Triton Extreme - a Blue Meanie or just more marketing ?

[ChrisMcCoy]

I just got back from my lunch hour trip to the local guitar center.
I spent my visit checking out Tritons.
I have to give Korg Credit for finding a new way to market the Triton product. After comparing the Triton, Triton Le, and the Triton Extreme, I had a hard time noticing a major improvement in the Extreme. The little blue light in the tube case is cute, but that's about it.
I tried several patches and really didn't see much value to adding the tube. It's a nice idea on paper but sonically, it honestly didn't impress me nearly as much as I had hoped. Maybe it's just the monitors the Tritons were connected to, who knows. While I was there, I also decided to ask about Kurzweil, and when I did, I got a line from the sales guy about the company's "financial difficulty". Interestingly, there were 2 used Kurzweil floor model 2500's that were left on display both had disk load errors on the screen. Probably not a coincidence, but who knows. :roll:

[Liquid Shadow]

I noticed a lot of subtle improvements. The pianos (and pretty much everything for that matter) have been improved upon enough to make a difference, at least to my ears. The tube technology really impressed me, so I wonder if it was just bad monitors. I've never heard such a realistic sounding guitar lead or better distortion on hammond patches (except for a real hammond of course) from any synth before.

[Tusker]

Never been a fan of the Tritons. The "Blue Meanie" is quite attractive sounding, except for the famously brassy Korg pianos. (I hate marketing the rip off the Arp 2600 though.)

The tube stuff ... I thought it was a gimmick, but it works. Reduces the need for an Electro in many of the departments (rhodes, clav). As good as the Roland COSM effects are, I know I would take the Korg tube with it's few sounds over the range of amps the Fantom X has. The B3 samples and leslie, well let's say, I still don't care for them, which is unusual considering I love the Korg B3 emulator. It's time for that to appear as a plug-in board, like the MOSS board.

As to the tube, I found it easy to dial in a range of influence from warm to snarly on most sounds. Musta been the monitor's Chris. :P It's great to have the gain controls right in front of you, and not have to reach for a pre-amp on the floor or in the rack. It's making me think seriously about a Korg. The main criticism I've had of most romplers, is their plastic sound. The tube does a lot to help that. I can't comment on the sampling and most of the rom, because I got so distracted by the tube.

There is a review by Steve Fortner in the current Keyboard.

Best,

Jerry

[Enigma™]

Interestingly, there were 2 used Kurzweil floor model 2500's that were left on display both had disk load errors on the screen. Probably not a coincidence, but who knows. :roll:

Anytime a disk isn't able to be read, meaning floppy disk, etc.. it says that. Has nothing to do with the Kurzweil not working, it's people who don't know how to work Kurzweil's ;)

[Tigerfolly]

I just got back from my lunch hour trip to the local guitar center.
I spent my visit checking out Tritons.
I have to give Korg Credit for finding a new way to market the Triton product. After comparing the Triton, Triton Le, and the Triton Extreme, I had a hard time noticing a major improvement in the Extreme. The little blue light in the tube case is cute, but that's about it.
I tried several patches and really didn't see much value to adding the tube. It's a nice idea on paper but sonically, it honestly didn't impress me nearly as much as I had hoped. Maybe it's just the monitors the Tritons were connected to, who knows. While I was there, I also decided to ask about Kurzweil, and when I did, I got a line from the sales guy about the company's "financial difficulty". Interestingly, there were 2 used Kurzweil floor model 2500's that were left on display both had disk load errors on the screen. Probably not a coincidence, but who knows. :roll:

Having been an ex-Guitar Center employee, I can say with all confidance that the sales staff there probably knows absolutely nothing about those Kurzweils. At my store, we had -one- K2600XS fully-loaded, and I was the only one there who knew anything about it.. and I'll be honest, I don't know all that much about 'em. I never my own Kurzweil at home to noodle with and get familiar with, so I just had a base knowledge of how to get around on the unit and do a few little tricks.. but even my regional manager knew very little about them. There were always stories going around, and of course.. when you're dealing with musicians AND salesmen, you get twice the amount of ignorant opinions spoken as if they were absolute fact.

It's a shame, because I never had a customer interested in the Kurzweils, and nobody else knew enough about them to even properly show a customer how to navigate around it. All of the other companies had reps that would show you anything you wanted to know.. My Korg and Roland reps were absolutely outstanding, and although the Yamaha rep wasn't always around, we were never lacking because our store was the Motif powerhouse of the Midwest ;) and the other managers all knew it inside and out. Other companies, like EMU, had horrible reps. I never met a Kurzweil rep.. but my store proudly proclaimed that it was a Kurzweil dealer.

But back to the original point: I can hear a little difference in the new Triton. Here's something to keep in mind when you're checking out keyboards: Look at the master EQ and the EQ settings for each patch. That big (16mb) Bosendorfer grand piano sample that they made a big deal about, put into the Triton Studio and in the PCM08 chip? Up to 7db of EQ boost on it. If it sounds so good, why is it radically EQ'd? Because it's going to be hooked up to shitty (possibly even blown) monitors, and to try and make it stand out and catch your ear quicker. So, check those EQ settings, make 'em flat, and THEN see what they sound like. There's nothing like getting a keyboard, working with it to try and get sounds that you like, and finding that you need just one more layer in order to get that perfect Wurly crossfade, or that perfect depth and smoothness to your lead tone, or one more effect processor so you can have distortion, delay, modulation, AND a big reverb on it..

The new Triton is nice, but I like to think of it analogous to cars: Sometimes, a car manufacturer makes some serious changes in a model, and it's a brand new version of that car.. and sometimes, they just add a couple little features, maybe paint it a new color, and put more time into the next model. The Triton Extreme is a couple new things to hold you over until the next big thing.. they're directly competing with the sound quality of the Motif now, so the next generation should be amazing.. let's just hope it's next year, and not a couple years away.