Korg Triton

OS 2.02
The presets are pretty good; they cover a wide range of instruments. Editing the built-in patches (or creating new ones) is not difficult at all; the interface is very intuitive. The manuals are great - well organized, clear, concise, informative. Just as a manual should be.

62 voice polyphony, the EXB-Moss expansion board adds 6 more. Great selection of built in effects, from delays to chorus/flanger/phaser (a few of each) to reverbs to rotary speaker FX to pitch shifters, etc. However, you WILL run out of effects if you do anything complex - 5 insert FX and 2 Master FX sounds like a lot, but it's easy to use those slots up quickly. There are a variety of expansion options, from cards that give you more patches to use or sample RAM upgrades. Good controller options: joystick, ribbon, 4 assignable knobs, a slider, 2 assignable button switches, pressure sensitive, polyphonic after touch, you can plug in a damper and expression pedal and another switch(both of those last 2 are assignable). Built in sequencer with some very useful features (create control change data, pattern editing). Didn't take me long to learn to use the Seq. This is my first synth.

There is a world of sound inside this little silver box. I'd feel comfortable using it to produce almost any Genre of music, except perhaps classical, unless I were to get an expansion board with better piano sounds. There onboard effects are good; lots of options, lots of control. A lot of the effects can be synced to a MIDI clock. Very responsive machine. You have 5 velocity and aftertouch curves to choose from, allowing you to get the right feel for your style of playing.

No operational problems yet....

Definitely worth the price. I'd replace it immediately if it were lost or stolen (assuming, of course, that I had the $$$). I learned piano in middle school. The only other music gear I own is my Peavey Foundation 4 string bass and a ceramic doumbek made by a friend. I love the FX selection, the controllers, and the touchscreen. I hate the fact that you can NOT sample any internally generated sounds (which the Yamaha EX5 CAN do....). I spent many hours in Mars music playing with the Triton, the Trinity, the Roland JP-8000, the Yamaha EX5, the Yamaha CS6x, and the AN1x. I chose this machine because of the huge variety of sounds one can create with it and because of the freedom for sound creation that comes with having an integrated sampler. I really enjoy creating with this machine.

Software ver. 2.0. A very easy board to get around on once you get it.
I struggled the first hour, but once I understood the navigation on the
sequencer, everything else became easy.
The presents are better than what I expected (from reading recent reviews, but not the greatest
I've heard. They are a good starting point, but if you're heavy into pianos
you're going to have to tweak or maybe try to piano PCM card.
I have not been able to dive deep into the editing, so I won't comment.
The manual has plenty of detail, but is written horribly. They forgot
about being user friendly. I'm an engineer that reads many manuals and I k
know that I would get repremanded for creating a manual this user-unfriendly.

The polyphony is fine being it is not my only sound generator. I've gotten so use to my
MR-76's weighted keys, it's hard to get use to the plastic keys. I still use the MR as my
main keyboard, so that doesn't bother me.
The effects are great and very easy to use.
The expansion capabilities are dissappointing. Even my MR-76 has four expansion card slots
and I they don't eat up my preset sounds either.
MIDI looks fine and easy to set up for my situation.
Having a built in sampler is great.
The sequencer is pretty good for my use. If I'm doing hip-hop loops it's great. If
I'm writting a jazz or R&B piece, then I will start on the Triton, then go to
Cakewalk to create the song. I wish it could groove quantize.

The presets on this board seem to be geared towards new music (hip-hop,
dance, trance, etc.) The electronic basses are good the synth strings are
great. Some of the guitars are good (I didn't say realistic). I've read
all the reviews hear before buying the Triton, so I knew not to expect
a great piano. I will confirm the the pianos preset aren't that good. My
MR-76 has better piano presets. I haven't had the board long enough to
evaluate how well you can tweak the sounds.

It reacts well to my playing and I love the ribbon board. The thing that I
find sounds is that most synths today have good sounds, but they almost never
"realistic". A keyboard at this price point will never fool someone
expecting it to sound like the New York Philharmonic.
For me, this board will another great tool in my arsenal.

I've only had it for a week. I bought the X5DR when they firs came out
(1994-1995) and have never had a problem.

I've only had it for a week. I've never had to call Korg on my X5DR.

I really read the reviews and spent a lot of time at the music store
evaluating this piece and others. For me I would replace it if stolen.
I've been playing for 16 years. I own: Moog, Casio CZ1000, Sequential TOM, Kawaii K1,
Akai s2800, Ensoniq MR-76, Korg X5DR, Alesis SR16.
I love the fact that it is truely a workstation. From one board you can compose
your ideas and with the sampler, can create good pieces of work from one board.
I don't like the pianos.
I looked at getting a XV-5080 sound module, but decided that I need a more
portable workstation than my MR-76. I will still buy the XV, but at a later
date.
I wish: it had digital I/O, it had better piano preset, factory hard drive option,
the expansion cards were accessed from extra memory banks.

I think this is the best workstation for the price point ($2000). Sure, it may
not compete with stand-a-lone synths, samplers, sequencer. But pound for pound
there is not another workstation that does as much for the price. If I had
$5000 to spend right now, I would look hard at the Kurzweil 2600 series. But
that's $3000 more.......

Using version 2.0.1.

This is perfection

No one does it better

Trust it more than my dad

Never had to deal with them, because the machine is perfect

The greatest most nourishing thing, after food that is. Very experienced in the studio so I should know.

I'm using V-2.0 and I like it ok. Being a live player at 4-7 times a week I like the ability to scroll through the sounds or punch them in. I made myself a little card that has about 50 of my favorite sounds and patches that I use a quick reference. The only fault I feel coming from someone who's played any other keyboard but KORG, is the lack in the piano department. The electric pianos are pretty killer, and the "Rhodes" sounds are pretty kick butt, but the grand and acoustic sounds are weak. I have a lot of fun just sitting around playing with the different sounds on the thing. There tends to be a little to much in the arena of techno and not enough in piano and guitar sounds. Not that its a problem, because you can just sample them, but it would be nice to have better factory sounds in that arena. (Hint...hint...KORG)
The best way to describe this keyboard (as far as sounds go) that I've come up with yet is: A very user friendly keyboard that takes hours of sitting in a chair playing with to figure out.
The manual is good if you know KORG language. If not, then your looking at alot of studying to figure out what they're talking about. However, it is comprehensive. This is not the keyboard you wanna buy if your just trying to look cool, because you'll kill yourself first IF your not a real musician.

62-64... There is a little trick to this. The action is normal as far a keyboard action goes... I don't think you can get to many different feels from non-weighted keys, unless your playing with a piece of garbage. The responsiveness is killer; I love the after-touch. If you don't know what that is, press a key down to get a sound and then press harder while still holding it down. (I didn't see anyone else mention it.) The FX are killer. It is the entire board. Of course FX are the entire music industry right now. I almost feel like the industry is saying, "We can't think of any new instruments to come up with sooooo, we'll just tweak the HECK out of the ones we do have". This is pretty much what KORG did on this keyboard. Alot of the same sounds, just tweaked in different directions. I mean, come on!... How many ways can you tweak a "saw" wave guys!??
I don't use MIDI, I think MIDI sucks and it doesn't respond fast enough. Just SCSI everything, or sequence on the board itself and save to hard disk.
The sequencer is very powerful, but I hate the fact that it's so volatile. KORG should have put more room to save data right on the machine. For $2000-$3000 you should get a killer keyboard plus a laptop right onboard. I do like the way the sequencer is so huge though. I just sold a keyboard that only had a 9,000 note capacity. (But the sequencer was the best I've ever seen). It's nice to jump to over 200,000 notes. I've expanded the keyboard with the SCSI drive, and soon the MOSS board. I like the fact that I can sample up to 11 minutes with RAM expansions. It's pretty self contained. With a couple of good digital recording devices, you'd be set.

Great Drums (Of course...KORG...) Great synths and pads. No scratch sounds for the guitars that I found yet which kind of sucks. The ribbon controller is very cool for doing electric guitar lead rifs. I think the key is the FX. Once you get good in this department, you can tweak any sound you want. The problem with this is obviously using it in a sequence that requires other effects that conflict with the one your using on the patch. The FX themselves are very BOSS... man, they kick! Arpeggiator is something that I've been drooling over for a while now. But it's basically a dance keyboard. You do have the ability of changing the meter timings from measure to measure which is kind of cool if your a classical pianist. I could walk into the best dance clubs in my town here, (I won't say where) and take over with the Triton! Just one touch from the right set up of combinations and BOOM, the rest would be history.

It's been a great keyboard. I use it all the time during gigs without backup. I know it won't crap on me... I do suggest covering the buttons with plastic though if your going to play in a place where your likely to get "wet"... or have something get spilled on it.(Thanks Mike). Just don't play the keys to hard, or the restraints might snap off. I've had two Tritons and this is the problem I have with most keyboards.

Only sometimes, and they're pretty cool. Little to much run around, but I have to say that they're great. Go KORG!

The price I paid was because I knew someone. So don't get mad. I just heard that KORG is raising the price of the keyboard even higher because of the demand; they cannot keep them on the shelf. So find someone you know and get one through them.
I've been a musician for over 25 years, and I've played everything. I started as a professional drummer, and then moved to KEYS. I've only been at it for about 6 years now, but I love it, and can't wait till I really learn how to use my Triton.
I'd like to see the sequencer be a little more friendly, and less of a pain in the rear to get it to do what I want. Single note pitch bending in a chord would be useful as well.(Go Ensoniq) And a feature called "voice muting" would be great on this keyboard. I hate the fact that I cant transpose keys live without it cutting the voice off. Or just switching between sounds, or from Combo & Program to Global, etc... If someone knows how to do this, please write it in an article for me.
The more I use it, the more I like it. I think people just don't want to learn new things, that's why they don't like it. People that do like it, are learners and they expand their thinking to find solutions to their problems instead of complaining about the gear itself. If you want my personal opinion about what keyboard you should get live... get a Triton ProX, a Roland and a Yamaha for the piano sounds. But if you just want one keyboard, sell everything you have and get the Triton!

Actually I'm not using Triton at all. I write this submission just
because I _was_ a Korg fun a while ago.
Ease of use:
I don't think any keyboard
could be difficult- once you love yours, it is always fun and easy :)

Tech. spc.:
polyphony- 62; key action below good; it has a nice multy-FX-unit;
several expansion boards- memory, samples, MOSS, etc; pressure-after-t.
sensitive; versatile and pretty convenient onboard sequencer.

I give "9": sample memory should be expandable to at least
128MB for "10".

Well. Why "1", not even "5"?
Guys, why you buy a synth? Very likely, because of its sounds.
(at least some of you :)
Toch schreen... Imagine buying a nicely looking big-screen
TV for $2399, bringing it to home, plugging it in and discovering, that
that it is a radio made look like a big screen TV. Hah?
Korg had a nice start: M1, O1W (this is a killer). They also
developed X, N, T, i series. They were much worse in terms
of sound. N264/364 is a joke.
Than Trinity appeared. This is a better sounding
keyboard, than previous were.
But again, 32 voices poly make it a low-grade stuff.
Trinity has a terrible piano, what makes sence: check sound
engine.

Now Triton. IMHO It's a fake. As in the previous review of Triton,
I'd like to mention, that the sounds sound Casio-like without
the FX-unit. Don't let to full you by the FX-treated sounds:
if the original sound is cheap, no FX can truly fix it! It'll seem
like FXs make a nice sounds out of Triton's samples, but whole
composition falls apart! Guess why?
Again, check out built-in piano patch or the piano on piano card:
they are far from reality. Sound engine issue again.

I was going to buy a Triton and I didn't! I'm so happy,
you simply cannot imagine. I bought a XXXXXX instead.
(No advertising here :) And it is a treasure. For similar
price you get 128MB sample memory, _64_ voice poly (yeah, 64,
not 24 or 48 :) , rack-grade
FX.
The sound kills you. I often skip using FX.
(On Triton you'll by high and DRY :) if your FX board is dead.
Keyboard action- the best in the world. A 0.5Mb sample can
sound full and caress your ears on this unit. Even without FX.

In comparison with sounds XXXXXX, Triton's best is "1".

I'm no longer a Korg fun. Bye-bye, Korgy. You lost your valuable
customer :)

I owned N364 keys. And I know people owning various Korg stuff:
no way to destroy it :) Triton has the same reputation.

Never ever dealt.

Probably, I don't like this keboard because I expeced from it
much more than it actually gives.

Anyway, every time I have a chance to play or listen to the
Triton,
I bless myself for being so close and not buying this keyboard.
I feel that I would sell it if I had one.

PS. This was my oppinion. Remember, that for you this keyboard
could be truly the best choice. You decide, what sound
you'd like to hear in your music. Not me :)

Editing patches seems easy enough. Available filters are rather pathetic for a $2.3k machine, though.
The manual is well-written and of appropriate technical complexity, despite what others here seem to complain.
I wonder why you ask how presets sound in an "Ease of Use" section.

The keyboard action is above-average for a synth keyboard. Korg's "weighted" keyboards have never impressed me, so I only considered the 61-key Triton.
The built-in effects are quite good, and as you come to learn, are at the hear of what makes the Triton sound good, when it does happen to sound good.
Again, a unit of this price should have SCSI standard. Otherwise, expansion options are decent and well-priced.
The onboard sequencer seems to be quite powerful, although I use Logic where there is no comparison.
Again, filters are laughable and they have an odd sound to them. Does anyone agree?

There are a few interesting presets, but the most important thing to realize is that this machine is quite dull without its effects processing.
I encourage all to carefully examine the sounds dry; this machine is a wholly average synthesizer masquerading as something 'revolutionary' and unique.
If you are looking for something to generate rare, intriguing sounds, continue past the Triton.
I get so much more satisfaction with what I hear out of my CS6x/S80/EX5. The Triton
is perhaps equivalent to my JV-1080s.

If this will be your only keyboard in a kit and you do not intend to use your computer, perhaps the Triton is a smart choice.
But that's what I think is so telling - the Triton, perhaps speaking with only slight hyperbole, is a glorified consumer-grade synthesizer for the all-in-one crowd.

I just don't think it should be taken seriously in sound design. Your Trinity is not worth giving up.

Seems to be built fairly well. Nothing beats Yamaha gear for durability and quality of manufacture.

No experience.

I would not purchase again. Money better spent on an additional CS6r or an EX5.
This machine wins for Korg because the hype was successful in sustaining +$2200 price point - a number so disproportionate to quality in this instrument's case.

It was an impulse buy for me, and in the context of my entire kit, the Triton is somewhat of a distraction that is not too useful.

I use v2.0.2. I still confuse about editing patches on Trinity, but now I can on Triton. The manual is so complete but it's little hard to understand (because of its technical term)

It's 62 polyphony. I wonder why it's not 64 polyphony like X5D, N364 or else? However, the difference of 2 polyphony doesn't matter at all. The effects it so vary and easy to use. The sequencer is great, but not as great as Cakewalk (of course!).

The instruments is very realistic. Its multisamples are much better than Trinity's. I think it's the contrary of what Joe Kaye has write about Triton pro.

It's so good keyboard. It's the best keyboard which I ever have. The quality (sounds, seqs) is much above Trinity. Actually I don't like Trinity, it's because the multisamples is so bad and I'd prefer O1/W rather than Trinity. But when I saw Triton, I found that this keyboard is much better than Trinity. This is one of the keyboards I like beside O1/W and T3 and X5D. I only miss the internal harddisk and the sampling which not remains if the power shuts down. I also wonder why the specification rack version of Triton is different and better than Triton. If it were lost or stolen, I think I would buy the rack version of Triton.

v 2.2

62 is fine i'm not complaining. I like the keyboard action it feels nice.
Great effects and love the extenal input for processing through the effects
but not through filters. Wish it had more expansion slots (2 is bit of a
rip off if you ask me). Tons of midi capabilities yet getting it to
respond takes some trial and error. I like sequencer..NOW. I didn't at first. Individual looping
of tracks is superb and 200,000 notes is beautiful. To be honest I didn't like the board for about 3 months. It just
sat around collecting dust. Then I decided to delve into it and now
after a couple of months I'm starting to find the sweet spots. It just
wasn't funky enough at first. The sampling is where this board shines
cause it can be any synth you want, obviously. There are pre-programmed
arp patterns and you can also program your own...excellent! Knobs, slider,
ribbon controller can be assigned to control anything...great! You can overwrite the
presets in any bank, a most excellent feature. All-in-all a really cool
board.

Um, I personally don't like the factory sounds too much. Tweaking is the
key to finding your sweet spot on this board. The sampling is where
this board comes to life. The filter section takes some getting use to.
You sort of make adjustments for lowpass, highpass filters instead of choosing
different filters. The effects are great; with certain samples you can
actually distort the output with the effects(EXCELLENT!). The key to getting
the sound you need is in the filter scaling of the sound. Piano, eh!!
Electric piano, eh!!! CS2X and Yamaha S80 have best elect. pianos. String
sounds are some of the best I'v ever heard from factory presets. With
the sampling this board is capable of chameleon like behavior. If you
want your demos to sound professional this is the ax to get.

Yeah, for right now. Not the sturdiest board ever built. I would use
it on a gig sans backup.

Never dealt with Korg.

Yeah, I would buy it again. I wouldn't own 2 but I would buy it again.
I've been playing for about 15 years and I still don't sound like
Beethoven or Herbie Hancock or Joe Zawinul or Chopin or....
I hated the cold sound of Korg products and this board. Take away the
effects and you got something to work with in this particular machine.
I've compared it to other products concerning sound and features and take my word
for it: "This is THE PHATTEST SOUNDING INSTRUMENT OUT THERE!!" I've
played with them all (Novas, Waldorfs, Rolands, Yamaha, Kurzweil etc.) nothing
comes close. Get this and learn it, sample your analog gear and emphasize
the velocity and filter scaling and it just puts the rest of those
virtual cashalogs to shame. The only exception is the CS2X. The filters
are more intense than anything else out there.
Fine.

Building on the groundbreaking Touchscreen of the Trinity (how much easier can it be than to touch the thing?!) Korg has significantly improved the interface in small areas which make a big difference. For example in Sequencer mode the channels now have labels for those of us who can't count to 16. Oh, and make sure you check out the new FX section - it simply is unrivelled in anything I've seen for intuitiveness!

The features on the Triton are, of course, enormous. However there is always room for improvement and I hope that future OS upgrades will deliver. The onboard sequencer, while light years ahead of any other synths I've used, doesn't quite deliver as much flexibility as computerised sequencers. That said, I'd much rather use the onboard sequencer any day as it is extremely well integrated into the OS, and Korg are to be commended for the amount of power they're squeezed into every aspect of this little silver beast!!!

The sounds are - in typical Korg style -refreshing, groundbreaking and realistic. I recently used the Trumpet patch at a Carols by Candlelight gig and people can up to see who the new trumpeter was! The accoustic guitars are about as close as I think they'll ever get (come back to me on that one in a few years time though!) and the synths and mind-blowing!!! What types of music does it work well for? You name it, with 11 banks, MOSS, add ins etc etc there are at least a hundred of everything you could dream for! The response of some of the instruments too will simply blow you away.

Solid. Reliable. Definately not delicate. The only thing that has gone wrong with it on a gig has been the local power station blowing up - I'll let you make your mind up on that one. (for the record, the Triton only consumes 26 watts)

Musiclink (who distribute these things here in Australia) are great to deal with. They don't muck you about.

If it were stolen I would cry - simply this is the best Keyboard around. I'm still paying for it now, and believe me they're not cheap. But it is well worth it. I've compared it to everything and it seems as though Roland, Yamaha, Alesis, Kawa...etc, etc have just given up trying to match this kind of power in the workstation market.

I am using the 61 keys version of the Triton V2.0 for about a month now, ans I have to say that it is a very intuitive instrument considering its enormous possibilities. As an Electronic/Dance/Hip Hop producer who works only on hardware (no computer!) I really use all the sections of this instrument (synth, sampler, sequencer), and being used to menu based editing/working I did not have too many problems with the triton. But it may be a little harder for someone less experienced because the manual is not very easy to understand and so i did not use it very often and tried to get around the instrument by myself. The big touch screen display helped me very much and after some time I found myself trying to touch some elements on the display of a Yamaha QY700 sequencer! I really don't need a software editor for the Triton.

For rather minimalistic electronic music the polyphony of the Triton is more than enough. Being not a trained live keyboarder I don't need the keyboard action of the ProX models. The built in effects are excellent and the routing is both easy and flexible. The ability to expand the sound ROM, synthesis (MOSS) and the RAM (Sampler) makes this a very flexible production tool for a long time. The groove features of the sequencer (arpeggiators, pattern play, loop play) makes this one of the best on board sequencers.

The synthesizer sounds of this keaboard are excellent! The midi clock synced LFOs make them best suited for modern dance music. Some of the nature instruments are not very realistic (e.g. the guitars) but in my opinion it is always better to record a real guitar or trumpet (or to use sapled phrases) than using cheesy keaboard immitations. I never heard a keaboard with realistic guitar sounds! The Triton works very well for dance music and with the ability to expand its ROM and RAM it can work for many music styles. The quality of the onboard effects is very good, I think you can compare them with the Roland COSM effects. The real time controllers (knobs, joystick, ribbon controller) are heavily used for the preset sounds and give you instant possibilities to tweak and modulate the sounds.

I never had a problem with the Triton V2.0 and therefore I think it is a very stable and reliable instrument!

Fortunately I never had to contact the customer support and therefore the only thing I can talk about are updates. Version 2 was a big thing especially for the sampler (time slice for drum loops) and one of the main reasons for me to buy this instrument! I hope they go on like this.

I definitely would buy this instrument again. I sold a hardware sequencer, a sampler and a sound module to be able to buy the Triton and it was worth it. I am able to work on only one instrument and to save all song/sound/sample data in one file! I don't need to back up files of many instruments/samplers. With its great (and expandable) sounds and the helpful sequencer (packed with groove features) it will be my main instrument for quite a time!