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| KORG G5 Bass Synthesizer Sound
Samples and Patches |
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Here are some sound samples recorded with my KORG G5 bass synth
processor. It's a fairly basic, non-pitch tracking synth processor that
includes waveshaping and filtering, all saved into 9 possible presets.
Overall
there are only a handful of the 9 voice choices that are seriously
usable options for fat bass synth. The others are envelope
only,
or are too high voiced and/or thin to be used solo. But there's
certainly
plenty of usable bass synth tones out of the unit, and latency is
non-existent since there's no pitch tracking going on. Playing feels
totally natural. It tracks a BOSS OC-2 OCT1 signal in front very well
which can be used to drive the G5's tones deeper and fatter, or blended
in to add some sub-bass depth to the otherwise thin sounds on some of
the voices.
While
the waveshaping requires monophonic playing the filtering voices can
accept polyphonic input well. And if you play held octaves then bend
one note slightly out of tune from the other you can get some
interesting ringmod warble and glitch type sounds which could be usable
for some.
I think this unit is a contender for some seemingly
easy modifications for anyone with electronics skills. I'd propose the
following mods:
- Frequency control knob. Would control
the cutoff frequency by tapping into the expression pedal
functionality. There's plenty of front panel chassis space for another
knob, though it wouldn't be saved with the presets. Use a switched 1/4"
jack to allow an expression to still control the cutoff when plugged in
which would defeat the new Frequency knob.
- Numeric bank
indicator. There's a 3 color LED, I'm assuming it would be possible to
tap into the electronics driving this to drive 3 separate LEDs instead.
I'm not sure if there's LEDs in the shape of numbers, but 3 red LED
that have 1 LED, 2 LED, or 3 LED illuminated to indicate bank would be
easier to comprehend than green/yellow/red or whatever the color scheme
is. Minor complaint.
One interesting feature with this box is
that while the control knobs are basic and do not have any electronic
display indicating their settings for each preset there's a helpful
"original value" LED that lights up when you turn the control knob and
hit the spot the patch is currently set to. Theoretically this would
allow me to go back and figure out what settings I've used for each
patch so I can document them and share them.
Note
I'm a
self-taught, intermediate player. While I lack formal training, I do
have a fair amount of experience with wide variety of
hardware multi-effects from Behringer, Line6, BOSS, and Roland, as well
as other pedal and rack effects, and most software amp simulators and
various plugin effects. Hopefully that lends itself towards some
quality patches.
Click the cgraham.com logo above for links to my other pages.
My quick review of the unit:
- Pros:
No latency, extremely easy to use (no user manual really necessary to
use this out of the box and get good sounds),
has 9 presets available for quick recall. Some very fat and quality
bass synth
tones available in my opinion. Tracks a BOSS OC-2 signal well which can
be used to
help drive the synth tones even deeper and fatter and sounds good
blended in with the G5 sounds. Has an expression
pedal jack to control the frequency cutoff which I don't recall seeing
anyone mention before, this can be used for manual filter sweeps and to
further modify the overall tone of the sounds. Ability to instantly bop
between presets without having to lineraly cycle through them like the
Super Synth and Octavius Squeezer. Has some good sounding filter-only
effects available, including vocal/formant filters - try sending some
fuzz through them for more synthy type sounds.
- Cons:
Not a wide variety of tone options available as a lot of the voices are
very high/thin sounding (unless that's what you're going for), out of
production,
expensive ($250+ used) for the limited functionality provided (though
the sound and presets might make that price totally reasonble compared
to other products), and extremely difficult to find. Does not
effect/track notes above 13th fret on the G string on my
instrument for whatever reason . Fairly large footprint
considering the limited feature set. Difficult to remember what sounds
are in what patch locations due to somewhat ambiguous 3 color LED to
denote bank VS some sort of patch # system.
Conclusion: My
favorite synth pedal effect - sounds great, tons of tons from 5 little
knobs, totally super easy and intuitive to use and operate even if you
know nothing about synthesizers. This is the model everyone else is
still trying to beat in my opinion, and it came out in the 1990's.
| MP3 |
Patch Settings |
Description |
Instrument
Used |
Interface
Used |
Notes |
 | n/a | Noodling through my current 9 presets | Lakland Duck Dunn P bass fingered | GT-10B USB | BOSS
GT-10B used as a clean interface, BOSS OC-2 and KORG G5 in effets loop.
I cycle through the presets I've created after about 90 minutes of
experimenting with the pedal. Some of the patches sound great, others
like crap. I also cycle through just the KORG and then the KORG with
the OC-2 in front. Honestly, I just blasted through the presets and
didn't pay attention to where I started, etc. so it's a mish mash of
sounds and I think I cyled through the first bank twice, once at start
and again at end. | | n/a | Expression pedal | Lakland Duck Dunn P bass fingered | GT-10B USB | BOSS
GT-10B used as a clean interface, BOSS OC-2 and KORG G5 in effets loop.
I play a single preset and experiment with the expression pedal, an
Ernie Ball VP JR 25K which is not a perfect match for the unit but
seems to work fairly well. Note you still get the envelope sound, if
the preset has one, then you can cycle through the filter frequency
with the expression. I have created some patches that use a static
filter and allow you to sweep it manually with expression but didn't
happen to save them. I'll have to try to recreate that. | | n/a | Dissonant octave SAW | Lakland Duck Dunn P bass fingered | GT-10B USB | BOSS GT-10B used as a clean interface, KORG G5 in effets loop
playing a static SAW using Filter 5. Experimenting with octaved notes
and held octaves where either the low or high note is bent out of tune
slightly to create the warbled sound. | | n/a | Retrigger speed test | Lakland Duck Dunn P bass picked | GR-55 USB | Roland GR-55 used for a basic bass amp sim and recording interface, KORG G5 with voice 5 set for a fairly fast downsweep. I
then play at various speeds @ 120bpm to see how fast the filter
retrigger is. All playing is open, no palm muting. In comparison the
Markbass Super Synth required extremely heavy palm muting and hard
playing to get acceptable retriggering with fast playing. |
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| Last updated 09-11-2011
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