Korg Triton Le Boje Adobe
By Paul NagleKorg have dominated the top‑end workstation market for several years with their Triton range, but apart from the rack version, there have been no lower‑priced spin‑offs. The Triton Le keyboard changes that, offering many of the Triton's powerful features at a more affordable price.If you've been living quietly in Outer Mongolia, with nothing but a nose‑flute for company, it's possible you might have overlooked Korg's exploration of a concept they call the 'Music Workstation'.
After a massive hit with 1988's M1, Korg released a succession of these increasingly sophisticated 'complete studio' instruments, the culmination of which has been the mighty Triton workstation. This is Korg's most powerful packaging of sequencer, synthesizer, sampler and effects unit, with expandability options, superb factory sounds, and more depth than Stephen Hawking in a mineshaft. Korg made few compromises with the Triton, and its price tag reflected that.
Over a year later, they followed it up with a rack version, which offered greater expandability and digital connectivity. Now, another year on, the Triton Le is upon us. This re‑instates the keyboard‑based format, but retails for around £700 less than the original (in the UK, at least — in the USA the price for the Le has yet to be fixed at the time of going to press).Clearly Korg must have juggled a few features and cut some corners to produce this 'entry‑level' version, so the first question for me was: 'how much of the Triton is left?' Now, I'm no Agatha Christie, so please don't be disappointed if I kill the suspense here and now.
This means our main source of income to cover bandwidth costs is blocked when you are using our free service. We have detected that you are using an Ad-blocker plugin. Well dressed sim s.
The answer is: 'plenty!' .Before I plough on into the review proper, I'd recommend that you check out the comprehensive review of the Triton keyboard (see ) and also the Triton Rack. Since the rack has a slightly different feature‑set (eg. Digital output, mLAN connectvity, eight expansion slots), I'll keep things simple by concentrating mainly on the differences between the two keyboards. Thus, if I refer back to 'Triton' in my comparisons, it's the original Triton keyboard I mean.After unpacking the Triton Le, I was first struck by how light and slender it was. Part of this can be attributed to the external power supply: a little box complete with a switch and a four‑pin connector.
It seems strange to have a switch on a floor‑based adaptor, especially when the synth itself already has a power button. Surely it's just another thing to get trodden on and accidentally switched off, in the chaos of live performance?The Le is reasonably solidly constructed, although I would recommend care with its thin plastic edge trimmings, which are a little on the flimsy side. The velocity‑ and aftertouch‑sensitive keyboard feels light and is not as substantial as that of the Triton. Yet, overall, I couldn't fail to admire the Le's style: sleek and chic are descriptions that came to mind. The brushed silver metal finish exudes a feeling of cool quality, and only those plastic edges lower the tone slightly. 61‑ or 76‑note keyboard, with velocity and aftertouch.
Four Banks of Programs (A‑D) plus a GM sound set. Three Banks of Combinations (A‑C). 62‑note polyphony. 64Mb maximum sample RAM. 32Mb of waveform ROM. 200,000‑note sequencer (resolution 192ppqn). Two main stereo effects processors, one stereo insert effect, master EQ.
SmartMedia storage slot. External power supply. 240 x 64‑pixel display. Two main and two auxiliary outputs. Optional EXB‑SMPL sampling board.So what changes have come about in the transition to Triton Le?
If you start with the rear panel, as I did in time‑honoured reviewer fashion, the first thing that strikes you is the blanking plate: a sign that the Le is ready and waiting to accept the optional EXB‑SMPL sampling board (sampling was, of course, standard on the Triton). As I also received this board to try, I'll talk about it in more detail later.The Le has a main stereo pair and just two individual outputs (compared to the four individuals of the Triton) and it has also dropped the dedicated PC/Mac interface (no loss there, in my opinion). The Triton's assignable pedal, switch and damper inputs are all present and correct, as are the obligatory three MIDI sockets.I was pleasantly surprised to see the inclusion of a SmartMedia slot at the rear, something neither the original Triton nor the Rack has. Of course, this means that the Le has no floppy drive, which might add a layer of complication if you need to regularly transfer data between the Le and other models. For my money, the SmartMedia slot is an improvement, as it offers a far greater storage capacity than floppies (up to 128Mb) — and if your computer has a SmartMedia interface, it's a great way to pass large amounts of data between them.If I didn't mourn the loss of the floppy drive, the same cannot be said of the ribbon controller.
For me, the more performance tools that are added to synthesizers, the better — so it's a shame the ribbon had to go. Of the other compromises, the Le's display is considerably smaller (240x64) and, like that of the Rack, it lacks the touchscreen functionality. I didn't miss that too much — in fact my one observation about the screen was that it was slightly slow to update in response to movements of the alpha dial.The Le also lacks any expansion slots for options like Korg's add‑on PCM cards or the MOSS board (essentially a multitimbral Z1 modelling synth). This expandability was a great selling point for Roland with their JV and XP series, and Korg added a similar feature in the Triton and KARMA workstations (two slots) and the Triton Rack (no less than eight slots). Leaving this expandability out of the Le renders it a far more closed system than the Triton.Finally, the effects section has been pruned somewhat. The Triton's twin master processors and master EQ section are retained, but the insert effects section has been reduced from five processors to just one.Fortunately, everything that remains still manages to sound and perform like a Triton. You have the same 32Mb of base ROM waveforms, although this time around Korg have seen fit to program the Le with some far more dance‑specific patches.
Korg Triton Le Boje Adobe Flash
However, music workstations all need a bit of everything, and so you won't be surprised to find a full complement of warm strings, (very) playable electric pianos, superb organs and, frankly, cheesy saxophones (why are they always cheesy?). There are also some truly inspired synth basses, swooshy pads, tons of general synth noises, ethnic instruments, and so on.The sounds are demonstrated in style in many of the factory Combis — Korg's term for combinations of up to eight Programs arranged in layers with velocity splits. The Combis are almost complete tracks in themselves, full of movement and (sometimes) kicking, driving arpeggios. Normally, with my synth‑purist hat on, I'd be a little snooty about such 'one‑finger wonders' — but I challenge anyone not to find their sheer playability infectious. Indeed, I had so much fun, I was in severe danger of missing the review deadline, and, unlike the more complex arpeggiation seen on Korg's KARMA (an instrument which I confess was not my cup of tea), I felt I knew what was going on with the Triton Le and that I was actually in charge of it. You can find more on some of the Combis in the box below.Given that Korg's Hyper Integrated Synthesis has been covered extensively in previous SOS Korg workstation reviews, I won't go here into the details of how the sounds in the Triton Le are programmed; it's basically the time‑honoured method of multisampled sound sources being passed through digital filters, amplifiers and finally the effects section, with comprehensive modulation options at all stages.
Korg Triton Le Boje Adobe Reader
Certainly, as a former Korg M1 owner, I can't help observing that Korg's synthesis has progressed considerably in the last decade. The two filters (a 24dB‑per‑octave resonant low‑pass filter and a 12dB‑per‑octave low‑pass filter plus high‑pass filter) might not sound very analogue, but they're not bad all the same.
Korg Triton Le Review
More types would have been nice, however. It's almost impossible to pick favourites, especially from the Triton Le's wide selection of Combis, so here are just some of the ones from Bank A that I spent hours playing:A004: 'Trancy Euphoria'A020: 'Fantasmagoria'A023: 'Chill Factor'A036: 'Progressive Code'A038: 'Tribal Drum 'n.' These are all examples of 'instant performances' with drums, arpeggios and several other layers too. The Le's two polyphonic arpeggiators offer a wealth of creative possibilities — especially in Combi mode, where you can set different patterns to play over different keyboard zones, velocity‑switch between two patterns, and generally head for arpeggio heaven. With 216 user patterns and five presets available, this is one of the best arpeggiators I have ever used, lacking only a dedicated Latch button to make it perfect. The on‑screen graphical editor for user patterns is rather small (and not terribly user‑friendly at first), but when you get the hang of it, the patterns you can produce make it all worthwhile. All contents copyright © SOS Publications Group and/or its licensors, 1985-2019.
All rights reserved.The contents of this article are subject to worldwide copyright protection and reproduction in whole or part, whether mechanical or electronic, is expressly forbidden without the prior written consent of the Publishers. Great care has been taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of this article but neither Sound On Sound Limited nor the publishers can be held responsible for its contents. The views expressed are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of the publishers.Web site designed & maintained by PB Associates & SOS.