Korg Forums

I've been researching the pros and cons of upgrading the M3 recently with the EXB-RADIAS Board.

I was wanting to compare to not the actual radias module but the Mircrokorg XL (which I used to own)

Just wondering can anyone else add the pros and cons for each of these MMT devices?

PROS EXB-RADIAS

Using Combis with the MMT Engine based sounds along with the M3 and Karma etc

PROS MIRCROKORG XL
Many extra MMT style sounds downloadable from the korg patches website (which you cant do with the EXB-RADIAS apparently)

Multi Timbral: EXB-RADIAS - 4, MIRCROKORG XL - 2
Polyphony: EXB-RADIAS - 24, MIRCROKORG XL - 8
Mod Sequencer: EXB-RADIAS - 3, MIRCROKORG XL - 0
Effects: EXB-RADIAS - 170 * 8 slots, MIRCROKORG XL - 17 * 2 slots

Plus ... The EXB-RADIAS is just awesome

The main "con" for me at the moment (after owning a microkorg xl for many months and loving it!" is the lack of sounds, I have went through them all and I'm extremely disappointed, not only with the sound design (for such an engine I think they could had done a lot better) but with the lack of presets available.

I've contacted a few people on this, I know the M3 is now no longer for sale, as with the EXB-Radias - but I would love to be able to use the 100's of presets I still own for the Microkorg XL

NERF BANK 101 - 113 (13 in total)
Korg USA Microkorg XL Bank
Howie bank

This is my own demo from a while back on my Microkorg XL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo9W9sBnMA0

the sounds on these are superb and it's exactly the same engine right?

cant seem to feel the same wowness from the radias :/

MMT with the same OSC ? I think the EXB-RADIAS has 128 OSC ?

Also the subtractive synthesis options are the same on here? how deeply can you edit these parameters, does the M3 software app for the PC give you full edit capability?

I really love some of the pads including the arpeggios playing around with the effects etc, the effects too should be much better I'd imagine on the EXB-RADIAS with the M3 effects.

Bald Eagle wrote:Multi Timbral: EXB-RADIAS - 4, MIRCROKORG XL - 2
Polyphony: EXB-RADIAS - 24, MIRCROKORG XL - 8
Mod Sequencer: EXB-RADIAS - 3, MIRCROKORG XL - 0
Effects: EXB-RADIAS - 170 * 8 slots, MIRCROKORG XL - 17 * 2 slots

Plus ... The EXB-RADIAS is just awesome

And the hardware Radias is even better. That's why I bought one!

Synthoid wrote:

Bald Eagle wrote:Multi Timbral: EXB-RADIAS - 4, MIRCROKORG XL - 2
Polyphony: EXB-RADIAS - 24, MIRCROKORG XL - 8
Mod Sequencer: EXB-RADIAS - 3, MIRCROKORG XL - 0
Effects: EXB-RADIAS - 170 * 8 slots, MIRCROKORG XL - 17 * 2 slots

Plus ... The EXB-RADIAS is just awesome

And the hardware Radias is even better. That's why I bought one!

+10
It has several advantages over the EXB.
Mostly with the effects. Actually a few more simultaneous FX than the M3 on its own.. So if you are using the M3 too you have twice as many!

I'm just confused how I can't seem to get as many WoW factor sounds out the EXB-Radias as opposed to the micrkorg xl?

There are pros and cons. People have compared the Radias module with EXB-Radias. One particular comparison is in Gorgon Reid`s SoundOnSound M3 review (July/2007).

He is why he picked the EXB Radias.

Most obviously, a Radias R Program has four timbres, while an MMT Program in Korg's forthcoming R3 synth is bi-timbral, and an MMT Program in the EXB-Radias is only mono-timbral. However, you can place up to four EXB-Radias Programs — of which one can be a vocoder Program — into a standard M3 Combi or sequencer setup, which is arguably a much more powerful configuration than the original Radias.


This is because, once placed in a Combi, you can treat an MMT Program as you would any other, taking advantage of the M3's multitimbral effects and using KARMA as both an arpeggiator/sequencer tool and as a wave sequencer. Compare this with the effects architecture on the original Radias, or compare the Radias's arpeggiators and step sequencers to KARMA and the M3's sequencer, and it's clear that the integrated solution has much to recommend it.

There's another reason why the integrated approach is so powerful. Not only will the EXB-Radias accept external audio from the M3's audio inputs, it will accept it from either of the auxiliary buses, thus allowing you to direct EDS Programs, drum tracks, and other sources to the Radias's oscillators or its vocoder section. Sure, you can do something similar by sending audio down a couple of cables from an M3M to a Radias R, but that ties up outputs and has none of the elegance of the integrated system.

So is it a foregone conclusion that you should choose the EXB-Radias above the separate synth engine? Not necessarily... Furthermore, the Radias R provides its own effects sections, so you're not tying up any of the M3's effects, which may be stretched to the limit in a complex Combi. Furthermore, if you liked the original Radias because its control surface gave you the illusion of using an analogue synth, there's no contest; while the EXB-Radias makes full use of the physical controls on the M3M, they are no substitute for a knobbier panel.

On the other hand, there's something attractive about having four virtual-analogue, DWGS and FM mono- and/or poly-synths within the M3's environment, all playable from a wide, splittable keyboard with pressure-sensitivity (which both the Radias and R3 lack). If you're comfortable with the touchscreen and editing model provided by the M3, I think it would be hard to overlook the benefits of the integrated approach, as well as the much lower price attached to it. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that it might be daft to buy an M3 without the EXB-Radias board.