With polyphonic aftertouch, MPE and MIDI 2.0, Korg’s Keystage has a lot to offer.
The genus ‘MIDI controller’ spans a wide range of species, ranging from large, heavily endowed 88‑note keyboards offering sophisticated control surfaces to tiny devices that you can slip into a pocket. Between these extremes, there are all manner of products including numerous 49‑ and 61‑note keyboards looking for their niche, and it’s into this crowded market that Korg have launched the Keystage 49 and Keystage 61, the latter of which is the subject of this review.
Let’s Be Hard
Designed as both a MIDI controller and a USB audio interface, it has a smart finish, and its wooden end cheeks do much to give it an air of quality. But it’s not chunky, nor does it feel particularly robust, largely because it’s based upon a plastic chassis. Nonetheless, the modern trend is for light and slim so, in this regard, it scores well.
Unlike many MIDI controllers, it’s devoid of programmable buttons, pads and faders. This means that its sparse top panel is dominated by just nine rotary knobs. By default, the Value encoder sends Program Change messages and the eight pots send MIDI CCs, but many additional functions are available in various modes, and you can see the parameters assigned to the knobs as well as their values on their associated screens. While these are bright and crisp, they’re also tiny, so you may find yourself reaching for your reading glasses to use them.
The Polytouch keybed is unweighted and springy. Back in the 1970s, we called this ‘synth action’, and we were grateful when semi‑weighted and piano‑action keyboards started to appear on synthesizers. It offers four degrees of expression: velocity, aftertouch, polyphonic aftertouch and MPE, but I worry when I read in the manual that: “The aftertouch sensors on the keyboard may wear out if you press into the keyboard too hard. For this reason, avoid pressing into the keyboard harder than necessary.” It feels as if Korg are getting their defence in early. On a more positive note, the pitch‑bend and modulation wheels and the octave/transpose buttons are in their correct positions to the left of the keyboard. What’s more, you can connect any combination of sustain and expression pedals to the (nominally) damper and expression inputs, which adds flexibility.
Unfortunately, Korg have followed the Douglas Adams school of design, endowing the Keystage with black legends on a black background, and with little black lights that light up black on black buttons to let you know when you’ve done something! OK, it’s not quite as bad as that, but it’s not far off. For example, the rear‑panel legends are embossed (so they are, literally, black on a black background), and the top‑panel legends are printed in a grey that’s almost impossible to read in adverse conditions. Furthermore, while some of the buttons have backlights, these only indicate when a function is on, so you have two rows of closely spaced buttons offering little to help you to see what’s happening.
At the rear of the Keystage, you’ll find three slots that allow you to attach an expansion plate. There are two possible positions (one in the centre and the other to the right), and two angles (flat or inclined slightly upward). The plate is a little over four inches deep but, if you mount it to the right, the total flat area (including the otherwise unused area of the top panel) is around eight inches deep. I placed a 15‑inch MacBook Pro in this position and, to my surprise, everything remained in place. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t want to use anything heavier than a small tablet without a liberal application of Velcro.
Let’s Be Soft
The philosophy of MIDI Controllers has changed over the past few decades. Once upon a time, they offered up to eight zones, allowing players to control multiple audio sources simultaneously from a single keyboard. Not so here; although you can allocate different MIDI channels to various controls, the keyboard is a single zone.
Nonetheless, the Keystage has three extra facilities that help to keep things interesting. The first is an arpeggiator that’s driven by an internal clock if no external clock is applied. While not as...
You are reading one of the locked Subscribers-only articles from our latest 5 issues.
You've read 30% of this article for free, so to continue reading...
- ✅ Log in - if you have a Subscription you bought from SOS.
- Buy & Download this Single Article in PDF format £1.00 GBP$1.49 USD
For less than the price of a coffee, buy now and immediately download to your computer or smartphone.
- Buy & Download the FULL ISSUE PDF
Our 'full SOS magazine' for smartphone/tablet/computer. More info...
- Buy a DIGITAL subscription (or Print + Digital)
Instantly unlock ALL premium web articles! Visit our ShopStore.