I just wanted to hear what you guys think. I got my micro x yesterday and till now im very satisfied with it. The sound is great! . I was a bit dissapointed when i went to the store to check it out (i had allready ordered it) , but when i got it home and had played with it for a couple of hours, I was a happy man .
Anyways im pretty new to HW synths. Ive been playing a lot with VSTS for some time now, so i know how to operate them. The thing with the micro X is that it isnt a synth, its a rompler. I want a synth with a lot of knobs and buttons on it since i love tweaking.
The question is : how is a radias and a micro x together?
I suddenly got a good offer on a radias so why not if its a great synth?. (i will just spend the money on crap anyways if i dont use it on something cool)
im only making electronic music (TECHNO mostly, House, dnb, dub, dubstep, psy-trance). How is the radias for techno sounds. By that i mean NOT "trancy" like.. Its seems it could do trance very well from the videos ive seen, but i hope it could do other sounds as well. Im not talking about pianos and real instruments.
Do you think the radias will suit my needs?
And yes im a noob. my first post, so go easy on me please
I think its a great combination - because they are entirely different synths in two ways.
The MicroX as you say is a rompler and it will provide you with nice recorded instruments like piano, guitar, organ, which believe it or not you can find space for in techno, house etc. it has some nice acoustic drums too and those polyphonic arpeggiators are great (I wish my radias had them), you could use them over MIDI with the Radias for example.
The Radias is a virtual analog synth plus a lot more. It does have some simple ROM samples, mainly 'vintage' keyboards - clav, EP, Organ, and then a bunch of digital waves, plus the standard saw, square, triangle, sine, and Korg's Formant osc. There is a bit of overlap because the drum system on the Radias is great - you have a lot of flexibility in creating new drum sounds, and there are the drum PCM samples too. The radias even surpasses most full tritons in its effect processing capability, let along the cut-down-triton MiroX.
Keep in mind though that with the Radias you will be programming a lot of sounds from scratch. some people don't like this, but most people don't like the presets even more! There are plenty of sounds to download on the download section here (some by myself, and I am making even more right now!). With the microX and most Romplers, you do just tend to go for factory patches, because there are so many of them, but building your own patches and combinations is still fun and there is a lot of programming depth when you get into it (the one IFX and two MFX is quite limiting though).
Another thing is that the MicroX is based on the triton series HI engine, whereas the Radias is a newer generation of synth that goes along OASYS and the M3.
OASYS and M3 all seem to be about 'High' and 'Enhanced' Definition. combined with 'ultra-low aliasing' oscillators, that means that the highs in these synths literally go up to the sky! they are crystal clear. of course, they don't have to be, and the depth of programming in the Radias gives you the option to make it sound bright, clear, digital, or deep, dirty analog sounds.
compare to the Triton, MS2000, MK etc, which always seemed to sound quite warm and dark. I'm not saying you can't reach that with the Radias/R3/MKXL and the OASYS/M3/M50, but you're not limited to it, you can go lots of other places too (mainly up there in the high end of the spectrum).
with the combination of the microX and Radias you're getting a good slice of both because you have a Rompler and a Synth, an older and a new synth which will fill different places in a mix.
Current Gear: Kronos 61, RADIAS-R, Volca Bass, ESX-1, microKorg, MS2000B, R3, Kaossilator Pro +, MiniKP, AX3000B, nanoKontrol, nanoPad MK II,
Other Mfgrs: Moog Sub37, Roland Boutique JX03, Novation MiniNova, Akai APC40, MOTU MIDI TimePiece 2, ART Pro VLA, Focusrite Saffire Pro 40.
Past Gear: Korg Karma, TR61, Poly800, EA-1, ER-1, ES-1, Kawai K1, Novation ReMote37SL, Boss GT-6B
Software: NI Komplete 10 Ultimate, Arturia V Collection, Ableton Live 9. Apple OSX El Capitan on 15" MacBook Pro
i own the combo and love it for it's variety and variability. pressing one key on the x and having its arp trigger two sounds on itself and two sounds on the radias simultaneously makes for some great plug and play textures and sounds. add a drum machine and you've got the basis for a really great techno track at the push of a button.
plus, having attained it all for less than $1000, it wasn't a bank buster either.
Both the MicroX and the Radias do have excellent drums though. the radias drum section is so powerful, but it often gets overlooked - and programming drum sounds isn't easy. but you have almost the entire synth engine for each drum - thats like 16 timbres!
the only problem is sequencing them, on the microX you have to use up an arpeggiator, although you can step through patterns in real time, with the radias you have to use one of the step sequencers, and then aside from adjusting the volume, your drum pattern is effectively static.
Might be useful to have a macbook or hardware sequencer just driving the drums. Not a problem for me though as I have the TR which is extremely similar to the microX but has the sequencer instead of multi mode.
Current Gear: Kronos 61, RADIAS-R, Volca Bass, ESX-1, microKorg, MS2000B, R3, Kaossilator Pro +, MiniKP, AX3000B, nanoKontrol, nanoPad MK II,
Other Mfgrs: Moog Sub37, Roland Boutique JX03, Novation MiniNova, Akai APC40, MOTU MIDI TimePiece 2, ART Pro VLA, Focusrite Saffire Pro 40.
Past Gear: Korg Karma, TR61, Poly800, EA-1, ER-1, ES-1, Kawai K1, Novation ReMote37SL, Boss GT-6B
Software: NI Komplete 10 Ultimate, Arturia V Collection, Ableton Live 9. Apple OSX El Capitan on 15" MacBook Pro
thank you very much for your help X-trade and auracle
I did not win the radias tho, it was on ebay for 599 $ + shipping (80$) (rack). i dont know if this sounds cheap to you, but here in norway where a new korg radias rack costs almost 2000 $, it was a good deal for me. Anyways i was in a music store to test it right before it got purchased, and i love the sound in it, but the synth seems maybe a little too complicated for me (im not sure, didnt have enough time on it). so i was not 100 % sure if i would buy it or not when i went from the shop.
i will definitely check it out more!
Like your say x-trade, the drums on the micro-x is very good. Good sound and pretty catchy imo. I was very suprised by this. Insted of the korg radias, i got an "as good as new" korg esx1. I hope this one will live up to its good reputation. Been looking for one of these for some time, and its impossible to get one i norway used nowadays. (They cost 1000 $ new.. but i mean cmon...)
So i guess i`ll play with these two toys for a while and see if its cool or not.
. I was a bit dissapointed when i went to the store to check it out (i had allready ordered it) , but when i got it home and had played with it for a couple of hours, I was a happy man 
. 
