Master Keyboard
Reviews : Keyboard
In the mid-'80s, Korg released their first Sampling Grand, the SG1, a digital stage piano that doubled as a MIDI master controller keyboard. 10 years on, they've revisited the concept with the heavyweight SGproX. PAUL FARRER considers whether a decade has made all the difference...
Throughout history, many human beings have tried to make doubly-large successes by combining two previously successful ideas in some way, and throughout history, on the whole, the composite concepts have failed. Some bright spark obviously thought that since instant coffee had been such a huge hit in Britain, and that the same could comfortably be said of the beverage known as tea, what British people obviously needed was instant tea granules; but of course, the concept proved a complete duffer. The same is true of many other ideas; the 1950s 'boat-car' and hard disk recording on the Atari, to name but two. An exception to this long-established trend can be found in the form of the hybrid digital stage piano/MIDI master keyboard, which has proved quietly successful over the years. Korg's SG1, released 11 years ago, featured just a few sampled piano and electric piano sounds, a chorus effect, a weighted keyboard, plus a host of master keyboard functions. Just over a decade down the line, sampling technology is better, DSP has improved beyond all recognition, and even weighted keyboard technology has come on, so Korg obviously thought it was time for an update. This is where the SGproX comes in; it's an 88-note weighted master keyboard perfect for the studio -- but, once again, it also has a host of top performance-related features and 24Mb of sampled 'realistic' sounds (piano, electric pianos, vibes, strings, organs, and just a smattering of synth sounds. There are many more sounds on the SGproX than on its SG1 predecessor, but still far fewer than you find on a typical S+S synth today). In other words, it's also a digital stage piano, but a well-equipped one. Interested? Read on...
SIZE ISN'T EVERYTHING
The first impression you get of the SGproX is its size: it's big. Very, very big. In fact, it's 132x40cm big, and heavy with it (23.8kg, to be precise). Although in theory a single roadie could manage to deal with it, its weight combined with the sheer length of the keyboard means that moving it around is more of a two-person job. As a result your average X-frame keyboard stand will probably look a little inadequate if called upon to prop up this beastie, particularly on a cramped and perhaps unstable stage. Having said that, I imagine it would fit securely enough into any good A-frame, and perhaps Korg will bring out a keyboard stand specifically designed to deal with the extra weight.
A music stand, which is never the trendiest (but often one of the most important) of keyboard accessories, is included in the SGproX's price, and can be easily attached to the back if you need it. The whole unit is powered by a standard IEC mains cable; at the other end of the rear panel from the mains socket and power switch are a stereo pair of jack output sockets, MIDI In, MIDI Thru and two sets of assignable MIDI outputs, with two sockets for each (ie. four in total). The SGproX also has a total of three different sockets for connection to a number of footpedal controllers: a pedalswitch, for connection to a footswitch, the function of which you can specify to perform a number of MIDI control functions; a continuous pedal, designed with volume/expression pedals in mind (but again, you can change its function should you need to); and a damper switch jack socket.
On the front of the keyboard, the most strikingly obvious feature is the chunky, backlit LCD screen. Despite being only two lines of 20 characters each, this friendly green strip offers a clear, uncluttered view of the preset you have loaded or the editing function you have selected. Unfortunately, the same spirit of clarity seems to have been lacking in Korg's lettering department: although all the function keys are well labelled, the choice of colour scheme leaves something to be desired. While grey writing on a black background can look very cool, in the dimly lit corners of a studio, or under colourful stage lighting, the sections of the front panel with light-ish grey lettering on a marginally darker grey background and purple lettering on black is bound to cause confusion.
"Even the most technologically inexperienced keyboard player will be navigating confidently through many aspects of this keyboard in minutes."
Those familiar with Korg's other keyboards will recognise the sensible layout of the Inc/Dec switches and the fader to the right of the screen with cursor buttons underneath it, reminiscent of keyboards such as the O1/W or Wavestation. Finding and selecting presets (or Programs, as Korg call them) is made effortlessly simple by the 16 main function keys located on the extreme right-hand side of the keyboard. Each of these 16 keys is labelled with the Program's name; when you select one, a small LED illuminates to show it's active, and of course the program's name also appears in big letters on the main screen. There are also dedicated buttons that handle the most frequently used functions, such as master tuning, transposition, and activation/deactivation of the master effects processor. It's useful in the studio and often essential on stage to have easy, fast access to these functions, so gold stars to Korg for not burying them at the end of 17 LCD sub-menus.
In keeping with other Korg devices, to the left of the main screen is the Bank Select button, which allows you to cycle through the unit's four banks of sounds. This means that if you've selected, for instance, program 16, Bass, hitting the bank button scrolls through the four main types of bass sound in program memory: Acoustic, Fretless, Synth and Finger Bass. It's very easy to warm to this approach, and while some users might feel that pressing the button marked Strings to load a string sound or Organ to load the organ sound relegates any instrument to the home-keyboard-auto-rhythm-duffer pile, in the case of the SGproX they couldn't be more wrong.
To the left of the LCD, there are four assignable MIDI controller sliders (see the 'Question Of Control' box), five faders which constitute a basic five-band output EQ (of which more in a moment), a master volume fader, and two assignable mod wheels -- and that's your lot. In practice, the combination of the large screen, well-thought-out function keys, and a sensible selection of edit options means that even the most technologically inexperienced keyboard player will be navigating confidently through many aspects of this keyboard in minutes.
THE FEEL
One of the biggest selling points for potential owners is, of course, the keyboard itself. In the past, many people might have been put off weighted MIDI controllers for a number of reasons: the higher price, the larger size, and the question of what possible advantage solid heavy keys could have over a conventional keyboard when it comes to simply programming MIDI notes into a sequencer. A fair comment, perhaps, until you've played the SGproX. Every one of its 88-note weighted action keys has a level of responsiveness that has to be played to be believed. Within seconds of first laying your hands on the keyboard, you are left in no doubt that this is a true professional's product built to an extremely high standard, with tons of musical expression just waiting to be unlocked.
For my money, in the context of the MIDI studio, this level of keyboard sensitivity makes the distinct difference between simply inputting notes and actually playing. One criticism often levelled at keyboard manufacturers by conventional pianists is the artificial feel that unweighted (and even some weighted) keyboards have, and to Korg's credit, I can't imagine there will be any complaints about the SGproX on that front. Perhaps the greatest testament to its quality was when I invited my Dad (a traditional pianist, and heavily sceptical of all things technical) round for an afternoon to play with the SGproX. He'd approached the keyboard with a dubious air, but I sat him down and left him alone in the studio, returning half an hour later to find him furiously flicking through the presets and flying through his favourite Bach and Beethoven pieces with a big smile on his face. Of course, it's not just classical music that benefits from being played on such a responsive keyboard; using it to work on many other styles of music, I found a much higher level of interactivity between myself and the sounds I was accessing. I've often felt that keyboardists can sometimes have a very intellectual, even detached, way of making music -- as opposed to, say, guitarists or violinists, who have to build up a relationship with their instrument. The SGproX went some way to changing this, and the music I played and programmed when using it to control the sound modules in my studio felt more expressive and at the same time more realistic.
THE SOUNDS
Sensitive keyboard control may be one thing, but what about the onboard sounds? At the heart of the SGproX roars a powerful PCM-based sound engine boasting 24Mb of waveform ROM samples; when you're playing any programs from memory the sound engine has either 32 or 64-voice operation, depending on whether you're accessing a stereo or mono program. Obviously, no performance-based instrument would be complete without a flagship piano sound, and indeed 15Mb of the SGproX's total memory is taken up with this impressive stereo multisampled Grand. With so many different kinds of piano sound to choose from and so many players with their own opinion of which is the best, Korg have done well in selecting what is a very natural and dynamic yet fairly neutral piano to sample from.
In its pure state, program number A01, Concert, is probably the best example of this sound at its most uncoloured -- across all 88 notes, it does not disappoint. As you might expect, the loop points are wonderfully inaudible with plenty of natural sustain and resonance; there are lots of rich and convincing harmonics throughout, and -- with the possible exception of the interval between notes G#6 and A7 -- you are never really consciously aware of any crossfades or differences in samples as you move up and down the keyboard. There is great top-end detail, and at the extreme low end of the keyboard there's just the right amount of depth and ring without the sound ever becoming muddy or unclear.
On top of such meticulously recorded and edited samples, Korg have then added a host of processing options to fine-tune the sounds. The five tone-control faders found in the Equaliser section on the front panel are an interesting inclusion, and cannot be programmed as part of the sounds in any way; they are wired in series across the main L-R and headphone outputs, so you simply set up the EQ to work best with your current sound, and leave it at that. The EQ doesn't reset as you move between programs, or when you power down the unit. While some studio users might prefer to leave equalisation until the mixing desk stage, this does offer live performers (particularly those working without the aid of an external mixing console) a good degree of real-time flexibility over the sounds while they are playing them.
As for the dedicated editing functions, the emphasis is on providing a few well selected tweakables instead of hoards of complex and, in this context, generally unwanted edit parameters; there's a simple choice of a high-frequency filter called Brightness (which ranges from -99 to +99) and the familiar Attack, Decay and Release parameters. Nevertheless, the average user should find this offers sufficient scope to keep them busy without them getting too bogged down technically. Once you're happy, edited programs can be named and stored in one of the 64 program memory locations.
Moving through the other sounds that take up the remaining 9Mb of sample memory (see separate list), you are again struck by the real quality as opposed to quantity. The SGproX is, after all, not designed as a platform for groundbreaking sonic exploration, so rather than stuff it full of presets ill-suited to most live performers' needs, Korg have filled it with more conventional sounds imbued with a high degree of playability and realism. Of particular note are the Clav and Hammond-type sounds which seem to leap from the speakers with almost uncanny familiarity. The good selection of swirly pads is also highly usable.
WHAT A PERFORMANCE
Apart from its individual Programs, the other side of the SGproX is its powerful Performance mode. This is where you can layer two programs on top of each other, create keyboard splits, and design a comprehensive control environment for your live or studio MIDI setup. The SGproX is bi-timbral -- so no more than two of its internal sounds can be playing at any given time -- but what Performance mode offers you is the chance to control and play as many as eight external timbres via the four MIDI Outs. Considering the vast amount of controllability this mode offers you over other devices in your live setup in terms of keyboard zones, filter settings, MIDI controllers, program changes, velocity and aftertouch curves, this can be rather fiddly to set up, and the manual is not always as clear as it might be on the subject, tending to get caught up in a sea of abbreviations. As I've already mentioned, though, the actual user interface is generally easy to understand, so once you've set up one Performance, named it and saved it to one of the 64 Performance memory locations, working through all the other songs in your live set shouldn't prove too difficult.
Of course, using Performance mode simply as a way of creating thicker-sounding combinations of two of the SGproX's internal programs also works well, and the unit is shipped with 64 cracking examples. Some of the best take the form of interesting vibraphony bell sounds, and mellow hippy-ish electric piano and vox-pad combinations.
CONCLUSION
At nearly every level of the SGproX, it's clear that a good deal of time and energy has gone into providing a keyboard designed for two specific types of user. For the studio programmer, the feel and precision sensitivity of its keyboard will, in the right hands, help to turn almost any sequenced track into a festival of realism and expression. For the live performer, the un-fussy and instinctive layout makes it both a fabulous solo keyboard instrument and a powerful MIDI manager. Add to both of these a totally authentic and instantly playable set of onboard sounds and you have a serious machine that should please anyone who plays it. On the downside, its vast weight and fairly hefty price tag will probably attract only serious users, and while the tech side has been kept to a sensible minimum throughout, the manual seems to struggle at times in getting the message across concerning some of the more in-depth editing features. But it looks great, sounds fantastic, and plays like a dream. To play one is to want one -- now, where did I put my credit card...?
PRESETS |
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| Presets marked with an asterisk are in mono | |
| A01 Concert
A02 Studio A03 DancePiano* A04 Dyna-Stage A05 Wurly EP* A06 FM EP 1 A07 Piano & EP A08 Funkamatic* A09 SGX Organ A10 R&B Organ* A11 Clav* A12 Vibraphone A13 TheStrings A14 WhisperVox A15 SynthFlute A16 Acoustic* B01 Bright B02 Rock Piano B03 Chorused* B04 Classic EP B05 Dyno Bell* B06 Wave EP 1* B07 PF&Strings B08 FM&Analog B09 Velo 'B'* B10 CX3 Organ* B11 PhaserClav B12 Bellphonic* B13 Symphonic B14 Slow Waves B15 SynthBrass B16 Fretless* |
C01 Classic
C02 Jazz Piano C03 Mix Piano C04 Stage Bell* C05 FM EP 2* C06 Motion EP C07 MIDI Grand C08 EP&Strings C09 Perc Organ* C10 Gospel Org* C11 Mutronics C12 Crystalline C13 PadStrings C14 BreathyVox C15 Synth Air C16 FingerBass* D01 Dynamic D02 Ballad D03 Stage Piano D04 Stage Tine* D05 FM EP 3* D06 Wave EP 2* D07 Power Keys D08 EP Magic* D09 Full Organ* D10 Pipe Organ D11 Clavitar D12 BellString D13 StringsL&R D14 Voices D15 Synth Horn D16 Synth Bass* |
EFFECTS
The SGproX essentially offers two effects units connected in series, each program and performance set having independent access to both. The effects are: Reverb, Early Reflection, Stereo Delay, Stereo Chorus, Stereo Flange, Overdrive, Stereo Phaser, Rotary Speaker, Auto Pan, Wah, Flanger-Delay and Hyper-Enhancer. The Hyper-Enhancer is a form of parametric stereo equalisation designed to give the extreme low and high ends of the sound spectrum a more dynamic quality; it can be extremely effective with some of the piano and string programs.
In keeping with numerous other Korg instruments, the rest of the effects section is equally well specified and very musical-sounding. The reverb is clean and detailed and the Stereo Phaser and Auto Pan used over the Wurlitzer-style Electric Piano sound are sheer poetry in (rotary) motion. Again, within the edit parameters there are just enough variants to keep the sounds flexible without offering you over-complex options, such as the ability to change the type of wooden flooring used in the reverb simulation.
A QUESTION OF CONTROL
As its name suggests, the SGproX is a controller, and as such puts a whole host of MIDI control features at your fingertips. Firstly, the function of both pitch and modulation wheels can be specified to perform a huge number of MIDI tasks (almost everything from song start/stop through to things like volume changes) as can the four assignable sliders and switches located just to the left of the main screen. The functions of these are specified either in the context of a Performance set, or globally when you're playing just a single Program. Assigning, for instance, three of the faders to alter attack, decay and release times and setting the fourth to control the brightness gives you almost analogue synth-style control over the sounds. As a factory setting, slider three boots up controlling the overall FX-to-signal ratio -- a really neat inclusion, perfect for creating the effect of your piano disappearing into the distance as a song fades out. If Korg were asking me to make a wish list it would be that, although having four of these faders is great, having eight or even 16 would be wonderful... In short, the combination of the assignable pedals, assignable wheels, switches and faders will make most MIDI control freaks happy for years to come.
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