Recording - November 2014 - 32

B Y M I K E M E T L AY

Korg is known for innovative approaches to synthesizer and effects control, from
the original KAOSS Pad XY effects pad to
the nanoSERIES of ultra-portable USB controllers. With the new taktile Series of USB
controllers, Korg combines tried-and-true

Korg TRITON taktile 49
A full slate of control functions plus fantastic internal sounds equals a great value
control conventions with a fresh approach to
user interfacing, and if you wish, will even
throw in a standalone synthesizer that's a
classic in and of itself. Let's learn more.
To taktile or to TRITON taktile, that is
the question
There are four keyboards in the taktile
Series: the taktile 25 and 49 and the TRITON taktile 25 and 49, each named for its
number of keys (two or four octaves). The
taktile keyboards are USB controllers
alone, while the TRITON taktiles add an
internal sound engine from Korg's famous
TRITON synth workstations. I got to play
with the top-of-the-line TRITON taktile 49;
its controller functions are effectively identical to the taktile's, so hopefully this review
will suffice for all models.

Built into a lightweight but sturdy plastic chassis with a nicely textured outer surface (not a big deal until you've tried to
pick up a slippery-smooth keyboard and
dropped it!), the TRITON taktile 49 has a
synth-action keybed, pitch and modulation wheels, octave up/down buttons,
eight faders, eight pots (not center-detented), eight Function buttons, six DAW
transport buttons, and sixteen velocitysensitive trigger pads with multicolored
LED backlighting. The 25-key version has
only eight trigger pads, omits the pots,
and relocates the transport buttons.
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RECORDING November 2014

Many of the physical controls on the keyboard can serve multiple functions via multiple pages. The eight Function buttons can
cycle through three different functions each;
three of the transport buttons can do double
duty when combined with a special Marker
button (ostensibly for setting and jumping
between markers in a DAW track, but
assignable to other things); and the drum
pads have two switchable banks for a total
of 32 accessible messages, which can be
MIDI notes or chords (see below), program
changes, control values, and more. If you're
keeping count, the total number of distinct
control messages is a whopping 88!
The center of the front panel sports a
large XY touchpad and a left-right ribbon
that serve multiple functions depending on
your needs. Visual feedback is provided

by a tiny but clear OLED display next to
the touchpad.
There are no connections on the rear of
the keyboard; all of the "rear panel" I/O is
on the right side panel. The TRITON taktile
has two 1/4" jacks for sustain and expression pedals, a 5-pin MIDI Out jack for use
as a conventional keyboard controller, a
minijack Audio Out, and a USB 2.0 connector. There's no power switch and no
place to plug in a wall wart; the TRITON
taktile is entirely bus-powered, and can run
standalone if you plug it into a USB power
supply that provides at least 550 mA.

The controllers come with a registration
code for a bundle of free DAW and virtual
instrument software, including 'lite' versions
of Ableton Live and Propellerhead Reason
and virtual instruments from Applied
Acoustics Systems, Korg, and Toontrack.
The paper Owner's Manual is really more
of a "quick start" guide; a more extensive
20-page Parameter Guide that explains
each control in detail is available as a PDF
download from the Korg website.
The website also offers Windows and
Mac MIDI drivers, and Korg KONTROL
Editor, a free computer-based parameter
editor that works with all of Korg's USB
products. I highly recommend this program; with version 1.5, it's been updated
to recognize and work with the taktile
controllers, and it speeds the programming process immensely.
As a control surface
The taktile can be placed in one of two
operating modes, Mixer and Control.
When in Mixer mode, it uses the well-established Mackie Control and/or HUI protocols
to communicate with DAWs. The pots and
faders become pan and level controls, the
Function buttons can control Record Arm,
Mute, or Solo depending on which of three
banks is active (chosen with an Assign button and with three tiny LEDs to show the
active bank), and you can move left and
right through an infinite number of mixer
tracks and control them eight at a time.
In Control mode, functions are mapped
over MIDI and you can customize the control surface to do precisely what you need.
Collections of all parameter settings, MIDI
channel, and so forth, are collected into
Scenes, which can be stored in the taktile's
own memory and recalled quickly (up to 16
of them on board) or offloaded to a computer with the Korg KONTROL Editor.
The trigger pads have a special Chord
Scale mode that plays whole chords with
a single tap; these can be edited and
Recording - November 2014

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