KORG Collection 5

[Saul]

I was quite excited when I saw the announcement that KORG Collection 5 was now available, especially at a 50% discount. Then I looked at the presentation and wondered why they bothered.

Yes I know for some, the addition of the ARP 2600, the EP-1 from the Kronos/Nautilus and the Vox Continental will probably set your world alight but for me, sorry but this is a bore fest. Yet more organs, electric pianos and another ARP 2600.

When is KORG going to start adding more modern synths into the collection. The Fantom X, Fantom G, M3 and so on. Perhaps they will get there evenutally but how many more versions of this collection will come and go before that happens? For now I will give this collection a miss.

And what on earth are they doing with the music to this video? It is the sort of thing you hear in the local supermarket

[Rara]

That sort of music reminds me of Jake and Elwood Blues standing in lift on there way to pay the taxes

[Saul]

That sort of music reminds me of Jake and Elwood Blues standing in lift on there way to pay the taxes

Yes, definitely

I am sure someone at KORG could have come up with something slightly better

[Derek]

I was quite excited when I saw the announcement that KORG Collection 5 was now available, especially at a 50% discount. Then I looked at the presentation and wondered why they bothered.

Yes I know for some, the addition of the ARP 2600, the EP-1 from the Kronos/Nautilus and the Vox Continental will probably set your world alight but for me, sorry but this is a bore fest. Yet more organs, electric pianos and another ARP 2600.

When is KORG going to start adding more modern synths into the collection. The Fantom X, Fantom G, M3 and so on. Perhaps they will get there evenutally but how many more versions of this collection will come and go before that happens? For now I will give this collection a miss.

And what on earth are they doing with the music to this video? It is the sort of thing you hear in the local supermarket

Yes, the music is hardly a good example of why you should buy this

I think you are confusing your Rolands and Korgs...

These bundled collections and upgrades can sometimes be like the curate's egg (good in parts).

Whilst I already have two ARP2600 emulations, I love ARP and I am interested in this one for the ARP given that Korg now own the rights for it, so hopefully have done a great job on modelling it. I have little interest in a Vox Continental as I hate that Transistor organ sound, but maybe I may need it one day...

Strangely, the one that interests me most is the EP-1 engine. Yes, I already have it in my Kronos, but it piqued my interest in that is the start of the rest of the Kronos appearing in VST form? We already have MS-20 and Poly-6, so adding EP1 is now 3 of the nine Kronos engines

Imagine a future Korg Collection that adds

• HD-1 a great S&S engine with Wave Sequencing
• SGX-1 - one of my favourite piano engines.
• AL-1 - The one I REALLY want to see in VST form - it remains an amazing analog synth engine and a firm favourite of mine
• CX-3 - not the best Hammond organ emulation these days, but capable of great sounds
• STR-1 - a string physical modelling engine, which is capable of much more then string emulations
• VP-1 - Korg's patchable FM enigne

And then a Kronos or Nautilus "Program/Combi" container for building combines from any of the collection engines. Whilst I can easily roll my own in Cantabile, being able to load Kronos PCG files into a container would be a huge boon. If Korg do the top 3 in that list above, I would be quite happy

And don't forget that Korg do have their modern synths, but strangely (maybe for their own business model reasons) not in the collection. WaveState and MODWAVE are two of the best modern VSTs out there

I will end up buying this to keep updated, and the upgrade offer is the cost of a single decent VST

[Saul]

I am not downplaying the "qaulity" of what is on offer because certainly, in my experience, KORG has put out some great emulations of their legacy gear. And yes for many the ARP will be very welcome, as will the EP-1. Just none of it ticks my boxes. I sort of lost interest after the addition of the Triton Extreme and Prophecy.

But it does come down to how you use these things. My interest is just tinkering, playing around with hardware versions of synths I no longer own. I would have bought another Fantom X if I had space but there is just no room here. Software takes up no space

So for some the KORG Collection 5 will be a "must have". I will just have to wait until they add some of the newer/old keyboards that I am looking for.