Korg Forums

Hey all,
I'm a bedroom DJ that's just about ready to give it up in place of producing. I'm that serious that I'm even considering selling my cdj1000s and I only bought them a few months ago!

When it comes to my knowledge with producing, after playing around with Reason and a few of Logic's built in softsynths over the years, I'm guessing that softsynths aren't for me... I lack the knowledge to get decent sounds out of the likes of Reason's Subtractor, Malstrom, Thor etc, and found that the patches weren't inspirational at all to me.

I walked in to a music shop the other day to check out a korg 402 mixer for my dj setup and wandered off to the keyboards after. I played with the Microkorg and was impressed at what seemed to me, a much more 'powerful' sounding synth compared to any softsynths I've ever heard (but maybe it was just the monitors they were hooked up to). That was all good and proper but after looking at some other synths and not being overly impressed, I walked up to a Radias that looked like it was collecting dust at the back of the shop, hit a few random keys, and was instantly inspired. People talk about the patches on the Radias being very cheesy but from the two or three patches I played with, I just felt like it was perfect for what I wanted out of a synth.

I'm looking to produce ambient/chillout music and eventually trance music. I really love the trance music circa 1998-2000 like Agnelli & Nelson, Katcha, Solarstone etc. and this synth is the first I've ever come by that seemed capable of creating rich evolving pads and arpeggiators with a similar feel (maybe this is why people call the patches cheesy because some sound like they've been done before).

So my question is, with no real experience with hardware synths, should this be the first synth to go for? I'm thinking the best thing to do is to have it hooked up to my Mac via something like a Focusrite Saffire sound card, using Logic as the DAW... Another question is do I really NEED to spend $2,200AUD on a hardware synth when I could be learning how to use softsynths (like Thor) more effectively to achieve the same or very similar sound?

Thanks in advance!!!

Hi Willit, I probably may not be popular for suggesting this in a Korg forum, but...

Trance = Access Virus, hands down. It's legendary.

The Virus and the Roland JP8000 duo-handedly created the trance explosion of 1998+ through to this day. Unfortunately the JP8000 has never been updated, but the Virus has and it continues to carry the torch.

The Virus doesn't have inbuilt drums, step/modulation-sequencing or a decent vocoder like the Radias, but as a solo instrument the deep and dynamic sound of the Virus is second to none, especially for trance.

Programming great sounds from scratch for any synth, regardless of whether it's hardware OR software, isn't easy, so don't think by buying a hardware synth it will necessarily be easier. Although in saying that, hardware is more immediate and tweakable.

In subtractive synthesis the programming procedures are often fairly similar (in software and hardware alike), though, so you can apply what you've learnt on one synth to many other synths once you've mastered the basics.

The radias is definately a good choice. if you feel inspired by it, then go for it. and the deeper you dig both the more you learn and the more you can create.

For me, i always feel sound design is central to electronic music, as much as the music itself. you DONT want to sound exactly like everyone else, so you have to play around a bit with the sounds.

The radias is a very modern synth with lots of features. Yes, the virus sounds good too, allthough i can't say much on that as i've never owned one and it never really attracted my attention. and yes, the built in drums, vocoder, and step sequencers are great features.

another thing i have to say is that, I would not recomend to anyone to buy a MicroKorg. its really superceded by the R3. and if you want more flexibility, go for the radias.

as i said, if you feel inspired by it and its good value for money, go for it.
usually you can compare synths and value for money numerically. For example number of oscillators, LFOs, EGs, etc. Polyphony is an important one. the higher polyphony, the more things you can play at once, typically. it can be quite annoying when you start running out.

Thanks for the feedback guys. The Virus looks the go... But the price tag is enough to break anyone's bank. Given my lack of experience (and knee jerk reactions with expensive equipment given the fact that I'm thinking of selling my CDJs) would the Radias alone coupled with Logic, be enough to start producing music? And if I decide to buy the Virus later on would I end up having two of the same instrument?

Also, is there some kind of secret behind electronic percussion? 128 drum samples in the Radias sounds to me like it's mean't to cover a wide range of styles, meaning there's probably not all that many electronic style drums or only a few that I'm actually going to use... Is there some sort of well known company that sells drum samples on CD or what?

Thanks in advance

Do you have a MIDI controller keyboard? If you must have the Virus sound, there's the TI Snow, a Virus mini-module with less polyphony/multitimbral capacity but the same sounds. It has 4 parts, like the RADIAS, and it costs a few hundred dollars more than the RADIAS with the keyboard.

On the other hand, at the risk of blaspheming...I had a Virus TI Polar, and while the sound was undeniably silky, it didn't perform as advertised and the interface bothered me--even with the Virus Control software. These two things kind of killed it for me, so back it went. Different people have different styles, and it's best to get the instrument that fits you like a glove. So, whatever you get, buy it from someone with a good return policy

Many people around here have both a RADIAS and a Virus, and while most seem to prefer the Virus, they still appreciate the RADIAS as a valuable and useful instrument...so you really can't go wrong. If you have Logic Audio and a RADIAS...well, let's just say that many people have produced good music with far less.

willit wrote:Also, is there some kind of secret behind electronic percussion? 128 drum samples in the Radias sounds to me like it's mean't to cover a wide range of styles, meaning there's probably not all that many electronic style drums or only a few that I'm actually going to use...

actually, in the radias, it is like having 16 individual timbres for the drums.
so, you coan use the oscillators, filters, LFOs, EGs, in order to create electronic drum sounds, the drum PCM is just one option for one of the oscillators.

just wanted to say I owned a Virus B for a few years, owned a Radias R for about half the same period of time and I recently sold the Virus. not because it is in any way inferior or sounds bad, but mainly because I found editing on the Radias to be easier, faster and more intuative in comparison. of course both synths have what could be termed "menu diving", but personally I find it much easier to navigate on the Korg