Korg Forums

https://www.gearnews.com/leak-korg-keys ... th-polyat/

Nice cutie look.

OK, so what I'm seeing is: buy this and a Nautilus, and (except for Karma) you kind of have a Kronos except bigger and more of a pain to carry around? Oh, and without the faders.

The Kronos keyboard generates Channel Aftertouch MIDI messages, but not Poly Aftertouch, even though it responds to Poly Aftertouch.

The Keystage is a tempting proposition.
.

I’m hoping they include release velocity. A Kronos module would go well with it too.

I've noticed that the black keys are slightly wider than the norm... so I suspect it's the same AT keybed as the Hydrasynth Keyboard/Deluxe.

The same keybed is also used on the Summit but only with Channel AT. Really nice to play.

Koekepan wrote:OK, so what I'm seeing is: buy this and a Nautilus, and (except for Karma) you kind of have a Kronos except bigger and more of a pain to carry around? Oh, and without the faders.

If you have the Nautilus, and were considering buying the AT upgrade, it would seem more enticing to put that money toward this instead and get poly AT rather than channel AT, unless you really need it to be in one board for space reasons or gigs (like maybe you're already taking two boards and you don't want to take a third).

Broadwave wrote:I've noticed that the black keys are slightly wider than the norm... so I suspect it's the same AT keybed as the Hydrasynth Keyboard/Deluxe.

The same keybed is also used on the Summit but only with Channel AT. Really nice to play.

Yes, it was announced that they licensed the key action from ASM/Hydrasynth.

I have the Keystage, it’s a nice board. Hoping Korg update some of their apps to offer at least channel aftertouch, and a Kronos type app would be awesome. Modern iPads certainly have more than enough power.

I've had mine for a couple of days now and like it.

A few initial observations:

*Feels light but solid.

*Keys are light but feel fine to me, (coming from a NI KK 61) and don't make anymore noise than I'm used to. Blacks keys have some lateral movement but white keys are fine.

*Buttons are clicky and a bit noisy.

*Knobs feel smooth with light resistance.

*Screens are bright, clear and very legible.

*A lot of functions require using shift key, but those functions are shown beneath the appropriate button in a shaded text.

*Works brilliantly within Live with its inbuilt instruments and is easy to map 3rd party plugins.

*Was working OK with Logic Pro but now having some problems. Will advise if I sort it out.

*Constantly flashing Tempo light is annoying and can't be turned off.

*Buttons need backlighting, though transport controls light when you use them.

I don't use aftertouch much or at all and didn't buy it for that, but bought it because I wanted a relatively simple 61 key midi keyboard and for its Midi 2.0 Property exchange. I don't use faders or drum pads on a keyboard so didn't want them.

Happy so far.

A dedicated forum page would be handy.

I agree with much of your summary although the lights don’t bother me.
Almost inversely, I bought this for (in order of appeal);
The polytouch
The audio interface (wanted to add an iPad to make a mini workststation/lightweight practise board)
The potential for Midi 2.0
Plus I have always liked Korg stuff.

Have you (or any owner) worked out the purpose of Midi in? It doesn’t seem to send incoming data over USB so I assume it must just send it to the 5 pin Midi out (gave nothing to test that).
I was hoping my Korg Grandstage could access the iPad connected to the Keystage but it doesn’t. The KS does output on midi DIN and USB simultaneously so I hoped that midi on might also be ‘passed thru’.
There is no setting in the board and nothing about this in the manual either which is unusual for Korg…

On a different note, I have this powered from an iPad using lightning cable and CCK which, according to the manual shouldn’t happen. It should need a PSU.
Also you can use any polarity damper pedal as long as it’s plugged in before you switch on the board. I tried with a Roland DP10 and it worked fine.

Not sure about midi in yet. As you say the manual is not the best.

I’m using a Yamaha FC4A foot pedal as a sustain pedal and it works fine with no adjustments required.

Have you updated the software to v1.04 yet? I was using Logic with no problems before and since the update am having some issues. The last transport button used now stays lit until another is used, which then stays lit. Wasn’t doing that before and doesn’t do it in Live. I could also scroll through presets in Logic plugins before using the value knob or buttons and now I can’t.
I’ve re-installed the Logic script from KORG, reset the control surface in Logic and reset the Keystage to factory default but problems still persist. Working great in Live though.

I’m still trying different midi settings in Logic to get it set up right. Manual needs to be more in-depth.

Also using a midi monitor I see that the Keystage is constantly outputting midi data on channel 0 with a hex code of f8. This would be midi clock synth, but I’m unsure if this can be switched off or whether it’s normal. Never noticed it on my NI KK S61MKII. Maybe someone more knowledgeable on midi can advise.

I updated to 1.04 and haven’t tried with logic yet.
Korg have confirmed that midi in is to make use of midi 2.0 with hardware gear such as the Wavestate. You need two midi cables for the bidirectional control. Seems a bit niche but there must be other hardware being updated to make use of this feature.
It does standard midi out simultaneously with USB midi so you can control say an iPad and a hardware synth as long as they are on the same midi channel.
Hope Korg can update this to offer a bit more control over midi.

Don't know if your'e using Wavestate Native, but it has been updated to V1.3.6 which has fixed a problem I had in standalone mode.

It’s the Native LE that comes bundled with the Keystage. Given that this version is exclusive to the Keystage, I somehow expected it to be some sort of showcase for poly AT, yet few patches really show off aftertouch. It’s definitely being sent as you see it in the mod levels, maybe I just need to tweak a few to respond as I want. Same with Arthurian Pigments, I turned on MPE mode and set the Keystage to the same mode, but experienced very little difference. Definitely not the board as Animoog Z has lots of patches that respond quite noticeably to poly AT.

I would’ve bought this if it had infinite rotary encoders for the knobs.