Korg M3 (p)review - Keybed and features
Author: Vedran Dakic
Date: 19 Jan 2007

Keybed and features

The newly designed keybed is actually VERY nice and responsive. I remember the demonstrator making a joke that it finally has "aftertouch, not afterswitch". I could go along with that comment. It's different to anything I've ever tried before, and I'd say that's the way to go. Personally, I'm more of a piano player so for me it's 88 or nothing, but most users will buy 61 or 73-note version so - I didn't want to forget about that. Apart from these three versions, you'll also be able to buy a "rack" version called the M3-M. So, you can just buy it, plug it in and enjoy the sound while using your favourite controller. Nice change of pace, considering the fact that we didn't see any module since the Triton Rack. There are 170 effect types inside, and these include Speaker Simulation, REMS and stuff like that.

Another thing that's inside the M3 is KARMA, with the complete OASYS-version 2.0. A tiny bit of things changed, especially with regards to drumming. You can easily make a drumkit from ROM or RAM samples, with up to 4-way velocity switching and Karma. But when taking a look at the control surface, there's a separate DRUM TRACK ON/OFF button. This button actually acts similar to having RPRR in PROG and COMBI modes on and off. One cool thing - you can do Wave Sequencing with RADIAS sounds, as well (if you end up buying one of these with EXB-RADIAS boards).
As far as sampling is concerned, so, it's 16-bit 48kHz at most, 64MB of memory is included, and you can have up to 320MB (this thing reminds me of nVIDIA's new 8800GTS version with - strangely - 320MB of video memory). You can use WAV, AIFF, AKAI and SoundFont 2.0 (!!), and you can burn your stuff to CD via USB.