Korg Forums

This question could really pertain to any hardware synth but figured I would ask it here since this sections gets the most traffic however if the mods feel it should be moved no problem and my apologies.

The question is, when you guys record your korgs into your DAW, do you add any additional effects, eq, comp, delay etc to the sound using plugins? or do you only use the effects available in the Korg itself?

Reason I ask is because I have been playing around with recording my Korgs and was originally adding extra elements but then I figured that if I wanted to play these songs live, it would be harder to replicate the sound that I got in the recording because I added extra things to it with plugins.

So I was wondering how some of you guys handle recording your synth. Obviously if you dont play live, then I supposed the ability to recreate the sound live doesn't matter but I know many of you play live and record in the studio. Thanks for your input!

I rely almost exclusively on plugins for recording, including the actual sounds. It's just a lot more convenient and it usually sounds better too. Whenever I do record a hardware instrument (Kronos or otherwise) I nearly always record dry and add effects from the computer. Depends on what your purpose is, I suppose. When I record, I want the best possible end product. I use the tools at my disposal. Playing live is a compromise, because I have to do it with whatever is useful to bring to the gig. The Kronos is already a big leap forward from the Triton Extreme/Nord Stage combo I was previously using live.

I use a mixture of onboard Kronos effects and plugins. I also rarely record only using the Kronos.

My "live" performances are me singing and playing piano with backing tracks. If I want to use my studio recorded tracks for backing live, I just make .wav files and put them in the audio tracks of a Kronos sequence. Mostly, I just do a bounce of the instrumental tracks w/o piano. I have a few songs where the mix doesn't work as well live depending on room acoustics, crowd noise or summing to mono. In those cases, I usually do separate bounces of drums and/or bg vocals. Then I can mix on the fly if needed.

SanderXpander wrote:I rely almost exclusively on plugins for recording, including the actual sounds. It's just a lot more convenient and it usually sounds better too. Whenever I do record a hardware instrument (Kronos or otherwise) I nearly always record dry and add effects from the computer. Depends on what your purpose is, I suppose. When I record, I want the best possible end product. I use the tools at my disposal. Playing live is a compromise, because I have to do it with whatever is useful to bring to the gig. The Kronos is already a big leap forward from the Triton Extreme/Nord Stage combo I was previously using live.

I do this - I'm mostly trying to record things dry unless there are specific character elements to the sound that the effects give (V-Synth is a great example - I almost always record that wet). But things like piano, bass, and most bread&butter synth sounds I usually record dry and add reverb/delay/compression/etc as a plugin.

True, I do record my JX10 with chorus on because it's just such an inherent part of the sound. And I'd record the Kronos organ with its leslie sim or with a Ventilator. I was speaking more generally about things like compression, eq, delay, reverb, etc.

I have a reasonable set of professional plug-ins which I like and use (Komplete, Waves Diamond, Lexicon PCM Native, SoundToys, Eventide, Altiverb, Audio Damage, Korg Legacy etc.). When I record, I generally also use the Kronos extensively, especially for synthetic and creative sounds.

Regarding effects: If I've been working on a sound on the Kronos, I'll usually have put some effects on it. If the effects are part of the sound, I track them, with the exception of reverb (which I usually like to leave until the mix). I have no problems mixing (so to speak) and matching the Kronos effects with plug-in effects, either; remember that Korg has been making effects for decades, including some high-end studio boxes back in the day.

This was a big thing for me when my band was recording our debut ep.... (sirion.us.com)...
I asked my engineer to let me know what type of plugins he used on my patches as well as any issues he had with them for me to change before a final mix. We found that mostly he used a HP or LP filter to sit better in the mix and that really that's not something I should care much for to get it to sound good "live" because live will always be a crap shoot depending on the venue. Same for any compression techniques he may have used.... None of them would have made any difference if they were in the kronos's effect chain in any other situation but for this EP we did. I think theres also something to be said about worrying about recreating the studio experience live. The studio is what it is... it's definitely not a live setting and fitting a 5 piece rock band onto a wav file is going to be different than pushing the same band into enormous speakers in an enormous (or tiny) venue. This is another reason why the kronos's setlist EQ is so useful . If only it worked globally until power off!

TL;DR, what Dan said... if it's part of the sound, it stays on... if it's reverb or delay, it'll be left for plugins.

I have one patch where the delay is part of the sound... definitely left that on

It depends on the sound. When I'm recording the Kronos I record it using the internal effects but then I only use the Kronos for keyboard and drum sounds. Since I also play guitar and bass, that too also depends on the sound. For example, wah wah pedal is recorded during the performance.