KingKorg vs. Studiologic Sledge 2.0

[tehlord]

I saw the Sonic State review already (great review they do btw) and noticed the cutoff assign issue. It's not really something I've used much in the past though.
The Korg sounds fantastic, I'll give you that. Still it does lack the sample support that gives Sledge the edge. I haven't found much on the net about it though.
Oh dear, this ain't easy!

You're talking yourself into the Sledge

Plus a King Korg will be worth about as much as a Venom in a year, so you could always get one of those too

[Ingonator]

For those who want a Blofeld Sledge is no replacement IMO.

Blofeld besides the wavetables, custom wavetables and samples support als has dedicated VA waveforms (not wavetables) like Sine, Saw, Square, variable Pulse (with PWM possible) and Triangle.

Osc 3 actually only includes the VA waveforms and no wavetables or samples (opposing to Oscs 1 + 2).

KingKorg seems to be a "standard" VA synth without wavetables or samples so those are not really comparable.
AYnway if you do not need wavetables or samples KingKorg could be a good choice. AFAIK it has no aftertouch which is a major bummer for me.

[EvilDragon]

KingKorg DOES have some samples you can choose as an oscillator. Just can't load your own.

And at least it supports aftertouch in the mod matrix, which cannot be said for Nord Lead 4 or A1, for example.


One important thing to know: KK and Sledge have FIXED polyphony, Blofeld has dynamic polyphony allocation. So, more complex patches on the Blo can bring you down to no polyphony at all (especially if you use samples!).

[Ingonator]

One important thing to know: KK and Sledge have FIXED polyphony, Blofeld has dynamic polyphony allocation. So, more complex patches on the Blo can bring you down to no polyphony at all (especially if you use samples!).

Have doe a quite complex Blofeld patch using a custom wavetable, a sample and also Osc3 with dual filter, 2 voice Unison, effects etc.
Was still able to play polyphonic.

Of course you could get a problem concerning polyphony if you crank up Unison to 6 voices.

Anyway In that patch i mentioned i could confirm that i could play up to 3 notes when Unison is set to 4. On higher values it will be 2 or even 1 note. With a wavetable instead of sample it is slightly better.

Anyway i agree that with higher Unison setting polyphony could be radically reduced (maximum would be 4 notes at 6 voice unison at very simpl patches). For example with a single Osc i could play 4 notes with 6 voice Unison activated (tested with the same patch i mentioned above when Osc 2 + 3 are off). This corresponds to the maimum polyphony of 24 voices (6 x 4 = 24).

With 2 Oscilators activated and 6 Unison voices the maximum is 3 notes (also depending on Amp envelope Release settings aka "overlapping notes").

[K-Bee]

I don't even know what I want anymore. Maybe I should break the bank and buy all three of them!

[EnGee]

I don't even know what I want anymore. Maybe I should break the bank and buy all three of them!

IMO give it some time till you be sure of what you want. The three synths are all great choices but which one to choose?!

I have been thinking for some time between 5 or 6 options and in the end decided it is Blofeld what I want (I have also Casio PX-5S which has also a VA synth) so I needed a better synth in sound design cover a lot.

IMO, if you need controls, choose Sledge, if you need sound design, choose Blofeld and if you need a standard VA, choose Korg

[K-Bee]

I don't even know what I want anymore. Maybe I should break the bank and buy all three of them!

IMO give it some time till you be sure of what you want. The three synths are all great choices but which one to choose?!

I have been thinking for some time between 5 or 6 options and in the end decided it is Blofeld what I want (I have also Casio PX-5S which has also a VA synth) so I needed a better synth in sound design cover a lot.

IMO, if you need controls, choose Sledge, if you need sound design, choose Blofeld and if you need a standard VA, choose Korg

Those are actually good points EnGee, thanks. The fact is, I've though about all this myself, but as a gear freak, I tend to be blinded by the wealth of options out there. I have a Venom, a DX7 and a Kurzweil PC3X (which is also my main controller). Do I need more? Not likely but that doesn't stop me from wanting more!

Here's my lay down so far
The King Korg: Great sounding synth with a fair bit of hands on control but (according to quite a few reviews) a terrible keybed. I'm not sure what exactly it is that makes it stand out.

The Sledge:
Big azz yellow cabinet, it's fun but the novelty may wear off. It sounds good and the sample support and hands on control makes it quite a contender. Some obvious points have to be addressed though. The effect section may not be up to the standard expected in 2015, and there are some weird "why didn't they include that?" things as well that may be annoying. It does have aftertouch which imo is criminally overlooked these days. No of me other synths has it.

The Blofeld.
I don't know really. It does sound great and has a huge fan base. Probably need to investigate further into this one. It does have sample support and aftertouch but not too many knobs/sliders. The programming options looks a bit like the Venom's but I could be very wrong here.

The more I learn, the harder it gets

[EnGee]

Those are actually good points EnGee, thanks. The fact is, I've though about all this myself, but as a gear freak, I tend to be blinded by the wealth of options out there. I have a Venom, a DX7 and a Kurzweil PC3X (which is also my main controller). Do I need more? Not likely but that doesn't stop me from wanting more!

Here's my lay down so far
The King Korg: Great sounding synth with a fair bit of hands on control but (according to quite a few reviews) a terrible keybed. I'm not sure what exactly it is that makes it stand out.

The Sledge:
Big azz yellow cabinet, it's fun but the novelty may wear off. It sounds good and the sample support and hands on control makes it quite a contender. Some obvious points have to be addressed though. The effect section may not be up to the standard expected in 2015, and there are some weird "why didn't they include that?" things as well that may be annoying. It does have aftertouch which imo is criminally overlooked these days. No of me other synths has it.

The Blofeld.
I don't know really. It does sound great and has a huge fan base. Probably need to investigate further into this one. It does have sample support and aftertouch but not too many knobs/sliders. The programming options looks a bit like the Venom's but I could be very wrong here.

The more I learn, the harder it gets

Well, I'm spending a good time with my 'white' bride now! busy, busy, busy!

Seriously, today I have brought the Blofeld. It is not light, little bit heavy (11kg) and built like a TANK! really! A Steel white case!

The keyboard is fantastic! Exactly what I have been searching for (more than 10 years now!). It is exactly like the good quality keys from the 80's and 90's. After Touch is new for me, but I really don't care about it that much. Anway, they are very playable keys!

The sound is fantastic of course although I only reached A042 (that's No. 42 from 1000 or 1500!!). The presets are like in Largo! one nice and other four are trash! so one in five of very nice sounds is good ratio in my opinion.

Now, I did spend a long time setting it (with Cubase elements 8 today). Windows did find the driver, although it put a yellow mark in the Device Manager (Windows 8.1 64bit), but after double clicking the XP inf file and close, restart ...etc, then Windows took off the yellow mark Of course I connected the usb and the audio (cable the dealer gave me as a gift 2 TRS -> 1/8 stereo jack). My audio interface is dead, so I used the integrated card in my PC.
So, in Cubase after putting the file (supplied in the CD) in the Cubase folder which exists in users\user\appdata\roaming\Steinberg ...etc, I could find it and I could browse the presets and banks from the inspector.

I don't think I will buy a VSTi or anything else really. The manual is the best one I have read (full of tips and hints for sound design) and the interface is so easy to navigate (I don't know why the Japanese don't do it this way, they seem to love buttons and more buttons!) So, it is really much easier than I though navigating the menu, but as the synth is really deap, it needs time to grasp all those parameters and I think one's should really read the manual more than once.

It doesn't come with USB cable! So, be ware! I also update the firmware from 1.22 to 1.3 and the keys also to v 1.4 I think by the software Spectre which comes in the CD.

The volume was so low, but I found that by default they have the AMP volume (not the system volume) very low! it took me a long time frustrated because the signal is way to low compared to the VSTs I have!

Anyway, because you have DX7 and Kurzweil PC3X, I really don't know why you are thinking of buying another keyboard!! If I were you, I would buy two synths one is Blofeld desktop, and the other something like Rocket (really nice VA with one oscillator, but has a nice analog sound and very reasonable price!). With those two, I think you are really covered (+ 1 or 2 soft synths with special sound character maybe).

[EnGee]

Hmmm! I have two problems. The first one is the noisy headphone jack and the second is the stereo signal is very weak in Cubase but the mono signal is ok.
I will test more tomorrow and see.

Anyway, there are some nice presets but they are few and my first comparisons with Codex, well I didn't feel there is a difference in the sound quality! But the feeling of almost none cpu usage is very nice

Well, for the OP I say don't buy anything! Use your keys with Largo or Codex and you are done if you want blofeld or Sledge.

For me, I'll keep it as I like the keys

[zerocrossing]

The KingKORG doesn't cover the same ground as a Sledge. The Sledge is a wavetable synth, the KingKORG has no wavetable capabilities. It has the DWGS waves and some PCM samples on board, as well as some cool osc features, but nothing similar to wavetables. I think of the KingKORG like a modern souped up DW-8000 (digital oscs and analog filters) and the Sledge is more like a modern Waldorf style synth. Both have their pros and cons.

I'm a big KingKORG evangelist. I love the sound of it. All my complaints are about it's interface, but I've solved it by adding my iPad to my set up. By running the Patch Morpher app, the crappy menu diving on the KingKORG is gone... and I also have amazing patch morphing capabilities!

[chk071]

I don't even know what I want anymore. Maybe I should break the bank and buy all three of them!

IMO give it some time till you be sure of what you want. The three synths are all great choices but which one to choose?!

I have been thinking for some time between 5 or 6 options and in the end decided it is Blofeld what I want (I have also Casio PX-5S which has also a VA synth) so I needed a better synth in sound design cover a lot.

IMO, if you need controls, choose Sledge, if you need sound design, choose Blofeld and if you need a standard VA, choose Korg

Those are actually good points EnGee, thanks. The fact is, I've though about all this myself, but as a gear freak, I tend to be blinded by the wealth of options out there. I have a Venom, a DX7 and a Kurzweil PC3X (which is also my main controller). Do I need more? Not likely but that doesn't stop me from wanting more!

Here's my lay down so far
The King Korg: Great sounding synth with a fair bit of hands on control but (according to quite a few reviews) a terrible keybed. I'm not sure what exactly it is that makes it stand out.

The Sledge:
Big azz yellow cabinet, it's fun but the novelty may wear off. It sounds good and the sample support and hands on control makes it quite a contender. Some obvious points have to be addressed though. The effect section may not be up to the standard expected in 2015, and there are some weird "why didn't they include that?" things as well that may be annoying. It does have aftertouch which imo is criminally overlooked these days. No of me other synths has it.

The Blofeld.
I don't know really. It does sound great and has a huge fan base. Probably need to investigate further into this one. It does have sample support and aftertouch but not too many knobs/sliders. The programming options looks a bit like the Venom's but I could be very wrong here.

The more I learn, the harder it gets

Maybe approach it from the musical side then. What kind of music do you do mostly? Blofeld would be an El Dorado for ambient music e.g. The Sledge from what i gathered is rather a VA with some extended wavetable functionality, so you won't get nearly as deep with it as with the Blofeld. And the King Korg i can't say really because i have no idea about. A negative aspect with the Blofeld would definitely be the programming side, i had one here and it was a lot of menu diving, which is pretty cumbersome if you're used to plugins. The Sledge has most (all?) of its functions available with knobs and sliders, so that would be a big plus for it. And King Korg should also have a lot of that. Well, it's probably a difficult decision.

[rod_zero]

Look for a waldorf kXT second hand

[zerocrossing]

I don't even know what I want anymore. Maybe I should break the bank and buy all three of them!

IMO give it some time till you be sure of what you want. The three synths are all great choices but which one to choose?!

I have been thinking for some time between 5 or 6 options and in the end decided it is Blofeld what I want (I have also Casio PX-5S which has also a VA synth) so I needed a better synth in sound design cover a lot.

IMO, if you need controls, choose Sledge, if you need sound design, choose Blofeld and if you need a standard VA, choose Korg

Those are actually good points EnGee, thanks. The fact is, I've though about all this myself, but as a gear freak, I tend to be blinded by the wealth of options out there. I have a Venom, a DX7 and a Kurzweil PC3X (which is also my main controller). Do I need more? Not likely but that doesn't stop me from wanting more!

Here's my lay down so far
The King Korg: Great sounding synth with a fair bit of hands on control but (according to quite a few reviews) a terrible keybed. I'm not sure what exactly it is that makes it stand out.

The Sledge:
Big azz yellow cabinet, it's fun but the novelty may wear off. It sounds good and the sample support and hands on control makes it quite a contender. Some obvious points have to be addressed though. The effect section may not be up to the standard expected in 2015, and there are some weird "why didn't they include that?" things as well that may be annoying. It does have aftertouch which imo is criminally overlooked these days. No of me other synths has it.

The Blofeld.
I don't know really. It does sound great and has a huge fan base. Probably need to investigate further into this one. It does have sample support and aftertouch but not too many knobs/sliders. The programming options looks a bit like the Venom's but I could be very wrong here.

The more I learn, the harder it gets

Maybe approach it from the musical side then. What kind of music do you do mostly? Blofeld would be an El Dorado for ambient music e.g. The Sledge from what i gathered is rather a VA with some extended wavetable functionality, so you won't get nearly as deep with it as with the Blofeld. And the King Korg i can't say really because i have no idea about. A negative aspect with the Blofeld would definitely be the programming side, i had one here and it was a lot of menu diving, which is pretty cumbersome if you're used to plugins. The Sledge has most (all?) of its functions available with knobs and sliders, so that would be a big plus for it. And King Korg should also have a lot of that. Well, it's probably a difficult decision.

Blofeld... capable, yes. El Dorado? Nah, you don't get to El Dorado levels until you bag something like a Solaris. Now that thing...

But we're talking about a very different price point. Solaris is quite a piece of equipment though. As is the Modulus .002. Best not to think about such things as they will only make you sad... unless you can afford one.

I'd call the KingKORG a very good VA (the best, IMO) with some fun digital waveform functionality. I don't really consider the Sledge or the Blofeld "VA" synths but more wavetable and digital subtractive synths. It's not a slight. It's just that I don't hear "analog" when I listen to anything from those instruments, just as one wouldn't call a DX7 VA. The KingKORG goes out of it's way to emulate vintage filters, and does a very good job of it. Maybe calling it a VA is wrong considering how strong the digital side of it is... VH? Virtual Hybrid? It does remind me quite a bit of my old beloved DW-8000.

There's really no wrong answer to the OP's question. I just decided to not have a Sledge or Blofeld because Largo gets so close and with limited space I chose to put my real estate to other uses.

[fx1mark]

If you read the keyboard mag review of the sledge I posted earlier in this thread, the reviewer described it as "warm, creamy virtual analog sound." it also has the ppg wavetables on oscillator one AND you can load your own samples into oscillator one (similar to the blofeld). I have owned and currently own many synths. In my opinion the sledge has a three oscillator Fat analog sound. I need a synth that will cover minimoog leads and basses and prophet 5 and ob8 poly synth sounds, the sledge easily covers all of these. I have other synths with more features but require extensive menu diving, but I have done more synth exploring with the sledge than I have done since I got my first synth (a pro one) years ago.

[EnGee]

I don't know about the Sledge, but hooking the blofeld to the speakers directly today and I realize now it is actually a monster! So, I need to buy audio interface to be able to record it in acceptable stereo levels.

It is different from Largo, different from Codex and from NI Massive. It can be very agressive but also can be very mild and silky. It can do some Jupiter sounds and some Juno.

So my conclusion is that the blofeld is a very capable synth of producing so many kinds of sounds. I don't know if it can do Moog or MS-20 sounds, but it is not because of these sounds I bought it. It is exactly as I expected it! So, I'm very happy although the presets are mess, one is very low in volume and one is high (so be warned, don't use headphones! and your fingers should be always on the System Volume when changing the presets.

So to the OP, good luck in whatever you choose. It is tough to know, but I can assure you that Blofeld won't disappoint!