with this keyboard and Luke Edwards. Well I have a PA4X myself but O.M.G this little keyboard simply blew me away. It's stunning, comes in at £389 has three upper voices, one lower, roughly 700 voices ( the ones I heard were amazing for the price. Styles have four variations, roughly 100 effects. Luke was finding his way around the keyboard for the first time but as expected made it sound amazing. What really shocked me was the quality of the inbuilt speakers and the lightness of the whole keyboard. It also has audio outs, which means no more going through the headphone socket when connecting to a P.A. system. Korg have made a brave decision launching this keyboard at such a low price. I genuinely thought it was amazing. I just could not get over the sound quality.
Obviously people will ultimately find faults but hey guys we are talking under £400. I personally have already put an order in for one, I thought it was that good.
Chris
P.s. there is more button pressing than on a PA4X and yes it does feel like a budget keyboard but the sounds are excellent you could literally just use it as a sound expander.

chelsea4023 · Post by **chelsea4023** » Thu Sep 13, 2018 11:26 pm

Hi,
Just to clear a couple of points up. You can combine up to three voices on the upper section and have one on the lower section. The keyboard has over 700 sounds.
It has a Grand Piano button which when pressed actually produces over the entire keyboard something that actually sounds like a pretty decent piano.
There are some buttons you can press that will remove the bass and/or accompaniment from the style.
Already on another Music Forum people are running down the keyboard after viewing a video !! Make your own opinion on that.
I suggest anybody looking for a keyboard in this price range to at least see and here it in the flesh. I for one cannot wait to hook it up to a larger speaker system.

chelsea4023 · Post by **chelsea4023** » Thu Sep 13, 2018 11:45 pm

Hi,
Me again.
One of the other Forum Members has stated that there are no 'user styles'. The spec say's you can have up to 96 additional styles via USB.
Also the Forum Member states that the Yamaha sounds better. I have to agree with him, the Genos does sound better !!

Chris

musiccankill · Post by **musiccankill** » Fri Sep 14, 2018 12:04 am

chelsea4023 wrote:Hi,
Me again.
One of the other Forum Members has stated that there are no 'user styles'. The spec say's you can have up to 96 additional styles via USB.
Also the Forum Member states that the Yamaha sounds better. I have to agree with him, the Genos does sound better !!

Chris

I have no problem tagging me directly !
Well i had a chance to read the manual and inside there is nothing about user styles..
Yes the board does refer to USER STYLES but they are not accessible (maybe in the future with an os update or the os when it will reach the shops will support them) .For now though there are no user styles and no way to load them as far as i have been told...
When we will see a video of it playing a custom style then it will be a very usable keyboard in its category but till then i have seen such "promises" from kurzweil about KP-110 for which an editor would have been released to load 10 user styles ,something that never happened and they even removed the user styles reference from the specs and manual...
Still i believe that yamaha amateur arrangers in the same price range sound better but that is only my personal preference...

stratquebec · Post by **stratquebec** » Sat Sep 15, 2018 6:15 pm

In this youtube demo, I don't know if his EK-50 output is recorded directly without any additional processing but, man, this entry level arranger sounds better than any PA Korg ever produced imho!

This video is a good teaser and the guy is funny. The sound demo really starts at 1:20. Have a listen and I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did. Korg still has some work to do on the flute sound otoh... Still way too much breath noise. A bit too much noise in the accoustic guitar sound too.

Here's rhe link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ_dXQMLJ ... fullscreen

Be sure to watch it at 720p with good earphones.

And btw, what the 50 stands for? Sure it makes room for 100, 150, 200...1000 upgrades

chelsea4023 · Post by **chelsea4023** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 12:41 am

Hi,

I think this is a pretty good video also.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbsaQejCGyg

Chris

Vadim · Post by **Vadim** » Wed Sep 19, 2018 3:55 am

Sounds like a casio

Bachus · Post by **Bachus** » Wed Sep 19, 2018 3:46 pm

Vadim wrote:Sounds like a casio

Well, its supposed to compete with casio and the cheaper yamaha’s
What else did you expect for that kind of money?
That it sounded like a pa4x?

chelsea4023 · Post by **chelsea4023** » Wed Sep 19, 2018 4:43 pm

Hi Guy's,

I'm surprised at the negative press regarding budget keyboards.
If this instrument encourages just one youngster into playing keyboards surely that's got to be a good thing. Yes ??

In my short life I have seen the demise of the organ (bar some Church organs and the Hammond drawbar type). I just hope arranger keyboards don't follow suit.

With regards to the comparison with Casio. Casio make some damn good pianos, synths and arranger keyboards.

I suppose everybody is entitled to an opinion !!

Chris

p.s. Reminds me of the story about the guy who was trying to get a cheap keyboard for his daughter to start music lessons. Once he had found a suitable used keyboard on Gumtree locally for under £200 he headed off to collect it in his £35,000 Audi.
Need I say more !!

Vadim · Post by **Vadim** » Thu Sep 20, 2018 12:48 am

Bachus wrote:
Vadim wrote:Sounds like a casio
Well, its supposed to compete with casio and the cheaper yamaha’s
What else did you expect for that kind of money?
That it sounded like a pa4x?

Was expecting similiar to pa50

karmathanever · Post by **karmathanever** » Thu Sep 20, 2018 8:18 am

Sounds like a casio

I used to react like that - poor old Casio gets another put-down and kick in the guts....

BUT - the sounds and features in the Casio MZ series are very professionally acceptable - I was pleasantly shocked - recording with mine now.
Hex-layer feature is so cool.

Cheers

Pete