Surprised by the Korg PS 60

[bhodaway10]

After reading about Adan's post about trying out the Korg PS 60 on the Kurzweil SP4 thread, I tried it out yesterday at Guitar Center and was pleasantly surprised.

 

I then read the Keyboard magazine article here :

 

 

Keyboard's Review on the Korg PS 60

 

 

[video:youtube]

 

What I was most surprised how much I liked the action for a synth weighted keyboard. I've played the electro 2/3, m-audio synth actions, yamaha np 30, etc and the action on the korg felt really good.

 

[video:youtube]

 

Unfortunately, it was only hooked up to a small behringer combo amp but what I did hear was some pretty good acoustic pianos, tons of ep's, clavs, synths, basses, etc. It has a lot of organ sounds but none on the cx3 level unfortunately.

 

It was VERY easy to split the keyboard, transpose, etc and it's multitimbral with up to 6 voices. I'm imagining a SV1 with a synth section with this functionality. *hint hint*

 

Has anybody bought or used on yet?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Synthoid]

It's a decent backup or second keyboard. I assume it only has single programs but no combinations.

 

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I use combinations and/or setups in most of my music for complex textures, evolving pads, and all that sorta jazz.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Adan]

Brian, good to hear your opinion was much like mine. At first I dismissed it as strictly a "beginner's board," but I think it's more than that.

 

Very clever and novel user interface that makes setups quite easy. The keyboard feel/sound connection/dynamic control is surprisingly good. I like it better than other keyboards that might be considered competitors. For a synth action keyboard in this price range, it's pretty playable.

 

Very broad selection of sounds. Samples are not high quality, but would be useable in many situations. Lots of EPs and clavs to choose from. Synth sounds are quite good, which doesn't surprise me as I feel this one of Korg's strengths.

 

It does do combinations.

 

The Keyboard mag review seems a bit gushy, but not off the mark.

 

As I said in another post, I'm thinking of getting one as a rehearsal keyboard. I think it's got everything I need to get through most band rehearsals with one little 10 lb package. A purchase like that might not make sense for lots of folks, but I have such a hard time fitting rehearsals into my day, anything that makes that logistically easier is worth $$ to me.

[Synthoid]

It does do combinations.

 

That's good to hear. I did some searching and found a decent size photo of this keyboard. Seems Korg is referring to combinations as "performances" with the PS60.

 

 

[Dana.]

Surprised at the love for the action on this thing. It felt like caca doodoo to me.

[Adan]

You can have up to 12 voices concurrently in a performance, up to 6 layered on each side of the split. It appears that you cannot layer voices from the same category, so you cannot layer a synth with another synth. But maybe there's an exception to that if you can save voices from one category into another (?).

 

There are only 20 performance save slots, which seems to me to be a pretty serious limitation. However, you could work around that to some extent by activating/de-activiting certain voices within a performance.

[bhodaway10]

Very broad selection of sounds. Samples are not high quality, but would be useable in many situations. Lots of EPs and clavs to choose from. Synth sounds are quite good, which doesn't surprise me as I feel this one of Korg's strengths.

 

 

I was looking into a few of the korg synths and I don't really like the mini keys or the # of keys.

 

Adan, could you expand on what you were saying about the samples not being hi quality? Would you not use them on a gig?

 

 

[AnotherScott]

What I was most surprised how much I liked the action for a synth weighted keyboard. I've played the electro 2/3, m-audio synth actions, yamaha np 30, etc and the action on the korg felt really good.

Did you feel it felt at least as good as the NP-30's specifically for playing piano?

 

It is an impressive looking piece, a lot for the money, and well-designed in terms of usability. Possibly a kind of "poor man's SP4" as alluded to in that other thread... though I expect the SP4 will still have the edge in the quality of the sounds (along with the 76 keys, more MIDI controller functionality, KB3 organ)... but wow, 10 pounds! And fully editable, too.

[Adan]

Surprised at the love for the action on this thing. It felt like caca doodoo to me.

 

"Love" is such a strong word. I just think it's good for it's class, which would include stuff like the Roland Juno, Yammy mini-mo, and the Korg X50. None of these boards have great action. I think what typifies the class is getting a fair amount of power in a lightweight and relatively cheap package. The primary non-bang for the buck is the physical construction. The PS60 just seems a little better to me, within it's class.

[bhodaway10]

I don't want to oversell the action on Korg. It was good for a non weighted keyboard. I've used a np-30 a lot of times for rehearsals and even for a gig or two. The AP on it is highly usable. I would say the Korg is better because it is a little bit more springy and of course, there is more sounds (including a mono piano supposedly).

 

I had no expectations of the board so that's probably why I thought highly of it.

 

 

 

[Dana.]

Lesser of several evils, then.

[AnotherScott]

I've used a np-30 a lot of times for rehearsals and even for a gig or two. The AP on it is highly usable. I would say the Korg is better because it is a little bit more springy

Hmmm... I'm not sure more springiness is what the NP-30 needs... I think the greater "springiness" is why I find the Nord Electro 3 keyboard inferior to the NP-30 (for piano).

[Tomkeen]

Surprised at the love for the action on this thing. It felt like caca doodoo to me.

 

The whole board felt like crap to me...

[Adan]

Well, for me, it would be a tool in my toolset. I have some great keyboards at home. But I find that, often, bringing them to rehearsal is a waste of time and effort, because nobody needs to hear my great keyboards at rehearsal. Not even me. And it's a big PITA to bring them there on a Tuesday night. All we need to hear something that sounds kind of like a piano, an organ, a moog, etc ...

 

There's a bunch of budget boards that can do this. The PS60 is a new entry in the field and brings some new twists as far as user interface, I thought it merited some discussion. I certainly didn't mean to ruin anybody's day

[Synthoid]

Well, for me, it would be a tool in my toolset. I have some great keyboards at home. But I find that, often, bringing them to rehearsal is a waste of time and effort, because nobody needs to hear my great keyboards at rehearsal. Not even me. And it's a big PITA to bring them there on a Tuesday night. All we need to hear something that sounds kind of like a piano, an organ, a moog, etc

 

I'd like to have something to leave at rehearsals as well. Not sure if this keyboard would fit the bill or not.

[zxcvbnm098]

I'm assuming this has an external power supply though, correct? That's the one bummer of these boards for me....

[Synthoid]

I'm assuming this has an external power supply though, correct? That's the one bummer of these boards for me....

 

+1

 

I despise those things. About 7 years ago I lost a "wall wart" when returning from a gig. It accidentally got mixed in with some cables and was packed away in a box... took forever to find that $%#& thing.

 

[yannis D]

Well, for me, it would be a tool in my toolset. I have some great keyboards at home. But I find that, often, bringing them to rehearsal is a waste of time and effort, because nobody needs to hear my great keyboards at rehearsal. Not even me. And it's a big PITA to bring them there on a Tuesday night. All we need to hear something that sounds kind of like a piano, an organ, a moog, etc ...

 

There's a bunch of budget boards that can do this. The PS60 is a new entry in the field and brings some new twists as far as user interface, I thought it merited some discussion. I certainly didn't mean to ruin anybody's day

 

Adan, this is my thought 100%... This "not even me" kills me but it's true to the bones. I believe this little Korg -which i tried some days ago- could do the rehearsal job and be a second (even a 1st) keyboard for a gig.

[AnotherScott]

I'm assuming this has an external power supply though, correct? That's the one bummer of these boards for me....

 

+1

 

I despise those things. About 7 years ago I lost a "wall wart" when returning from a gig. It accidentally got mixed in with some cables and was packed away in a box... took forever to find that $%#& thing.

 

Yes... and if they get lost or dropped, or their typically ridiculously thin wiring gets frayed, you're not likely to be carrying spares for all your wall warts as you probably do extra regular power cables.

 

I understand the need for wall warts... internal power supplies have more design considerations... keeping them far away from the rest of the electronics means less chance of creating hum/noise in the signal path, less need for shielding, it simplifies design and lowers overall size and weight (and I think makes it easier to meet regulations). It also makes it easier to design a cost-effective single unit that can be marketed internationally.

 

It wouldn't be so bad if the industry could just standardize on some small number of adapters, but they can't even agree on whether they should be center positive or center negative, much less standardize on a connector. There should be, at most, 3 standard wall warts... a 5v, a 9v, and a 12v, each with its own connector so you can't put the wrong voltage in the wrong one. They should standardize on polarity. And then the units' manufacturers should just tell you the minimum amperage needed, and as long as you connected an adapter with at least that amperage, it would work.

 

At least some companies do give you the specs, so when something gets lost or fried, you can figure out which pieces can substitute. The worst are companies (Yamaha and Roland, I think?) whose manuals don't give you the specs, but simply tell you that you must use their own brand of adapter to make sure it works. What BS.

[Adan]

Bumping this thread to report that I bought one of these a few weeks ago. The primary use will be as a rehearsal keyboard. At 10 lbs and small footprint, it will greatly ease the logistics of rehearsals. For 95% of my rehearsals, I don't need my best sounds, I just need a fascimile of them. And I will probably use it for shows at some point, maybe for the synth sounds.

 

As noted above, the Keyboard Mag gave this little guy a great review. I think the review is a little over the top, but I mostly agree with it. The key action is noticeably better than some other boards in the same price range, such as the Juno. Definitely moves it from "unplayable" to "playable" even for ac.piano sounds. The interface is really nice, and also lends itself well to rehearsals, where you might be messing around and want to change sounds quickly without going into menus.

 

Synth patches are the forte for this board, and are the part of it I could most easily imagine using for shows.

 

My greatest frustration is having only 20 performance slots. But the ease of creating and changing performances compensates for that.

 

In short, the PS60 is doing pretty much what I expected it to do before buying it.

 

I can even carry it on my motorcycle.

[Tush]

Hey plz help can i get Patches of indian instruments loke sitar, santoor for my KoRG PS60....

[Doug Robinson]

I'll tell you what--I love the fact that the transpose and octave and other buttons are on the left side, and I'm not sure why more manufacturers haven't done that. I played my first concert last night with my new Hammond SK1--a beauty--but so much of what I needed to do, like changing effects or patches, required my right hand and honestly my right hand is a LOT busier onstage than my left!