Korg Triton vs. Korg M50... To switch or not to switch?

[BasariStudios]

Korg M3-88 is 3800 euros and Korg M-50-88 is 2100 euros.

That is ridiculous! Ugh! For 2100EU in USA you get M3-88+EXBRadias+EXB256MB+Bag+Stand+Pedal+Money for Gas+Lunch+Your son's alowance for a Week.

And i mean the 2100EU figure not the 3800, with that you add the PA800 on top of all the above.

[iD4rK]

Korg M3-88 is 3800 euros and Korg M-50-88 is 2100 euros.

That is ridiculous! Ugh! For 2100EU in USA you get M3-88+EXBRadias+EXB256MB+Bag+Stand+Pedal+Money for Gas+Lunch+Your son's alowance for a Week.

And i mean the 2100EU figure not the 3800, with that you add the PA800 on top of all the above.

I know, in mayor stores like musicstore.de you get em much cheaper. But the prices I said are the ones established for recommended sell price. Im in holiday in switzerland now (my gf is swiss) and they sell them everywhere for those recommended sell prices... I found the microKorg XL, and it was in offer for 600 euros (808 dollar), before the offer it was about 700 (943 dollar). Crazy prices >.<

Sometime I wish I was in USA for a "synth shopping trip" guitars are much cheaper in usa as well.

Greets

[BasariStudios]

Well recomended prices are high in here as well and i know most of them in
here dissagree with me in here when i say prices but yes, i pay 1250 for
my BRAND NEW M3's or 2000$ for a BRAND NEW PA800 e tc...
Most of the people just walk in a store, they see the price tag of 2666.99 and
they just pay for it...i dont walk in stores anymore, i learnt the lesson.

[Ozz]

If you cant afford and M3 then dont trade a Triton for M50, you'll be missing a lot.

What else would I miss besides the ribbon controller, aftertouch and sampling?

A Pro Synth compared to a SemIPro or amateur synth, a tonz of sounds and
bigger library, a pro build of the synth, ValveForce, better keys, more FX...
this are things i know about and can think of at the time but there is more.

I think there is no point of debating this and comparing a M50 with a fullscale Triton.
It would probably be a waste of my time and knowledge and it would lead to certain
arguments and dissagreements. To me is just funny how the 2 can be compared at all.

Wow

you've right about the need of debates, but you've to add it "with base or foundations"

Everybody knows that the Classic Triton is the less featured Triton, yep it has expandability via sample cards, but it only has 32MB of ROM samples, even with all the cards cannot have all the ROM of the M3/M50 of 256MB, the TRITON EXTREME has like 140MB of ROM. Even the TR and X50 and MicroX has 64MB of ROM (but only 1 fx processor)

And yes, both synths can be compared side by side, becoz the M50 EDS engine its the same of the M3, the ONLY stripped down feature is the polyphony of 80/40 voices (from 120/60 on the M3), and that is even better than the 62/31 of the Triton. So, here's a better answer:

Polyphony: Triton 62/31, M50 80/40
Sample ROM: Triton 32MB, M50 256MB
Stereo Samples: Triton NO, M50 YES.
Multisamples per sample: Triton 2, velocoty switched; M50 4 with Crossfading, Veloc switch and layers.
Expandability: Triton YES via EXB-PCM cards and MOSS; M50 NO
Combination: Triton 8 Timbres; M50 16 Timbres.
FXs: Triton 5 Inserts/2 Master/1 Master 3-band EQ ; M50 5 Inserts/ 2 Master/ 1 Total /and 1 3-band EQ per program (1 in program mode and 16 in Combi mode)
Tone Adjust: Triton NO (only TRITON EXTREME), M50 YES, per program in Combi mode.
ValveForce: Triton NO (only TRITON EXTREME); M50 NO.
Riboon and AT: Triton YES, M50 NO.
Sampling. Triton YES, M50 NO.
PC Interface: Triton SCSI (Marty McFly, where's the DeLorean?) and 3rd party standalone editor/librarian; M50 USB with KORG standalone and VST/RTAS/AU editor/librarian.
Storage: Triton 1,44MB Floppy disk (seriously, where's the DeLorean!); M50 SD card.

without doubts the M50 EDS engine is better than the Triton HI engine. if you dont like the samples or the sound of the M50/M3 that's OK, dont buy it, becoz you cannot load new samples and you can only use the existing ones and make new programs only with them, but the specs of the engine are better. I'm loosing a lot of features, but all about the engine is better on the M50.

I dont like the plastic construction of the M50 nor the keybed. In your place, I will miss the ribbon and the AT. but if your keybed is defective, I'll go for the M50 right now (and buy a hard case immediately)

Regards.
Alvaro.

PS: I almost forgot, the M50-88 has the same keybed of the M3, the RH3 that's even better than the OASYS88 RH2 keybed.

[Synastikki]

Now this is what I want! Many opinions (with lots of good arguments) and debating! This is why I like this forum so much!

Thank you Ozz for that nice comparison chart!

What it comes to this Pro and semipro battle here I think that you really can't call a 10-year-old synth a pro synth anymore no matter what the specs are (well maybe Oasys ), because of the developement of the technology. Because I think one of the things that makes something pro is that it is up-to-date so that Pro musicians can use their equipment in more effective way thanks to all the new stuff that makes stuff faster and easier.
For example in this particular case I would even say that M50 is more Pro than Triton because it has a better computer connectivity and most of the Pros deal with computer software and VST constantly.
Also I think that M50 would be good purchase if thinking forward in the future. Couple of years from now when I graduate and get a real job I might get the money to buy a second-hand (or even new) M3. Then I would already have like couple of years of sounds done on the EDS engine that would go perfectly with the M3. And I would also have kinda good configuration of M3 plus M50, so that I would have a portable keyboard (M50) for smaller gigs and projects where I might not need the full horsepower of the M3. And for the bigger studioproject and gigs I would have the ultimate machine (M3). Of course this is highly speculative considering that I'm not a fortune teller, nor can I predict what kind of keyboards will there be in the future.

But we have a nice discussion going on here, so keep it coming... I might have to take my triton to maintenance anyway so that anyone would buy it from me, but when I spoke to the maintenance guy, fixing the minor issues of my board wouldn't cost a fortune.

And as couple of you stated here my current board is a Triton Classic so I would like to keep other Tritons out of discussion. Also the expansion boards are pretty rare and hard for me to get so they are (unfortunately) not an option.

[BasariStudios]

What it comes to this Pro and semipro battle here I think that you really can't call a 10-year-old synth a pro synth anymore no matter what the specs are

It is the first time in my life i've heard someone say thing and since when a
status on a machine changes with time from Pro to an Amateur? Strong Debater!
I guess Tiger Woods is not a Pro Golf Player anymore since screwing that
many women, he might be stripped of his Pro status now.

[iD4rK]

What he meant to say is that future amateur synth's will do the same stuff than pro synths in the past.

By the way, Tiger Woods will not even find is own holes when he is 90+. So yeah, I would say, after some time. He is going to be worse than amateur.

Greets

[Synastikki]

iD4rK got my point totally! But of course it is a bit harsh to say that synths go from pro to amateur that way. Of course it isn't the case on all the synths, mainly just on ROMplers, because the way of making samples and the machines that are used for sampling become better, saving media become better and bigger, software for using those samples become better and so on... So even in the near future there might be some home keyboards that have the same abilities that the pro synths on market now.
I love my triton and I think that it is a pro synth still, but I also think that no one should call M50 a semipro synth... because for me it is mostly about sound, and basically M50 can produce the same sound as M3 which is a truly pro flagship synth. If I bought an M50 and a controller keyboard with very good keys (with aftertouch) and a ribbon controller, the only thing that I would miss is the sampling. So that way I would basically have almost the same type of configuration that I would have with an M3 (or M3-M with a midi controller)(of course I would still lack Karma and couple of connections, but this is all hypothetical). Would you consider M50 a semipro synth in this configuration, when it would act only as a soundmodule?

I'm actually enjoying these kind of conversations when people have proper and strong opinions (all though this thing starts to get somewhat offtopic )

Also if thinking here that I'm somewhat of a semipro (or even just a hobbyist) as a keyboardist and a musician, so should I actually go just with semipro (or less) keyboards and synths and not even try to get anything better?

[candlewick]

I'm using the sounds from my M50 95% of the time. Using my Triton LE as the mothership unless I'm away at a rehearsal. I took the chance on the M50 61 as I have a good friend with an M3 and I couldn;t be happier with the flexibility it gives me.

[Ozz]

Hi

Totally off-topic
About the Pro-SemiPro-Amateur condition of an instrument... Here, on Chile, the price of a M50-61 its like US$1800 and a M3-61 it's like US$3600.. an X50 like US$1000.. I could get my TR on a discount sale for a price of US$1000 and still today cost like US$1600...
My point is that here you can see/hear very talented musicians playing with Casio arrangers or the Privia piano line or the Yamaha PSR arrangers, so the Pro-SemiPro-Amateur label, really should be attached to the musician not the instrument.

But about the instrument, there are a few things to consider.

1.- The specs. Really this synth can do the same or more things than the other synth? and about romplers wich ROM is bigger.

2.- The sound. If you like it or not, its your desicion. Some synths like analog or virtual analogs can make "unique" sounds or you could like the filters from a older synth

3.- Up-to-date technology, computer conectivity, etc.

Dont take it bad, but technology advance without asking anyone. I preffer to load samples on my TR before a gig with a SD card and fullfill the 64MB of RAM in a couple of minutes than load 20-30 disk to do the same on a Triton Classic or play the nice new pianos from the TR on the new ROM than the pianos of the original Triton ROM.

A new stripped down synth like the M50 could be way better than a old top-of-the-line one. But if you like or not the sound of a synth.. its your call.

Regards.
Alvaro.

[outsider9]

I think many of us stood in front of a similar desicion. I had the option of going for an used Triton Classic or buy the M50. The Triton, yeah, beatiful synth, a classic. Really either was fine. But the M50 is newer, more practical lots of cool features, no samples, but Karma, usb, etc. Well, look at that cool chart Ozz wrote up there. I made a similar comparison. It took me like 10 minutes to decide in favor of the M50.
To clarify, it's not a cheap synth. It's not a plastic synth (just put a magnet near the board). It just has some plastic parts at the sides and under the keybed. The keys will lessen only in comparison with some excellent keys. Besides that, they're fine. The sound? I leave thay pleasure to you, as hearing is very subjective.
I'm not saying you have to buy the M50. It's just my choice, or anyone's. In the end, you should get what better suits you.