Anyway, I’d promised myself that I’d never own another Korg after the disappointment of the X2, and it was with some trepidation that I considered the X50. But, my friend Steve Rosch of the band The Janglebachs had one, and he loved it.
Post series: Korgs I've Owned
On numerous occasions, I’ve alluded to having a love/hate relationship with Korg keyboards. With the exception of a few scant hours with a modular Moog in college, and some experimentation designing various circuitry of my own shortly after, my synthesis adventures in general, and with “modern” MIDI synthesizers in particular, began with Korg. And, I’ve been going back to the well ever since.
This series of posts chronicles my adventures with, and thoughts about, Korg synthesizers.
Tapping in this box will unfold an index with links to all posts in this series.
Korgs I’ve Owned Part 2 — X2
The X2 was the big brother to the X3, and in addition to another 15 keys, it had an expanded sample ROM featuring a nicely multi-sampled grand piano, and it also had two independent audio outputs in addition to the standard left and right main outputs. Many of the sounds were derived from Korg’s T3 and O1/W synths.
Korgs I’ve Owned Part 1 — DS-8 and SQD-8
The first Korgs in my life were the DS-8 digital synthesizer and SQD-8 8-track MIDI sequencer. The DS-8 was an interesting synth. It was an attempt, I believe, to be a simplified 4-operator FM synthesizer that was simultaneously a multitimbral performance synth. It was even based on an enhanced Yamaha 4-operator FM synth chip that was found in a number of Yamaha keyboards!