Korg Radias

[nvisibl]

This has probably been discussed before though I did a search and couldn't find much. Anyway.... any Radias users in the house? How are you finding it? I'm thinking of offloading a JP8080 or Supernova to help finance a purchase. Checked out the Radias demo's on the Korg site but they didn't really give me the warm fuzzies but still some decent sounds, perhaps they don't do it justice?

[Merlot]

do a search. Khazul and I own one and have talked about it a few times. I would say go for it. No regrets here with the radias. It is a very clean digital sounding synth. But dont get discouraged by digital. It can still do mean basses and analogish sounds. The radias cant do the supersaw, so keep the 8080 if you need that.

[Khazul]

Guess Ill get the easy bit out of the way - have a Radias - really like it, with some reservations:

As a compliment to a virus or a silky or warm and rich sounding synth - its an excellent synth.

If you happen to like cold clean, airy and digital - then you probably also like the radias. It can get very dirty, but it lacks bollox IMHO - (doesnt have the body of a virus nor the sheer brutality of a v-synth, but it can be quite punchy). Its a great fun synth to play with, can produce an amazing range of sounds and is good for textures and general wierd shit with its seq mods and the convenience of allways being in a multi mode, so all 4 timbres are instant access.

Now the hard bit - for balls and supersaws - the JP is worth keeping, for silky richness - the supernova is worth keeping. If you lyer the pair of them for a bit of both - then the radias will do a nice job of dealing with just about over other sound yuou could conceive from airy to nasty and dirty.

The radias cant replace a JP - crank up the unision on it and you can get some decent fatness out of it, and you can program some great fatness on it without having to resort to its unision osc mode and layering thorugh timbres, but its no replacement for a fizzy JP supersaw - though in a mix with some suitable EQ, loads of fx, an exiter, then you might convince a layman - but I would suggest you dont try and instead find new sound on it with the same kind of impact.

Really depends what 'your' sound is. I rather like rolands supersaws sometimes - they have a character that neither the radias nor virus TI can touch. I like the fizzy high end as well - the radias is too clean for that, but add in some distortion in the right point pre-filter - and with some reso yu may be able to get a bit of fiz.

The radias can do nice impactful bass as well - various curve modes on the enevelopes helps with that.

So yes - its a great synth, I really like it - its very easy to program - nice UI, but it is just missing something, so it tends to get background jobs, bass jobs, texture jobs, wierld jobs, or gets layered in with the virus sometimes, or sometimes the odd thin or very dirty cutting job. That was what I got it for though - its was never intended to compete with the virus ti - instead compliemnt it. The rich jobs get left to the virus and the utter brutality jobs get left ot the v-synth - and deep soft pounding kick-like bass tends to be left to a novation ks-rack.

It needs a phatt bastard for a friend.

[AlexHall74]

Khazul, that's a great review and contrast of all 3 pieces of gear.

Thanks!



-Alex

[Hollowcell]

Don't sell either of them Nvisible!

Scrape the money together some other way. Alex would tell you to sell your own arse, but I'd consider this going too far. There are other ways to earn a little coin after all.

[nvisibl]

lol HC, I might have considered something along those lines for the Ti if I didn't have the money available at the time

Thanks for responding folks.

Khazul, great, thanks for taking the time. Your run down reflects in part my initial feelings regarding the Radias after checking out the demo's and in conjunction with the other synths. Thing is that I have not long got hold of the JP8080 and haven't yet had the time to get into it properly (baby daughter) but I do love the hands on interface and the saw has an unrivalled distinction about it. Though I don't do much Trance type stuff these days to make full use of it. The thing that bothers me about the JP is the Upper/Lower shenanigans. I know its a very small point but i'm picky as hell. Its in contention for leaving the setup as a quick money aid towards another purchase, but i'll see how things work out.

The Supernova is my ol trusted steed, has been for years and its one synth that I have used thoroughly top to bottom. Its been my main synth up until the Ti so nowadays has been sitting in the background serving up mostly Arped midrange sounds. I still consider it a fairly decent alrounder even these days and I have developed a bit of a psycho-emotional attachment to it so... not sure.

The Radias does seem quite dynamic as far as its Oscillator selection and vocoding abilities and filter morph thingy? goes though I hold some reluctance on it, probaly due to it having a step sequencer which gives me the Groovebox bias which makes me think bugger that, its another DJ toy! It does sound very clean which I am okay with as I can go with that, and also have the Ti to fuck things up a bit around the edges.

I'll probably go in store and demo it hands-on.

I was also looking at the V-synth which sounds great! Though I tend not to spend too much of my studio time programming and that seems like the kinda machine which needs someone with a more extreme tech/tinkering approach than I have in order to make full use of it, I dont know.. will check that out further in later days probably. (unless something else comes out )

[Khazul]

Hmm I had forgetten you had a TI - that changes thing *alot* - given where you are - you have a TI, Nova and a JP? Thinking of Radias now, maybe v-synth later?

This makes everything very easy IMHO if you have to ditch something - I would ditch the nova now - get a radias and later ditch the JP and get a v-synth - or the other way around if you are really attached to the nova.

The TI should allready be covering most of the nova space - except bass maybe - the radias can easily hold that space where the TI cant, but there is quite a character difference - but maybe time for a new sound anyway?

And yes - the radias *is* very groovebox like in some ways - and thats a huge strength for it - having the SEQ mods available make it very useful for background textures, airy/twinkly bits of digital pads etc - it layers great over a TI - radias for impact and air, TI for body and richness.

I echo HCs comment tho - keep the lot

[nvisibl]

You've been pretty much bang on target with your feedback Khazul, helped me see a clearer picture too. Cheers.

I'll demo the Radias next weekend, so I have a week to decide or consider a way to pay cash without selling off any units. Failing that then Supernova will probably take the hit, even though i'm pretty much still in denial of the fact that the Ti has superceded my trusty old faithful in near every regard.

[AlexHall74]

Originally Posted by Hollowcell

Don't sell either of them Nvisible!
Alex would tell you to sell your own arse, but I'd consider this going too far. There are other ways to earn a little coin after all.

HC is only partially correct. Sell OTHER PEOPLE'S arse first; when that is not an option anymore; then, only then sell your own arse, but only to people you would have done for free anyway.



The conquest of attaining more gear cannot be hindered. It is a sin against God.

[nvisibl]

Originally Posted by AlexHall74

HC is only partially correct. Sell OTHER PEOPLE'S arse first;

For sure, job done, expect some visitors soon Alex Sorry man, had to!

If you perhaps don't oblige then i'm bound to get some neg Ebay feedback, and that most importantly is a Sin against God. So to help.. I got you this: http://www.scentubuy.co.uk/acatalog/kyjelly.jpg

Thanks man, I'll let you know how the Radias goes