M50 problems

[DoctorMo]

Im glad someone posted about this problem. My m50 (61 key) has been locking up too. It started just here and there, until showtime this past sat. 6 times I restarted it only for it to freeze. then that updating left panel, or side came on and luckily it didnt do it.I got the warranty, called the warranty company and they'll help me out, sending it to be fixed.
Also, something else is happening.When I hook up separate monitors, left and right, the sound is way off balance. Right side has more power, but when I hook up just mono through the PA, it's balanced.weird!
Maybe its just a few of them with the freeze problems? I got the 61 key special edition (yellow)

Interesting. All last week, my wife and I were using a digital mixer to match our preset volumes. We were running the keyboard in a stereo config, into the mixer. The levels were always even, give or take a little variance by stereo effects.

Last night, at our gig, we plugged in the keyboard and the right output was extremely low compared to the left input. We swapped cables and did some other debugging. In the end, we had to use only the L/Mono output.

Then, a few times, last night, the M50 locked up and needed to be restarted. The serial number is greater than 14000, so I would assume it would be a good batch, but it is clearly going downhill, fast.

After I get some sleep, today, I'm going to connect it to the mixer, again, and see if the levels are the same or mismatched.

I did power up the M50, this morning at home, only to be met with a frozen keyboard and buttons. This is very disappointing.

I'm going to contact Korg and see what I need to do to get it fixed. I'm just frustrated that we have to pay for shipping and be without a keyboard for several weeks. We were thinking of purchasing another M50 or M3, but I may be looking at other manufacturers so I am not putting all my eggs in one basket.

mike

[kimu]

Hello Mike, in my case i simple brought back the m50 to the shop where i bought it and they manage the shipping to repair center and back again to shop after repair. it was completely free of charge for me. maybe you could arrange for something similar; it's true korg never announced officially this bugs but it is clear is not due to user's misbehavior... so maybe korg would repair and ship for free

[DoctorMo]

Hello Mike, in my case i simple brought back the m50 to the shop where i bought it and they manage the shipping to repair center and back again to shop after repair. it was completely free of charge for me. maybe you could arrange for something similar; it's true korg never announced officially this bugs but it is clear is not due to user's misbehavior... so maybe korg would repair and ship for free

Thanks for the suggestion. I purchased it from an online retailer. I'm going to contact my sales rep and see if there is something they can to do ship me a replacement. It's a far reach, but it's worth a shot, anyway.

mike

[bobbyrobert]

Hi everybody I'm new to this forum but as I was looking to buy
an M50 73 or 88 key work station I am starting to feel concerned
after reading all these reports of problems and bad backup from Korg.

Perhaps I should look at some other brand or even splash out xtra
dollars and get an M3 I havn't seen any reports of problems with
the M3.
or what other brands would be compatable with the M50

Any advise from more experienced members would be usefull.

Thax

Bob

[kimu]

well, imo the M50 is a great workstation, one with the best features/prices rate (at least for the price here in italy).

the only other workstation on the same street-price are Roland-Juno G / Gi, Kurtweill PC3LE-61 and yamaha Mo. among these ( i tried all before buy m50) i prefer m50 for touchscreen, synth / pad sounds (i use mainly these), IFX, lightweight, sequencer and deep programming.

what is missing is capability to playback wav/mp3 file as Juno...

regarding korg assistance, i cannot complain, my m50 has been repaired for free (only it takes one month).

[DoctorMo]

well, imo the M50 is a great workstation, one with the best features/prices rate (at least for the price here in italy).

the only other workstation on the same street-price are Roland-Juno G / Gi, Kurtweill PC3LE-61 and yamaha Mo. among these ( i tried all before buy m50) i prefer m50 for touchscreen, synth / pad sounds (i use mainly these), IFX, lightweight, sequencer and deep programming.

what is missing is capability to playback wav/mp3 file as Juno...

regarding korg assistance, i cannot complain, my m50 has been repaired for free (only it takes one month).

I agree the M50 is a powerful keyboard. However, I recently purchased an M50 that should have been recalled long after the reports of failing keyboards. There is no reason, other than Korg is being cheap, to not recall any M50s that are in-stock at retailers.

Although the M50 is wonderful, how many customers has Korg lost because of our postings of failures?

We have been considering getting a second, backup keyboard. It was going to be another M50, but we have looked at the M3. Maybe this is Korg's way of getting us to spend more money on better keyboards.

We can't afford to lose a keyboard for a month, we have gigs during that time. That means we have to purchase a replacement keyboard before we can ship the broken M50 to Korg, for repair.

[bobbyrobert]

Hi again
does anybody know if Korg have started to rectify these
problems on the newer models? and if so when? Is there
a seriel number which modified keybords starts from.
I know it is some time from manufacture of keyboard
until it is in the shop for sale several months or more at
a guess.

thnx

Bob

[Georgeymc]

Hi all......guess what??????? Yes you are all right it's at it again......started two weeks ago when I noticed that headphones would only work in one side, checked phones(perfect) then damper stopes working.......now all of that is bad but for my work (live cabaret) I can live with it.......but then the real insult it has started freezing again.......for anybody who hasn't read this thread it has been back for capacitor replacement already after a long
(6 week) process with Korg........the shop xmusic here in Dublin have been great, who knows when I'll get it back, I'm thinking after spending 1100 euro on it I will not have it for my Xmas run, now I have spares (T3 o1w) but sonically they really don't stand up in comparison. I am thinking of replacing my stage piano at the moment and of course i would have bought a korg but now, RD 300 here I come.....no more corgis for me( unless they upgrade me to a m50 88 for free : -/)
I'm really *issed off at this stage!
Tks again for all of your imputs here and I will keep you informed

Philip

[DoctorMo]

We had to send my wife's M50-61 to a repair shop. Fortunately, we have one within 30 minutes from our home.

Also, I tried to contact Korg, but they never replied. That is sad.

mike

[aaronpico]

My M50 is now out for repair for the second time in 14 months.
The left channel outputs will start to get static'y, and eventually consistantly cut out. I am not subjecting the board to any real shock or jarring either.

An interesting thing is that I just bought a trinity rack, and have been frequenting the Trinity area of the forums. It seems that the same problem was common among Trinity boards, too. It had to do with a bad ribbon cable connection or something. Sounds like Korg may have used the same connection design in the M50's.
As soon as it comes back from repair, I think I'm going to sell it.
I would not advise buying an M50, except for maybe the 88 key version which has better physical construction. The 61 and 76 key versions are WAY too cheaply built. Not dependable.

Sorry Korg.

[Zanator]

I have my second M50 and both of them have been like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRF5Le8-GuU

What you think, normal??

[aaronpico]

I don't think that's normal, but you might want to make sure your table is flat, too.

[McHale]

It seems that the same problem was common among Trinity boards, too. It had to do with a bad ribbon cable connection or something. Sounds like Korg may have used the same connection design in the M50's.

I don't think there's a single ribbon cable in the M50, this I know for sure.

http://s848.photobucket.com/albums/ab49 ... 000442.jpg

I'd link it in this thread but it's HUGE... But that's a pic of the soundboard removed and all the connections visible for you to see... The M50 is actually built pretty well IMHO.

[aaronpico]

It seems that the same problem was common among Trinity boards, too. It had to do with a bad ribbon cable connection or something. Sounds like Korg may have used the same connection design in the M50's.

I don't think there's a single ribbon cable in the M50, this I know for sure.

http://s848.photobucket.com/albums/ab49 ... 000442.jpg

I'd link it in this thread but it's HUGE... But that's a pic of the soundboard removed and all the connections visible for you to see... The M50 is actually built pretty well IMHO.

I wasn't aware of that. Regardless, the same problem has been experienced by owners of different Korg boards which suggests that Korg utilizes similar or like construction in the different boards, which seem to be failing in the same way.

[McHale]

...which suggests that Korg utilizes similar or like construction in the different boards, which seem to be failing in the same way.

I'm fairly confident that most who complain of problems don't tear their boards apart when there's an issue. I tear all of mine apart when there isn't a problem *AND* when there's an issue. I've owned (and disassembled) almost every Korg synth since the PolySix and I don't see how that could be even remotely possible. Surf around my photos and you can see internal shots of the DW-8000, DSS-1, Triton, and M50.

Every new synth/workstation takes advantage of advances in technology so boards get smaller, there's less wiring, and everything is more efficient. I gigged my DW-8000 for 6 years. I've been gigging my Triton Classic since I bought it new in 1999. And I've gigged my M50 since I bought it new almost 2 years ago. I haven't had those problems in any of my heavily gigged synths and you can look at my gear list below to see what I currently own. They aren't having that issue either.