Product Description for the Korg M50 61 Key Keyboard

The Music Workstation for Performance; Portability; Price. Weighing in at just fifteen pounds is the fiery new KORG M50, the music workstation ready to take on all contenders! Incredible new sounds; fat & juicy combis, splits and layers; a plethora of ace effects; dynamic Drum Tracks; enhanced poly-arpeggiators; classic sequencing tools; a solid, confident keybed; up-to-date SD storage; companion editing software and our famous TouchView interactive display - it all adds up to an invigorating and sexy MIDI keyboard instrument that could only come from KORG.

Need a Keyboard Workstation? There's One for Everyone

Over twenty years of category-defining and redefining keyboard workstation expertise beats in the heart of the M50 Music Workstation. Just as the M3 borrowed elements from the legendary OASYS, the M50 captures all the sonic firepower of the M3, distilled into a performance instrument that is second to none., With all of its features and specifications, the M50 Music Workstation just may be the keyboard you've been waiting for! Both 73* and 61-note versions are available, sporting a new semi-weighted Natural Touch keyboard. This new fast and responsive synthesizer keybed facilitates both expressive and dynamic performing. Tipping the scales at a mere 46 pounds, the seriously portable 88 key version features our top-of-the-line RH3 Graded Hammer Action, and provides a satisfying performance experience for the piano purist!

The Korg M-50; A Natural Performer

Made to be played, the Korg M50 Music Workstation is inviting and comfortable. The TouchView screen is intuitive and interactive, allowing the uniquely angled front panel to remain refined and uncluttered. The buttons themselves are rock solid, backlit and rounded for optimum visibility and ease-of-use under any playing conditions. In addition to Korg's four-way joystick and multi-function knobs, the M50 Music Workstation offers four Chord Triggers that provide a flexible and fun way to play chords and trigger arp patterns. A ten-key numeric keypad allows on-demand instant access to sounds, combis and other parameter/values.

Perfectly Shaped Sounds

M50 is packed with over 600 individual sound programs, each one created by Korg’s renowned international voicing team. With a robust 256 MB of sample data* - recorded in exacting studio conditions - the acoustic instruments are delivered with authenticity and realism, providing rich, natural articulation; synth sounds can be bombastic and aggressive, lush and enveloping, or pure and delicate. But first and foremost, the M50 remains a keyboard cornerstone for any musician. The remarkable piano offers three layers of stereo switching and an additional resonance layer for faithful and natural reproduction of the piano’s entire dynamic range. * (uncompressed 16-bit linear equivalent)

In addition to the grand pianos, a myriad of other piano and keyboard mainstays are included – from a mono piano for pumping it out live on stage, to the ever in-demand vintage Korg SG-1 Sampling Grand. The electric pianos are responsive, dynamic and expressive, with all the tine and hammer-slap you can muster. The new clavs feature all the classic settings with wide dynamic response, and there are even string and flute sounds taken from the tape-driven keyboards of days gone by. Korg’s REMS pickup/amp/cabinet modeling technology provides that finishing touch. All the classics are there at your finger-tips; with spot-on programs that are a blast to play!

Need to quickly tweak a sound to your liking? No problem, Tone Adjust allows simple access to the most important parameters and characteristics of a sound without having to dive deeply into programming. Available in Program, Combi and Sequencer modes, you can get done what you need to with a minimum of fuss and effort.

Mix & Match

In addition to the individual programs, a combination (or “combi”) allows up to 16 sound programs to be stacked, split, layered and zoned across the keyboard; or set to individual MIDI channels. Nearly 400 of these combis come preloaded offering up tasty blends and splits for live performance. All of the preloaded sounds are completely editable, and there is plenty of room on-board (640 Programs, 512 Combinations) for all the sounds that you edit, modify, or create on your own.

Effect-ive Energy

The generous effect section of the M50 brings your sounds to life. Five insert effects and two master effects can be assigned and routed at will, with a total effect to add that final polish. From spacious and luxurious reverbs to space-warping modulation types, the effects can not only embellish a sound after the fact, they can be part of the sound programming itself - adding unique and defining sonic elements.

D-mod (Dynamic Modulation) even allows realtime control of various parameter effects as part of your performance, and effect parameters can be sync’d to the two common LFOs or a MIDI Clock source to further integrate the effects into the overall sound. Over 170 top-quality effects are available, including Korg’s proprietary REMS modeling effects. Each program – whether alone, in a combi, or assigned to a sequencer track – is equipped with its own three-band EQ for that final tone shaping.

Let There Be Drums!

It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing - and the M50’s got it! We’ve squeezed in over 1,600 drum and percussion samples that can be laid out into full “drumkit” programs. Ready and waiting are 32 drumkits, with room for 48 more of your own. But there’s more! In addition to drumkits, the drum track feature hosts some 670 drum grooves that you can jam along to, or use to kick-start and inspire your own song ideas. In fact, each program has a matching drum track pre-assigned to get you started. BAM!

Arpeggiation Maximus

The arpeggiator has been a staple on Korg keyboards since the 1980s, and the M50 more than delivers on that heritage! In addition to the ubiquitous up, down and random patterns you’d expect, the dual polyphonic arpeggiators on the M50 can serve up cascading chords, groovin’ bass lines, chord-driven picking patterns and punchy accents to spice up your performance and set your musical ideas on fire. In the Sequencer and Combi modes, both arpeggiators can run simultaneously, each addressing different timbres, creating powerful possibilities such as one running drum grooves and one running bass patterns – or even using velocity to switch between patterns on the same sound

Rapid Results Sequencing

Korg wrote the book on workstations, and the M50 delivers every chapter! The on-board sequencer is the core of your music production studio. Over 200,000 notes can be recorded on 16 MIDI tracks and up to 128 songs. Enhanced 480 ppq resolution captures your performance with pinpoint accuracy – whether you play in realtime or step notes in one at a time. A plethora of advanced, yet easy-to-use editing features are available to help you sculpt your song into its final form.

Song Templates designed for a variety of musical genres allow you to get started quickly, with sounds and effects all selected and routed for you. Or try Korg’s unique RPPR (Realtime Pattern Play/Recording) function, calling up any of the 671 drum patterns to get started, and assigning shorter patterns and phrases to individual keys; you can even loop each track to build the perfect groove before the inspiration runs out! Sequence individual sections of the song separately, and then use the Cue List function to assemble and tryout different arrangements – you’ll be remix ready! And since you never know when inspiration will strike, the one-touch record (Auto Song Setup) feature transfers all your current settings into a new song and starts the sequencer, capturing your ideas as the foundation of a new song.

EDS

Our most advanced hardware engine ever, Korg’s Enhanced Definition Synthesis is the musical heart of both the M50 and the M3. Each individual voice can lay claim to up to two stereo oscillators, four filters, two amp sections, five Low Frequency Oscillators (LFO), and five time-variant Envelope Generators (EG). On the technical side, each stereo oscillator can achieve four-way velocity switching, crossfading, or layering. This allows a single voice to use up to eight stereo multisamples to ensure a dynamic and expressive sound. Each voice also has access to up to four multi-mode (High Pass, Band Pass, Band Reject, Low-pass) filters; two filters per oscillator running side by side, stacked or in series – as well as a superb 24dB mode. Even the amp section can add to the shape and texture of the sound with a drive circuit to add a harder, rougher edge, and a low boost to fatten up that big bottom.

Plug-In Performance

Your new M50 includes both stand-alone and plug-in sound editing software for more detailed graphic editing on your computer, and connects directly via USB. The plug-in version allows you to edit the M50’s sounds from inside any DAW (VST, Audio Units, and RTAS formats), allowing your edits and changes to be part of the song file, and without having to switch applications to tweak a sound. The M50 also uses convenient SD cards for economical and reliable data storage.

Sounds. Easy.

The M50 is chock full of sounds – and features. Yet Korg’s high-visibility 320 x 240 pixel resolution TouchView interface allows direct touch-screen access to hundreds of parameters. Finding the sounds you need is simple thanks to our organizing them by category, as we do effects, drum patterns, arps and even waveforms. No other keyboard in its class offers anything approaching this level of elegance or intuitive ease-of-use. So take an M50 home today, and make your music – on your M50!