Korg Gadget for Mac now available

[Astralp]

I caved in and bought it, but I'm already a fan of the ios version and if you haven't had the chance to play with it I'd say it's strengths are that the workflow is very fast and all of the instruments sound excellent and are not over complex. It's all really well thought out.

I haven't had much time with the MAC version yet but I love it so far, it's great having everything on the screen at once and it can be used full screen. Secondly having the VST instruments is fantastic, once you get to know a few of them inside Gadget you get a feel for them and instinctively go towards the one you want for the task. I've played with them in Cubase and it all works well.

The only issues are Lexington inside Gadget which causes glitches and slow down sometimes, but that's an issue that's been there a while on ios. Strangely as a VST there are no problems from my tests, this is true of the full version on ios which is also fine.

The second issue I noticed in Cubase was that they do seem to use CPU when idle, but they probably haven't been optimized fully yet, not such a big deal really.

I think it's a bargain at the current price for what you get, there's a lot of single VST instruments that cost nearly $199 and the amount of sound making & sequencing possibilities Gadget brings is vast. I personally hope that they make the gadgets into au instruments for ios too, it would be great to be able to use them in Cubasis.

[hivkorn]

i was asking for the instrument , i already have 2 daw (cubase pro 9 and bitwig 2) so i was not expecting something from the korg DAW .

[fmr]

I think it's a bargain at the current price for what you get, there's a lot of single VST instruments that cost nearly $199 and the amount of sound making & sequencing possibilities Gadget brings is vast. I personally hope that they make the gadgets into au instruments for ios too, it would be great to be able to use them in Cubasis.

There aren't a lot that cost nearly $199. The majority is priced between $69 and $99 and the most evolved are usually priced between $129 and $149. Very few go above that, and the ones that go have to offer something "really" special (and usually offer special launching prices that allow us to buy them for around $99 anyway.

I don't see anything in the Gadegt collection that can be compared to $99 synths (except maybe the reissues of the KLC synths, but even those, I'm not sure they are fully programmable (the Wavestation emu in the iOS version reportedly isn't).

Korg should keep making real emulations of their past glorious synths, and updating the existing ones, instead. IMO, of course - Quality instead of quantity.

[hivkorn]

I think it's a bargain at the current price for what you get, there's a lot of single VST instruments that cost nearly $199 and the amount of sound making & sequencing possibilities Gadget brings is vast. I personally hope that they make the gadgets into au instruments for ios too, it would be great to be able to use them in Cubasis.

There aren't a lot that cost nearly $199. The majority is priced between $69 and $99 and the most evolved are usually priced between $129 and $149. Very few go above that, and the ones that go have to offer something "really" special (and usually offer special launching prices that allow us to buy them for around $99 anyway.

I don't see anything in the Gadegt collection that can be compared to $99 synths (except maybe the reissues of the KLC synths, but even those, I'm not sure they are fully programmable (the Wavestation emu in the iOS version reportedly isn't).

Korg should keep making real emulations of their past glorious synths, and updating the existing ones, instead. IMO, of course - Quality instead of quantity.

you think the 'gadget' (instruments) are not good enough for the price ?

[fmr]

I think it's a bargain at the current price for what you get, there's a lot of single VST instruments that cost nearly $199 and the amount of sound making & sequencing possibilities Gadget brings is vast. I personally hope that they make the gadgets into au instruments for ios too, it would be great to be able to use them in Cubasis.

There aren't a lot that cost nearly $199. The majority is priced between $69 and $99 and the most evolved are usually priced between $129 and $149. Very few go above that, and the ones that go have to offer something "really" special (and usually offer special launching prices that allow us to buy them for around $99 anyway.

I don't see anything in the Gadegt collection that can be compared to $99 synths (except maybe the reissues of the KLC synths, but even those, I'm not sure they are fully programmable (the Wavestation emu in the iOS version reportedly isn't).

Korg should keep making real emulations of their past glorious synths, and updating the existing ones, instead. IMO, of course - Quality instead of quantity.

you think the 'gadget' (instruments) are not good enough for the price ?

Not for me. The majority are redundant (how many rhythm boxes are there? and simple subtractive synths?). And, as I said, I want just a few, but fully developed. I have the full KLC collection, and what I want is more in the same vein, not this "toyish" approach. Let's hope that this will be a commercial fiasco . maybe then Korg change their minds. Or else, it will be a success, and we will see more of these

[hivkorn]

I think it's a bargain at the current price for what you get, there's a lot of single VST instruments that cost nearly $199 and the amount of sound making & sequencing possibilities Gadget brings is vast. I personally hope that they make the gadgets into au instruments for ios too, it would be great to be able to use them in Cubasis.

There aren't a lot that cost nearly $199. The majority is priced between $69 and $99 and the most evolved are usually priced between $129 and $149. Very few go above that, and the ones that go have to offer something "really" special (and usually offer special launching prices that allow us to buy them for around $99 anyway.

I don't see anything in the Gadegt collection that can be compared to $99 synths (except maybe the reissues of the KLC synths, but even those, I'm not sure they are fully programmable (the Wavestation emu in the iOS version reportedly isn't).

Korg should keep making real emulations of their past glorious synths, and updating the existing ones, instead. IMO, of course - Quality instead of quantity.

you think the 'gadget' (instruments) are not good enough for the price ?

Not for me. The majority are redundant (how many rhythm boxes are there? and simple subtractive synths?). And, as I said, I want just a few, but fully developed. I have the full KLC collection, and what I want is more in the same vein, not this "toyish" approach. Let's hope that this will be a commercial fiasco . maybe then Korg change their minds. Or else, it will be a success, and we will see more of these

a big thx for this clarificaton , my goal was to know if the instrument were 'toy' ...

[db3]

Don't be fooled by looks, the gadgets are certainly not toys. I see the set as a high quality creative tool box. Lexington on it's own is developed enough to be compared with $99 VAs. Today I've been getting some great sounds from deceptively simple gadgets like Tokyo analogue percussion. So much to explore

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

i was asking for the instrument , i already have 2 daw (cubase pro 9 and bitwig 2) so i was not expecting something from the korg DAW .

If you aren't looking for a daw, don't need the ipad integration, and have even a few moderately spec'd synths in your collection, then I wouldn't bother.

As I said, you can here the instruments all over youtube.

[Astralp]

In no way are they toys, they are focused synths which I think is a major plus, it's very easy to sound design on the go without distraction. The only exception really is the M1 which is just a preset player, but that in itself is a very nice thing to have considering the sheer number of presets. Also don't forget that in Gadget almost every single parameter can be automated and the automation editor is very well designed and can be quantized. The other day I discovered that in Zurich (the audio player) you can even automate the effect type from the 30 or so included effects which is a very creative rhythmic tool.

No offence fmr, but it appears you haven't spent time in Gadget to see actually how powerful and well designed it is otherwise I don't believe you would think it was a toy. The initial simplicity means that a 9 year old can start writing music (that's how I first came across it) and then gradually learn how to program synths and then get into the deeper aspects of music making.

Before dismissing it, I suggest watching some of Doug's (thesoundtestroom) videos which are very interesting and usually quite deep.

I hope to see much more development for Gadget, I hope it sells well so that they will continue to fund development.

[fmr]

No offence fmr, but it appears you haven't spent time in Gadget to see actually how powerful and well designed it is otherwise I don't believe you would think it was a toy. The initial simplicity means that a 9 year old can start writing music (that's how I first came across it) and then gradually learn how to program synths and then get into the deeper aspects of music making.

Before dismissing it, I suggest watching some of Doug's (thesoundtestroom) videos which are very interesting and usually quite deep.

I hope to see much more development for Gadget, I hope it sells well so that they will continue to fund development.

Each to his own. You call them "focused synths", which means you kind of agree they are limited. And there are (too) many variations on the same theme (again, how many rhythm boxes? and how many subtractive synths?).

Surely there will be a public for these. For me, these are too "focused" for my taste. And, as I said, I even have already a "fully featured" M1 emulation (not simply a player), and a "fully featured" Wavestation emulation (as well as Polysix, MS-20 and MonoPoly). So, it's not like I will miss anything there. I guess this is simply a product aimed to market where, clearly, I don't fit. It's OK, I guess. But I still think that, if it wasn't labeled Korg, nobody would care about this, much less would be willing to pay $399 for it. We have freeware synths way better than these.

Unfortunatly, it seems that Korg is doing this while, at the same time, is abandoning KLC. And THAT is not OK

[hivkorn]

@el-bo (formerly ebow) : i know there a few video on youtube , but i want a real test of every gadget

[Astralp]

I absolutely agree, I've been waiting for improved gui's for years for KLC, the IOS full versions of M1 and Wavestation are stunning, I would love to see them ported to Mac/PC.

The Rhythm boxes are good though, especially Bilboa and Abu Dhabi which you can load samples although they need a better file system with sub folders which I hope they are working on. Out of the synths my favourites at the moment are Dublin (which is like an MS10), Wolfsburg and Lexington.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

@el-bo (formerly ebow) : i know there a few video on youtube , but i want a real test of every gadget

This is a good start. I'd bet it is quite easy to come up with the rest in youtube searches.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPDfGia ... 8z1cH0aup-

[hivkorn]

@el-bo (formerly ebow) : i know there a few video on youtube , but i want a real test of every gadget

This is a good start. I'd bet it is quite easy to come up with the rest in youtube searches.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPDfGia ... 8z1cH0aup-

thx for the link !

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

@el-bo (formerly ebow) : i know there a few video on youtube , but i want a real test of every gadget

This is a good start. I'd bet it is quite easy to come up with the rest in youtube searches.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPDfGia ... 8z1cH0aup-

thx for the link !

Have fun!