Korg 01/W Pro X

I have owned this baby since 1995. It was the demo model. Presets were o.k. But what factory makes phenom. presets?
Very easy to use. Got Innovative and best sounding keyboard award in 1992(01/w FD same engine w/o the piano 2 sound and a few drums)The manual is the manual is the manual. Not totally confusing but not the learning curve of a roland manual.(worst)Good enough to answer most questions, if not visit the online 01/w website. Far Superior.

32 voices which was unheard of in 1991 with all the features this thing came with. Still competes with some of the synth-wannabees of this era. Very full and rich sounding. 2 fx with serial, parralel and parralel 2 configurations. (take that XV series) 47 settings per effect. can play up to 8 tones at one time. Wish there were even 16 more voices on this thing. also wish there were ATM's in my car but what am I thinking. Can accept Rom and pcm cards. Some cards are unreal in sound. Better that most today. Has pressure senstive keys which was 75% of the reason I bought it. No other synth felt like this other than a Kurzweil MidiBoard Controller (another classic ahead of its time)But I didn't want a board and a module again so i opted for the 01.Onboard sequencer is one of THE easiest and versatile seq.'s I've seen in a workstation. 2 stereo outs and 2 assignable.

Everyone always wants to know what the pianos sound like in every article I read regardless of whether they are a pianist or not. So I will follow suit. The acoustic piano that is stock on the 01 is pretty good for recording. Notice I said recording. By itself it needs to have acouple of velocity switchings to sound more realistic. if you layer it 2-3 ways it is very good. It will cut if the VCF is turned up. Alittle compressed sounding but remember , we're talking about a WORKSTATION. A dirty word when it comes to piano sounds. The pro and pro-x models came with the 4 meg piano sample that was on the pcm card for those models which didn't have it. Now that is one fine piano sound. i have learned that the Triton uses the same one on one of their models.OK lets give the overall view on this baby before you all fall asleep. Remeber this is another famous IMHO review so don't curse me out. Scale is 1-10.
Strings 8.5
Analog Strings 11
Brass 8
Woodwinds 8
Pads 10
E.Ps 10 (when tweaked)
Acoustic guitar (2 of them) 10
rock guitar 11 (feedback patch, oh baby!)
Organs(Rock and church) 11 none better period
Choir 9
Drums 6-7
Basses 8
This unit can make almost any type of music on a general level. It is more geared for orchestral and classical but will give creedence to all users. Samples are 32,000Mghz,16 bit.

Totally dependBLE Never had a problem with it. Back lite starting to go dim but can be replced at low cost providing you do it yourself.
Have used it on a couple of gigs and was the mainstay. Did not need any thing else.

Had my old DSS-1 repaired by korg once and had a good experience. When contacting Korg by phone they were pretty helpful in solving a question about 3'rd party sound contacts.

I would get an 01/w rackmount because of the ratings above along with the pcm card. I have been playing for 32 years and have had a few nice pieces of equipment along with playing my friend's Kurzweil's 2500 XS (heavy action. Carpal Tunnel city) Getting a Yamaha S-90 soon with the PLG-150 piano card(better than roland's SRC-02 Falcone Piano...IMHO) and VL synthesis. Have had Kurzweils,DSS-1 as mentiones before, Roland FP-8(great piano sound and feel for it's age)Korg DSM-1, Roland U-20,MKS-20.
Getting back to the reason why you are here, if this board (wish list again folks) had 16 more voices, 1 more fx, slightly larger sequencer note capacity.Has 48,000,..make it 60,000 even, usb port and a 65 meg usable sampler (if there will ever be a perfect one on a synth) it would be the hands down winner for 90% of the people out there... IMHO.

Beautiful, is the only word that comes to mind right off the bat. I love this instrument.

I have tried a lot of the new stuff out there and I still like the O1wprox way better that most everything else I have tried except for the Yamaha $7,000.00 Clavinova.

I use the piano 2 sound mostly and I love it.

This is my only complant, my LCD display has gone very dim and korg is so hard to get a hold of that I haven't been able to locate another board. Korg should get a web site where customers can order parts for their keyboards.

Very hard to get a hold of at least on the web. I need a LCD display board for my 01wprox and I can't find Korg on the web to contact them about it.

I love this instrument and would love to get the LCD fixed. If the board lasted forever I would keep it forever

Well, playing keyboard is a lot harder than guitar...plus you've got 8 pages of parameters with about 10 to 20 tweeks per page for just one of the sounds. Two hundred sounds in all plus 200 more with a card. Up to eight of these sounds to make the "cominations"...It is dense but the results are absolutely worth it. Listenable, attention-getting and unique! But, god, what programming... I've been tweaking mine for nearly ten years!

The proX is just that, a pro model (circa 1993). A synth built like a piano. It is aging these days and the effects have been surpassed as has the basic sound quality. But the O1/W's W stands for "Wave"--the application of analog synth knob-like parameters to your basic patches. I do not believe there are many or any other keyboards out there that do it to this extent. It is a unique product of that time when Korg was into their "wave" trips. In that sense, its features remain unique even today.

If you tweak, tweak, tweak, you can probably get any sound known to man out of this thing. But in comparison to todays 24-bit stuff and the like, many things won't sound as pretty. But put a little tube warmth on it and you're right back up there.

I think this was made with new age music in mind so it's really good for sound effects and ambience. But it is perfect for anything. It does any instrument out there, rock, pop, ethnic, whatever...

Rating down only because of the age thing.

No problems in nearly ten years. Of course, you don't gig with this thing. It's like carrying around a 100 pound surfboard! It's for serious studio work.

Korg, I've been with you for 25 years and your products are great. But your website is without soul. No "Here's all kinds of support and ideas and stories about the products." Former products quickly disappear. Product peripherals and accesories do to. It's like you don't even care. Must be nice to have it made no matter what you do.

If something happened to it I would check out newer keyboards, but with all the unique, original patches I have made especially for this keyboard I would get it again and again if available. I really have no interest in other keyboards. But, then again, I'm a guitarist working in a home studio. This keyboard is my band. The waves add sound to it that warm it up and make it sound analog.

It's even great for the kids piano lessons, as the keyboard, although synth plastic, is of equal weight and size. It's fun for the whole family. It's the Cadillac of early 90's keyboards and it's still a classic.

Switch on, select patch A00 and you're away, with a lush string pad with overlaid synth swirls and effects. Easy to use right out of the box and to use basic patches, but difficult to get the very best out of it. This is by-product of its complexity - the more parameters that are user adjustable the more difficult they are to master.

Korg appear to have recognised that the main user manual reads like it's been translated from Japanese to English using Japanese-Arabic and Arabic-English dictionaries, so there's a simple 'Get you started' manual for using patches, changing Multis and using the effects. To get the best out of the Korg you will, however, have to grind through the main manual (feels like having your teeth pulled out!) and each parameter is technically (if not particularly helpfully) explained.

All the basic sounds are great work-a-day sounds - some very good pianos, strings, drum kits and SFX. Brass is not so good, but hey!

Loads of parameters can be changed using a menu system which takes advantage of the large LCD display. It takes a lot of effort to get the most out of it, but the mixture of intrument samples and sampled analogue waveforms give huge potential for tweaking and creativity.

I'm using with a Mackie 1402VLZ Pro desk running into Yamaha MSP5 self-powered monitors. Other units are an EMU E5000, Oberheim Matrix 1000, Juno 106 and Yamaha SW1000XG. The sound quality of the Korg is probably the best of all of the units and complements the harsher SW1000XG and analogue sounds with more human and expressive elements.

Most of the effects are pretty good with two independent effects units (some effects are dual eg reverb + chorus), and a variety of patching runs available for the two stereo out pairs. Distortion is not great especially on the 'electric guitar' sounds (yeuch!).

The piano in particular is very good. Some of my non-playing friends say they can't tell it's not a real piano - what mroe can you ask?

Has been 100% reliable. I have heard criticism of Korg weighted keyboards having sticky keys and problems with the bespoke disk drives (they use 3.5" DD floppies but not DOS formatted - to make a HD floppy into a DD floppy format it for 700k in your PC and cover one of the holes with tape) but I've had no problems. The keyboard is a delight to use as it has all the feel of a real piano - I bought it originally as I missed my old piano but didn't have the space and have not been disappointed.

I wouldn't gig with it due to the weight, but you can pick up 01/Ws (no floppy drive - not recommended) or 01/W FDs for around #350 and the 01-03-05/RW racks for less with the same sounds. Go for these and don't risk your baby getting nudged off the stand by some drunken oik.

Never had to deal with Korg directly. Re spares, I understand that if you need a new disk drive pinch one from a Commodore Amiga and run off quick.

I bought the last Pro-X available new in the UK after the Trinity came out in '94 and I've never regretted it. Any of the 0-series synths have great sounds and the Pro-X has a fantastic fully weighted keyboard. The factory patches now sound a little old fashioned but are on a par with the factory Yamaha JV-series sounds. It remains the heart of my setup - get one now!!