Korg • Z1
Could this be Korg's masterpiece? The Z1 is like a polyphonic Prophecy! It does all the analog sounds and more. This is a great analog modeling synth with 12-voice polyphony, thirteen waveforms, four LFOs, two resonant filters, two effects units and more. The ability to create unique sounds is endless. The factory patches could use some help, but overall the sound is very nice! It has a fully polyphonic arpeggiator that blows all others away. It has five preset arpeggio patterns and fifteen user patterns. Unfortunately there is no on-board sequencer. There is incredible real-time control available with knobs to control the two resonant filters, and a touch controlled 'XY' pad for tweaking patches in real-time. The Z1 is used by KMFDM, Gary Numan, LTJ Bukem and Orbital.
People say its hard to program but I've never heard such great sounds so it's worth the effort. Site proudly next to my Triton.
The controls are great too especially the abundance of knobs and x-y pad.
Awsome sounds especially if you upload the dance sounds available off the Korg site.
I had a sequenced apr groove running in no time.
Forget the overpriced EXB-MOSS card for the triton, feed this through the Tritons effects and you have an aditional 6 notes of polyphony plus all the controls and keyboard and a great arpegiator too.
While the synthesis is absolutely stunning, the effects are just as substandard, so you wish you could just rip the fx processor out and chuck it in the bin.
I did record with it and totally loved a few sounds, but all in all it felt like they had to be extruded from a quagmire of mediocrity.
Maybe they were attempting too much too soon. A (just a little too) flawed masterpiece.
http://www.youtube.com /watch?v=mcNhJI92cF4
I originally purchased a Z1 based reviewson the net (newby and inexperienced), I didn't enjoy it, so soldand got a Nord Lead. Wow, what an amazing learning curve.
Now that I had a understanding, I decided to purchase another Z1. I will be selling this thing again. Why would you bother, it's just not right and sounds metallic (in a [beep] way).