I'm totally into KORG keyboards. I have a N364, TrinityProX, Triton and Karma. The Karma is my latest toy and I absolutely love it, even though it works better in the studio than in live situations. Karma is the red one and it has endless possibilities to create music - from metal through film music up to shampoo advertisments. I have been using the N364 for ages and thought it was time to expand the visions and it has a very special place in my heart. It was the first instrument I ever bought, my dad lending me the money. All the songs on the Oceanborn were made with that keyboard only.
N364 - 61 Key Music Workstation
Let's face it, a musical instrument is only as good as its sounds; and themmore the merrier. The new N264 and N364 are absolutely brimming with 936 programs and combos based on 8MB of PCM ROM featuring 430 Multisounds and 215 drum sounds. And the N-Series sounds rely on Korg's renowned AI2 Synthesis System, the same system that's found in the 01/W and X-Series Music Workstations.
Whether you're creating complex sequences or using rich layers of sound, the new N-Series with 64-note polyphony can keep up.
RPPR, Real-time Pattern Play and Record,lets you record and save musical phrases and ideas as patterns. You can play a pattern back by simply pressing the key you've assigned it to.
The N-series has 100 RPPR pattern memory locations. Use the ones that come from the factory (we think they're pretty cool), edit them, or create your own. You can even store RPPR patterns on a floppy.
Sound Generation Method: AI2 (Advanced Integrated) Synthesis System
Sound Source: 64 voices, 64 oscillators (single mode); 32 voices, 64 oscillators (double mode)
Waveform Memory: PCM 8Mbytes Effects: 2 digital multi-effect systems, 47 effects
Program/Combination: ROM 200 programs + GM 128 Programs + 8 drum programs/200 combinations; RAM 200 programs/200 combinations
Arpeggiator: 5 types, 4 octaves
Sequencer Section: 10 songs, 100 patterns, maximum 32,000 notes, 16 tracks, 16 timbres (Dynamic Voice Allocation)
Real-time Pattern Play and Record: 100 patterns, 10 pattern sets, 60 pattern assignments per set Floppy Disk Drive: 3.5 inch 2HD/2DD
Trinity ProX - 88 note keyboard
The Trinity was a major break-through synthesizer for Korg. It is a beautiful, state of the art and superb sounding music workstation which first appeared in 1995. Its most notable new feature to the synthesizer industry is the super-cool
320 x 240 TouchView Graphical User Interface... which is also the heart of the instrument! This workstation seamlessly combines excellent digital sounds, in-depth yet intuitive programming, real-time controllers, upward expandability and elegant design to create the perfect all-around synthesizer.
The Trinity's sounds come out of a 24MB ROM chip with 48kHz multi-samples of about 375 sounds and 258 drums. You can even add an expansion board of Prophecy sounds and Z1 sounds! There's a good digital multi-mode filter with hi/low/band pass, band reject, resonance and more. There's also 110 effects for adding life to your sounds...up to 8 simultaneous insert effects and 2 master effects.
The Trinity has an excellent on-board sequencer allowing it to be the center of your music studio...it's that good! And it's fun to use the touch-screen. It's a 16-track sequencer with an 80,000 note capacity, 100 patterns and 20 songs. With the 32 voices and plenty of drum sounds, you can use the Trinity as your all-in-one music studio! Great in the studio, or live there are plenty of real-time controllers including a Joystick, Ribbon controller and 2 assignable knobs and multiple sound outputs. Expandability includes a SCSI port, Internal Hard Disk Recording, 8Mb Flash Rom Playback-Sampler Option (which reads all KORG and Akai sound libraries), Digital ADAT I/O option and the SOLO-TRI Prophecy expansion board.
And now for the history... The Trinity was released in 1995 and had a mere 8 MB sample ROM and lacked most the features described above, but was just as expandable. Then, in 1996 the sample ROM was upped to 24 MB and the Prophecy sounds were included in the Trinity Plus. Following that came the Trinity Pro which is basically the same as the Plus but has a full 76 note keyboard. And if that wasn't enough there's always the Trinity ProX which has 88 keys! And then came the V3 series in 1998 (with its own entourage of Pro and ProX keyboards). The Trinity V3 (pictured above) added all the guts and glory of the Korg Z1 for even more outstanding musical sounds! The benefit of the Prophecy and Z1 features is MOSS, Korg's physical-modeling technique that made the Prophecy famous! The V3 or Z1 MOSS board can be added to the older Trinity models. At last it can be said that the final Trinity is the new Triton, released in 1999.
TRIRON - 61 Key Music Workstation Sampler
The Triton is Korg's latest flagship workstation synthesizer for professional music production! It looks and sounds beautiful, and hiding under the hood is an extremely souped-up synth-engine ready to tear up your tracks! Literally! It is
a digital 62-voice synthesizer with built-in sequencing and arpeggiators and an
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ultra-large touch-screen control panel at the center of its face-plate.
The Triton is in-fact an evolved Trinity...Korg's previous flagship workstation. Whereas the Trinity was capable of 32-note polyphony, the Triton now boasts 62! Waveform ROM has been expanded as well, now with 32MB of multi-sample sounds that sound crystal clear and quite warm. With these samples and the Triton's in-depth programmability you can create pretty much any sounds, from an orchestral flute with life-like vibrato to all-out chord-stabs with filtering for dance-floor house music, complete with beats and cool arpeggio patterns and phrases.
Also on-board is a stereo-sampler. With 16MB RAM and space for up to 1,000 samples there's nothing you can't create with this synth. There are plenty of on-board digital effects as well for sprucing up your samples or the Triton's own internal multi-samples. Controllers include a Joystick, 2 assignable switches, 4 assignable knobs, 3 arpeggiator control knobs and inputs for a damper pedal, PC Interface Host and 2 audio-ins for the sampler section. There are also stereo outputs plus 4 individual outputs. A dedicated 16-track sequencer with a 100,000 note capacity, Real-Time Pattern Play functions and an Arpeggiator with several patterns round this beast out as a truly all-in-one music workstation.
KARMA Music Workstation
The KARMA represents seven years in the making. It's a synthesizer based on the engines and effects of the Triton series. KARMA is a music workstation with a revolutionary new phrase technology. Generate grooves, arpeggios, effects and more, all in realtime with plenty of knobs, switches and joysticks for hands-on control. You can control the rhythmic complexity, harmony, melodic repeat, phrasing, panning, effects and more from these knobs! KARMA is designed to create techno arpeggios and effects, natural sounding glissandos, and many other animated sounds and dynamic effects. KARMA lets you play complex moving synth parts that could normally take hours of programming. Just play some chords and twiddle the control knobs to vary the KARMA patterns, and let KARMA do the rest.
Like the Triton, KARMA features 62 voice polyphony and HI (Hyper Integrated) synthesis with 425 PCM multi-samples and 413 drum sounds. Patch memory consists of 640 user programs, plus 256 programs and 9 drum programs, 64 drum kits and 9 GM drum kits. Up to 8 patches can be combined, split, layered, etc. There is,
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however, no on-board sampler as there is in the Triton. But the KARMA technology more than makes up for this limitation with its revolutionary ability to generate totally random or fully controllable animated sounds, grooves, phrases, etc. which can't be found in comparable synthesizers. A splendid, studio-quality effects section offers 102 effects to sweeten your KARMA creations. In addition to an LFO, Alternate Modulation and Effect Dynamic Modulation enable you to further modulate the pitch, filter, amp, EG, LFO, etc. All modulation and KARMA functions can be synced to tempo or MIDI clock.
A built-in and powerful 16-track sequencer is all you need to generate complete music tracks with the KARMA. It can hold up to 200 songs, with up to 999 measures per song! Phrases generated by the KARMA function can be recorded into your sequences. Songs are created using a Cue List function to arrange up to 99 different sequences. The RPPR (Realtime Pattern Play/Recording) function lets you play phrases back by pressing a single key. And there are 150 drum and percussion patterns provided. You can jam along with the RPPR function or the Song Play function, using KARMA effects in realtime and in sync! Excellent for live use as well as in the studio.
KARMA - Kay Algorithmic Realtime Music Architecture, developed by Stephen Kay, Karma Lab LLC. The KARMA function separates every aspect of a musical phrase into independently controllable parts. It features over 1000 Generated Effects (1 GE per Program, 4 GEs per Combi or Song). A GE contains over 400 parameters to generate notes, control synth and effects parameters, and provide randomization of these events. There are eight knobs and two switches to control up to 10 of the 16 KARMA parameters in realtime. Two Scene memories store current knob settings to recall them instantly. MIDI control messages can be used to control KARMA too. One KARMA module is available in Program mode, four modules can be used in Combi/Sequencer/Song Play modes. Classic Chord Memory is also available for playing entire chords with just a single key...Trance heaven! KARMA is an exciting new synthesizer technology that adds a whole new level of interactivity and variability suitable for just about any genre of music.
Useful links:
 KORG.com
KORG.co.uk
KORG.de
Synthzone
Sonicstate
YahooGroup
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