I’ve be playing with the Korg M3-88 for a few weeks now. Rather than going through a full review I thought I’d focus on things that might not be obvious during a GC run through. Korg states that the M3 sounds are a “best of” from the OASYS soundest. I don’t know the OASYS intimately, but I did own a Triton for a number of years and am familiar with its sound and capabilities. To my ear, the M3 sounds are a HUGE step up from the Triton. What very much impresses me about the M3 sounds is that, for the most part, the sound consistently good across the complete range of the original instrument. I can’t count the number of times I’ve found ROMpler sounds that sound quite good for 1 ½ octaves and then sound hideous outside that range. This is almost always the result of taking a sample and stretching it well beyond what it should be. It saves on ROM but it sucks. The optional RADIUS board is truly wonderful. This is a great sounding VA for not a lot of money. When reviewing the board at the music store I wouldn’t be too concerned about the ROMpler synth sounds. If you buy the M3 you will absolutely want to add the RADIUS EXB board if not the full module.

PHYSICAL DESIGN

I have to say I think the design of the M3 is pretty darn brilliant. In the past on this forum when people offer suggestions as to the specs of a dream keyboard, the idea of a modular system was often mentioned. Well, that’s what Korg has done with the M3. The modularity allows you to tilt the display and controls or even remove it for use as a standalone module. You can add the Radius module and it seems pretty clear Korg will be coming out with additional modules in the future. Additionally, the main M3 module can be moved all the way to one side which would provide a flat area for a smaller keyboard or laptop. If placed together, the aluminum cover panels on the 88 note M3 provide a flat 29” X 10” space. That’s easily enough space for a 37 note keyboard like the Korg R3 or a small controller. The Novation Remote SL Compact 41 note is only 31.5” and might work with a bit of overhang. Hell, the Electro 61 MIGHT work as it’s only 35” in length. So it’s possible to have access to a synth key action and the weighted keys of the 88 without having to mess with an extra tier and deal with the spacing/placement issues. Or you could use the area for a B3 clone like the Roland VK8m or the Voce. I am hopeful that the next component of the Korg Komponent System is a CX3 module. Anyway, the design of the M3 offers a lot of potential.

The instrument is largely aluminum. The action is attached to a wood base. The use of plastic is kept to a minimum. It looks and feels very pro.

WEIGHT/BULK
Like everyone I’m concerned about the size and weight. My feeling is that workstations have gotten so big over the years they really have become studio instruments rather than something you want to cart around. For me, bulk is nearly as important as weight. When I had the Yamaha Motif ES8 I found it so large it was difficult to move without banging into something and difficult to balance. It would not fit into my SKB case that I had used for the RD700SX and S90. The same goes for the Roland Fantom X8 which I had for a short while. Below is a chart that compares the M3 88 to other 88 note keyboards. As you can see it kind of fits between the larger workstations and smaller synths/DPs. Kudos to Korg for not making the M3 heavier or larger than necessary.



Bottom line: the M3 88 is bigger and heavier than I’d ideally like, but it’s an outstanding controller with excellent sounds and capabilities. If you can manage an S90ES or RD700SX, then going to the M3 88 isn’t a big stretch. The M3 88 fits, snuggly, in my SKB case. I find that if I grab the back of it to the right of the display and then grab underneath (because of the modular design the bottom isn’t flat) I get a solid, balanced grip.

ACTION
The action on the 61 and 73 is EXCEPTIONAL for a semi-weighted keyboard. It’s flat-out the best synth action available, IMO. And it’s not only the feel of the keys. Aftertouch, which I’ve always found to be a crappy control mechanism, actually WORKS as you would think it should work. When I first played the 88 note, I thought it was very nice but nothing exceptional. My opinion changed once I started working with it. I intimately know the sounds coming out of my Fantom XR as I have been gigging with it two to three times a week for nearly two years. When played from the M3 88, the SRX-12 Rhodes in particular sounded different, funkier, and more responsive to my touch. I found that the keys are so quick to return it actually affected the sound (in a positive way). Also, fast repeated notes are easy for me to pull off on this action where they are difficult if not impossible on other weighted actions. The 88 note action is a very quick and responsive. Also, at the end of the night my hands aren’t tired. I hope at some point Korg does a refresh of the OASYS with these new keyboards.

CONTROLLER
The M3 comes with over 100 controller setups for DAWs and soft synths. You want to control the B4 drawbars using the M3, just pull up the setup for the B4 and you’re set. Yes, Novation controllers and others have this feature but to my knowledge this is a first for ROMplers (exception being the OASYS, I believe). My only complaints are that you can’t provide on-screen names for the control assignments and the sets aren’t saved with the program/combi.

SAMPLER FUNCTIONALITY
The M3 has basic sampler functionality with up to 320MB of RAM available when using the optionally 256MB card. One thing that I found to be extremely useful is that it does soundfont conversions and does it quite well. On occasion you will get one that mysteriously silent, but for me most have gone off without a hitch. I have some sample library conversion programs that allow conversion from just about anything to SF2. One of the first I tried was LearJeff’s EXCELLENT Rhodes using the 12MB looped version. This EP has beautiful tone and plays nicely on the M3. The conversion took the five-way velocity switched multisamples and placed them in two programs (requiring a combination to play it properly). I moved the fifth velocity multisample into OSC 2 of the main program and got a single program five-way velocity EP. Most excellent—thank you LearJeff! The M3 supports eight-way vel switching of mono and four stereo at the program level. I also have a four layer lite version of the Scarbee Rhodes that I converted to SF2. It takes a little under 300MB to load. Again the conversion worked great. Because I need the RAM for a few guitars and other things, I tried eliminating the lowest vel layer on the Scarbee to see a three vel layer version was at all usable. To my delight, after some tweaking, I had a perfectly playable version of the Scarbee Rhodes. The downside is this: the M3 is only slightly better than older hardware samplers regarding load times. With the three vel Scarbee, some guitars and a few other things I’m at ~ six minutes of sample load time. If I set up the M3 and get it loading first, by the time I get everything else set up it MIGHT be done loading.

Busch.

Busch:

Excellent review. The fact that you still have the M3 after several weeks of working with it says a lot. I know you took back your Yamaha XS8 a lot sooner than that, and you were not to pleased with it.

Some "other" player(s) I've discussed the M3 with, say the acoustic piano sound still sucks. What's your take on it?

Mike T.

Yeah I appreciate your thoughts as an owner and experienced player.

One thing I noticed right off when I demoed one was that the M3 makes smooth program changes, unlike the Motif XS next to it where the keyboard cuts out and goes dead.

I wasn't as wild as you are about Korg's new synth actions though. When playing ballads in Eb and Ab (one of my tests) I couldn't get consistent velocities out of the blacks. Not everyone does this sort of thing in real life so it may be unimportant, but I do, which is why I always try it out. The distance between the key fulcrums and ends was shorter than the XS, which I think has a lot to do with it.

I really like the idea of a 6 octave C to C range though. I personally wouldn't miss the top octave much, but I always miss not being able to go down to a low C on a 76.

How do you handle program changes live, Busch? Can you set up 16 on it somehow?

Great review. I'm just awaiting the G.A.S. gods to show a it more mercy on my affliction...

Quote by Bill H:

"One thing I noticed right off when I demoed one was that the M3 makes smooth program changes, unlike the Motif XS next to it where the keyboard cuts out and goes dead."

Bill, I don't know if you are aware of it or not, but you can eliminate the "keyboard cuts out and goes dead" by using the SONG mode on the Motif series. The reason there is break when selecting patches in voice or performance mode in the Motif series is the effects have to reset. In Song mode, you can have a different patch setup on the first 8 tracks, all of which will carry over their effects from voice mode. So you can toggle from one track to the other and there won't be any break in the sound. I use my Motif ES8 that way and it works fine.

Mike T.

Yeah I am aware of that on the ES. But that feature was eliminated for some insane reason on the XS. It was mentioned in a discussion board when the XS was first released, and sure enough.... when I demoed one, Mix mode in an XS no longer gives you smooth program changes.

To be honest, it's not that hot having it only in Mix on my ES either. You make all kinds of compromises putting your voices in there for live performances. You should be able to do this in all modes. Roland and Korg has figured out how.

Thanks for the review. I'm using the M3-M and it is a great match with my Fantom X7 and/or RD700SX. The weakest point of the M3 is still the piano, but when matched with my Rolands that is not an issue. If I did not have the new SRX ep card in my X7 I would be asking you for the program you edited for LearJeff's ep.

I’ve heard complaints about the M3M not being rack mountable but for me that is not an issue. I like to sit it on top and just to the left of the Roland so I can play parts with my right hand and tweak sounds with the left. Using the touch screen as a controller is a nice feature borrowed from the Kaos. The response of the pads is not very smooth in the low end of velocity but they are as good as the pads on the FantomX series. Programming chords on the pads is a nice and fun feature. I can comp by hitting pads with the left hand and playing another keyboard with the right.

I’m disappointed that there is only one EXB expansion slot. I have the Radius in my slot. It sounds okay for a VA but not as good as a Virus or Novation. The EXB Radius is missing some features of the Radius keyboard. For the price I cannot complain. The M3-M is a nice way to update an old DAW. If you want to program on the hardware and use sampling and sequencing it is a much better solution than using a rack mount unit with a single data entry knob.

Robert

I know they eliminated the record step mode on the XS, but the song mix mode allows 8 insert effects on the the Motif ES, so how could it "not" be capable of handling that on the XS? It would make recording sequences on the XS unusable.


Mike T.

I have tried the M3 last week (61-key version), too. I agree about the keyboard; it's too bad it's using this proprietary connection instead of a regular MIDI version (I'm sure you could get somewhere with creative soldering/programming a little chip to translate the signals for you, but that'd be a waste). Compared to the K-series controllers and the X-50/Micro X keys, the M3 is absolutely stellar, and if it came as a luxurious controller I'd use it to replace my Xboard 49 (which is awfully nice compared to the other USB controllers).

I love the pad options below the screen. For a hack like me, you can just assign chords to them, and from then on it's instant jazz with variations - tap the pads and solo with the other hand and you won't run out of fingers :).

No it's not that bad Mike. It's the keyboard. When you switch parts in Song or Pattern Mix, which is how you change programs if you used Mix live, it no longer holds the previous part. It now goes dead, just like in Voice, Performance, or Master modes. So the one cool thing about using Mix mode onstage is eliminated.

It's too bad. This is an area I was hoping that Yamaha would enhance, not eliminate. I was hoping they would do things like add another onscreen "view" where the Voice names were bigger (so we could read them better onstage), and maybe put a softswitch in the Mix setups with a few more options for the faders other than just part level. I was really wishful thinking. Bummer.

Anyway, try it out the next time you are on an XS.

Something I'll add - the M3 is very 'inspiring' to me from a musical point of view. Korg has done an awesome job of putting together some really sweet musical backdrops to their Combis.

danatkorg - did you do any of the voicing / programming for M3?

How do you like the Karma 2.0 functionality?

I owned one for a while, I naively thought I could use it as my main sequencer. If it had a decent sequencer I'd love it.

So Mikecorbett, whats "wrong" with Korg's sequencer? I never used one.

Mike T.

I include your great review in my squidoo lens here.
http://www.squidoo.com/Korg-M3-Keyboard-Synthesizer-Workstation-Reviews-Downloads-Forum-Videos/

Well Mike T. , I had never used a Korg sequencer either, apparantly they haven't upgraded it at all from the Triton, so if you've used a Triton you probably know it better than I do.

My 2 sense.

I owned the M3 for a few days and tried to get down with the sequencer. All in all, with no visuals (piano roll) and archaic copy/paste features I found it really tricky. I remember I wanted to delete one note at the end of a pattern I had recorded and spent the best part of half an hour trying to do it, only to accidently erase most of the sequence. Of course that was alot of user error but still I had hoped that this otherwise awesome board would have a well implemented sequencer ALA Roland Fantom.

When I asked Stephen Kay about the crappiness of the sequencer, he conceded and said he expected that lots of people would be using a computer anyhow. They supposedly haven't really upgraded the sequencer in 10 years? Not an answer I found satisfactory. But maybe a PC daw is the only way to go? Problem is I like hardware.

Others who tried using the M3 in conjunction with a DAW found it frustrating for other reasons, the way Korgs now operate as plug ins apparently leaves lots to be desired. In particular, its supposed to be really tricky to gel M3 performances into your computer composing. I Gathered this from extensive reading on the Korg M3 user forums.

So all in all I believe they missed the mark (IMO) with the M3 as a workstation. People will still end up needing a PC for sequencing...and if DAW intregration isn't tight as I'm told its not, then all your wonderful Karma madness becomes so much Casio sing-along stuff. Your lovely colour touchscreen is great for editing and navigating patches, etc, but is not exploited at all for composing. Beautiful to play with, but too hard to work with.

Oh, and the Piano and organ patches still aren't very good.

Thanks for the info Mike. I don't understand Korg's or Yamaha's attitude about on-board sequencers. Why do they call the M3 a "workstation" when it's NOT? I've had some beefs with Yamaha about the Motif XS too. They started taking features away that were on the ES and are "encouraging" players to use a computer and DAW. They just don't get that not everyone wants or needs to use a computer to do their work. Apparently, hardware guys are in the minority and they are prepared to let us, as customers, go.

Mike T.

Absolutely Mike, I feel ya. I still use my MPC for 90 percent of my composing and only when it limits me do I sync it to my DAW. Thing about the M3 is with all its wonderfull sounds, strings and Karma stuff, it would be the perfect tool for someone doing T.V. or Film, they could just sync to a PC for Video. They certainly lost me as a customer as did Yamaha with the XS for simlar reasons. I'll be the first one to fork out the $$$ when someone makes a workstation that takes it to the next level. I read the Soundonsound review of the Oasys and they seemed to think the sequencer was a huge let down once more, particularly with the larger screen it possess.

anyhow, time to end my monthly hardware sequencer rant...

just wanted to add my 2 cents which seems a little contrary to public opinion here.
Although I've never owned one, I've auditioned a M3 on a few different occasions. I was overall pretty dissapointed. I own a Triton Extreme and I think that it's sound pallette is more versitile......maybe it's just the way the M3 is voiced....but I thought there were a lot of sounds missing....better sounding organs and a larger variety of drawbar settings can be found on the Extreme in my opinion. It seems there were less combi horn section stuff to choose from, less clav variety, synth leads..... also, I think the Wurly sounds better on the Extreme......and at some point Korg has got to get it together with acoustic pianos and rhodes sounds...they're still pretty awful on the M3.....and they're again better on the Extreme.
I think the action on the 61 is a great way to get closer to a weighted feel for playing piano sounds without the weight of a weighted action.....but I actually didn't like it for what I would want to play on this keybd.....synth stuff, organ, using the radius bd, basically non piano type stuff. Just my opinion.

BillH,
I use Combi mode and the category feature for everything. I have all the instruments I use saved to my own category/instruments. Song specific combis are saved to /song1, /song2, etc. I then use the Jump to Sub which allows you to quickly move to the sounds and, using the tab keys move to a different sub category. I'm probably not explaining it the best I can but what it boils down to is I have a personalized categorization of all the sounds I need and I can get to them easily. I do have to use the touch screen but have not found this to be a big issue especially with the tilt screen.

GovenorSilver,
I haven't gotten into Karma big time yet. I think it's an important technology and I definately can see it's use in my music moving forward.

Rabid,
I really don't see the EXB-RADIUS to be inferior sonically to the Novation or Virus. I had the Novation SuperNova and it did alias as I recall. The RADIUS has a very clean oscillator tone all the way up. I always felt the Novation has a neat warm tone, but the presets were largely dependent on the FX section. I also have the Virus Indigo TDM plugin, but again don't hear it to be sonically superior to the RADIUS. Though the EXB might be lacking some features from the RADIUS keyboard, it gains four part multi-timbre, the M3 FX and KARMA. When you compare the EXB-RADIUS to the options for VA available on Kurzweil K2xxx, Fantom (none), Yamaha (PLG) or the Nord Stage, there really is no comparison in my book. The EXB is better sounding and more versatile.

Regarding the sequencer.
My understanding is that the sequencer is the same as the OASYS but with higher resolution. I seldom use the sequencers on any of these workstations (the sampler for me is far more important). I've been doing sequencing on the computer for over 20 years. Even today if I had the choice of using MOTU Performer 1.x on 20 year old B&W Mac or any these hardware sequencers, I'd take Performer in a heartbeat.

DAW Integration
The M3 is better integrated into the DAW world than the other ROMplers in a few significant ways.
1) As I pointing out above, you have the external setups which remap the controllers/pads to the various software plugins and applications.
2) KARMA. When you think about all the things you can do in a DAW, i.e. sampling, sequencing, great sounding soft synths, etc. one area that is weak is realtime arppegios or chord driven patterns (found in the arranger workstations). KARMA can be used to control not only internal but external synths as well, making it a great way to create and control these sophisticated arps while recording them in the DAW.

I haven't used the M3 Editor much and the Firewire option isn't available yet. I don't know how these will play out.

Busch.

I had the opportunity to hang out for a few days with Stephen Kay (Karma's father) at an industry conference a few years ago. I initially thought "Oh, Karma's just an arpegiator", but after watching him work with it, using both hardware and software interfaces, it proved to be a very cool thing, although IMHO somewhat stylized. That style isn't my thing, but I agree with Bill that there aren't many pieces of software (if any) out there that can do what Karma does.

BTW - Stephen is also a damned good singer, with a huge Billy Joel repertoire (we had a jam room at the conference where we could hang out and play at night).

Then hardware sequencers are of no use to you, but some people, like me, enjoy using hardware. I feel its more stable, can be more hands on and is more inspiring for me to use a hardware sequencer. for example this vid shows how fun hardware can be!