KORG M3 - Manual (Page 16)

Introduction to the M3
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At the heart of any music production is the M3’s
sequencer, which lets you record 16 MIDI tracks, up to
128 songs, and 210,000 notes. With a high resolution of
1/480, every timing nuance of your performance will
be captured accurately. You can use the Cue List
function to create your song section by section and
then play it back as a medley in the form you want.
Superb operability and expressiveness, with
X–Y Control that lets the display operate as a
controller, eight multi-pads, and a control
surface
The M3 features a clear, color 320 x 240 pixel display
for excellent visibility and operability. It features the
Touch-View graphical user interface that lets you
operate the system by touching the display directly,
allowing efficient access to the M3’s enormous amount
of parameters.
This display also operates as an X–Y touchpad
controller (similar to Korg’s KOASS technology),
allowing you to vary the volume balance or sound in
realtime by moving your finger across the display (X–Y
Mode). You can also record the movements of your
finger and play back these movements to vary the
sound (X–Y Motion).
The eight multi-pads can trigger single notes or chords
(up to eight notes), and are a useful way to play drums,
chords, or to control the KARMA performance. You
can easily assign notes or chords to the pads as desired.
The eight sliders and switches of the control surface
provide a high degree of expressive operability, and
can be used to adjust the volume of oscillators or
timbres/tracks, to control the realtime performance
generated by KARMA, or to modify your sounds via
the Realtime Control or Tone Adjust functions. You can
also use these sliders and switches along with the pads
as external controllers for your external MIDI
equipment.
The keyboard assembly (KYBD-61/73/88) features a
joystick newly designed for ease of use, as well as a
convenient ribbon controller for detailed control over
the nuances of your sound. The 61-key and 73-key
models provide a great-feeling keyboard with
aftertouch, allowing expressive control over any type
of sound. The 88-key model features the RH3 (Real
Weighted Hammer Action 3) keyboard with a heavier
feel in the lower register that lightens as you play
upward, allowing expressive performance with the
same keyboard playing feel as a grand piano.
Excellent connectivity with up to four chan-
nels of audio input, six channels of audio out-
put, and USB A and B
As audio inputs, the M3 provides two channels of
analog and two channels of digital (S/P DIF) input.
As audio outputs, it provides the two main analog
channels (L/MONO, R), four independent outputs,
and two digital channels (S/P DIF).
There’s one type-B USB connector that allows MIDI to
be sent and received between your computer and the
M3, and two type-A USB connectors for connecting
USB memory or other storage media. USB 2.0 is
supported for high-speed transfer of large amount of
data. You can resample to a USB storage device (such
as a hard disk), or edit WAVE files. If you connect a
USB CD-RW drive, you can resample the songs you
create and then use then to burn an original audio CD.
If the optional EXB-FW is installed, you can start up
the included M3 Plug-In Editor in your DAW
application, allowing you to send and receive MIDI
messages as well as two-in/six-out streams of digital
audio data between your software and the M3.
KKS (KORG Komponent System) allows flexi-
ble construction of your hardware system
The M3 uses “KKS” (KORG Komponent System), in
which the sound module and the keyboard assembly
(KYBD-61/73/88) are joined by a detachable
mechanism. This lets you mount other sound modules
on the keyboard assembly, or mount two sound
modules at the same time on the keyboard assembly
for flexible system creation. Of course you can detach
the sound module from the keyboard assembly and
use it as a stand-alone unit. You can also tilt the sound
module upward for convenient operation.
You’ll be able to create flexible systems with future
products that utilize the KKS standard.
Virtualized hardware functionality that lets
you assign sounds just like plug-in instru-
ments within your DAW software
The bundled “M3 Editor” and “M3 Plug-In Editor”
software are applications that let you edit M3 sounds
such as programs, combinations, and drum kits from
your computer.
“M3 Editor” is a stand-alone editor. “M3 Plug-In
Editor” supports VST, Audio Units, and RTAS formats,
allowing you to use the M3 as if it were a plug-in
instrument in your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation)
software or other host application.
If you install the optional EXB-FW FireWire board,
you’ll be able to connect a single FireWire (IEEE 1394)
cable to route the M3’s audio signals and MIDI
messages to and from your DAW tracks via the M3
Plug-In Editor. This “Virtualized Hardware”
functionality means that you can use the M3 as though
it were a plug-in software instrument.
Expandable by a rich variety of separately
sold options
You can expand the M3’s power by installing an EXB-
RADIAS analog modeling synthesizer board (one
timbre, maximum 24-voice polyphony), by adding the
EXB-M256 to expand the internal PCM multisample
and sampling capacity to 320 Mbytes (64 Mbytes
internal + 256 Mbytes), the EXB-FW that allows single-
cable FireWire (IEEE 1394) connection for creating a
virtualized hardware environment, and EX-USB-PCM
series libraries that will become available in the future.