KORG SV-1

Korg reinvents the stage piano with a keyboard that immediately shouts ‘classic’!

Text: Brad Watts

Look, I have to get this out in the open; I truly am a sucker for Korg synths. In fact, I’m a blow-over for Korg products in general. What can I say? I like their operational methods and I love their sound. There’s a certain lushness to Korg keyboards that’s absent from most other synthesis engines, and neither can this sound be replicated with mere samples. Now Korg has gone and done it again.
There are some great new (and old) sounds happening in the SV-1 keyboard. This time around the company’s had a solid crack at replacing the archetypal ‘stage piano’ – a machine that’s been designed to take you from piano to organ, through to clavinet and electric piano. In short, it’s a player’s keyboard. A machine that can cover most bases, night after night. Forget maintaining a beaten up electric piano, this machine could cover your ‘vintage keyboard’ needs entirely.

BIG RED CAR

The SV-1 is Korg’s answer to authentic vintage keyboards and piano. Available in 73- and 88-note configurations, the first feature begging report is the graded-hammer action (RH3) keyboard. It’s a top-notch set of ivories – well, not literally – that Korg designed and manufactured from the ground up a few years back, and has since incorporated into many of its flagship instruments. In the past the company outsourced its keyboards and key-beds from Yamaha, but this puppy is entirely Korg’s progeny. The weighting is delightfully realistic, and won’t leave hardened pianists hankering for anything more. That said, bear in mind this keyboard is a piano emulation, so if you’re after the feeling of an organ under your hands I’d suggest looking elsewhere. Meanwhile, for the pianists, the SV-1 accepts three pedals for damper, soft and sostenuto.
The next fact I should point out, even though it’s blatantly obvious, is that the SV-1 is incredibly… well, red. I’m not talking fire-engine red here mind you… more a nicely burnt shade of red, slipping into the spectrum somewhere between ‘candy-apple’ and ‘Dakota’. I like it, and for me, the colour fits nicely with the automobile styling and overall vintage theme. I’m sure there’ll be a few who’ll regard this design choice as a touch on the flamboyant side, but why not push the envelope a little, I say. Keyboard and synth designs have been of the rock-and-roll-black-box persuasion for literally decades, so I salute Korg for leading the charge here with a different aesthetic. Actually, I’m more disappointed by the fact that the SV-1 isn’t available in a variety of ’50s-inspired shades – I’d like a blue one, and of course there’d be many who would prefer black.
But leaving the colour aside, the whole design of the SV-1 is inspired by the sounds within it. The keyboard is designed to recreate the sounds of classic keyboards such as the Fender Rhodes and Wurlitzer 200A electric piano – Wurlitzer did in fact manufacture a whole bunch of instruments, including pipe organs and guitars, along with juke boxes, but it’s the 200A electric piano that’s become known as ‘the Wurli’ – and it’s in the context of this tradition that Korg has gone for a retro feel.
Across the controls section of the unit are knobs and buttons reminiscent of the dashboard from an EK Holden. There’s even a large metal flip power-switch – which, I’m afraid, could be inadvertently flipped off (if you were unlucky) while indulging in an overly exuberant solo in the upper registers. Ironically, for a Korg design, the knobs and buttons are remarkably similar to circa-1980s Roland switch and knobbery – I first noticed this thievery with the microKorg XL. Aesthetically that keyboard also had more in common with an SH series Roland synth than anything ever released by Korg.

IN GEAR

Let’s forget the showroom semantics now and have a look at what’s really going on with the SV-1. The controls across the ‘dashboard’ are very simple – this is a performance keyboard after all. From the left is a master volume knob, followed by a three-band EQ section comprising ‘low’, ‘mid’ and ‘high’ tone adjustments – this can be bypassed completely. Following this is the pre-effects section for access to tremolo, vibrato, uni-vibe, boost, compression and a vox-wah function that can be controlled via an expression pedal. Two knobs provide control over each type of effect – labelled ‘speed’ and ‘intensity’. Here again this entire section can be bypassed.
Up next is the amp modelling section, also defeatable and offering a selection of six amplifier types and a drive control. Amp models include an ‘organ amplifier’, tweed, overdriven, and AC30 designs. What’s interesting here is that the modelled amps work in tandem with a vacuum tube-assisted circuit to better recreate the sound of a valve amplifier. The tube circuit also includes a low voltage power amp-style circuit, a ‘solid-state simulation of an output transformer’, and a dummy speaker circuit to simulate the varying impedance of an actual speaker. All this adds up to a closer rendition of a keyboard plugged into an amp, which, of course, is what you’re after with a performance-based, vintage-style keyboard. However, I must say, that the 12AX7 valve under the clear plastic cover seems a little tacky for mine. I don’t know about you but I’m a little weary of tubes in glass windows with lights behind them at this juncture. Sure the tube is doing something, but does it actually help to have it in your line of vision? More to the point, does it sound any more ‘vintage’? I doubt it.

MOTOROLA

So, following across from the amp modelling section of the dashboard are eight patch recall buttons. Again, in the spirit of easy on-stage use, these are numerically marked and backlit into the bargain. Eight recall buttons may seem like too few to some players – I guess it will depend entirely on your approach.
Saving a patch to these locations is referred to as a storing a ‘favourite’. To the right of these favourites are two knobs for flicking between the sounds available from the instrument. These are six-position knobs, the first labeled: E.Piano 1, E.Piano 2, Clav, Piano, Organ, and Other; the ‘Other’
section containing Solina and ensemble-style string sounds. The second knob chooses between six variations within each genre. In practice you simply choose sounds with these knobs, apply EQ, amp modelling and any amplifier-based effects you see fit, along with the appropriate dose of modulation and reverb (which we’ll get to in a moment) and then simply save the setup to any of the eight ‘favourite’ buttons. Storing a favourite works just like programming your car radio – hold down the button until it flashes,
then press the button again to store the sound. It couldn’t
be any simpler.
Saving further patches is only possible via the included patch editor software, and this connects seamlessly to your PC or Mac via USB. This connection also acts as a MIDI conduit, so there’s no need to use a separate MIDI interface. There are also MIDI ports for normal connection to a typical MIDI-based system.

HYDRAMATIC

Getting back to the onboard effects section for a moment, the first of these deals with time-modulation effects. Here again, choosing an effect is via a six-position knob, with effects including phasing, flanging, chorus and a rotary Leslie emulation. Speed and intensity controls are all that’s required here, along with a button for switching between slow and fast rotary speeds. Finally, at the right-hand end of the keyboard are the reverb and delay effects, consisting of hall, plate, room and spring reverbs, and tape or stereo delay. The latter delay type has a tap-tempo button below it. It’s a shame the tap-tempo button doesn’t adjust the tape-delay tempo as well.

UNDER THE BONNET

Bear in mind that all the adjustments possible via the front panel of the SV-1 are broad brushstrokes to a sound. For finer and more comprehensive editing parameters you’ll have to dive into the supplied editing software. For example, the tape-delay section can have time, feedback, tone, low-frequency damping, and mix adjusted – none of these parameters are available on the deck. In the modulation effects section you suddenly gain access to feedback, width, chorus types, rotor and horn speed, and acceleration for the Leslie effect, pre-delay for the reverbs, and the stereo delay can be set to tempo and bar divisions. When it comes to the amplifier simulations there’s a choice of speaker cabinets (10 styles) and the amps themselves have gain and master volume, presence and three-band EQ. Even the EQ section suddenly offers up control over the mid section frequency point. There’s even a final dynamics processor/compressor that doesn’t make an appearance on the dashboard. Besides giving access to all these extra parameters, the SV-1 editor further allows backup and retrieval of countless other patches beyond the eight stored in the ‘favourites’ section.
In terms of the sound engine, the SV-1 offers 80-note polyphony, enough for any two handed player to not have notes disappearing when least expected. The unit is not multi-timbral, however, so it’s a one-sound-at-a-time machine. It will run in a ‘local-off’ fashion, enabling you to use the SV-1 as a master keyboard for a sequencing system. There is plenty of modern MIDI functionality though; the unit receives MIDI clock messages, transmits and receives aftertouch information.

IN THE STRAIGHT

In terms of being a player’s keyboard I think Korg has done a great job with the SV-1. It’s very easy to pull up a sound and get straight into it. There are no menus, screens, or dual function buttons to learn, the outputs are presented as both unbalanced jacks and balanced XLRs, and there’s a stereo input for adding another synth or keyboard, or another playback device – yet another useful feature for the gigging keys-player.
There’s such a lot going for the SV-1 in fact that the only problem I can see really is that some won’t be able to
come to grips with the look of it. So far, opinion is quite divided here at AT – it seems I’m the only one that likes the big red monster’s look. Aesthetics aside, the SV-1 is an incredibly easy keyboard to use, and I believe there’d be a stack of keyboard players out there who’d appreciate such ease of use.