Hello
The Korg Triton was my main board in the 2000s (despite Korg’s marketing, this is definitely NOT a 90s synth… it began in 1999 and evolved during the next years). I have mixed feelings about it. I still know the default banks from the tip of my finger and loved exploring from there… but alone with a guilty feeling.
How does it sound so good whereas it only has c.a. 32MB of ROM? (maybe something like 160MB if you add all expansions). That’s because some smart guys working at Korg were able to loop very cleanly and efficiently. They also were layering like crazy, injecting a lot of effects (the effect section was very impressive at the times) and… doing some mad things with the arpeggiator, to the point that the Triton became an arranger.
But let’s be honest now. What can you do with that 15~20 years later?
Ambiance sounds a la Omnisphere => this still shines like it’s the first day but do you really play that live?
Piano => of course not. It’s a 16MB sample with a stupid amount of reverb
Keys => some preset are goods, you can tweak them a little, but we all have tons of better VSTs for that now
Organs => still surprisingly good, but again, we have so much better, discoverable and editable now
Strings => you can hear the looping after the first 150ms, remove the effects and you begin crying
Brass => no. They sound basic, ultra wet, and playability is questionable
Generally speaking, acoustic sounds => they are really dated now
Drums => they don’t cut it anymore - its all too much hip-hop and synth drum.
Synths => VSTs are destroying the Triton by now, even if this Triton VST had the MOSS expansion (which I believe it does not)
…
But while playing live, as an added bonus bank like XPand, SRX, etc. it should be sufficient and of great value, right?
I’m not even sure about it.
First it’s expensive, as noted by everyone here. And once you have played the acoustic sounds of a Tyros/Genos or some great Kontakt banks, you won’t go back to those sounds.
So, for having fun with layering/arpeggiator/basic arranger? Sure, it’s VERY fun. But this is for playing alone, with fond memories of 20 years back.
Specifically with this VST, I find the UI not very good. It manages to be both very big and very tiny at the same time. Editing is slow because I have to constantly aim at minuscule widgets.
Let’s end this diatribe. I still love my Triton. I made a lot of gigs with it, a lot of theatrical venues where I was the only musician supporting actors. A fair amount of programming and a lot of improv. Some sampling too, loading the 16MB ram with the floppy drive. I knew this thing almost by heart. Sometimes, I bring it back with the band, just for fun and it still has some wow factor.
But I moved on.