Korg Forums

I just bought a used Korg TR 88 about 2 weeks ago, and as most of my music gear is in storage because of a long distance move, and house purchase thing taking forever, it's the most fun I can have in my little condo, and boy am I having fun.

I haven't owned a synth/workstation before, so even an aging piece of kit like the Korg TR is a great choice for me. I have fantasies of building up some Piano Chops so I acquired this because I wanted weighted action to build up my ability to play acoustic Pianos when I have one again. It's doing great as a USB-direct-to-PC "midi controller equivalent", with learn-to-play-piano apps, and DAWs. My current DAW knowledge level is "Play with Garage Band Until I'm ready for a Real DAW".

I'm a guitar player and bad piano player, who wants to be a better keyboard/piano player, and to make music for fun, for my own jollies.

The built in sounds in this are so much better than the consumer crap I've noodled around with before, and to be fair, I'm probably exactly the target market for a Yamaha Portasound (PSR) with its built in song styles, and arranger-like features.

But this Korg is just so much fun. Program mode is fun. Combi mode is fun. The drum patterns and the arpeggiator in here is super fun. Editing programs and combis is fun.

I wish, but cannot figure out how in the manual, to make SW1 and SW2 do much of anything useful. Useful thing one would be if SW1 could enable/disable an insert effect in realtime. That's not strictly possible, it seems you can alter parameters of insert effects, like distortion effect output, but you can't enable/disable the insert effect, via the SW1 switch. The list of direct mappings of SW1 is pitifully small, in my opinion. The default is a midi CC mapping. You can then take that mini CC mapping and use it to alter realtime IFX params as allowed, imagined by the designers of the IFX.

But how can I whine? This thing set me back $550 canadian, and I'm buying an EXB-SMPL and some RAM, and I expect to have rediculous amounts of fun with it. I'm already grinning from ear to ear. I freekin love this thing.

Anybody else around who is loving playing these boards?

Warren in British Columbia

Hey Warren,

Glad you're enjoying your TR88. I've had a 61 for 3 years - bought it used, and it's really been a superb keyboard. Just one problem though - last month 2 of the critical buttons went bad - The A&B Program Bank ones, which I use all of the time. Took it to an authorized Korg tech, he called Korg - they don't supply parts for the Tr models anymore. Just got it back today. I'm majorly bummed about it, because while not impossible, it's difficult to access the internal pressure points for the A/B modes. I'm scrambling to find out solutions. All I can say is, continue to enjoy it, but be careful - if any parts go bad, it will be tough to get part replacements.

The underlying switch for these are 9.5mm stem micro switches.

Take a look at this eBay photo so you get what I mean:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Korg-Triton-St ... SwlEdZsFNJ

You could order them from here:

http://www.synth-parts.com/en/Keyboards ... -Korg.html

or

https://syntaur.com/Items.php?Item=4801


And pay a technician to replace your old switch(es) but if you wanted to bring your price down:

Grab the service manual:
http://forum.cxem.net/applications/core ... ?id=170459

1) order your switches and wait for them to arrive

2) remove the back off your TR. Put all bottom panel screws in a labeled container. Take photos.

3) proceed to remove all components, again put all screws in clearly labeled containers or bags.... take tons of photos

4) get down to your switch panel boards, remove them and take those and your replacements into any electronics workshop worth a damn, it should be very simple work for them to desolder and replace.

I would be surprised if you don't have a mate capable of doing this, most people know somebody

5) carefully re-assemble your TR and enjoy

NOTE: if you're going to do this consider getting the backlight LED replaced on your display at the same time... again, not hard to do.

Good luck!

Thanks a million, Soundwerx! I really appreciate your info, insight, etc. I have a good technician nearby - not easy to find Korg technicians these days! I've just ordered some of the switches, and we'll see what happens. I really love the TR, it's just a killer workstation, even with it's age now. I'll let you know how it all works out! Cheers from NC.

OK, so I have another TR related question. I received the micro stem switches, but I'm also trying to find the actual little rectangular push buttons that would mount on the stem switches. Those seem to be impossible to find, especially since all TR parts are out of production. I would love some help with that one. Thanks.

Hmm, yeah, I can't help with that one sorry. They're kind of translucent as well which is a bummer because you could possibly have got some 3D printed.

One of the things I have done in the past is to message eBay sellers privately to see if they have these items but haven't listed them. If someone is selling a power supply or a circuit board for a LE or TR then there's a possibility they have parted out a damaged unit but haven't bothered to list everything.

Are your plastic buttons also damaged? Cause the old ones just "sit" on the micro switches and are not attached in anyway. Failing that, swap your most used ones for ones you rarely use on the same keyboard.

Interesting combi key button.

Some of my switches are getting hard to press. I hope that none of them stop operating completely.

Maybe there are some scrapped Korg TRs around at some of the synth repair shops that specialize in synth parts for old and out of production synths.

Like these guys: SYNTAUR

https://www.syntaur.com/

\Warren