Korg M50 successor

Stargazer · Post by **Stargazer** » Tue May 01, 2012 4:56 pm

Korg M50 was introduced back in 2008 and in following 12 months, perhaps earlier, we will see it's successor. What do you think, how will it look with specifications?

I think they will use:

1. PCM engine from Kronos with 314 MB ROM: 1.505 Multisamples, 1.388 Drum Samples. Currently M50 has 256 MB ROM: 1.077 Multisamples, 1.609 Drum Samples. Other Kronos engines will not be available on successor, nor any expansion.
2. Up to 8 premium-quality effects at once; individual effects rival dedicated units: 6 Insert effects, 1 Master effects, 1 Total effects. That is half the power of Kronos.
3. Full MIDI Sequencer minus the Audio recording.
4. Polyphony anywhere between 80-96 (very useful, but not full spec like Kronos).
5. No Sampling (to keep the Kronos sales up).
6. Fully programmable Arpeggiator (to add to appeal).
7. A name such as Korg K50 (K, like Kronos). K50 would easily mean 50% of Kronos.
8. They SHOULD have better and more reliable hardware and more solid software (to fix the bad image with M50).
9. The same shape of M50 (to keep the costs down).

csteen · Post by **csteen** » Tue May 01, 2012 7:27 pm

The M50 has an excellent image so I am not sure why it would need fixing lol.
You get what you pay for, nothing more or less.
I am using the KM50 software presently and it it works flawlessly.
The M50 already has 8 effects available for use.
When korg comes up with a succesor to the M50 you can bet it will vastly different than the M50.
The M50 already has a fully programable arpeggiator and the KM software takes it far beyond even that.
There is no sampling on the M50 already, so taking it away is impossible. ...
Perhaps you were meaning to post in the M3 section???

kimu · Post by **kimu** » Tue May 01, 2012 8:30 pm

i am not so sure korg will release soon a M50 successor

they have just launched kronos and with the current economic situation at least in EU, USA e Japan is not so clear how much market is still addressable for medium/high end product like m50.

m50 was quite costly,of course it worths it, but now how many non-pro or maybe semi-pro musician will spend for a new workstation is not a big leap from m50 ?

billbaker · Post by **billbaker** » Tue May 01, 2012 9:31 pm

Price points in US for M50 are between $1 & 1.5 k and the Kronos starts ~ $3 to 3.5 k, so theres a place for an M50+ or Kronos Jr. around the $2 k mark. M1's out of production, so my guess is that there will be a performance oriented keyboard with multiple engines (4 vs 9) similar to Kronos.

1 piano, not two.
HD engine compatible with M1
AL analog engine
and the Vintage EP engine.

Keep the most useful or requested parts, dump the rest, skip KARMA, keep the drum track, and speed up load times.

BB

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Tue May 01, 2012 9:56 pm

It's called the M3. 'distilled' from the technology in the OASYS (read KRONOS), it is superior to the M50 in many respects.

billbaker · Post by **billbaker** » Tue May 01, 2012 11:43 pm

Sorry, senior moment... M3 it is.

But that's going away even as we speak. Guitar Center near me has blown theirs out and don't expect more. That sounds like something new, even if not astoundingly more capable than the M3, may be coming down the pike. And the big piano and analog modeling are the two big thing that are on the Kronos that aren't available at the lower price point.

BB

Stargazer · Post by **Stargazer** » Wed May 02, 2012 12:56 am

csteen wrote:The M50 has an excellent image so I am not sure why it would need fixing lol.

Freezing and capacitor issues are well reported on this and others forums. There is an attempt to show that only the low serial number are affected, but people with 1X.XXX numbers also reported the same problems.

csteen wrote: I am using the KM50 software presently and it it works flawlessly.

Good.

csteen wrote:The M50 already has 8 effects available for use.

That's because effect section comes bundled with M3 engine. But, IF I am right, and IF M50's successor will be made in the likeness of something we can call "Kronos LE", I think we can not expect it to have 16 Effects like Kronos. Sounds too much for a middle-class keyboard.

csteen wrote:The M50 already has a fully programable arpeggiator and the KM software takes it far beyond even that.
There is no sampling on the M50 already, so taking it away is impossible.

I think you missed my points. I am just predicting that successor would be something like "Kronos Light", and I am writing about what will it likely miss from "Kronos" to be positioned as a middle-class keyboard. So, when I wrote "No Sampling" it referrers to taking away of sampling from original Kronos.
The same goes for all other points.

Anyway, it's just a predicting game.

guillex · Post by **guillex** » Wed May 02, 2012 2:15 pm

Mhhh is too early for that...Actually Korg Still owe us a new M3, or something between kronos and M50...but I think that they will not relese nothing like that..

kimu · Post by **kimu** » Wed May 02, 2012 3:14 pm

maybe M3 and M50 will be put in End of Sale and a new Kronos LE will be released.

with a VA engine inside may also be a substitute for Radias

guillex · Post by **guillex** » Wed May 02, 2012 4:33 pm

kimu wrote:maybe M3 and M50 will be put in End of Sale and a new Kronos LE will be released.

with a VA engine inside may also be a substitute for Radias

Niiiiice idea! However....Kronos is made like an LE keyboard....it feels like that...

drama1 · Post by **drama1** » Wed May 02, 2012 6:08 pm

kimu wrote:maybe M3 and M50 will be put in End of Sale and a new Kronos LE will be released.

with a VA engine inside may also be a substitute for Radias

The M3 already has capacity to have the Radias. A fully expanded M3 is as close to a Kronos Lite version that we're going to see for quite a while I'm afraid. I believe anything resembling the Kronos would kill sales of the Kronos itself. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not holding my breath. IMHO we'll see something from Kurzweil or Yamaha that will challenge the Kronos next winter NAMM.

rajarshi_sl · Post by **rajarshi_sl** » Wed May 02, 2012 8:59 pm

i dont think it is the right time to come up another workstation when m50 has done so good worldwide....m50 should be given some more time to help it become a legend...the only improvement that i desperately look forward is a new firmware version that would enable numeric entry to act as favorite tone switches both for prog or combi mode....so that tone changing becomes a easy job and that too without note dropping off....

in my opinion the sound of m50 in areas like piano,e piano,e guitars,sax ,organs,pads, basses are mind blowing...therefore dont need any other successor with slight improvement in these categories of sounds that are totally flawless and cannot be improved any further whatsoever....this is bcoz these areas sound as good as any vsti...

however any successor with all these sounds plus further improvement in areas like brass,acoustic guitar,flute,vibes,ethnic is always desirable,....bcoz m50
in my opinion is weaker in these areas....but i dont think korg has any improved samples of these categories in any of its more expensive gears be it m3 or kronos....they are all weak in these sections as well coz that is the area where roland comes into action with their amazing sound libraries

in a nutshell as i see it korg will have this tendency to pack all of m50 sounds in a new cabinet and try to sell as m50 successor with improvements in unwanted areas like polyphony/color lcd/color of the cabinet etc....

i am very happy wid m50 ...dont want any successor at all...and even if i upgrade(which might be around december this year)...i will buy roland fanom g 8or motif xf(76 keys),both are works of art!

billbaker · Post by **billbaker** » Wed May 02, 2012 9:33 pm

@ drama1

Yes, agreed the radias board exists - so there was an upgrade path.

But if Korg run true to form then they'll add that capability (radias) or something like it into an "extreme" version, possibly using one of the two existing analog modeling synth engines from the Kronos so as not to reinvent the wheel.

--------------------

Here's another thought... what about a "Legacy Keyboard" that bundles the four modeled Analog and two Digital soft synths into a single hardware package -- could there be a reason that Korg pulled all of them off the shelf? Besides rampant piracy of their stuff at bit-torrent and other "free" (hacked) software sites?

BB

drama1 · Post by **drama1** » Thu May 03, 2012 7:51 pm

[quote="rajarshi_sl"]i dont think it is the right time to come up another workstation when m50 has done so good worldwide....m50 should be given some more time to help it become a legend...the only improvement that i desperately look forward is a new firmware version that would enable numeric entry to act as favorite tone switches both for prog or combi mode....so that tone changing becomes a easy job and that too without note dropping off....

Using Karma on the M3 achieves favorite program/comb switches without cutoff of sound. Works great.

drama1 · Post by **drama1** » Thu May 03, 2012 7:59 pm

billbaker wrote:@ drama1

Yes, agreed the radias board exists - so there was an upgrade path.

But if Korg run true to form then they'll add that capability (radias) or something like it into an "extreme" version, possibly using one of the two existing analog modeling synth engines from the Kronos so as not to reinvent the wheel.

--------------------

Here's another thought... what about a "Legacy Keyboard" that bundles the four modeled Analog and two Digital soft synths into a single hardware package -- could there be a reason that Korg pulled all of them off the shelf? Besides rampant piracy of their stuff at bit-torrent and other "free" (hacked) software sites?

BB

I don't know. Do you really need all that analog sound? I actually find with a little bit of programming of the Radias, I can achieve close to just about anything I've heard on the Kronos. Don't get me wrong, Kronos sounds better. No doubt about it, but do you really need four or five different analog engines? Are you actually going to use FM all that much? Give me a killer piano, organ, string, brass, synth model, with the SST, tons of FX in a lightweight compact 88 keyboard and I'm one happy camper.