intelegant's Reviews

Great EPs / Good Pianos / Nice Clavs / So-so Organ

Hi, had this keyboard from new for six months: firstly, the action is awesome - it really has a good piano feel: weighted, precise, and actually pretty gorgeous. Secondly, the range of sounds is good - provided you know what you are looking for. If you want 60s / 70s sounds this is a solid keyboard: Supertramp sounds very close to the original and the Clavs will do Stevie Wonder, if you want EP (Rhodes) and 12 variants this is the keyboards for that. If you want 80s synths this is not the keyboard for that. The pianos are good - you get the usual German, Italian, Pop, etc; and playing Elton John sounds good. There are some nice pads and orchestras. The weak point is a shame: given that it has overdrive and wash-wah the organs are not good - you can crank it up and it will do a passable job (and the Cathedral/Hymn organs are v. good), but it is nothing like the Numa or Nord for organ sounds.

I still like it a lot. the price point is low compared to Nord, or even Yamaha (Who knew Korg could make a reasonably priced keyboard!?) and for the home player or gigging musician looking for a very easy to understand keyboard with Suitcase, Wurly, FM piano, good acoustic, this is a great choice. The speakers are good and sound good. The tube works well with the organs and clavs, and you get Korgs M1 piano and SG-1D, as well as a tack and honky-tonk. Good range of input/outputs and super easy to put through a soundcard (I use a Scarlett Focusrite Gen 2 2i2). There is no split, but that can be done (along with a huge range of editability via the Korg Stage Editor, which is OSX and Windows compatible.

All in all, if you get a chance to test one: do. You are not going to get the same variation as Yamaha or Nord - but, and for this player, this is it winning card: you simply switch on: dial the sound you want, and you are playing through speakers, so no external speakers, mixer etc; immediately. No fuss, great sound, and very playable