microSTATION and M50: sound comparison

[federicoc]

This is one post I would've liked to see when considering my M50, so
I thought to write it myself: someone might find it useful.

So we all know rhe microSTATION and the M50/M3 share the same lineage,
but how do the micro's 49Mb EDSi ROM really fare against
M50/M3's 256Mb EDS one?

Pretty well I'd say, but the difference is quite noticeable in many samples,
where micro lacks detail and definiton (anyway I think all of micro's samples
are still both usable and enjoyanle, especially after some tweaking).

I found the main differences in acoustic pianos, acoustic guitars, saxes,
and flute (excellent on the M50, weakest sound of micro's)., just to name
a few.

That said, I also think that preset programming on microSTATION is
much better than in M50. Better effects and real time knobs,
more interesting and, in general "spacey", where most of M50 presets
sound a bit dull to me; e.g. I totally love micro's Reed Organ and Legato
String programs. Of course this is hardly a problem with a korg workstation,
simce you're supposed to make your owm sounds, but still the difference,
to me, is interesting. Did Korg programmers get better with EDS in time?
Or maybe put more effort in micro's programming expecting most of its
users not to want and edit their sound deeply?

Anyway, hope this helps... I'll try and record an mp3 with specific sounds
comparisons later and poat the link here... so... if someone wants me to
try something specific do tell me .

-- Federico

[Re-Member]

The ROM size itself are just the waveforms that make up the patches. I'm pretty sure all the ROM waves that are in the microSTATION are also in the M50, though I remember reading somewhere that the microSTATION has additional drum samples not featured in the M50. but that might be wrong though. Chances are, if there's a patch you like a lot on the microSTATION, you can probably recreate it identically with the M50.

That said, a true comparison would be creating patches from scratch on both synths using the same waveforms. The most noticeable differences should be how the waves sound in the lower and upper octaves, then of course there's the filter resonance.

I've been able to recreate a few M1 patches (from the Korg Legacy software) on the microSTATION with the sound being close to identical. I often consider creating a full M1 patch set for the microSTATION, but each patch takes me about ten minutes to program. Too much work when I already have the M1 software to record with.

[iluvchiclets]

I have to agree, federicoc,

I owned the Microstation for a while, and it had a lot of instantly satisfying sounds. I actually bought it over the M50 for that reason...the M50 felt a bit sterile in comparison.

After fully understanding what the M50 was capable of (and the full-sized keys!) I had to upgrade to the M50. But, I will always have a soft-spot for that Microstation. I really miss a lot of the sounds it had. When the time comes where I see a second-hand one for a good price, I likely won't hesitate to pick one up again.

Nice to hear your opinion, thanks for the comparison.

[federicoc]

The ROM size itself are just the waveforms that make up the patches. I'm pretty sure all the ROM waves that are in the microSTATION are also in the M50, though I remember reading somewhere that the microSTATION has additional drum samples not featured in the M50. but that might be wrong though. Chances are, if there's a patch you like a lot on the microSTATION, you can probably recreate it identically with the M50.

That's exactly what I want to do... try and port a bunch of my fav sounds from the micro. I'll also try to reproduce some patches from my old glorious X5DR, (best oboe split combi I've ever heard... 8Mb of PCM... does programming count a lot or what? ) ).

-- Federico