lezales
10-21-2010, 01:47 AM
Hey everyone.
I've bought my Korg M50 more than two month ago. It was a huge upgrade for me as my old keyboard was an old Yamaha Psr-620 1995. So the step was huge and I had to learn a lot of things but I eventually managed to use most of the features of my board and to compare them with other keyboards. So for anyone interested at some point in this keyboard here's my review.
~
I'll start by talking about the resistance, quality and look of the actual keyboard. As I got the 66 keys version I can easily say this is the lightest keyboard I've moved around. It weights almost nothing, takes very small place and is easily transported from A to B. Great gig keyboard.
A lot of people gave this keyboard bad reviews concerning the solidity saying it felt cheap and fragile. I strongly disagree. Of course I wouldn't throw it down the staircase but I don't feel like any event "non-major" would cause any important damages. I've actually transported the keyboard twice a day for 3 month and I think the only damage that occurred is a little scarth on the side. As for the look, it's all personal, but I find the look of the keyboard very kick ass and it defiantly has a small "unique" look that makes him different from other Korg stuff.
~
Now the interface. Two words : touch screen. It's so wonderful. First of all the interface is really well thought. In a matter of a few hours you get the basics of navigating through the Korg interface and you can guess the rest as it all follows the same basics. Such a great interface coupled with a reactive and adjustable touch screen makes working with the M50 a charm. I've tested quite a few keyboard lately and the M50 has the best interface/easiness to use I've seen.
~
Concerning the actual features of the board, that's where it becomes tricky. I'm by no means an expert and I'm judging this with my modest experience with "high-level" keyboards. Judging everything would be too long so I'll just say here things I feel are missing or things that are not very cool in my opinion.
First of all the keyboard lack any way to organize some "favorite" sounds or a simple way to access to your sounds. I have to create a combi for each sound I use in a song and if I alternate between two sounds by example then I may end up using 12 or 15 combis for one song. This leads to the second negative point: too few free spaces. We got one empty bank which gives 128 combis. I may end up deleting combis from other banks. I feel the keyboard is missing a "Master volume" option for combis. For example in one song I got this very simple strings sound and I also use a lead sound very similar to Jordan Rudess one with a lot of patches stacked. This leads to the lead sound volume being WAY higher to the strings one. And if I manually lower the volumes of all the patches of the lead in the mixer with the option to "hold the balance" of volume between the timbres the actual sound of the lead still changes drastically. A small "Master volume" option for each combis would have been very appreciated.
For the physical features, as I said the touch screen is marvelous, the joystick is great feels natural and everything. The chord buttons are very useful. I didn't play that much with the arpegiator but it seems quite powerful. I've been able to program some complex riffs on arpeggios. Of course this board doesn't offer Aftertouch (it does via midi connection with a computer though) or a sampler. But those options are definatly not a must for everyone. The media mode is great, it's very simple and efficient with the touch screen to load, save and move patches on your SD cards.
~
The most important; the sounds. I have to say that for a keyboard that cost roughly 1000,00$ CAN/US the sounds it offers are incredible. The thing is this keyboard use the same synth engine as it's older brother the M3. And it has been proven, even if the M3 offers way more preset sounds, the ones present on both workstations sounds EXACTLY THE SAME. With my band my M50 is plugged in two huge 500 watt speakers and sometimes we love to pump the volume and just enjoy the crystal clear quality of some sounds.
Now I'll just tell my opinion about each category of sounds.
-Keyboards: Acoustic Pianos sounds ok. Not great, not bad just ok. Electric pianos and organs are a little underpar in my opinions. Some of them are great but most of them are not that great.
-Guitars: Eww I gotta admit the guitars doesn't sound very good. They all sound very MIDI-like and most of the electric guitars are awful. Worst category.
-Bass: I actually like the sound of the bass. Sometimes my bassist can't do the difference between the keyboard and it's bass.
-Brass: As for the pianos, they're ok. Not bad not great.
-Strings/Pads: Ok in my opinion this is where this board shines. A lot of the presets sounds so great. I've played a bit with strings and pads sound and created some awesome patches. Crystal clear sound. Angelic Pads. The sound is so pure and sometimes so powerful. They sound wonderful.
-Synth/Leads: They sound good. The presets aren't that great. But I've been able to see what the M50 can produce with a little tweaking. Great possibilities.
-SFX: There is a nice load of SFX there. I don't really use them but some are wonderful (Jetplane launching !) and some are horribles (gunshot).
Overall even if some patches are very weak in comparison to the rest I can safely say that the sounds on the M50 are incredible. And even more for such a low price.
~
In conclusion I think this is a wonderful workstation. I do not regret buying the M50 at all. Of course there's a few black spots and the lack of aftertouch and sampler can be frustrating. But what you pay for when you pay for the M50 is some astonishing sounds for a keyboard of that price, portability, easiness-to-use and the touch screen !
People having the income to get higher ends keyboards like the PC3X, the M3 or the Motif have no interest at all in this keyboard. But for peoples that cannot afford to pay 2000$ for a new keyboard I think the M50 is the best option out there.
I've bought my Korg M50 more than two month ago. It was a huge upgrade for me as my old keyboard was an old Yamaha Psr-620 1995. So the step was huge and I had to learn a lot of things but I eventually managed to use most of the features of my board and to compare them with other keyboards. So for anyone interested at some point in this keyboard here's my review.
~
I'll start by talking about the resistance, quality and look of the actual keyboard. As I got the 66 keys version I can easily say this is the lightest keyboard I've moved around. It weights almost nothing, takes very small place and is easily transported from A to B. Great gig keyboard.
A lot of people gave this keyboard bad reviews concerning the solidity saying it felt cheap and fragile. I strongly disagree. Of course I wouldn't throw it down the staircase but I don't feel like any event "non-major" would cause any important damages. I've actually transported the keyboard twice a day for 3 month and I think the only damage that occurred is a little scarth on the side. As for the look, it's all personal, but I find the look of the keyboard very kick ass and it defiantly has a small "unique" look that makes him different from other Korg stuff.
~
Now the interface. Two words : touch screen. It's so wonderful. First of all the interface is really well thought. In a matter of a few hours you get the basics of navigating through the Korg interface and you can guess the rest as it all follows the same basics. Such a great interface coupled with a reactive and adjustable touch screen makes working with the M50 a charm. I've tested quite a few keyboard lately and the M50 has the best interface/easiness to use I've seen.
~
Concerning the actual features of the board, that's where it becomes tricky. I'm by no means an expert and I'm judging this with my modest experience with "high-level" keyboards. Judging everything would be too long so I'll just say here things I feel are missing or things that are not very cool in my opinion.
First of all the keyboard lack any way to organize some "favorite" sounds or a simple way to access to your sounds. I have to create a combi for each sound I use in a song and if I alternate between two sounds by example then I may end up using 12 or 15 combis for one song. This leads to the second negative point: too few free spaces. We got one empty bank which gives 128 combis. I may end up deleting combis from other banks. I feel the keyboard is missing a "Master volume" option for combis. For example in one song I got this very simple strings sound and I also use a lead sound very similar to Jordan Rudess one with a lot of patches stacked. This leads to the lead sound volume being WAY higher to the strings one. And if I manually lower the volumes of all the patches of the lead in the mixer with the option to "hold the balance" of volume between the timbres the actual sound of the lead still changes drastically. A small "Master volume" option for each combis would have been very appreciated.
For the physical features, as I said the touch screen is marvelous, the joystick is great feels natural and everything. The chord buttons are very useful. I didn't play that much with the arpegiator but it seems quite powerful. I've been able to program some complex riffs on arpeggios. Of course this board doesn't offer Aftertouch (it does via midi connection with a computer though) or a sampler. But those options are definatly not a must for everyone. The media mode is great, it's very simple and efficient with the touch screen to load, save and move patches on your SD cards.
~
The most important; the sounds. I have to say that for a keyboard that cost roughly 1000,00$ CAN/US the sounds it offers are incredible. The thing is this keyboard use the same synth engine as it's older brother the M3. And it has been proven, even if the M3 offers way more preset sounds, the ones present on both workstations sounds EXACTLY THE SAME. With my band my M50 is plugged in two huge 500 watt speakers and sometimes we love to pump the volume and just enjoy the crystal clear quality of some sounds.
Now I'll just tell my opinion about each category of sounds.
-Keyboards: Acoustic Pianos sounds ok. Not great, not bad just ok. Electric pianos and organs are a little underpar in my opinions. Some of them are great but most of them are not that great.
-Guitars: Eww I gotta admit the guitars doesn't sound very good. They all sound very MIDI-like and most of the electric guitars are awful. Worst category.
-Bass: I actually like the sound of the bass. Sometimes my bassist can't do the difference between the keyboard and it's bass.
-Brass: As for the pianos, they're ok. Not bad not great.
-Strings/Pads: Ok in my opinion this is where this board shines. A lot of the presets sounds so great. I've played a bit with strings and pads sound and created some awesome patches. Crystal clear sound. Angelic Pads. The sound is so pure and sometimes so powerful. They sound wonderful.
-Synth/Leads: They sound good. The presets aren't that great. But I've been able to see what the M50 can produce with a little tweaking. Great possibilities.
-SFX: There is a nice load of SFX there. I don't really use them but some are wonderful (Jetplane launching !) and some are horribles (gunshot).
Overall even if some patches are very weak in comparison to the rest I can safely say that the sounds on the M50 are incredible. And even more for such a low price.
~
In conclusion I think this is a wonderful workstation. I do not regret buying the M50 at all. Of course there's a few black spots and the lack of aftertouch and sampler can be frustrating. But what you pay for when you pay for the M50 is some astonishing sounds for a keyboard of that price, portability, easiness-to-use and the touch screen !
People having the income to get higher ends keyboards like the PC3X, the M3 or the Motif have no interest at all in this keyboard. But for peoples that cannot afford to pay 2000$ for a new keyboard I think the M50 is the best option out there.