Korg Forums

Hi All,

Everybody who has projects made with the sounds of our venerable SV-1, please check our (free) SoundPacks of the Reloaded series. You will find the original sounds of the SV-1, together with the sounds of the additional SoundPacks #1 and #2.

For those who never owned an SV-1, go get these sounds as well! They are finely crafted classics, timeless works of art inspired from the best hits of all times. And they sound even better on the SV-2!

https://www.korg.com/us/support/downloa ... /#software

Cheers,
The KORG Italy Team

Hi Paolo,

Thanks for the info! As a long time SV1 user, I'm happy to have the possibility to load some of the sounds of the 2 additional soundpacks in my new SV2 .

Would it be possible to know how these SV1 soundpacks were made back in the days? Some people believe it is based on new samples, while some others believe it's only tweaks of the basic samples already loaded, as it's not possible to load new samples in the SV1's memory.

I rather believe in the 2nd hypothesis, but I also believe some additional treatments were made, that are not accessible or visible in the editor.

Anyway, for us users, it would be interesting to have a bit more insights on this, as there were never any explanation given.

I also hope that some soundpacks will be created for the SV2, but it's not so important as there's already a lot of choice available.

Looking forward to hearing more from you and the Korg Team.

Regards,

Jerome

Hi Jerome:

that's my name as well!

I can answer this, as I was part of the development/voicing team for the SV-1. There were no new samples added when creating/releasing the sound packs. But there were a variety of waveforms that didn't get used in the original voicing. Nothing as significant as a different acoustic piano, or E. piano brand/type, but plenty of smaller synth waves, some basses and misc. material that was included to fill out the ROM.

The development system provided a completely programmable synth architecture with up to (if I remember correctly) 24 fully shape-able oscillator voices, with plenty of cool tech like round-robin triggering and more. So the sound designers had a very complex system to be able to make sounds with, that is not accessible from the current editor.

But to put to rest the question, all the PCM was always in the ROM from the initial development/release: the sound packs were more programming based on it.

Jerry

Ciao Paolo!!

I'm so glad to see this work got done. We both know who put in the long hours to achieve this - so glad to see the customers supported in this way.

Jerry

Paolo@Korg wrote:Hi All,

Everybody who has projects made with the sounds of our venerable SV-1, please check our (free) SoundPacks of the Reloaded series. You will find the original sounds of the SV-1, together with the sounds of the additional SoundPacks #1 and #2.

For those who never owned an SV-1, go get these sounds as well! They are finely crafted classics, timeless works of art inspired from the best hits of all times. And they sound even better on the SV-2!

https://www.korg.com/us/support/downloa ... /#software

Cheers,
The KORG Italy Team

Hi Jerry (or Jerome ), I've already seen you hangin' around in the Keyboard Mag Forum

Thanks a lot for the insights on how the Soundpacks were made!

I had already seen also Scott mentioning this in some KMF thread, but I was not sure were he got this information. Now I know it

I have to say that the SV1 Tine EP Amp preset from the original factory bank has had a very strong influence on me, as it is now really my reference tone for EPs, and I never had before any experience playing real Rhodes.

I'm just learning now with the SV2 to go through and accept the tones of the different EP variants, and it is still a bit of a struggle as this SV1 Tine Amp preset is so ingrained in my brain that I'm always referring to it when listening to EPs lol!!

So congratulations to you and the Korg team, job well done

Speaking of this, maybe you (or Paolo) could help me with the SV2 MK I Suitcase preset as you know very well EP tones: I've always wanted to have a bright and clear MK I sound but without the amp simulation, and could never manage it with the SV1.

Does that even make sense, or should I consider that the MK I Suitcase base tone in itself is mellow and that it is not really possible to make it clearer?

I've tried to do it with some EQ settings, mostly pushing up the Treble but that is not fully satisfying me, and moreover it generates additional background noises which is a bit annoying.

I've also now as a reference the MK I tone from the Vox Continental which I like very much and has a nice and clear tone, especially in comparison with the SV2 MK I tone.

So I thought it could also be possible to get this clear MK I Suitcase tone from the SV2, but I failed until now.

Anyway, I still consider using the SV1 Tine Am EP for my live gigs, especially in a busy band mix, as I'm so used to it and it's hard switching to another one.

I'll most likely use the SV2 EPs for studio recordings, as they are sounding more rich and detailed and it surely makes a difference for this purpose.

So any hints on the sounds of the real EPs would be helpful to me, to point me in the right direction and allow me to diversify my taste in EPs, and not be so slaved to the SV1 tone anymore lol.

Thanks in advance, and see you soon on the KMF!

Hi Jerome:

Well, I separated from Korg in 2011, so I have nothing to do with any new products since the Kronos (although I did the V2 CX3 artist presets for Korg, as I had worked with artists on the reissue CX3 sound back in the day). But I didn't work on the SV-2 and don't have one, so I can't really help. Good luck!

Jerry

jerrythek wrote: I'm so glad to see this work got done. We both know who put in the long hours to achieve this - so glad to see the customers supported in this way.

Dear Jerry, very happy to remember the long hours and the love you devoted to these sounds (and, in general, to the whole SV-1 project)! All the work that was done on it made it an immediate classic.

Paolo

Hi Paolo,

Thanks for taking the time to come to the Korg Forum and give information to us, happy SV1 or SV2 owners

I would have one wish for the SV2, which is based on my long time experience playing the SV1 Tine EP Amp preset.

I've compared it thoroughly with the SV2 MK I Suitcase + Clean amp tone, and one of the big difference between them is the increased number of velocity layers.

But for people like me who are used to play the SV1, these additional velocity layers make the playing experience a bit more complicated.

I found out that what I like on the EP tone is the timber when playing soft on the high register keys (from C6 to G6), and the bark of the low register notes (below C4) when playing them medium/forte.

Due to the additional SV2 velocity layers, it means that one has to push softer on the keys than on the SV1 to get the same soft timber, while pressing harder on the keys in the low register to get the same bark.

As I'm not a proficient player, it is difficult for me to adapt to this new style of playing.

I can get easily the soft note timber in the high register if I use the hard velocity curve, but then it's almost impossible to get the bark in the low register.

And vice versa if I use a soft velocity curve.

So the best solution would be to have the possibility to split the keyboard with the same EP tone, but to use a different velocity curve for each part of the split.

I don't know if it would be feasible to implement this feature in the editor, but it would be very nice (at least for me).

Anyway, I will try to adapt to the new way of playing on the SV2 but also keep on using the SV1 Tine EP amp, as I'm so used to it.

Looking forward to hearing from you and the Korg Team for new features or new sounds on the SV2.

Best regards,

Jerome

Ciao my friend:

Thanks for the kind words. But I was talking about "AB" who did the painstaking work to convert the Soundpacks to the SV2. He told me much had to be done by hand, parameter by parameter, critically listening with both instruments side-by-side.

But the SV-1 was a wonderful project. The group that first spec'd it and designed the front panel concept etc. deserve a lot of credit. I came in later to help with the sounds, along with a lot of other talented folks. I miss those days!

Jerry

Paolo@Korg wrote:

jerrythek wrote: I'm so glad to see this work got done. We both know who put in the long hours to achieve this - so glad to see the customers supported in this way.

Dear Jerry, very happy to remember the long hours and the love you devoted to these sounds (and, in general, to the whole SV-1 project)! All the work that was done on it made it an immediate classic.

Paolo

jejefunkyman wrote:I'm just learning now with the SV2 to go through and accept the tones of the different EP variants, and it is still a bit of a struggle as this SV1 Tine Amp preset is so ingrained in my brain that I'm always referring to it when listening to EPs lol!!

Hi Jerome,

Thank you very much for your compliments – and your questions! I'll try to give a comprehensive answer here.

The soundpacks include no new samples, but are the result of very clever programming. While this series of instruments may appear deceivingly simple, they are programming workhorses. The rich and powerful effects chain allows for both subtle and very deep changes in the original sound.

It is to be noted that SV-2 has a lot more samples than SV-1, and you can access all of them from the Editor. These new soundpacks often rely on materials you can access from the long list you can see in the Editor. While you can't load new sample, we supplied a lot of them, that can be the basis of totally new sounds.

Some of the samples in the VOX Continental may be similar to the ones in the SV-2. Some may also be sourced from the same database, and so will sound virtually identical (even if each of the teams processed them in a different way). You can therefore create the sound you are after, by playing with the FX chain SV-2.

Something to be considered is that it is better, when creating a sound, to use the tone controls in the amplifier model, more than the general EQ. By letting the piano sample be processed by the amplifier, you can fine-tune its sound by filters working as in the original amp, and not in a ‘generic way’. The result will be more ‘musical’.

Paolo

Dear Jerry,

jerrythek wrote:I was talking about "AB" who did the painstaking work to convert the Soundpacks to the SV2.

While doing the conversion, AB had become one with the SV-2! He was assimilating the sounds in his deep brain, before converting them into parameters!

The main goal was to recover that old work exactly as it was at the source. It was an exhausting process where he had to make things be the same, while being improved by the more modern sound generation.

But that's the better part of our job: when you are making the machine become a real musical instrument!

Paolo

Hi Paolo,

Thanks a lot for your reply, very much appreciated

So now I understand how the SV1 soundpacks were made for the SV2. I was a bit confused about it, as I saw in the program list within the editor that all the samples of the SV1 seemed to be already included in the Legacy category. Hence I didn't understand the concept of the SV1 soundpacks for the SV2.

I surely spent already quite some spent going through most of the SV2 basic sounds in the editor, so I have a pretty good idea about them.

Coming back to the EP tones, I will follow your advice to use the EQ section of the amp simulation to try to shape the tones. But I would just have one question there: I don't think that all the Vox Conti EP tones are going through an amp simulation, or do they (the voice list shows for example a MK I Tine preset, and just after an MK I Tine amp preset, which I would assume are differently processed then)?

I that case, I can't use the amp EQ if I want to try to reproduce a Vox Conti tone which is not running through the amp sim, right? So what would be the best alternative then?

Anyway, on a side note, I also discovered yesterday that my current headphones (AKG K371) are somehow coloring the EP tones in a way which takes out some of its details, in the medium/high register.

This has a negative effect particularly on the MK I Suitcase sound, with or without the amp sim. This is the reason why I was struggling to get this soft tine timber which I'm used to hear.

So I've ordered a new pair of headphones (namely the Beyerdynamic DT770-Pro) and I think I will feel better about the MK I Suitace sound when using them instead of the AKG.

Let's see how it works

Again, thanks for all the info sharing!

Jerome

I don't think you could get the Vox EP sounds from the SV2, even if they share samples, because the sound engines are different. The Vox uses the Kronos-derived EP1 engine with modeling. The SV2 uses the sample-based EDS-X engine, though also has some additional technology ("Real eXperience" and maybe the DNC "dynamic nuance control"). I suspect that the basic capabilities the programmers had to work with were not identical. At any rate, to the extent that maybe they could at least get close, the SV2 does not provide that deep level of editing in their editor. I think it would have to be up to Korg, using their internal tools, to see how close the SV2 could come to duplicating those sounds.

Yes I would agree with Scott. I have the 2 boards side by side in my practice room, and I spent some time comparing the EP tones. And as you said, the tones have some common ground, but also a lot of differences in the different registers.

Again here I'm speaking of the tones without amp simulation.

Also the available controls are somehow different between the 2 boards: the VOX has a 9 band EQ which I find very good to precisely shape the tone, plus the dynamic and valve knobs, which are also very practical.

On the SV2, without the amp sim, you just have a 3 band EQ for the basic sound, plus the global 3 band EQ, where you can only adjust the frequency and the bandwith of the middle band. It's not precised how the bass and treble bands are set (ie are the frequency and bandwith the same between the tone EQ and the global EQ)?

So all of these make this task a bit tricky (at least for me).

Maybe Paolo if somebody from the SV2 team has some tips to share, I would really appreciate it

In the end, I don't want to exactly reproduce the tones of the VOX on the SV2, but at least get closer, again only for the tones without the amp simulation.

Maybe this could be a good idea for a video tutorial, which gives a basic overview of the various Fender Rhodes models for the people like me who only played on digital piano clones, and then explain the differences between the EDS-X and EP-1 engines, and which kind of tones can be achieved with each engines (ie more bright and clear for the EP-1, more mellow for the EDS-X, the way I see until now).

With the SV2 and the Vox (plus the Korg Module tones ), I have now a wide palette of tones at my disposal, and sometimes it makes the decision of which one to choose a bit hard (though I'm happy to have all this tones under my hands ).

Also I'd somehow like to have the possibility to have similar tones between the 2 boards, as I'm mostly using the VOX for rehearsals (but also for some gigs) and the SV2 for gigs and practice.

OK, maybe I'm maybe getting too far on this, and I should just simply accept each board for what it is, and accept the differences between both.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Best regards

jejefunkyman wrote:Also the available controls are somehow different between the 2 boards: the VOX has a 9 band EQ which I find very good to precisely shape the tone...On the SV2, without the amp sim, you just have a 3 band

The Vox does give you the 9 bands, but it's not really what I would consider a tone shaper, because you can't save its settings with a particular sound. It's a global setting you can switch in or out, that's all, so really designed I think to allow you to tailor the entire board for a given venue and/or playback system.

jejefunkyman wrote:explain the differences between the EDS-X and EP-1 engines, and which kind of tones can be achieved with each engines (ie more bright and clear for the EP-1, more mellow for the EDS-X, the way I see until now).

I don't think there's that kind of inherent difference in the kinds of tones. But they may be different in things like the way they handle velocity transitions within a single note, the way they handle release sounds, the ability to tailor some particular aspect of the tone (via, for example, altering the characteristics of the virtual hammer)... Download the Kronos Paraneter Guide and look at the section on EP1, and you'll see the kinds of things it lets you do/control that you typically cannot on a strictly sample-based system. The EP-1 sounds on the Vox cannot be user-edited, but they were created with the same tools/capabilities you see described for that engine in the Kronos.

So I don't think it's possible to get those Ep-1 Kronos/Vox EP sounds out of the SV2. With some determination, maybe someone could get the SV2 sounds out of the Kronos (not counting the tube and its particular amp sims), I'm not sure. Though even then, an end user couldn't get them out of the Vox, which has no editor (and the edited EP1 Kronos programs cannot be transferred to the Vox). As an aside, I thought it would have been a cool feature--since the engines are there--to allow a Kronos owner to transfer his favorite CX3 and EP1 programs to the Vox (and those from other engines, to the extent that they and any needed samples were present in both keyboards). Same with Grandstage.