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Korg RADIAS


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Thats really nice but I'm not sure the price is justified because for that much you could almost get a new Virus or Minimoog (and you could easily get one second-had). None of the demos made me go "Damn!" like the Virus or Minimoog has, hell, even the Ion has done that. I won't fully know until I get my hands on one and play with it myself but I don't think the sound justifies the price tag.

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I commend you for spelling the name right. Everywhere else people couldn't read and spelled it "RADIUS" :(.

Sweet merciful JESUS!

I however cannot commend you for only finding out now. It's been on the market for a while.

V-Synth will have to take a backseat position to this puppy. GIMME GIMME GIMME.

Have you seen the videos?

http://www.sonicstate.com/news/shownews.cfm?newsid=2608

The 7 or so seconds of sampling with the formant whiz-bang is really nice, and it features probably one of the nicest Rhodes pianos I've ever heard from a virtual analog.

http://www.zzounds.com/prodsearch?q=korg+radias&button=search%2Fheader&form=search

There is however a considerable price difference between the keyboard version and the rack version. It's worse if you consider that the keyboard can only be hooked up to the Radias; it's not a generic controller :(.

Re: other synths; a Virus B would come close in terms of specs, but it lacks the formant stuff and its oscillators (standalone) are less refined and more prone to aliasing. It also has a smaller display.

A Minimoog is an entirely different machine - the only similarity is the tilting front panel.

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Yeah, the price difference between just the rack module and the full keyboard version is pretty substantial, but the keyboard part of it is pretty nice in its own right. It's nothing SPECTACULARLY special, but it's very sleekly designed, and the addition of the rack-filler that it comes with to allow for space for a tabletop synth module/drum machine (like my SH-32) or effects processor (the sweet-as-hell KAOSS Pad 3).

I mean, the price difference may be substantial, but it's pretty well suited for the module. I definitely love the design.

I'm also enjoying the different types of oscillator mixing they've thrown in: ring modulation, sync, pulse-width modulation, unison, Korg’s new-fangled Variable Phase Modulation, and cross modulation. My SH-32 offers 32 waveforms total, and it doesn't even open up as many possibilities as this thing does.

Plus it's sexy.

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I may not know everything about remixing.

I may not know everything about mixing.

I may not know everything about music.

Any I may not know everything about synthesizers, software programs, and their inner workings in order to get the best sounds possible out of them.

But I do know 1 thing: This synth sounds fucking awesome.

Carry on.

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I dunno if this would beat out the V-Synth... that things a monster. But it IS very cool nonetheless, and yes I want one. :)

edit: I played one in a music store today w/ headphones and it is in fact a great synth overall. The keys feel like Edirol keys (synth action, but not cheap), the knobs are fun to tweak, and the patches for the most part were most excellent. I especially liked one called "Euphoric Lead" which was a really phat trance lead - just messing around with it (after applying some cutoff modulation) inspired me to create a melody.

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Is it really more of a groovebox loaded with features? Some say it's got this expensive (but great) groovebox feel, despite it having a keyboard. I've only tried out the Electribes and Akai MPCs.

Maybe it's a cheaper alternative to buying a Virus and Electribe ESX- kill two birds with one stone.

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Having owned a Roland MC-307, I can safely tell you that this thing is guaraunteed to be a LOT easier to program than a groovebox. I always had a BITCH of a time getting that thing to do what I wanted to as far as simple things like note lengths go. This looks like it runs largely off of its supremely powerful arpeggiator to make patterns (kinda like my SH-32), and those are pretty easy to cook-up, generally speaking. Plus, I don't know about the RADIAS, but my SH-32 has faaaaaaar more arpeggiator patterns than I'll ever need, so I never found myself even needing to make one.

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Is it really more of a groovebox loaded with features?

A groovebox is usually sample-based and has separate stuff going on for the percussion.

Some say it's got this expensive (but great) groovebox feel

That's what you get if you only select some layered performance patches that combine 3 or 4 actual synth patches with sequencer or arpeggiator lines running.

Maybe it's a cheaper alternative to buying a Virus and Electribe ESX- kill two birds with one stone.

No. The ESX handles samples differently. Still, a Radias and ESX would make a very nice combo :).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just played with the RADIAS today. It's general layout is much better than the MS2000 but I wasn't that much impressed by it. Too me, it sounded too smooth - the Roland SH-201, which also just came in stock at Mother's Music for display purposes, actually sounded a lot more rougher. Rougher being good because it means that there are more harmonics to play with in terms of using cascading post-filters.

However I might get one as the price of the RADIAS isn't too bad.

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