Vintage Synth Explorer

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.

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Sunjammer

Posted 244 days ago

One of my favorites, because it slots so nicely into its particular niche; pads and physical modelling. I'm using it as a master keyboard alongside an R3 and a Modular G2, and it's all joy. Main drawback is a flat out bad FX section, at least by modern standards; FX are shared across all timbres, have very rudimentary modulation options and lack tempo sync. Practically forces you to get creative at an earlier stage in the signal path however, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Jim Wicked

Posted 268 days ago

This could have been the greatest digital synth ever made. It sounds amazing and the potential is limitless. ...unfortunately, programming it is a real bear. If you have an inhuman amount of patience, you owe it to yourself to get one of these. Otherwise, look for something easier to program.

planetplayer

Posted 312 days ago

Tried when first came out. ALmost brought one, but they ran out when I was ready. When in stock again I said. No.
Good as a solo synth. Like the almost forgotten Prophecy.

Alan

Posted 341 days ago

An excellent beastie! Using it as a master KB because of the controllers. The sounds are distinctive and cut through a mix. esp IMO the pads and awesome choirs which because of the XY pad are "infinitely" variable. Main drawbacks - the delay changing patches (its doing alot of maths I guess) and multi is clunky (you have to assign voices per part!) and shares FX. I Use it in single mode and record each part as audio in VST.

bro ben

Posted 350 days ago

It's one of those synths that have a unique sound quality that sets it apart from the 'crowd'. if you like the sound, then you'll proboly keep it for a very, very long time because nothing else quite sounds like it. Even trying to get a Kurzweil to copy it's sound will ether be differant or end up sounding 'better' but still not the same but then againe who can say that apples are 'better' than bananas?

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