I just snagged a used, mint King Korg, so I thought I would contribute a small review. One disclaimer is that I'm probably in a "Honeymoon" period with it.
PROs
Right off, in my humble opinion, I think the King Korg sounds awesome. Its warm, juicy, but not too juicy. From the demos I heard of the Radias, for example, it sounded a bit too "wet" to my ears. The KK has a nice balance of presence, crispness and grunge. The sound "pro" is obviously the most important factor when considering a synth; I loved the Roland Gaia's interface and looks, but I didn't keep it, because the sound was such a snooze.
The tube definitely brings something to the party. At first blush, I though the fact the grunge and EQ are global, and not save-able would be a negative, but actually, it makes some sense; the tube/EQ combo to customize YOUR general sound for the entire synth.
The variety of waves is really impressive. Obviously there aren't the thousands you might get in a Kurzweil, but sometimes having too many waves leads to being overwhelmed by choices. The source sounds were well curated. I'm a fan of digital sounds, so it's awesome they included a nice variety of those, in addition to the run of the mill analog waves.
The filters are superb. Without broaching the topic of authenticity, they just offer a variety of nice sounding filters. On some other synths, like my JV2080 for example, I feel like differences in filters are pretty subtle. On the KK, they definitely affect character.
Knobs! They make synthesizing a lot of fun. There are some compromises, like dual duty ADSRs, but on the whole the knobs make this synth a whole lot of fun to play and program.
In the grey area between pros and cons are the the keys. A lot of earlier posts on the matter express vitriol towards the keys. However, I think they are totally fine. Not great, but not bad either.
In fact, I had an Oberheim OB8 which sounded magical, but I grew to hate it because the keybed was so atrocious. I think the KK has a superior keybed to OB8, or even my Moog Little Phatty. But key beds are totally personal preference, so I can dig that some folks may hate it.
CONS
Knobs! Here are some of the compromises.
Personally, I think they should have included a real "mix" section with a level knob for each of the 3 oscillators. Currently, you have to "shift" and then turn "tune(level)" knob which requires two hands and can't really be done while playing.
Some menu diving is required, notably for setting up modulations. This is understandable. However, it's a minor annoyance to have to page through a dozen options, make the connection, then turn the "LFO rate" or some other knob, and then have the page change, and have to page through them all AGAIN. (that paragraph may not make any sense if you haven't actually done it, BTW.)
As noted elsewhere, the entire layout of the synth seems somehow backwards. This depends on which knobs you prefer to twist while playing.
My specific gripe though regards the placement of the mini-screens and their accompanying knobs. Let's say you want to try out each of the filters. If you're the average person, and you use your right hand to turn the "filter" knob, then your right hand will be blocking the "filter" mini display. To deal with this, you can use your left hand to turn the knob (-insert juvenile wisecrack here-) but this feels very strange ergonomically. This is really a very tiny grievance, but one worth mentioning.
As someone who owns a Little Phatty, I have some second hand embarrassment regarding the name. It's silly. I can dig "playful" but I can not dig "silly." Even the Fizmo is a better name. From a graphic design stand point, even, the fact that the word "korg" appears twice seems bizarre to me. If you're going to call it the King Korg, just call it the King Korg. Why's it have to be the KORG KingKorg. Ugh!
Big picture, I really like the King Korg. It really inspires me! It has a great, organic sound and a nice response when you lay hands on it. The King Korg also feels like a focused instrument, rather than a jack of all trades trying to do everything at once.
My live rig currently is principally organ + synth modules. I hope Korg releases a desktop or rack version, so I can integrate it into my live setup. If the new electribe can match the full KK sound wise, I'd be hip to that too.
Anyways, just thought I'd share my thoughts on the King Korg. Thanks!
