Korg Forums

[SV1200]

Well, I ordered it yesterday from a place online after messing around with it at the GC nearest me on Saturday. Earlier this year I had an M3, liked it, but Karma tech, and the amount of options overwhelmed me a bit. I used it, but i found myself just Fing around instead of making music. So I tried the M50, and right away I knew this was my piece. I was immediately comfortable with machine, not overwhelmed, loved how it had arpegg's back (or in forefront) instead of the complicated matrix of karma. Now I know Karma has ridiculous capabilities, that I prob should have learned, but I'm just more comfy with upfront arps. So I don't really need or wanted to dive much into iKarma. Karma was actually a reason I wasn't as productive as I wanted to be with M3.

All I wanted was new Korg sounds. I have an MPC for my sequencing, sampling, and drums. So the M50 will fill my gap for new modern, bread and butter sounds.

Only reason I'm writing this is because I think alot of people here are anti-m50. No Aftertouch, no Sampling, etc... Whatever, I bought it for its sounds & easy navigation. Can't wait for it to arrive. Peace

[tonyman]

good post!

[dharkon8]

I've had mine a couple of weeks and bought it for similar reasons. My brother has the M3 88 and that sucker is simply enormous. There is no doubt that it is a great instrument but there are a couple of downsides.
[1] Moving it anywhere becomes a major endeavour and is a 2 person operation.
[2] Its an instrument that really needs time spent on learning its possibilities. For some people this is just what they want - but for others like my brother - its very intimidating.

I've been working through the M50 and then explaining to him how things work on the M3!

I've got the M50-88 and it is simply awesome. The keyboard is outstanding to play, the sounds and sound editing is superb and it has been great for both live work and for recording.

I couldn't be happier.

[StudioMan]

I bought mine for the same reasons. Mostly live stuff. The M50 is quick & easy to learn the basics (but LOTS to dig into if you want to really play with your sounds).
The touch screen makes things SO easy to find and manipulate.

It looks AWESOME on stage (looks awesome anywhere).

Sound quality is truly amazing.

VERY light weight.

It's the BEST setup in it's class by far!

Mike

[YamahaForums]

I have made the mistake many times of buying top of the range gear and then finding that either it was way too complicated and I spent all my time reading rather than playing, or, I just simply never needed all the extra features that I "thought" I needed.

The M50 doesn't have sampling but why would I need it? A computer based software sampler can simply dwarf anything you will find on any keyboard out there.

The aftertouch is something I miss but, the M50 does respond to aftertouch via a master controller keyboard so since I was planning on buying an 88 note controller anyway, that's another problem solved.

Apart from that, the M50 does everything you could possibly want right out of the box and it's a breeze to use. I used to have a Triton a few years back and I find the M50 feels so familiar because of that. Why all the top of the range keyboards don't incorporate a touch view display is a complete mystery to me. Yamaha ought to be paying attention to what Korg are doing in this respect.

You can even have Karma in software if that's what rocks you boat. Personally I find Karma sounds awesome but is mind bogglingly complicated to use. Perhaps that's just me ? Anyway I'm happy with the dual arps
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[meisenhower]

I bought the M50-88 for many of the same reasons others suggested above.

For my "live rig" I was looking for an 88 key weighted graded hammer action controller, that was "reasonable" in weight, but wasn't really happy with the choices out there. I had been carrying my Kawai MP9000 stage piano, which does a fine job as a basic controller and the piano action is best in class (same as in the Kawai concert grands), however all packed in a case, weighs in at over 100 lbs. Now my Kawai can rest in peace in my studio.

I've also been a Yamaha Motif guy for a while, and was going to buy the Motif XS8 and do away with my Motif ES6. The XS8 still weighs 63 lbs (without a road case) and it didn't offer that much sonic improvement over my ES.

I saw the M50-88, liked the piano action a lot, thought the sounds were quite good and the controller aspect (albeit basic) would be fine for setting up performances and patches for quick access when playing live. I could keep my Motif ES on top (as I do love those Motif ES sounds), and use the M50 for my foundation keyboard. Between the M50 and the Motif ES, I have all the bases covered (sampling, expansion, et al).

Perfect!

For the dollar, I don't think there is anything on the market that comes close to the M50-88.

Like all my other Korg's, I expect it to stand the test of time.

Your mileage may vary.
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No good deed goes unpunished

[FifthElement]

[StudioMan]

[klarnet basowy]

Yesterday I was doing reharsal with a keyboard friend: in no time I was able to organize a combination for JM Jarre's "Oxygene 2", with dual arpeggiator working on bass and upper arpeggio (listen to the song to know what arpeggio I mean), and a phaser analog-string. Solo with the Alesis Micron and my friend on his Micron doing "analog effects".
The upper arpeggio: it's a pattern you have to create: with an M3 with no programmable pattern I can't do this, but I can with an M50.

Andrew
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Kurzweil PC361
... and no Korg keybs now, we'll se in the future...
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[McHale]

I'm still using my Triton Pro 76 as my main board and I still absolutely love the thing. But lugging it back and forth to practice is a royal PITA. In it's flight case, it's about 100 pounds.

I decided to pick up another Triton Pro or Triton Extreme 76 to leave at the practice space and outfit it the same. So let's see, about $750 for a used Triton Pro (in who-know's-how-much-it's-been-abused-condition), $500 for a used MOSS board, $200 for a used SCSI card and sampler RAM and we're looking at almost $1500 for a 10 year old synth. That's crazy.

So I tried out the M3-73. The keybed feels phenomenal and the clarity of the sound is much improved. But I wouldn't need the sampler or use the Karma in a live situation. With the exception of the keybed, the M50 does everything I would need and has the dual arps (which I use a little). Tack on the light weight and cooler black color and the M50 is a win.

As soon as the M50-73 key is released, I'll have it. There are a couple things I think Korg screwed up on though that kind of bother me:

1. the Wall wart. The few M50's I've demo'd at the GC's had the DC jack almost rolling around in the case it was so loose. [But having it outside the case helps keep the keyboard light I suppose.]

2. I also noticed a little bit of flex in the 61. I imagine the 73 will be worse?

3. the keybed. I miss 76 keys and the better keyboard action. [But 73 keys is Korg's new thing so that wasn't a cost cutting measure. The cheaper keybed helps keep the costs low.]

That all being said, the M50 is a hell-of-a deal. Great sounds, light weight, VERY low cost. Korg nailed this one...

-Mc
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Current Korg Gear: KRONOS 88 (4GB), M50-73 (PS mod), RADIAS-73, Electribe MX, Triton Pro (MOSS, SCSI, CF, 64MB RAM), SQ-64, DVP-1, MEX-8000, MR-1, KAOSSilator, nanoKey, nanoKontrol, 3x nanoPad 2, 3x DS1H, 7x PS1, FC7 (yes Korg, NOT Yamaha).

[akmon]

My reasons:

- Most important of all: good stuff at a reasonable price.
- It has not aftertouch, but I´ve never used it.
- No Karma, but available on PC/MAC. For people like me who starts in this world, Karma is not a must-have. If time makes change my opninion, I know it can be available.
- No samples, but with the wide posibilities using the 1077 built-in multisamples, I´ll have stuff enough for years, and even I´d touch the roof, let´s go for the PC. Problem sorted.
- Light.
- (Less important): Attractive design.
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100% hardware made. All is done in a Korg M50 internal sequencer. Now updated (7/09/12) at http://www.hispasonic.com/akmon

[Xenomorph]

My reasons for buying:

- Drum track feature
- touch screen
- great sounds
- light and sexy looking[yeah I said it's sexy ok?]
- wanted something with EDS
- price price price
- It's a KORG!!
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Life is short, play a KORG!

Current: Pa5X, Nautilus
Past: M1, X5D, N364, Karma, X50, TR61, M50, micro-Korg, Triton Extreme, Pa3x, Roland Fantom 06, Akai mpc key61

[John Hendry]

I just ran my M50 through a WS A/D...wowww look out. Too cool...The WS will always be the WS sound but guess what... no more saying the WS sounds better and over the Triton IMO it does as I kept going back to it. I like the basic string set on WS better the way its implemented, but that's the programming. M50 and WS seem to share some wave forms from the past and believe the M50 can sound very similar, its much cleaner dating the WS. The way things are done is different and I like a lot of the WS programming but would no longer spend much time on it or recommend it unless on a budget after the M50 as it can get the sound with more voices and features to use.

That's why I got the M50...thing sounds great, has editor out of the box, USB and SD card storage, only 15 lbs, its the bomb! But it cries out for poly after touch controller to play it as did the WS and O1W...Triton...jezz if you have it use it.....right? Need a controller that has it to use it if you want to use it live so Korg must have something up its sleeve making us wait this long....thats it;-)

John^^
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Think Peace...