Paul Woodward

I realise Korg want to keep their platforms separate, but Gadget offers all the sounds (adds in your other main app purchases as plug ins) which makes buying stuff like iM1 and IMS-20 additions to your Korg ‘ecosystem’ and accessible in one app. It even brings in the main Module sound engines (piano, organ etc.), but it’s still setup for use as a DAW. I can work around it but much prefer the setup of Module for live sets. Unfortunately, it only allows the sound sets Korg release (at additional cost) and doesn’t give any value to those other apps purchased as they can’t be used. They really need the option of adding in other Korg sounds engines/apps you own. Essentially a live version of Gadget. They would probably find it easier to adapt Gadget to this purpose, rather than develop Module but hey ho. Here’s hoping. Fair to say, Korg have nailed the iPad iPhone app market for big name synths and even a decent DAW. Back to the original topic, might have to give this new synth a whirl.

I was looking through the App Store last night to see what major manufacturers offer for iPad. Really, Korg have the market here despite Yamaha having more ‘apps’, they just have loads of control type apps while Korg recreate their classic instruments. There was very little available from Roland, Arturia, Kurzweil etc. and I wondered why Nord offered nothing… I guess this is as near as we get to one 🙂

Saw this last night and thought ‘do I need yet another synth?’, but it sounds great and £4.99 hardly buys a coffee nowadays.

Funny you should post this, I just purchased the M1 app and had great fun revisiting the sounds of the 80’s that I lusted after but never owned the hardware. Now it’s recreated and improved in a £15 app on an iPad. Gotta love Korg and their continuous development of affordable apps based on classic hardware.

My Roland W30 got used to death on stage and in the studio back in the day. Don't think any other keyboard has been as useful overall as that. I seem to have just dabbled with stuff since.

Ouch, my M2 iPad Pro absolutely flies, but it doesn't full programs so I see what you mean 👍

Perhaps they know that could potentially decimate sales of the new keyboard.....

I have a few Arturia soft synths and Pigments as well as the Korg Collection, Sylenth and more. I use them in the DAW at home quite happily so it has no appeal on that level. If I gig I have all the synths (and bread and butter sounds) I need on an iPad which I can run with greater poly and more layers from a board like the Keystage with Poly AT paired with a stage piano for the better keys/pianos. I realise I'm not their target audience, but I do struggle to see how I would find a genuine use for this. Watching Woody's revisit after the initial launch, I thought much the same as he did...its an expensive enigma. I think it would need more poly, more splits/layers, more controls, bigger screen and a better keybed to justify it's current price tag, or it needs to be sub £1k with all the software options included to be a tempting proposition especially as an iPad and a Keystage offers a 10" touch screen, numerous sounfd engines (and poly) with 61 key Poly AT for half the price. Alas I cant operate my central heating from the iPad 😉 I realise I'm a bit iPad biased there of course 😜

I think Nest is a bit bigger 😉

French design....ever driven a Citroen?

I was just thinking how I can recreate what it's offering (in the studio) with what I already have 😉

Looking at the product page, seems you get Analog Lab,but the others look to be additional purchases. I find the Arturia product pages favour promo over specs.

Well that was disappointing

1600 euros with that tiny interface, just one split or layer, no poly aftertouch. That's a hard sell to anyone who isn't fully invested into the Arturia ecosystem. I have Pigment which I got for £50 and Analog Lab paired with a Korg Keystage. If you don't gig, can't see the benefits here and, even if you do, a MacBook and controller is a more flexible and much cheaper option. Feels very 'old' in specs despite all the cutting edge hyperbole..and was that the worst green screen video since the 70's?

Hmmm, that dial/screen is tiny

I use the same pedal and played the new Oasys piano and some others in Module. Never noticed anything out of the ordinary...but then again, didn't try switching octaves.

Grain is too well matched for a laminate so I guess it's just a glossy finish.

On a different note, I read somewhere that the end cheeks were a cheap laminate. Probably just someone being negative, but they are solid wood.

I like it, but £30? There is a 50% sale so can only assume that's the full price if it's on sale at £14.99. That is expensive for one quite old piano sample.

I had to think about that for a moment, tried to work out how you can load Module twice on an iPad with a Korg Keystage 😉

How hard is it to allow their own apps to be loaded into Module Pro and leave basic Module as a preset machine? It works like that in Gadget, and it’s not going to lose them money as you still buy the individual apps. It’s better than the ‘doctored’ expansion approach (yes, looking at you Triton) that they take with these optional sound sets. Wouldn't need to have a full interface to edit the sounds within Module, you could just load up the sounds from the app like you choose an engine now. If you needed to tweak them, open the app and save. Simples.

Proof, as ever, that pianos are very personal. I bought the ivory expansion, but never really preferred it to the inbuilt pianos in Module. I fired up the Oasys piano demo and found it very playable for my style. It’s quite bottom heavy, but a fuller sound suiting rock piano playing IMO. I layered it with some other sounds and can see how it would cut through nicely in a mix. I love the Grandstage pianos which are from the Kronos. These were likely developed from the Oasys German piano which is probably why I took to it. There is a sort of ‘GS’ sound and response to it that I can’t explain, but I feel it. £15 is a bit much for one piano sound from an almost 20 year old keyboard, especially when there is a 50% sale on Korg apps (is this really not discounted, or £30 full price?). Will see what else is released, but I could certainly make use of it. Interestingly, the original was 504mb of sample memory which exceeded the available 1gb RAM if loaded with the other PCM sounds, so it was an optional expansion (EXs2) and the Module extension is exactly the same size.

But they do sound great, and the Grandstage scratched my itch to get a(nother) Kronos. Now, if they bundled the sounds of an Oasys or Kronos into a £30 app, I would happily buy it as a ‘sound module’. It will never happen of course, when they can sell the engines for £25 each. Essentially, your iPad becomes the ‘Kronos’ with you buying whichever parts of it you want. Take away the workstation features, and that is essentially what Module is (was) on a mobile platform, or it would be if it integrated those other apps like Gadget does. Milking seems to be a common business plan for many companies who had successful products. Korg are doing it with just about every decent board produced for decades and it’s working reasonably well for them. Triton/Trinity remains inevitable for IOS, as it’s already in the Korg Collection. Mono/poly, Polysix, MS20, ARP Odyssey, M1, Wavestation are already on both platforms. If people want the sound of, say, an M1 made as authentic as possible by the original manufacturer adding to their favourite board for £15, why not?

Any thoughts on what engines from the Oasys would be of real benefit to Module

No idea, just hoping it’s a sign of things to come and we get more engines in Module. They sound decent enough, but it’s not something I have ever heard of being a ‘must have’. Might have been a joke if there wasn’t a £14.99 price tag.