Product Reviews by KVR Members

Multi type filter (Standard, State variable, Zelda). It have distinct Fanan style sound. Recently Fanan stuff got noticed by some Trance producers and yes, its actually very good fit for this style because it sounds digitally harsh and very bright.

Filter is very simple. you have 2D controller with cut frequency and resonance axis. Filter needs still some work to become good tool - we need tempo sync-able LFO or two and envelope possibly reacting to MIDI notes.

VST do not reacts to DAW bypass event.

Emulation is good but it is emulating a bad synth. K1 / K4 is nothing interesting. There is about 5% of sounds I would really use. M1/T1 are superior to K1.

Yes, it's free but we have lot of similar free .SF2 sounds from same era already.

Small and fast audio editor. Good for mixing and composing. It's not the best for mixing and not the best for composing but it's still very good for daily use.

included effects and instruments are not very good. Just buy some effect starting pack, few instruments and you are good to go.

it doesn't have Cubase / Live feature set for composing or Pro Tools features for mixing.

Its one of best synths in "simple" category. It feels and sounds like HW synth from 80s for example Polysix. Sound is very good, I would not guess it is VST from blind listening. Good sound for commercial grade songs, nice unison.

It has good sounding effect unit with analyser and score, it would be good to have it as separate VST.

Simple synth for acid music. Sound is good and unusual. Fast to make new sounds. Its pretty inspiring, you can enjoy fun know from HW synths - just turn random knobs and see what it will do.

It really needs MSEG or at least 32 step ARP.

Odin is very good sounding and open source synth. Its not well known as Surge but it sounds way more warm. It can produce classic analog sounds and has lot of filters which works very well, this is its strongest point.

It has built in amp distortion, delay, phaser, chorus, flanger reverb. It supports 11 Oscillator types and 13 filters, 4 LFO and 4 Envelopes. It needs more envelopes because lot of things can be modulated, more LFO would not hurt but I do not use LFOs so much. It can be called "free Diva".

Weakest part is ARP. Most synth authors are simply unwilling to make proper ARP. This ARP has 16 steps only and you can't set gate and velocity to each step. Just very few synths (Viper, Omnisphere) implements proper ARP with at least 32 steps.

Wake up guys Korg Triton in 90's had 48 steps polyphonic ARP which can do not just basic notes but also note number in chord played and velocity/gate to each step. In dance music we use 1/16 steps - 16 step ARP can play just one bar - not enough for making riff.

Would I use it as my workhorse synth every day? No. Without more envelopes and proper ARP is worthless for me but if you are just starting and do not have these $200 synths yet then its must have.

Very good VU meter, can do multiple modes and zero level is configurable. Very good for quick checking gain settings during recording, UI is resizable - you can make it big on the screen.

Author has also another more detailed volume meter dpMeter but its too much information for mere gain setup. dPMeter plugin still needs some work - graphical peak levels are not how they looks at real equipment, reference marks are missing and scale is too big, while there are several standards for displaying PPM dpMeter implements none of them, probably best to implement IEC 60268-18.

This VU meter does everything what it should, it has several skins, modes and presets. Just get it.

I record in VU Standard, zero at -18 dbFS.

Collection is very good and you will get lot of good sounding synths for your daily work.

There is just problem with it's price is starting to approach Omnisphere level and only hard core KORG lover will choose it over Omnisphere. You need to wait for discount before buying and KORG is not doing 50% discounts too often, 30% are more common.

In upcoming Collection version 4 there will be 3 more digital synths added and price will most likely increase, making it even more difficult for KORG to sell. If collection would cost the same as Omni sphere I would go for Omni sphere. It's 15k sounds are hard to beat.

In collection you will get most famous KORG synths : MS 20, mini KORG, Poly six, M1 and Triton and ARP Odyssey. You will get other synths as well (mono/poly, prophecy, wave station) but these are the main and best ones. You will also get about 23 effects ported from Triton to separate VST and second effect unit made from MS 20.

Which synths you actually need? For today music where we need unique aggressive sounds mini KORG and MS 20 will do. Both are harsh sounding and very unique. mini KORG does not get much love on YouTube showing its hard side, people just playing soft tunes on it, but MS 20 is demonstrated more appropriate. mini KORG is very good for live playing, its pretty harsh and expressive for leads and solos. On other way You can put MS 20 on MIDI grid with mouse and it will do well there, no need to live play it. Don't buy Prophecy VST if you plan to MIDI grid it.

For 70s and very early 80s music ARP Odyssey is good. I am really impressed by it and playing with it on iPad while I rest. I haven't used it on the track it doesn't fit my style.

Poly six is very loved for its sound and used often. Sound is not unique like MS 20 and mini KORG - you can do similar sounds in most soft synths but still it sounds very good and you will actually use it because it's very fast to make sound with Poly six.

On other way mono/poly can be easily replaced by something else (Diva) and making sounds on it is not that fast like on Poly six. I do not use it in real work.

M1 is legend. It's must buy for any genre. Very strong sounding.

Wave station sounds good, it is designed for moving pads and sound scapes but it's GUI is very difficult to work with. If you like it buy it on iPad, it's much easier to use there. I do not use it in real work, GUI is too big pain to make something fast. I use Hyperion and Abyss for these kind of sounds. Both are fast to work with and have huge preset library.

Prophecy is synth for live playing. Original version got actually used in 90s by several famous bands. It has KORG VPM and lot of other stuff looking good only on paper. It's very difficult to design sound on it, it has lot of knobs and knobs do not change sound much. It's not very flexible synth, it can do certain limited style of sounds. I don't like it, but you can find lot of YouTube demos and check yourself.

Then we have two times Triton. They generated lot of excitement, especially extreme version with more sounds. Extreme version sounds softer then Studio version. I see use of extreme version for beat makers because it have huge library of mostly soft sound fitting into genre well. For use in more active music styles get Studio version or more punching M1.
Triton is more like sound library then synth with own character like rest of collection. It's quite similar to today KORG KRONOS. Designing sounds on Triton is way slower then on M1, do not expect to make a lot of own sounds. UI is similar to M1, but unlike original there is no sampler. Sampler would be useful, we can play sounds through its vintage sound engine because Triton have a lot of DSP effects. Playing audio through Triton is not supposed either, you have about 23 effects in separate MDE VST and most interesting effects from Triton are not there.

M1 is godly. It's digital synth that ruled 90s music the same way like DX7 ruled 80s. Other synths were used just because they were cheaper.

You will get M1 and all its cards and T1 disks. T1-3 and M1 (EX/R) are using the same legendary AI sounding engine.

Synth is very Punchy and it will get noticed very well in the mix. Next KORG generation 01/W has the same style of sounds, but Korg Trinity and later are on the soft synth side, Trinity sounds similar to today Yamaha synths and Triton is even softer, especially its Extreme edition. If you want Triton buy Triton studio (or VST). Triton Extreme has more sounds and most people buy it because of this but I prefer quality over quantity. Why bother with soft extreme edition while you can get Kronos.

From leaked information KORG works on 01/W VST. we will get more pad sounds which is known for, another batch of sharp M1 like sounds and first introduced wave shaping feature in its AI2 engine and more realistic but still very Punchy new detailed (4MB) piano set. Sadly from Trinity to nowadays Pianos are kinda soft. You can buy Key scape from Omnisphere and Ivory 2. While these Pianos might be realistic, they simply too soft. No developer has courage to make Pianos like used in first two KORG generations anymore.

M1 Sounds are good for pop, dance, house and few are good for Trance, there is an expansion card for it. Korg Triton has Trance expansion card as well but if you compare them M1 sounds much more aggressive. Why everybody likes soft sounds? I like the way M1 sounds - this is way how synth should sound, you can always make sound softer using compression and filters. KORG Triton and its following models like M3 and Kronos needs exciter insert on each sound to wake them somewhat. Yamaha took different approach - their sounds have more highs to sound bright but they are pretty careful with strong attack. Roland sounds are good for soft background playing in mix, don't worry nobody notices your bad playing, they don't hear you anyway.

There are lot of famous sounds. Most famous is the M1 piano, followed by Organ 2. From pads it's universe, choir and Lore.

Because you have all sound cards you have alternative M1EX Piano 2 samples, sometimes called T1 piano because it is also in second bank on T1-3. There are several presets utilizing Piano 1 multi sample, most used is Piano 16 because it's very hard metalic. T1 added new multi sample Piano 3, which is harder then kinda soft Piano 2 but it's not much used because there is no default preset for it. I never used Piano 2 multi sample in track. There is also 4th piano sound from M1 expansion card MSC 05. This one is fat and its called Piano 2 but it's not M1EX Piano 2. This one never appeared again in M1 T1 product lanes. I have not noticed it in the 90s songs either.

So you will get 4 famous piano multi samples from 90s and about 15 presets using these samples. Because M1 VST can do multi combo, you can split keys range in 3 parts and fine tune filter cut and amp envelope for each part and get 4 very well finished Pianos and then make second version with chorus on.

There are several synth and real Hammond organs samples, most loved in house music are versions with clicking. There are several pipe organs sounds, some are made from digital waves - these ones are uninteresting. Then we have few soft pipes for use in combination and last and best ones are pretty sharp pipe sets. These style of sampling pipe organs sets is not used since Trinity. Triton has pretty soft pipe organs but M1 pipe organs pipe sets cuts through mix amazingly well. do not overuse them in track, in intro or bridge they are good.

M1 is simply must buy for any producer because sounds like this are unique, hard sounding, legendary, magical not made anymore. M1 is not the best selling synth in the history for no reason.

Very good compressor, one of top sounding ones. I measured signal distortion and this is one of best ones I ever seen including commercial ones in $300 price class.

It has very extensive CPU usage. You need to freeze any track with this plugin otherwise its no fun. If freezing is not a problem for you then get it.