Korg M3 Xpanded

Let’s start with the modified ROM, which includes a new, stereo acoustic piano, plus a monophonic piano and a re-sampled version of the 12-bit stage piano introduced in the Korg SG1D way back in 1987. I’m fussy about piano sounds, so it’s a testament to how far we’ve progressed when I find that a sampled grand piano can be sandwiched between a thousand other PCMs and sound half-decent. Inevitably, the velocity zones of the M3 Grand Piano are apparent, but I found that careful programming of the sample crossfade feature in the EDS (Enhanced Definition Synthesis) oscillator pages could minimise this. On the other hand, I’d describe the SG1D’s piano as a ‘mildly unpleasant and clunky piano-like sound’, although I accept that other players may find good uses for it.

Korg have also updated a number of the M3’s electric piano samples and its Hohner Clavinets. The electric pianos are excellent, and the Clavis are also good, but the latter instrument is difficult to emulate well and the looping on a handful of the samples is evident. Nonetheless, Programs built from these samples are bright and dynamic, and I wouldn’t hesitate to use them.

Alongside these, Korg have added what they call “tape-playback string and flute sounds... taken from those mechanical nightmare tape-driven keyboards of days gone by”. You mean Mellotrons, mate, and mine is not a nightmare, it’s a thing of beauty, so you’re making no friends here. Furthermore, these PCMs are too clean and too in tune to convince aficionados that they’re listening to the real thing. Of the Programs based on the string samples, only ‘Krimson Strings’ sounds even vaguely like a genuine Mellotron, although it’s stereo, sustains indefinitely if you hold it, and has added chorus! Korg’s programmers have even made it velocity-sensitive (arghh!). Happily, a few minutes of editing soon sorted out these cock-ups. Likewise, the Mellotron flute patches are not what you would call authentic, but it’s still nice to have them.

Next, I decided to test the brass and woodwind samples in the PCM01 and PCM02 libraries. But where were they? I knew I’d loaded them but I couldn’t access them. Then I realised that despite being able to hold all three libraries in its system memory, the instrument can’t use them unless they’re copied into sample RAM. The standard M3 (Xpanded or not) has just 64MB of RAM and can only access one library at a time, so although data compression means that each library can fit into 64MB, loading one leaves almost no room for your own samples or audio. So if you’re thinking of buying an M3 or Xpanding an existing one, you’ll need the EXB-M256 RAM expansion board, which lets you load all three EX-USB libraries simultaneously and still retain around 128MB of free RAM for your own samples. This will cost you £99$99 and at first sight might seem a bit of a con, but it’s probably cheaper than buying the equivalent piano and brass/woodwind expansion boards for one of the competition’s workstations.

The review M388 didn’t have the EXB-M256 installed, so I unloaded the piano samples and loaded the PCM01 library. I discovered that a whole bunch of Programs in User Bank ‘E’ took advantage of these, and was impressed. Scores (no pun intended) of instruments such as trumpets, piccolos, flugelhorns and clarinets, many with trills, growls and slides, are not going to appeal to everybody, but for soundtrack composers, incidental music composers and arrangers, they’ll be extremely handy. Indeed, I suspect that classically trained orchestrators could make these sound almost indistinguishable from the real thing. My only frustration was that some Programs in User Bank ‘E’ required the PCM01 and PCM02 libraries to be loaded simultaneously and the review unit couldn’t oblige.

I’ve discussed this with Korg on many occasions, most forcefully following the launch of the OASYS, when I pointed out that its powerful processor and large, colourful touch-sensitive screen offered huge opportunities for replacing the ageing software. However, the company had decided not to reinvent the wheel (meaning Digital Performer, Cubase, Sonar, and so on) and on reflection I agreed that writing something approaching the complexity of these would be unviable. But Korg’s programmers have not been idle, and the long-anticipated revision has now appeared on the M3 Xpanded.

Korg have added three new screens to the sequencer, and call their facilities ‘DAW-Derived Sequencer Editing’. The most significant of these are the Piano Roll and Track View screens. These show notes in a similar way to computer-based sequencers and allow you to edit them directly. Just select a note with your finger or a stylus and adjust its start position, end point, pitch, velocity, or any other MIDI attribute, simply by sliding it around on screen. You can also add and delete notes at the poke and swipe of a finger. This is fabulous, and adds something I’ve wanted since I first discovered MIDI: the ability to draw modulation and MIDI volume curves on the screen itself. Of course, you’ll see much less at a time on the M3’s screen than on a computer display, but I reckon this upgrade will revolutionise how players think about keyboardbased sequencers. Korg had better get their skates on and port this to my OASYS, or I’ll be a very unhappy bunny.

Korg are also proud of the M3’s new ability to display and edit SysEx data as easily as MIDI CCs, and there are new MIDI velocity displays for each track, which is helpful when you have a complex sequence and can’t immediately see which track is doing what. Happily, these displays have also been included in Combi mode so you can see which elements in a Combi are being driven by external sequencers or remote keyboards.

Korg are also supplying a new editor with the M3 Xpanded, and this runs stand-alone or as a VST, AU or RTAS plug-in. It allows you to edit and control the M3 Xpanded and its EXB-RADIAS board, if installed, using MIDI over USB. Alternatively, you can transmit MIDI and digital audio simultaneously across Firewire if the optional M3 EXB-FW board is installed, with the audio then passing directly to the Mac or PC host. This turns the M3 into a hardware ‘plug-in’ and also allows you to use it as a powerful and flexible set of effects units within your host application.

It took me just minutes to get the editor running on my MacBook Pro, and moments later I was editing with it. Even though the touchscreen and editing system on the M3 itself are excellent, this was even quicker, and I was delighted to be able to edit sounds in real time without glitches. There are some bugs in the current version, but Korg have published a list of those they know about and are working on fixes.

The M3 Xpanded now features version 2.2 of KARMA, which — if you can get your head around KARMA in the first place — is a significant upgrade. Most importantly, you can now create and modify the GEs (Generated Effects) that determine how the algorithm handles the notes you present to it. The screen above shows the GE page in the editor, and the fields you can adjust to alter the nature of the GE. These are not intuitive, and I suspect it will take time to learn to use them analytically, but if you’re into experimentation, something interesting will soon emerge. Another benefit is that you can now switch between GEs in real-time, so you can change the nature of the sequence/arpeggio as it is playing. It’s just a shame that KARMA is so mind-bendingly arcane, because it’s a phenomenal system that’s very under-exploited. Hopefully, the new version will migrate to the OASYS and elsewhere, and people will start to get more out of it.

Before finishing, there’s one other issue I need to mention. Korg supplied the M3 Xpanded as an M388 with 88-note piano-weighted keyboard. In my review of the original M3, I suggested that it looked a little like a top-of-the-range home keyboard, and referred to it as the ‘iKorg’, but the 88-note version dispels these impressions. Its brushed aluminium panels look much smarter than the plastic ones on the ‘61’, and the proportions of the instrument are generally nicer. I think it looks and feels fantastic, and that’s not an accolade I bestow lightly.