Korg EXB-PCM-06/07 Orchestral Collection

The two memory chips easily installed into a Karma. No problem there. When loading the Programs and Combis that use them, though, care must be taken not to overwrite A and B bank sounds. (I do this by Opening instead of Loading the file. This allows you to Open either Programs or Combis and load single banks, one at a time - 4 total.)

32Mb samples, using two boards. Uses both available PCM expansion slots on the Triton (Classic) and Karma.

All solo instrument samples, as well as percussion and phrase samples, are mono. All instrument section samples (more than one of the same instrument, played simultaneously) are stereo.

Solo woodwinds are nice. You get a Flute, Alto Flute, Oboe, Oboe with natural vibrato, English Horn, English Horn with Natural vibrato, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Bassoon, and Contra Bassoon. My general impression is that all of these were quite realistic, quite usable, and (most likely) able to fool the uneducated listener. If I had to pick a standout, it would be the solo clarinet. NOTE: No saxophones are present; this is an orchestral - not band-oriented - collection.

Woodwind sections included are Clarinets (3 players) and Flutes (3 players). These sound great, and I'm sure I could find plenty of use for them in the appropriate context.

Solo brass was a mixed bag. I was pretty convinced by the F Horn, but I am also pretty convinced by the ROM sample. As for the solo trumpet, I like the ROM sample better. The ROM sample is a little more "stale" and predictable, but its predictability makes it more easily tweakable for a variety of applications, in my book. The piccolo trumpet was a wasted effort; the attacks are inconsistent, and the timbre doesn't resemble the real instrument enought for me to think it would fool listeners. I felt the trombone was of good quality, as was the tuba, although an F horn player who heard these sounds didn't feel the tuba was realistic.

Brass sections were also a mixed bag. The ensemble trumpets are nice, and would probably be very usable. Much better than faking a trumpet section from the ROM trumpet sample. The trombones and horns were similarly convincing, but the higher registers of both could've been more realistic. Specifically, when the lowpass filter cutoff is fully raised, the F Horn section samples around G4-C5 resemble a poorly looped string section (think budget synthesizers from 10+ years ago). Curiously, when the filter is lowered, the sound not only becomes warmer, but also more characteristic of a horn section. This means that I would feel comfortable sequencing high horn section notes OR loud (ff dynamic) horn section notes, but not notes that are both high AND loud.

NOTE: Many factory brass and string section patches boost the samples' high frequency content to the point that the sounds are less realistic than they could be. Many brass sections in particular have filter settings that cause the filter to "quack" open as you play progressively harder. Consider lowering the lowpass filter cutoff frequency or the parameter "Velocity to A/B," the latter of which might make you need to *raise* the cutoff frequency to compensate. Also, many factory sounds use EQ to unnaturally boost highs and lows; my suggestion is to retweak it or turn it off altogether.

Solo strings are a disappointment. I like the ROM String Quartet better (the one with the sampled vibrato); the ROM samples are again more sterile, but more usable. Specifically, the EXB solo strings sound muffled. Raising the filter reveals that the samples themselves don't have much high frequency content. In addition, it seems that the attack portion of some of the samples was truncated too much, resulting in a more sudden, percussive attack than you would hear from a real string instrument. To be fair, I doubt this would be very problematic in most mixes, but it bothered me to think I spent a significant amount of money for samples that are less realistic than they could've been simply because someone chopped off too much of the attack.

As I've already said, I like the ROM solo strings better, but do realize that the ROM samples don't give you four distinct solo instruments. The actual instruments violin, viola, cello, and double bass have wide note ranges which overlap each other. For example, many notes that are within a violin's range are also within a viola's range. However, these notes sound differently on

As long as you get it installed without exposing it to static, it should be reliable. It's always nice to have sounds ready to go when you turn the unit on (instead of waiting for sounds to load into sample RAM - not even an option on the Karma).

Never dealt with Korg tech support

This is only one person's opinion. What sounds great to me may be totally unacceptable to you, and vice versa. After purchasing, I decided not to keep these boards. Although there are lots of great sounds in this collection, not all of them were much better than the internal samples on the Triton / Karma, so I didn't feel like this was a good investment, even at the competitive price of $325 new. If someday I find this collection for around $150 (probably used), I might consider purchasing it again.

For many, especially those who write lots of orchestral music and need variety, as well as those who do not own other orchestral sounds, purchasing this collection may be entirely worth it, even at current prices. If you only need dynamite solo strings and piccolo trumpet, though, look elsewhere. Another scenario: Maybe you just need to have generally high quality sounds for one recording, without being stuck with a costly CD-ROM library afterward. Unlike most sample CD's, it's perfectly legal to resell expansion boards after you use them, so you don't have any risk of a lawsuit when you auction them on eBay. In this case, I'd look online for a used set; otherwise, you'll still lose a lot in the resale.

I hv triton rack. Put 2 Rom in the slots is easy. It hv all orchestral sounds including some phrase. I hv no problem editing them in the Rack and the manual is detail and hv all patches and samples list in one page

Compare 2 the Roland orchestral board 2 this one, I can put it in this way: If u want a warm legato strings patch, get the Roland one. Marcato strings is the bomb. It even better than the EMU's Orchestral Board. If u want more brass and woodwind patches, u will love this one. Roland's board hv lack of nice woodwind sound but too many strings patches. Both Roland's and Korg's hv good percussion patches. The only thing i love the Roland one is the nice windchimes patch. The phrase in these 2 board is very useful, too.

Very good 4 live performance. If u already sick of the Roland's orchestral board, and don't like the EMu orchestral module. Get this one!

No problem with them.

I will buy it again, if i lost it. I wanna fill up my exp slots in my Triton Rack and love 2 carry around for live and studio work.