Korg Forums

As most of you know, I have been posting about the i3 as of late because I got one last week. I ordered it Tuesday and it came on Thursday. I spent most of Thursday setting it up for use as the primary bottom keyboard for my live rig.

I made several observations about it after my time with it on Thursday and overall, like the board. These can be found in the other threads in this forum for this keyboard.

I did a gig last night with it, again as the bottom keyboard in a 4-keyboard live rig. My live rig consisted of the i3, Pa700, M50, and my trusty Ensoniq VFX (yep, I still have a few of these older Ensoniqs too).

I used a MIDI Solutions 4-port MIDI Thru bx to hook everything together. The i3 was the transmitting MIDI source and all of the others were the receivers of the i3's MIDI messages.

My overall impression of the i3 for live use in a multi-keyboard setup is positive. It was easy to play, make changes on the fly (octaves, etc), selecting custom 'keyboard sets', and such. In fact, it was easier to use the i3 than the PA700 I normally used as the bottom keyboard in that same rig. I had to make more changes to the PA700 (as far as octaves go, and turning off/on programs) than the i3. The i3 allowed me to simply 'play' and not worry about too much else, even with the MIDI setup I had.

For rock songs, I normally used a Rock Organ patch on the i3 and layered that with other sounds from the rest of the boards. I also did this with synth sounds. For piano and ep songs (generally ballads or lighter sections in any given song), it shined and sounded great. Yes, the Yamaha C5 from Reuben sounds better on my PA700, but in a layer, the i3 piano sounds just fine.

Even with the light weight of the i3, there was no sliding around from the keyboard on the bottom tier of the stand. It was solid. I am thankful for the light weight of the board, as it made the tear down a bit more manageable.

I still not completely sure about the soft-touch coating on the board though, as I fear that it will become sticky over time (likely years) and it will have to be scraped off. I have had this similar issue with a pair of old Alesis studio monitors. The volume knob was sticky after years, and I had to scrub it off; it was not fun at all. I think that the normal 'hard plastic' would be better over time.

The keyboard sets I used sometimes had 3 different upper sounds running at the same time and for those songs, the i3 did not drop notes as a result of the 64-voice polyphony. It held its own and in most cases, I could switch to only having the main sound (Upper 1) instead of the extra layers (Upper 2/3) because of the other boards in my rig pulling those sound duties.

I learned a lot about the PA700 with this too, as it was my primary bottom keyboard for the bands. Now that I plan on using the i3 as the bottom board, I need to create a new MIDI profile in the PA700 so it talks better as a module and second keyboard rather than the controller for everything. There were a few rough spots with the PA700, but a quick switch on the fly resolved that.

Now that I have some time off due to the Coronavirus (I do not have it, but since I play at nursing homes for a living, and they are quarantined at present), I will be digging even deeper into it (and the other boards except the Ensoniq, I have that one dialed in already) to make sure that they talk better during a live band gig.


So, again, my impression is that the i3 is a solid board, at least for what I need it for. I do not think that I would use it as the only keyboard in a band, but in a multi-keyboard setup, it would be more than fine. I find it more than capable for what I need it for.

I may also set it up as an arranger (like the PA700) so that it can act as a backup for the PA700 in case it needs to be sent away for repair or something.

If someone is looking at the i3, please give it a good look because it may suit your needs.

Grace,
Harry

Thanks very much Harry ... interesting feedback

I imagine the keyboard sets on the i3 work in much the same way as on the EK as it seems to share the same OS .... This I find much simpler on the fly than the PA boards i have owned. In fact i find the OS much more sort of 'Yamaha' in a strange sort of way.

I am very much tempted to at least go over to my dealer and try this out despite, what i see as its shortcomings for my use after reading your so many positive points.

I want to investigate the options for loading and managing user styles ... so any info on that would be MOST app.
You see the problem with the EK50 is you get 'one hit' to load a full set ( 6 blocks of 16 files in total = 96 styles ) and no way of managing these style blocks on board ...and IF it can be done on this model then that would be a real bonus for me.

My dealer is offering these at little over £400 - so hardly expensive new!!
I hate to think what the cost of this would have been had it been available 20 years ago.

Keith

Backpool wrote:Thanks very much Harry ... interesting feedback

I imagine the keyboard sets on the i3 work in much the same way as on the EK as it seems to share the same OS .... This I find much simpler on the fly than the PA boards i have owned. In fact i find the OS much more sort of 'Yamaha' in a strange sort of way.

I am very much tempted to at least go over to my dealer and try this out despite, what i see as its shortcomings for my use after reading your so many positive points.

I want to investigate the options for loading and managing user styles ... so any info on that would be MOST app.
You see the problem with the EK50 is you get 'one hit' to load a full set ( 6 blocks of 16 files in total = 96 styles ) and no way of managing these style blocks on board ...and IF it can be done on this model then that would be a real bonus for me.

My dealer is offering these at little over £400 - so hardly expensive new!!
I hate to think what the cost of this would have been had it been available 20 years ago.

Keith

I do not plan on loading new styles, at least not now. I have the PA700 for that and it is much more robust (as would be expected) for creating and loading styles.

I imagine that this unit would cost about $1,500 back in the day, if not a bit more. I imagine that the EK-50L might have gone for about at least $800 back in the day too.

This unit is simpler than the PA series. I am sure that it was designed to be. A beginner may not even care about loading extra styles and such and I think that they would think that it is a very powerful tool for the user. As they grow musically and ultimately outgrow the keyboard, the PA series would be a natural progression; lowering the learning curve on the PA series because of the similarities between the i3 and PA series. I think it to be a logical model to start with...

I encourage you to try it out and see how it feels. Yep, it is a lot like the EK, but with some features of the PA.

What I would like to see is another model, one higher up from the i3, that would feature 128 notes of polyphony and a few extra PA series features (file management, etc...) that put it at the $800 range. I could see Korg doing this if the i3 sells like they hope it will. Maybe they could do a 61-key version of the XE20 (which was/is also on my list). Give it 5-pin MIDI as well and it would be really cool.

Grace,
Harry