Keyboard Presents Korg Product Spotlight - (Page 14) KORG R3 JARGON JOCKEY . R3 SOFTWARE EDITOR Spoiled by soft synths? Fear not; the included R3 Editor software for Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista gives you bird’s-eye access to every parameter. Unlike editors for many other Korg synths, this one doesn’t run as a plug-in — it’s standalone only. However, interaction between the R3 and the software is immediate: Change something on one, and you immediately see and hear the results on the other. . DWGS: Digital Waveform Generation System. Developed by Korg in the ’80s, these additive-based waveforms were the centerpiece of their DW6000 and DW8000 synths, and later used in the MS-2000 and MicroKorg as well. They were more complex than basic saw, triangle, pulse, and sine waves. Waveshaper: A synthesis component of the R3 that you can place either pre- or post-filter. As the name suggests, it can alter the shape of the waveform, transforming or distorting the sound in ways from subtle to aggressive. These include drive, decimator, hard clip, sub-octave (which adds a sound one octave below that of oscillator 1), pickup simulator, and level boost. If you’re familiar with the Radias, the R3 has an almostidentical sonic character, albeit without the Radias’ extra sampled waveforms. If you’re not, you undoubtedly want to know how “analog” the R3 really sounds. Next to a real analog beast like a Moog Little Phatty, you can certainly tell the difference, but a monophonic synth that costs several hundred dollars more isn’t a fair comparison. Virtual analog synths in the same price range, such as the Novation XioSynth and Roland SH201 (reviewed Jan. ’07 and Nov. ’06, respectively) make more sense, and next to these, both I and the Keyboard staffers thought that the R3 sounded subtly more analog and less virtual, with a denser low end and creamier highs. That’s not to say that I couldn’t coax some digital grunge when I wanted it — cranking up the treble EQ and Drive/Waveshaper to extremes did the trick here. The keyboard action, though adequate for a synth, is light, with no aftertouch. At plenty of gigs, I have both hands on keyboards, one foot on a sustain pedal, and the other on a volume pedal, so it’s key to be able to add further expression with finger pressure, and the R3’s virtual patch section taunts me with all the ways in which I could do this. Not to single out the R3 — most keyboards at this price lack aftertouch — but I’d pay a little more for my synths if the industry made this a higher priority overall. CONCLUSIONS So where does the Korg R3 stand in the subcompact, sub-$1,000 field? The Roland SH-201 has more knobs and sliders in a more analog-style layout, but for analog audio character, the R3 is the leader. With its light-up knobs and multiple LCD dis plays, the R3’s user interface conveys that machine exclusively, though it certainly succeeds at this. Factor in the arpeggiator, vocoder, modulation sequencer, and broader tonal palette provided by the extra digital waveforms and Multiple Modeling Technology, and it becomes clear that the R3 bests anything in its class for sheer sonic power and flexibility, though if you need “workstation-y” sampled waves in a tiny keyboard, you should check out the Korg MicroX (reviewed Jan. ’07). Where the R3’s USB connection is MIDIonly, both the XioSynth and SH-201 can work as audio interfaces, something that recommends them to musicians who wish to perform with a laptop, a synth, and no other hardware. If Korg added this feature to the R3 (and perhaps aftertouch, too) there’d be no reason to consider anything else. As it stands, the R3 is a lovable little monster that will exceed your expectations, whether you’re looking for an electronicfocused lead synth to expand a rig where a stage piano or workstation covers the more organic sounds, or for a “my first synthesizer” that’s a real synthesizer, not a ROMpler with a couple of filter knobs. If you take one home on impulse, you won’t regret it . . . and you can tell your spouse we said so! GORY DETAILS INTERNAL SOUNDS 128 programs, 16 formant motion data sets. OSCILLATOR WAVEFORMS Sawtooth, pulse, triangle, sine, formant, noise, DWGS digital waveforms, audio in. MMT features include cross and ring modulation, variable phase modulation (simple FM), and osc 1 unison mode. FILTERS 2 multimode resonant filters: lowpass (12 or 24dB/octave), highpass, bandpass, comb (filter 2 only). VOCODER 128 programs, 16 formant motion data sets. EFFECTS 1 insert effect per timbre, 2 band EQ per timbre, master effect. CLAIM CHECK Jerry Kovarsky of Korg states, “In designing the R3, we took the powerful MMT multiple-modeling synthesis engine from the Radias and brought it into a more affordable and even more portable configuration. It was important to us not to lose much of the synthesis capabilities, nor the formant-recording vocoder, and in the end we made minimal changes. The versatility of the oscillator sources (waveforms, modulation, and more than just ‘virtual analog’ possibilities), the unique filter configurations, and the drive/waveshaping help the R3 to surpass other products in its price group, which tend to be much more basic virtual analog engines. We also spent a lot of time making the interface easy to use without needing a lot of knobs. Deisgned for keyboardists, producers, remixers, or instrumentalists and vocalists who double on keys, the R3 is applicable to a wide variety of uses and musical styles, and easily fits into tight studio and stage setups.” ARPEGGIATOR 6 arpeggio types with step on/off. 14 it’s not trying to be a virtual analog
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