Korg M3 vs. Kurzweil PC3x... Choices, choices, choices.

[EvilDragon]

Hehe, your time will come.

[asdasd]

Hey, evildragon...


You own a X5d right?

I am trying to make the famous orchestral hit and "violin solo hit sound" - by nightwish, are these some presets from X5d. I cant find anything like these from the X50.... I also like the horn "crescendo", but I guess thats doable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVNtnOFdP4Y

In that video right in the beginning is the orch hit, and after that you can hear the solo violin playing the melody - I have heard that same weird type violin sound elsewhere too (I think band called celesty uses it on some track).

I know tuomas relies heavily on FX and backing tracks by real orchestra, but those are synth sounds I think.


I found the sound here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIiTBBG4vcU At 3:24.

[EvilDragon]

Hehe, those sounds are not from X5D, that's a real orchestra playing there on a backing track

Tuomas plays only Korg TRs on that concert (and pretty much constantly now, since they're cheap and light - he keeps his N364, Trinity, Triton, Karma and OASYS in studio), and he's not really prominent in that intro, he's basically just doubling the strings with the sampled BigStrings patch from N364/X5D on his TR. But the backing track is much louder than him.

[asdasd]

Tr?

I dont see a TR there?

But yeah I see what you mean, though there is no orchestra in celesty...

The orchestra sounds really korgish, unrealistically high boosted.

[EvilDragon]

Tuomas repaints all his keyboards to white (and currently, dark purple!). He's using only TRs live for quite a while now. Well, N364 was on top until the end of Once upon a tour, which ended with End of an era DVD, so this gig.

So yeah, basically he's just playing BigStrings patch on that N364, nothing special. Backing tracks do the rest

[asdasd]

Ok,

But how hes going to play big strings patch on TR which doesnt have it...=?


And why does he use TR... That seems to be the worst unit from korg to get pretty much, and why 3 of them?

/ OFFTOPIC

[EvilDragon]

Ok,

But how hes going to play big strings patch on TR which doesnt have it...=?

Sample RAM TR has 64 MB of sample RAM, he uses that for sampled version of BigStrings from N364, and probably some other sounds as well.

And why does he use TR... That seems to be the worst unit from korg to get pretty much, and why 3 of them?

TRs are cheap and relatively new, so parts are easy to find. Parts for N364 are relatively hard to find, and since Nightwish tours a lot, Tuomas needs to be able to replace the keyboard(s) if something happens to them while on the tour.

Actually X50 is amongst the worst, TR is just fine for what Tuomas plays. He's not exactly a virtuoso, and since 90% of their shows are backing tracks, sound quality is not amongst his primary concerns

[asdasd]

Ok... That is so strange.

I dont even get why he samples the big strings patch and doesnt just use the TR.

But I def dont get why he uses 3 TR's,,, when one would be easily enough. And why TR... out of all the synths. And he has an oasys in the studio WHY?

Well some things I will never get...

[EvilDragon]

BigStrings patch is THE Nightwish sound of older albums. TR doesn't have it, so he has to sample it.

I told you why TRs - they're cheap and parts are easily available.

Why THREE TRs? Because TR has only 1 IFX and combis don't sound as good when you have only 2-3 FX in them. Also when you change combis on a Korg you get abrupt sound change, this way Tuomas can have fluid changes, he's just walking around from one keyboard to another.

OASYS is damn expensive and I presume Tuomas uses it more like a compositional tool rather than live gear. He's smart in doing this. If I had OASYS there's no way in hell I would tour the world with it!

[asdasd]

Yeah, but its not like many could tell the difference if he just replaced the strings with "stereo strings" or something from TR. Or if he sampled something better from the oasys. Strange that he went to lenghts by buying 3 keyboards and sampling, exspecially since like you said 80% of the stuff is real orchestra.

Sorry, I just find it weird that some one lugs those plastic synths around the world, like he could have gotten a triton extreme or M3, which both probably have 3x the life expectancy and 2x the FX.

Well, each to his own I guess....

[EvilDragon]

Yeah, but its not like many could tell the difference if he just replaced the strings with "stereo strings" or something from TR.

Hehe, here's the thing - everyone would hear the difference, if they're die-hard NW fans

[asdasd]

Does it matter when it sounds better lol...

Other bands make changes like that al the time.

[EvilDragon]

Well, doesn't matter if it sounds better or not. It's the sound fans and Tuomas got used to, why change it if it works?


And I guarantee it works. Every damn time. Even if I play non-NW stuff, and use BigStrings, people around me ask "is this some new NW song or what?"

[Scott]

I might have to buy the PC3x and M50 for the M3 sounds... seems like the only way out, but then I would be a gear junkie = (.

How about a PC3x and an M3-M?

[Scott]

And why does he use TR... That seems to be the worst unit from korg to get pretty much

What's wrong with the TR? It has Korg's best sounds prior to the M3/M50 series. 76 keys with aftertouch and assignable outs, and only 20 pounds. I think it's one of Korg's best pieces. (Oh, and the sample option too.)