Best of Korg

Pyramid Sounds
Format : Kurzweil
Review by: Clif Marsiglio
Tuesday, November 28, 2000

The “Best of Korg” represents a little more than a decade of Korg's best programming and then some. Not to slag my Kurzweil but Korg has always held the lead on preset design. One could pick up any of their products and use the presets without fear of sounding completely incompetent. The sounds were designed for players and were always up to date with the times, usually defining those times.

This disc is like a stopped chronograph documenting the different eras in which the different machines captured here came out. The M1 came out in the very late 80s and was the state of the art workstation of the time. Its piano could cut through a mix like nothing, though as with most products of the time, its overly compressed and rather blunt sound barely represented what we would look for in smooth lyrical instruments. While the original M1 Piano is not present, a slight variation is present in the updated M3r.
Most of the sounds that made Korg popular are represented. Apart from the synths mentioned about we have the T3, the Trinity, and Wavestation and the Z1. First on the list are the two banks representing the M1. There are 36 patches from this device including most of the popular ones.

Listening through this bank, I relived everything that I hated about these 'closed'-ended synths as well as the joy of tasteless enjoyment. Korg has always had these super clean digital sounding synths that had this high-end sheen. Pyramid captured everything as intended.

With almost every sound the original patch is presented as it was first played and then processed through several VAST'd variations. While I had the initial rush of reliving the past with those originals, I have to admit the VAST'd patches have updated these rather nicely for today's market.

The M3R listed here is more or less a stripped version of the M1. The patches are not exactly the same as on the M1 series and considered a little duller than its predecessor, but still a reasonable facsimile. The M3R Piano uses the same ROMS as the M1, but because of the slight differences in architecture, I would have rather it have been sampled from the original device. Still, there are several variations listed with this that make it well worth its while. Normally I don't care much for Pads but all the sounds that have jumped out at me have been...in this bank. My favorite has to be Spectral + Vox sound. Very haunting. Again, I am not one for Pads, but Korg knows what they are doing with sound design and Pyramid takes full advantage of it when enhancing these.

Just recently I had heard comments that others ONLY used this disc for Pads, but this disc is far more than just that. Given the additional programming, although the pads seem to be Korg's forte, you will find sounds never intended. The 01/W, which ironically would have been called the M10 except someone in marketing read the engineers’ writing upside down, has several basses, drums, another piano and a Rhodes.

Pyramid does a good job of including 20 banks of Wavestation patches in this collection. The Wavestation was, in my opinion, one of the most ambitious projects in the Korg line. It employed wave sequencing as its main form of synthesis and is represented here. Pyramid gives us about 65 Megs of Wavestation patches alone to play with. Patches such as Morphic really show the Wavestation aspect of this set, while others in this collection such as the Strings may be more useful to you in an orchestral arrangement or for coloring. I especially love the additional programming, such as that on Soaring, which employs a delayed arpeggiated sound emphasizing the tonality and urgency of the patch.

I've wasted enough space on the specifics of the sounds here. Also on this disc are the T3, the Trinity and the Z1. While newer machines, I'm not as familiar with these as I've only played these in passing. The T3 has some really nice sounds; the Trinity and Z1 sounds do a good job of capturing these devices. While I cannot tell you if they are as accurate a representation as the other machines, the patches are just as gorgeous.

In conclusion, what should be said here is that all the sounds on this disc have been beautifully captured and Pyramid should be commended for bringing these sounds into the next decade with their reprogramming. They truly are stunning reproductions. You will relive the first time you ever played one of the instruments captured here, but will be absolutely amazed by everything else Pyramid has done with these.

As a side note, Peter S sent me a note wanting me to let ya'll know that over 90% of the sounds are sampled in stereo. To be honest, I didn't even notice. I was too into the sounds to look at a lot of the technical details ;-)