I was talking to a sales guy at a local shop today who has been working there for decades and also gigs locally on keys and does some sessions. He said they will get an SV-1 in Tuesday to demo for customers and that he had played one a couple of days ago. His take, FWIW, was that the acoustic pianos were really good but that the EP's were no better than on an NE3. Of course, that's highly subjective but if true I was hoping for more. This guy knows I have an NE3 and that I am interested in the SV-1 so he had no motive to say that other than sharing his honest opinion. This won't stop me from trying it out for myself but thought I'd throw it out there.

Interesting info. I DON'T have an NE3, so it's still a possible object of GAS. My Kawai's acoustic piano sits surprisingly well in a live mix, but the EPs are defeat the porpoise.

Porpoise? Dontchu mean dolphin? Really, Ive been wanting to ask someone about the ep's on the kawai's..a salesman told me that the
ep's on this thing are the same as in my m50? Who to believe...

I've never played a M50, all I can say is ep's in my MP4 are nothing to write home about. Don't cut through a mix well, no top end sparkle. Like a base layer in cycling. I'm told the eps in the MP5 and MP8 are different than the MP4. IIRC, the MP5 I played was a different and better animal than my MP4.

At first I read that as gasholes

Tim, I found a dealership, going to try a few of those..cannot find this Korg..theyll be around soon enough..

Just found a new video with the SV-1 used in a band rehersal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3CGN4rlw9A

Nice video, too bad the keyboard is pretty quiet compared to bass and drums. I can't really evaluate the sound.

im making vids...hold out

Does your MP4 have any editing capability? Curious. I doubt that any KB can please everyone that tries it out of the box. Buying a KB you can't edit is like buying a Marshall Amp for guitar. It has ONE sound, it sounds like a Marshall.

Mike T.

I edit most or all of my sounds. Sometimes only in the context of a Performance vs. as an individually saved Voice (I'm using Yamaha terminology here). I can't imagine using the out-of-the-box sounds! They're designed to impress in a noisy music store.

So I reiterate Mike T.'s question. Can the MP4 not be tweaked?

My understanding is that the SV-1 is eminently tweakable. I wish Roland had made this same choice with their VP-series keyboards, which are hugely overpriced for being preset-only (though the new model apparently adds some user control and save/restore).

The MP4 allows tweaking of effects and a fairly usable 4-band EQ. Aside from that, it's really a preset digital piano. I wouldn't have considered it as a new purchase, it was on eBay for a few hundred dollars, weighs half of my K2600XS, and I needed something to gig immediately at the time.

With a decent action and a good acoustic piano sound, I've more than recouped the investment, which I can't say for every other piece of gear I've bought. What makes the EP difference painfully obvious is being able to A/B it with EVP88 in Logic.

That's also what makes the SV-1 attractive to me. Mike's correct, isn't a single board that does everything satisfactorily for everyone - or we'd all own the same board. Somewhere there's a cruel boardroom conspiracy to slice up the one magic machine into itty bitty slices and dole them out in mutually exclusive portions.

Demo:
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTI2NDc4NzI4.html

(video loads very slow though...)

Does the SV1 have the same soundset as the M3/M50?

So, any verdicts??

No.

As Jerry from Korg posted earlier:

"The acoustic pianos, most of the main electric pianos, 1 of the clavs, all the real vintage stuff (including new tape strings) and all of the organs are new. So the majority of the instrument is new."

Busch.

I currently have one on order from Sweetwater. Looks like it will ship anytime between this week and next March. LOL...
Can't wait.

Tim, that's an amazing deal you scored on your MP4. I'd certainly buy one for that price as well. :-)

I still haven't secured a pass for NAMM (though I bought my air tickets last month), but it's really some of the more boutique stuff that won't up in stores (such as Roland's latest digital harpsichord, and the Eigenharp), that has me interested (also seeing anything new from Kurzweil).

I imagine the SV-1 will show up in stores shortly, along with the Wavedrum. I can't imagine either would be too "exclusive" to be a common item at local pro audio stores or even GC.

The only place near me that sells keyboards has one ordered. The 88-key will be going for 2400$ CAN.

Sweetwater has the 88-key in stock. Did you order the 73?

I've got a 73 on order from a local dealer.

Busch.

73, I never have enough stage space to handle an 88.

Hi Guys
This is one I will put on my list of boards to try in the near future. The local Korg rep said he would try and have one of these sent to the establishment I work for, and if he does I will let you know my thoughts
My fantom X8 is great as an all-rounder, I pick up a few blues festival gigs so I would like a more dedicated Piano/E Piano instrument. Great if it is smaller and weighs less.
I will have my hands on a S90XS next week,and I have road tested the SP2X and it is on my list of contenders.

Made my order today! Jeah!

Sounds like when my company releases new products. "Due to be released in April"... of course, the joke is that they don't say what year.

At this point this board isnt dazzling me. So many boards now have killer EP's, whats the big draw? Organ sounds like poop to boot.

I'll try not to player hate too much till I get my fingers on it tho.

For me the attraction is good AP and EPs with decent weighted action in a small footprint. I've tried the RH3 on a M50 and liked it. As for organs I'll use an electro 3 or CX-3 as a second board. I love my RD700sx, but it's just to big and bulky to be schelping around. I really don't know of another board this small and light that has decent piano action.
I'll report when it gets here.

Do the piano note samples decay a little too quickly after their initial attack or not? It sort of sounded like it in the demos I heard when single note lines were played by the right hand.

Ditto for me. Add in simplicity of interface, and the absence of a bunch of crap I'll never use, and it was appealing enough for me to take a chance and order one earlier this week (from a place with a good return policy, of course).