When is a home keyboard not a home keyboard? When it's an Interactive Music Workstation with serious sound possibilities and a low co-efficient of naffness, says Julian Colbeck...

The word 'workstation', a fancy name for a synth with a built in sequencer, is now very much part of our lives. It was the buzzword of 1990. One of this year's buzzwords (the other being 'multimedia', in case you've been on a sabbatical) is 'interactive'. Toss in the word 'music', just to remind people what application this computer is slanted towards and you've got 1993's most controversial product: a home keyboard? From Korg?

It had to happen. Korg has had runaway success in pro synths this past five years. But the pro synth bubble has, if not burst, then at least taken on the appearance of a Christmas balloon. Home keyboards, on the other hand, sell to all ages, at all prices, and at all complexities. It was simply a matter of time before Korg steered its considerable voicing skills in this direction. At Frankfurt this year, established home keyboard manufacturers I talked to were not so much interested in what their traditional rivals were up to so much as whether there was "anything from Korg yet?" Indeed, the spectacle of personnel from rival manufacturers queuing up to cop a listen of the i3 at the BMF this year ranks as one of the year's most curious sights. But I wonder if, having seen the i3, said manufacturers are not relaxing a little: amazed, for sure, but pleased that Korg has not simply gone their route (only better), but rather seems intent on hacking a new path through the jungle.

The i3 is not like any other home keyboard. Indeed, the words 'home keyboard' are probably rankling with their every appearance. But how else do you describe a keyboard that has buttons marked Style Edit, Stop/Start, Fill, and Variation on it? You call it an interactive music workstation.

The theory behind an interactive workstation is this: take a regular pro workstation along the lines of an 01/W and simply add in the sort of arrangement, playing, and writing skills that some people just possess, and others have to obtain via MIDI files, or Band In A Box, or any of the other musical self-help packages around.

Image makes impossibly high demands upon us all. Even such pukka synths as the GEM S2 ran, and perhaps even still runs, into all sort of prejudice just because of its company's association with home keyboards. Mindful of this, Korg has made the i3 look uncommonly like any 1990s hi-tech keyboard. There are no speakers built in, no silly graphics, or daft names or titles stencilled onto the casing. Even the volume knob operates vertically (a theory, proffered by a fellow scribe recently, being that this is how to spot a synth from a home keyboard: home keyboard volume sliders work horizontally!).

The panel is still a tad busier than, say, an 01/W, or Korg's budget 'replacement M1', the X3. Clustered around the nice roomy display are soft buttons, data wheel and inc/dec +/- buttons, to the right of which lie the program buttons, set out in 64-program A and B GM banks, plus C (ROM) and D (RAM) banks. This section has a sub mode accessing the drum maps. Above, a similar layout of buttonage accesses the styles. Logically positioned beneath the screen are all the main performance parameters, like start/stop, intro, ending, fills, variations, and so on. The image-conscious will be pleased by the down-played, hi-tech look of these controls. To the left of the display are the main mode buttons — Arrangement Play, Edit Style, Program, Edit Program, Disk, Global, and so on, above which is a slot for style cards.

On the far left hand side is a small mixing panel giving you immediate, slider control over drums and percussion, bass, accompaniment parts 1-3, manual drums and real time played keyboard tone, and a second keyboard tone. Beneath this is a collection of eight buttons that give you options for chord scanning — how, or indeed if, the i3 examines the notes you play, turning them into accompanying chord-based parts, and keyboard assign options of single (tone) later, split, and manual drums.

The panel is a busier, then, than most current synths, but way less cluttered than any comparable home keyboard. And the killer punch here is that you can do ten times more on the i3 than on almost any other home keyboard featuring, invariably, four times the button count.

The whole point of the i3 may well be its interactive, accompaniment-based features, but it is also a fully programmable Korg synth very much along the lines of an 01/W. Since SOS has traditionally not dealt with instruments that go much beyond the 'what you can do with sound' features, I'll break you in gently by looking at the i3 as synthesizer first.

i3 AS SYNTH

The i3 employs identical AI2 synthesis to that found on Korg's X3 workstation, which is to say almost identical synthesis as featured on the 01/W series, which is to say almost identical to that of the M1 series. If AI synthesis can be said to have a theory, it is loosely standard subtractive synthesis based around starter samples or waveforms called Multisounds, some of which are fully looped samples, some one-shot samples, and some synth waveforms. The M1 has around 100 Multisounds, the 01/W has 255, and here on the i3 you have no less than 340.

These Multisounds are your raw material. Each Program can tap two Multisounds, with separate volumes and pitches; indeed, for the most part, separate everythings. Programming tools include rate and level-type pitch EG, non-resonant low pass filtering with separate rate and level-type EG, and standard ADSR-type EG for velocity control, plus fundamentally the same arrangement again at the amplifier stage, and multi-waveform LFO with separate pitch, filter, and controllers (joystick, after-touch) pages and parameters. Purists might feel that there are one or two things missing here; namely resonance on the filters, or even a choice of some other type of filtering, further LFOs, cross modulation... it's not difficult to come up with a list. In the i3's defence, this list is much the same list you'll find on the 01/W series (though, to be fair, the 01's stab at offering resonance, called Waveshaping, is notable by its absence, replaced by a weird parameter called 'color' that I could barely induce any discernible effect from but, apparently, is some form of exciter). Programming, thanks to the large display and helpful visuals, is a doddle for those familiar with Korg programming, and hardly more arduous for anyone else, I'd have thought.

Tacked onto the end of the programming pages are, of course, quality effects. There are 47 algorithms to choose from, many of them double effects, and the level of programmability is deep, man, deep! Korg users will know that the only real drag on the AI instruments is figuring out the effects routings. Here on the i3, things are somewhat simplified by two factors: firstly, there are only stereo outputs; and secondly, there is no Combination mode.

The lack of Combis may sound fairly disastrous but don't be fooled into thinking that the i3 is not multitimbral or something. Of course it is. In full sequence mode you can tap into 16 simultaneous Programs, and there is still provision for for playing or storing a simple two-Program layer within what the i3 calls an Arrangement — explained later on.

HOME TRUTHS

How much do you know about home keyboards? OK, so you've been given the Technics KN2000 of late, but most pro-minded musicians tend to dismiss anything with rhythms on it as, if not outright naff, then at least rather infra dig.

Given that almost nobody is making records these days without loops, or certainly without a good deal of sampling of some description, the argument of 'I wouldn't want to use something that someone else has programmed' is beginning to look rather shaky. Shakier still when you consider that, using loops, you generally have the world's worst job making any alterations or customisations, whereas on a keyboard like the i3 the grooves you are offered are almost limitlessly editable.

Normally, home keyboards offer what they call 'styles', which are complete backings 'in the style of' Reggae, 16-beat rock, Big Band, Lithuanian Barn Dance, who knows? Having selected a style, you can then 'play' it by making chord shapes in your left hand which the keyboard will analyse and automatically turn into suitable accompaniment chords, riffs, and bass parts. You can then play freely over the top with your right hand. This is most home keyboards in a nutshell.

Korg's system is a little different, in that there are two levels of backing parameter, one called a Style, the other an Arrangement. An i3 Style fits into the aforementioned description, being a complete backing 'in the style of'. An Arrangement is an interpretation of a Style, complete with dedicated tempo, instrumentation, output assignments, effects, pan position, and much more. By separating the raw notes of a Style from these other considerations, the i3 lets you customise, interpret, and generally interact with backings to a level that other such instruments can only dream about. By way of simple, if crazy, illustration: dial up Arrangement 55 Yo Rap! and insert Style 38 Country into it. You will then hear a rap rendition of a finger lickin' good ole boy country hoedown. And damn strange it sounds too. David Lynch is going to have a field day with the i3.

As I said, this is simply by way of illustration; what you are far more likely to do is dial up an Arrangement that is something like what you need and make some more serious and considered adjustments. Like what? Well, the simplest form of editing would be to alter part volumes using the sliders, or indeed mute unwanted parts on screen, using the soft buttons. On the main arrangement page you can also see and alter the octave in which either or both of your 'live' parts play in, effect a global transposition, and change tempo.

"The sole point of the i3 may well be its interactive, accompaniment-based features, but it is also a fully programmable Korg synth very much along the lines of an 01/W."

Flipping to page 2 in Arrangment mode lets you view all parts, their currently assigned patches, volumes, pan, and effects setting, all of which you are perfectly free to alter as the music plays on. This is wonderful stuff: you can substitute drum kits, choose your own bass, and completely re-arrange the instrumentation without skipping a beat. Page 3 lets you re-program instrument outputs, octave, and a curious parameter called wrap around, which alters the pitch at which a part goes back down the octave. Page 4 is where you can set precise relative volumes for your manually triggered keyboard parts (including which kit for manual drums), and where you can program pedal assignments — per arrangement, don't forget. Page 5 permits the somewhat esoteric setting up of different default kick and snare drums, plus which kits might, or could, come into play with each selected variation of a style and whether or not such will be initiated by a fill. Finally, Page 6 is an Arrangement effects page, which then overrides Program effects, as does Combi effects on an 01/W.

Incredibly, this fairly exhaustive bag of goodies is a complete breeze to figure out, and can all be programmed in real time. In practice, what you do is find a suitable arrangement and start playing. You don't really need all the accompaniment parts so you just mute them. The current playable part is a guitar and you'd prefer more of a piano tone so you dial up a replacement using the program buttons. It's a bit quiet so you give it a bit more level on the mixing section. The drums? They sound OK but they could be more powerful. You press page + and choose a new kit: Power Kit. The bass could be more interesting too, so you move the cursor down onto the bass part and flip through the 256 tone options in banks A-D until you find a replacement. The music, by the way, has still not stopped. By now you are getting some nice chord progression ideas. Time to write this into a new Arrangement, and then perhaps record this embryonic song into what the i3 calls a Backing Sequence, which is like a glorified real-time sequencer that automatically remembers any program, tempo and mute changes, as well as all chord changes and fills. Having done this, you can then add in pukka sequenced parts from the fully-fledged 16-track sequencer.

STYLES

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's linger a while on the actual Styles themselves. The Styles and Arrangements share buttons, a button marked 'Style' zooming into Style selectors (with Style off, the buttons call up Arrangements). The First arrangement, Arr 11, entitled 'Mick & Keith', is a splendid rendition of style 11, 'Open Rock', brim full of riffing and turn arounds and all manner of Stonesy nonsense. Arrange 12, 'Prog Rock', employs style 13, 'Hard Rock'. Although the intro and ending of this style is probably too intrusive for most, the actual groove is blistering yet neutral enough for anyone with an ounce of prog rock in him to rip out some serious soloing. It's not all rock, of course. There are some excellent funk, soul, rap, jazz, big band, and latin grooves, most of which are totally in their respective pockets (if not all to my tastes).

Harping back to what most such keyboards do, it has now become customary to offer players some form of attempted musicality through Style variations so that you don't just get one Style plodding through its paces come what may. Some offer simple one or two variation 'buttons'. Others sneakily add or subract notes or parts as driven by velocity, or note density or frequency. Korg, again, has a two-pronged attack. On the one hand, four so-named Variation buttons give you instant access to four variations on each style. These are genuine, musical variations too. Undercover, as it were, each style will automatically tailor itself to play one of six sequences depending upon what you are actually playing. This then delivers completely different parts when you play a major seventh chord, for instance, than it would if you play a simple major. Many of these changes are as subtle as you'd expect them to be if you were playing in a real live band, but the overall effect of this, especially when blended in with the four variations, really makes this instrument come alive.

Boredom with the Styles is the most common accusation made of this type of instrument. If the above hasn't convinced you already that you can be confronted by newness as often as you like, perhaps you will be convinced by the facts that you can load in new styles off card or disk, and also edit and/or write your own styles.

IN USE

In use, no matter how you choose to apply it, the i3 seems to operate as a flexible, usable instrument. In its Arrange/Style mode, you can choose chord scanning to be just left hand, just right hand, over the whole keyboard, or indeed off; you can even employ a bass inversion mode whereby you can play an actual descending bass line without the instrument interpreting, say, a C, Cmaj7/B, Am, Am/G, F sequence as C, Em, Am, C (etc), which is what so often happens.

Korg would like the i3 to be used in a live context as well as in a writing, general-purpose workstation context, and certainly in its backing sequence mode the possibilities seem perfectly suited and endless. Personally I have enjoyed the i3 enormously as a ready source of grooves and rhythms over which many a song idea has already been germinated. I would also greatly value it as a means of rehearsing parts, or auditioning sounds. The sequencer is quite powerful enough to generate not only the bones of a song but quite a few layers of skin and flesh as well. The backing sequence is not only a brilliant scratchpad but, for those who do this sort of thing, would also place you in the stratosphere of solo performers in a club or bar situation.

A final excellent feature concerns the disk-loaded demo songs. These are not simply listen-only pieces of flash trash but, being backing sequences, you can see the chord structure as it changes on screen and even accompany or indeed edit the toons yourself. At the end of the impressive demo, the screen comes up with the song credits followed by the words "Now go and write your own." Nice.

I predict these will not be the last words written on the i3 in these pages. This is a seductive instrument, and one which looks to have a long and illustrious career ahead of it.

Further Information

i3 £2199 including VAT.

Korg UK Ltd, (Contact Details).