Korg Forums

Hi there

I am considering a M50 at the moment.

For my live set up i need to split my keyboard into mutiple sections...sometimes 7 or 8....which is very easy to do using Reason 5, but I am starting to get sick of the pitfalls of using soft-synth live....

I assume this is easy to do and there is no limit of how many zones and layers can be set up?

Cheers Tony

On the M50 you can make 16 timbres and for each timbre (program in a combi) you can set:
- the midi channel (for multiple keyboards)
- the low/top key (for splits)
- the low/top velocity (for velocity splits)

If you assign multiple timbres to the same low/top key you can layer.

And you can do a lot more (setting transpose, volume, effects, changed program parameters etc).

Korg is very flexible for programming.

thanks for that.

i need to have a play of one of these....I am looking at the 73 key version...any reports on what this semi-weighted action is like?

Obvioulsy this is where Korg have saved a lot of weight in this units...i just wonder how tinny there are though....

The Kurzweils have a nice semi-weighted action....where as the nords to me feel just awful....like trying the play keyboards on a waterbed.

tony8028 wrote:thanks for that.

i need to have a play of one of these....I am looking at the 73 key version...any reports on what this semi-weighted action is like?

Obvioulsy this is where Korg have saved a lot of weight in this units...i just wonder how tinny there are though....

The Kurzweils have a nice semi-weighted action....where as the nords to me feel just awful....like trying the play keyboards on a waterbed.

the action on the m50 is horrible if you ask me.

i would just get a triton, or a kronos

robbinhood wrote:the action on the m50 is horrible if you ask me.

I second that (73 keys) - but not everyone's taste, I guess...

I haven't tried the smaller models, but I love the action on the 88 ..

I have to add something,

On one of my earlier posts, I too moaned about the action on the M50. Because it was my only keyboard at the time, I forced myself to stick with it in order to get used to it.

And, get used to it I did! I did not have any problem with playing the M50 until I got an additional synth - and now I miss using my M50 action. I kid you not!

It just goes to show that you can used to it.

I'm not a piano player, and I have a Korg M50 and Triton Extreme and I don't think the difference is a lot. The only thing I really miss is aftertouch on the M50.

The action is pretty light. And the keys (at least on the 61) are slightly thinner than normal - the length of the 61 keys is about 1cm shorter that it should be.

I know it sounds pretty weird, and it felt weird to me at first. I got used to it though.

Some perspective: I'm a classically trained pianist. I know keyboards are very much a matter of taste. Personally, I think Korg's weighted keyboards are terrible, and Yamaha's are the best. Synth action is a different matter though, and I prefer Korg's synth action to Roland's and Yamaha's.

-Kim.

Kim Lajoie wrote:...I prefer Korg's synth action to Roland's and Yamaha's.

Before new TR and M series (M3, M50) most Korg keyboards were made by Yamaha, at least the synth action keys on M1, T series, Trinity, Triton, WS, and others. So I guess you must like Yamaha synth action, too...
I sure do, just as much as I like their weighted hammer action keys on their digital pianos.

tony8028 wrote:I am looking at the 73 key version...any reports on what this semi-weighted action is like?
...
The Kurzweils have a nice semi-weighted action....where as the nords to me feel just awful....like trying the play keyboards on a waterbed.

This is very much a matter of personal preference, but I think the M50 keyboard is actually pretty decent. It's not one of the best ever, but I do I prefer it to the semi-weighted Kurzweils and Nords (which, although they feel different from each other, both suffer from too much spring-back for my taste). The only real problem I have with the M50-73 action is that the back third of the black keys are pretty much dead.