11/19/2008
Weighing in at just 6.5 kg, the new KORG M50 is ready to take on all challengers! Incredible new sounds; thick, powerful combinations; split or layered sounds across the keyboard; a wide range of phenomenal effects; dynamic drums; enhanced polyphonic arpeggiators; sequencer tools; a solid, comfortable keyboard; the latest in SD storage; included editing software and our famous interactive TouchView touch screen: it all comes together to produce an attractive, sexy keyboard instrument that could only be a KORG.
A model for every need
Our twenty years of experience designing and defining the Workstation category beat at the heart of the M50 Music Workstation. Just as the M3 incorporated elements of the legendary OASYS, the M50 captures the full sonic potential of the M3, distilled into an instrument that has no rival. To put it plainly, the M50 may be the keyboard you've been waiting for. It's available in 61- and 88-key versions, featuring a new Natural Touch semi-weighted keyboard. This new keyboard makes expressive, dynamic playing easy. Weighing 20.5 kg for easy transport, the 88-key version features our most advanced graded weighted-action keyboard, the RH3 Graded Hammer Action, offering a superb playing experience for the piano purist!
Natural Playing
Made to be played, the M50 is both attractive and comfortable. The TouchView display is intuitive and interactive, allowing the angled front panel to be elegant and uncluttered. The buttons are very solid, backlit and rounded for greater visibility and ease of use in any performance conditions. In addition to Korg's four-way Joystick and multi-function buttons, the M50 offers four 'Chord Triggers' that provide a flexible, fun way to play chords and trigger arpeggiator patterns. A ten-key numeric keypad gives instant access to sounds, combis and other parameters/values.
Programs
The M50 features more than 600 individual sound programs, each created by Korg's respected international programming team. With a robust 256 MB sample memory (recorded under studio conditions), the acoustic instruments offer full authenticity and lifelike detail, along with rich, natural articulation; the synth sounds can be explosive and aggressive, rich and enveloping, or pure and delicate. But first and foremost, the M50 is any musician's main keyboard. The incredible piano offers three velocity-switched stereo layers and an additional resonance layer, for faithful, natural reproduction of the piano's full dynamic range.
In addition to the concert grands, a host of pianos and classic keyboard sounds are included (from a mono piano that cuts through live to the ever-popular classic Korg SG-1 Sampling Grand). The electric pianos are dynamic, expressive and highly responsive, with all the subtle hammer sound you could need. The new harpsichords include all the classic settings with a wide dynamic response, and you'll even find string and flute sounds taken from the tape keyboards of the past. Korg's REMS pickup/amp/cabinet modeling technology provides the finishing touch. All the classics are at your disposal, with programs that are a real pleasure to play!
Need to quickly tweak a sound to your liking? No problem: the Tone Adjust function gives easy access to the most important sound parameters and characteristics, without having to dig deep into programming. This function is available in Program, Combi and Sequencer Modes, so you can get what you're after without hassle and with minimal effort.
Combinations
In addition to individual programs, a combination (or "combi") lets you group up to 16 sound programs that can be layered, split and arranged in zones across the keyboard; they can also be set to individual MIDI channels. Nearly 400 of these Combis come preloaded, offering fantastic layered or split sounds for live performance. All the preloaded sounds are fully editable, and there's more than enough room on board (640 programs, 512 combinations) for all the sounds you edit, modify or create.
Effects
The M50's generous effects section brings your sounds to life. The five insert effects and two master effects can be assigned and configured however you like, with a total effect for the finishing touch. From spacious, elegant reverbs to enveloping modulation effects, the effects not only enhance a sound but can be part of its programming itself (adding unique, personal sonic elements). D-mod (Dynamic Modulation) even allows real-time control of various effect parameters as part of your performance, while effect parameters can be synced to the two common LFOs or to a MIDI Clock source to integrate the effects even further into the overall sound. You'll have more than 170 high-quality effects available, including Korg's exclusive REMS effect modeling technology. Each program (whether on its own, in a combi, or assigned to a sequencer track) is equipped with its own three-band EQ for that final touch.
Drum Track
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. And the M50 has it! We've included more than 1,600 drum and percussion samples that can be configured into a complete "Drumkit" program. Ready and waiting, there are 32 drumkits, with room for 48 more user kits. But there's more! In addition to the drumkits, the drum track offers 670 rhythm patterns that you can play along with or use as a source of inspiration for your own musical ideas. In fact, every program has a preassigned drum track so you can get started right away. BAM!
Polyphonic Arpeggiators
The arpeggiator has been a trademark of Korg keyboards since the '80s, and the M50 adds much more to that heritage! In addition to the ever-present up, down and random patterns, the M50's two polyphonic arpeggiators can produce cascading chords, rhythmic bass lines, picking patterns when you play chords, and powerful accents, to enrich your performance and spark your musical ideas. In Sequencer and Combi modes, both arpeggiators can run simultaneously, each driving different timbres, creating powerful possibilities, such as one producing the drum rhythm while the other produces bass patterns (you can even use keyboard velocity to switch patterns within the same sound!).
Sequencer
Korg wrote the book on Workstations, and the M50 has every chapter! The built-in sequencer is the heart of your music production studio. You can record more than 200,000 notes across 16 MIDI tracks and up to 128 songs. The enhanced 480 ppq resolution captures your performance with exquisite fidelity (whether you play in real time or step by step, note by note). A full set of advanced yet easy-to-use editing functions is available to help you sculpt your song into its final shape at every step. Song templates, designed for a wide variety of musical genres, let you start playing quickly, with sounds and effects already selected and configured, making your work easier from the very start. Or try the RPPR (Realtime Pattern Play/Recording) function, unique to Korg, which lets you select one of the 671 drum patterns to get started and assign shorter patterns and phrases to individual keys; you can even set up a loop on each track to design the perfect groove before your inspiration slips away! Sequence the individual sections of the song separately, then use the Cue List function to assemble and try out different arrangements (the perfect tool for Remixes!). And since you never know when inspiration will strike, the one-touch recording function (Auto Song Setup) transfers all your current settings to a new song and starts the sequencer, capturing your ideas to serve as the foundation for a new song.
The most advanced synthesis: "Enhanced Definition Synthesis"
Our most advanced hardware synthesis engine to date, Korg's Enhanced Definition Synthesis, is the musical heart of both the M50 and the M3. Each individual voice can have up to two stereo oscillators, four filters, two amplifier sections, five low-frequency oscillators (LFOs), and five envelope generators (EGs).
On the technical side, each oscillator can offer four-way velocity switching, crossfading or layering. This allows a single voice to use up to eight stereo multisamples to ensure a dynamic, expressive sound. Each voice also has access to up to five multimode filters (High Pass, Band Pass, Band Reject, Low Pass); two filters per oscillator configured in parallel, layered or in series (as well as a superb 24dB mode). Even the amplifier section can help shape and texture the sound with a drive saturation circuit, which adds a harder, punchier sound, and a bass boost to make the sound even fatter.
The Envelope Generators provide changes in the sound over time, and the advanced Key Tracking function changes the sound based on the note played (for example, the highest notes on the keyboard will have less sustain, be brighter and have a gentler, faster vibrato than the lowest notes), adding an incredible degree of subtlety and control to balance your sound across the entire range of the keyboard. At each stage of the EG you can specify the shape and type of curve used to move between points, allowing unmatched expression and accuracy. The five LFOs offer 18 different waveforms. Initial phase and amplitude shift parameters offer even more detailed control for achieving the perfect modulation.
And when all this isn't enough, Korg's Alternate Modulation Source (AMS) provides a matrix of more than fifty modulation sources, which can be mixed, summed and added to a large number of parameters, giving you exactly the result you're looking for. In short, the Korg M50 provides incredible control over the multitude of components that make a keyboard sound extraordinary. And within Korg's legendary programming, the EDS synthesis engine makes the M50 any sound designer's dream.
Computer Integration
Your new M50 includes both standalone and plug-in editing software, allowing more detailed graphic editing on your computer, and it connects directly via USB. The plug-in version lets you edit the M50's sounds from any music application (VST, Audio Units and RTAS formats), so your edits and changes become part of the song file, without having to switch applications to edit the sound. The M50 also uses convenient SD cards for affordable, reliable data storage.