Korg 01/Wpro

Very,very,very easy.

Polyphony: 32. Fantastic effects. Really very flexible sequencer.

Analog: 10
Strings:9
El. Pianos:9
PADS: !10!
Ac.Pianos: 8
Organs: 6
Leads: 10
Drums: 9
Basses: 8 (but analog basses:10 !!!)
Bells: 10!!!
Orchestral and the rest:8

This is the best synth I have ever heard

I would have to say that the main reason to buy a Korg workstation over any other is for its user interface. The Korgs are just simply the easiest and most intuitive workstations made, period. This O1/Wpro is no exception.

The presets are good and give the user an idea of what the synth can do. It's pretty easy to find a sound close to what you want and tweak it from there.

I do not have the manual now -- I used to have access to an O1W/FD with the manual years ago; I remember the manual being very easy to understand and very easy to locate the information needed.

32 Voice polyphony, good keyboard action -- much better than the Triton's, two effects processers with 47 effects each (fully editable), PCM and RAM/ROM slots, 3.5" disk drive, aftertouch, on-board 16 track sequencer with extensive capabilities, 200 programs & 200 combinations stored internally, however, the disk drive makes it very easy and practical to increase this exponentially. 76 keys, wave shaping.

For it's day, the O1 series had all the best features. Still, it has many features that it's modern-day counterparts lack -- mostly a decent feeling keyboard. This board, while maybe being a bit short of polyphony, can still hang with any gig! For a synth to ba able to do that more than a decade after its release...

Well, it's been more than a few years since I have worked on one of these boards. Upon receiving, the first thing I noticed is how good some of the individual instrument sounds are -- like the oboe and cello. The piano is good and useful. I prefer Roland pianos to all others and most would agree that Kurzweil and Yamaha modern pianos out-perform the O1w's. Still, I have to agree with a previous review that the piano is MUCH BETTER than the Triton piano.

The Trition piano sounds very similar to the piano on my N5ex (N1, but smaller). Korg made a big deal about this piano when it came out(on the N1) -- I guess it takes up a bunch of the ROM, but it sounds like crap. The O1w is far better here... I guess in this case, less is more.

The organs: I probably need to tweak the organs a bit to my liking. I have come across so many other players that rave about the O1w organs, so it must just be that they need to be dialed in. I don't know that I'll spend the time doing that since I have an EMU with an incredibly realistic B3 ROM, and the Korg N5ex excells at its organs.

At any rate, I'm sure the O1w fits in any musical situation. I've done many types of gigs -- from hard-rock/metal, classic rock, R&B, jazz, fusion, funk/disco, dance/techno/electronic, solo acoustic, and more.

I suppose many would think of the O1w as a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none, but its true mastery is in the user-interface. Also, the individual classical instruments are, again, quite good and most synths seem to not have these.

Onboard effects processors are good and easy to dial in. Also, everything about the keyboard is good. It's not quite as expressive as my Roland A-70, but it feels way better than a Triton.

While the O1w is not perfect, it's a great synth/workstation with many capabilities that can keep up with most of todays synths, and in many ways today's synths can't keep up with the O1w.

The only problem I am aware of is the 'sticky-key-syndrome' that seems to afflict the O1w. Also, the LEDs on any old board tend to dim. These are both easy fixes from what I have read: check out sonicstate.com.

The disk-drive works fine in mine and I haven't heard of any disk-drive problems from others -- unlike the Ensoniq workstations that are notorious for drive problems.

I've never tried to contact korg, so I just simply do not know!

I have to say that I got a real bargain for $318 (ebay). I'm not sure why I was able to get it so cheaply -- they seem to regularly command >$700. I got lucky I guess...

Anyway, I've been a musician for a long, long time and have played with national bands, have a music degree and session credits, and perform with local cover bands 16-30 dates a month.

My other synths are:

Roland A-90ex
Roland A-70jv
Roland U-20
Korg N5ex
Emu (Ensoniq) Halo w/XL, Vintage, and B3 expansions
Alesis QS-7.1

In the past I have owned:
Ensoniq TS-12
Korg DW-8000
Alesis QS-6

I love: the simple user-interface, sounds, keyboard feel, versatility, disk-drive, and sequencer.

I honestly can not think of anything I hate about this board. Anything I wish it had? Transpose buttons maybe? Some might wish for a sampler, but I don't know if any synths back then had one?

Overall, a great workstation when it came out and a great workstation now. I'm glad I got one and I would have been willing to pay considerably more.

This synth blew me away when I got this in early 1992. I was impressed by the demos on it, and then by the preset sounds, and then by how quickly I was producing my own sounds. The larger screen than my M1 meant that the sequencer on this machine was a breath of fresh air, and I was banging out tunes in no time.

I love seeing that even recent reviews, this synth is still well regarded.

32 Note Polyphony in 1992 I thought was fantastic. It seemed virtually limitless compared to my old M1. It had even more effects than the M1, which I thought were even better quality. Again PCMCIA for sample expansion and program data, but the floppy disk drive was a god-send. Save all your sounds without having to do a sys-ex dump to a computer sequencer. What a time saver. Didn't need to worry about how big a song in the sequencer was, just as long as you had a lot of floppy disks. I rarely used more than 1 out of the possible 10 songs that could fit in the sequencer as a result.
Waveshaping. I loved it personally, and was a bit disappointed initially when I got my Trinity Pro to find that this had disappeared.
Instant way of taking a very ordinary multisample and blasting it into something very different indeed.

I remember when I first got this machine, I was virtually welded to it. The choir compared to the M1 was amazing. The strings seemed to be perfect. Again, great Korg presets, offering good building blocks on which to make your own sounds. The guitars sounded like real, and made the M1 guitars unusable for me. The Harp, IMHO still blows away the one on the Trinity. With the Synth PCMCIA cards, I created some big Analog string pads, that I've used in countless tunes.

Mine took a knock back in England when my mum was rearranging some furniture. Apparently it fell on my TV. And now apparently both items have issues. I'm marking it down a point for not taking that in it's stride. My old M1 once fell off from my synth stand (3 tier, and set high, as I am 6'5") and it clouted both the O1/Wpro and Trinity Pro on it's descent, before hitting the floor. I figured that would be the end of the M1, but to my surprise, it seemed none the worse for wear. Fortunately the other instruments also survived without injury.

I guess this'll be the first time I'll have to find out. I'll update this when the O1/Wpro is all well again.

Still provides a sound or two in many tunes, and I still program new sounds in it. The fact it's now speechless makes me very sad, and I hope it's easily repaired, and that the insurance doesn't write it off and instead sends it for repair. Some sounds I've made, I just can't duplicate with the Trinity. I can come close on a few, but there is 1 harp patch I cannot replicate, which I love, and a number of stranger sounds I've made, that the Trinity cannot hope to come close to, mostly due to the lack of waveshaping.

Preset sounds are very nice. Patch editing also comes in handy as well. As far as the manual is concerned, I do not know because I bought it used from somebody and they didnt have the manual.

32-note polyphony on this keyboard. Which in the early 90's when this was produced, was excellent for its time. The feel on this keyboard is the best feel I've ever had on a synth and this keyboard is over 10 yrs old.

Let me begin with the piano. The acoustic piano sounds are excellent. Really do not need tweaking but you can find your sound by just editing. I do not know why Korg didnt keep the piano sounds from this synth to use for the Triton series. Far better piano sound.

Very dependable. I wouldn't go onstage without it.

dont know about this yet.

If it were lost I doubt I'd be able to find another one because people are holding on to this great keyboard. EXCELLENT keyboard.

Truly a musical instrument and not a computer. The presets are excellent and very useful. Editing is pretty easy, considering the complexity of the sounds. Patch editing helps, and a very good recommendation would be the 01wEditPro from Soundtower. http://www.soundtower.com/synth/01w.htm
The manual from Korg is good.

32 note polyphony with an EXCELLENT synth action. The synth feel is perfect, much like a pipe organ's push and the bottom travel is well padded. There are 2 simultaneous effects, each a seperate DSP, and super clean and easy to use. Accepts new samples via PCM cards. Memory can be expanded with ROM cards. Very flexible MIDI implementation - aftertouch, wheel, bend, 2 assignable pedals, assignable slider - an excellent controller keyboard. Sequencer is considered very good by those who use it.

Can't praise it enough for emulation of real instruments for the price. Works for almost any music. Repeating - it is a musical instrument - very responsive with it's own set of beautiful sounds, quirks and problems.

Extremely reliable. The display dies after about 8 years but is replaceable.

Korg has been very cooperative in most circumstances.

A main constitution of our band. A must replace if gone. Computers come and go, a musical instrument endures.

This keyboard is easy to use, but I always felt that there were too many button pushes required to get a job done. The sounds are awesome. I have had this instrument for 8 years, and I have always loved it. I only recently replaced it, but with much regret.

It only has 32 note polyphony, a lot for it's day. It has built in effects, a decent sequencer, and good midi implimentation.

Expressive sounds, a great piano sound, and very playable. It works well in a wide variety of styles.

Very dependable. I recently developed trouble with the display. (Doesn't light up very well anymore.) I have taken this to all kinds of gigs for 8 years. It never let me down.

I would love to be able to buy a new one. Since I couldn't, I ended up going with a Yamaha S80. In the 8 years since I bought it, I was never tempted by new keyboards as they hit the market. They never seemed to match the overall flexibilty of this instrument. I only wish I could have it with double ot triple the polyphony.