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Is Korg Gadget the best sound library on iOS?
So I’ve fallen in love with the Drambo sequencer, with the clips and the overdub switch and what not and the question became: what do I sequence with this? Putting a bunch of samples into Drambo was ok but a bit time consuming, and I don’t have much time. Loading AUs was fine, but again I don’t have mountains of time to spend designing sounds from scratch, I want to get to the music and wow it seems presets for most synths these days are an afterthought. You’re lucky to get one solid pad, one solid bass, lead etc, and then it’s a bunch of ugly bleep bloop bullshit.
So I sent the midi out to Korg Gadget and it was like ahhhhhh here we go. The giant library of Korg sounds, (especially with Darwin and some of the iaps). Sounds with character and color and more presets than anything. Why bother with a virtual analogue AUv3 synth when Phoenix probably sounds better anyway?
I then tried the same sending midi to Nanostudio 2 only to discover that it’s night and day in terms of sound quality. Obsidian may have a million modulations options, but it just doesn’t sound that great stacked up to Gadget. Which seems to be the case with a lot of synths I’ve been messing with. It’s like wow I’m so happy to have 15 million lfos and envelopes to work with, how does the thing actually sound? Like dry sterile shit? Ok. I guess I’m a Korg man now. I dunno I just felt like sharing, maybe some of you have experienced the same.
Comments
"The best" can be a very subjective matter but I agree that there's quite a number of useful go-to sounds included in Gadget.
Other noteworthy options:
BeatHawk + IAPs
Pure Synth Platinum
AudioLayer + custom sample sets
Any Sound Font player plus a choice of good sounding sound fonts (and there are a lot of bad ones out there!)
SampleModeling apps for brass instruments
What I haven't found yet is an app that lets me play convincing guitar or electric bass tracks on iOS.
For me Gadget (+ the add ons) is the best and fastest library.
Phoenix is nice, but I prefer Lexington and Montpellier for that poly-analog-lushness
Oh yeah Lexington is great. Haven’t gotten Montpellier yet
I don't love routing, since it doesn't save well.
If I can't save an AUM file and re-open it without more hassle, it's likely I'm not going to get the file working again.
And I find the synths in Gadget limited. Both in terms of parameters you can modulate, but also that presets are not sorted by sounds.
It's kind of weird that such a large sound library doesn't have a sorted plugin, like Arturia's Analog Lab on the desktop.
A synth is like a piece of meat. When a piece of meat comes preseasoned, it tastes good straightaway. When a piece of meat comes unseasoned, you get to choose what to season it with. Want a bit of cajun spice? Shake it on and rub it in. Or maybe you prefer Caribbean jerk seasoning, or just garlic salt and pepper, or dill and rosemary. The choice is yours.
So, Korg's synths come "preseasoned" and have their own sonic fingerprint ready to go out of the box. They sound wonderful without much effort. Obsidian on the other hand comes "unseasoned", so you must add your own sonic flavouring.
Here's a song I wrote about a bad friend, and all of the synth sounds and rock guitar sounds were Obsidian. (The drums were mostly from Sounds of KSHMR Vol 4 with some sounds from other Sounds of KSHMR sample packs.) The vocals were recorded and tuned in Cubasis 3.
So what is my personal "secret seasoning" that'll bring Obsidian to life? Shhh don't tell anyone now...🤫
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bleass-saturator-auv3-plugin/id1536755427
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bleass-shimmer-auv3-plugin/id1512190577
Anyways, Korg Gadget has pretty much everything you'll ever need to produce a track with, including a decent limiter, right out of the box even without all IAPs and external compatible apps! Drum samples, synths, romplers, everything.
"Hold My Beer" was crafted using only Gadgets that come with Gadget 2 out of the box, no IAPs. And I limited it with the internal limiter, not DeeMax. The only external processing I used was to normalise the .wav to -3dB prior to uploading to SoundCloud so no clipping occurred when downsampled.
If Neo 90s House isn't your style, well...
...I mastered this one in Cubasis 3 with MagicDeathEyeStereo, BarkFilter Tripleband, and TB Barricade. But everything else was done within Gadget 2, including the mixdown!
Even when I use NS2 to produce a track, I often use Korg Module as an AUv3 for external sounds, such as the harpsichord heard in this track.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/w4ajlhddjkagby1/JWM - Silver Moon (Teaser).wav?dl=0
...(oops, did I just "accidentally" drop the teaser for my upcoming Halloween song release? 🤭)
The bottom line: comparing Korg Gadget 2 with NS2 is like comparing apples and oranges really. Both workflows are different but can produce equally outstanding results. I'd say Gadget is great for producing full instrumental tracks as well as efficiently teaching someone how to produce music, and NS2 is more for control freaks like me as well as vocal productions in spite of its lack of audio tracks. (Hence why I use Cubasis 3 to record my vocals before plopping them into Slate, lol.)
Cheers, and I hope this reply was helpful and not just a shameless plug. 🤣
Hold my beer so I can have another glass of good wine 😁
Hahaha!
Actually, Vince Guaraldi and Bola Sete made a song called "Days of Wine and Roses".
Long before Gadget and the og Nanostudio. 🤭
i see what you mean about Gadget, it’s a font of the enormous wealth of years of the Korg sound world. and also crazy open-ended (Stockholm by itself is just possibility upon possibility, not to mention the other sample-import gadgets…).
and at the same time the ease of an enclosed system, (however open-ended everything is) with the entire palette on the same dashboard.
i feel the same way about other all-in-one app workstations…FLSM though no clip launch there…even Drambo itself with the included instruments and downloadables from patchstorage.
Oh that's a beautiful song @jwmmakerofmusic ☺️👍🏼
It is gorgeous! I'm obsessed with Vince Guaraldi's music mate. He's so much more than "the Snoopy Song". 🤭
high praise indeed given how great the “Snoopy Song” is…
Exactly mate! Exactly! I play the "Linus & Lucy" (the Snoopy Song) as well as "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" on piano. "Linus & Lucy" was an easy play version I learned around the beginning of my lifelong journey into piano. "Cast Your Fate" is the original piano version, and holy shit it took me a month and a half to learn it! But it was worth learning!
EDIT: Plus, I've stolen a few of Vince's riffs and incorporate those in other pieces I play on the piano.
dude’s stuff is sublime. inspiring like Evans, players that get me playing
No, Korg Gadget isn’t the best sound library on iOS….that would be UVI’s beathawk with in app purchases…hard to beat that one.
My own opinion however.
I think in some areas it’s excellent, but the fact that it’s pretty much a closed system and has a limited pallet of sounds doesn’t make me rate it as ‘the best’.
I tend to use Korg Gadget (or Korg Module as the AUv3), as well as Synth master One, and Pure Synth Platinum.
Best part is that they work on iOS and iPad OS.
If you want to sound distinctly like Korg, yes.
I personally don’t like the Korg sound…it’s a little too safe and generic. So a hearty no from me.
Not steal guitar pro? I think it’s pretty close.
Gadget was a pivotal app for me, in terms of iOS music making. I still love to open it up and create.
Another wonderful song that shares that title. Came along a bit after the other one, but also still long before Gadget and Nanostudio.
By the way, I like your preseasoned/unseasoned approach. Sometimes you need this, sometimes you need that.
Rendering : People were having the same audio issues in FL Studio. Not sure whether they fixed it or not . Bolo da Producer made a similar video complaining about Beatmaker 3. GarageBand iOS, Zenbeats and Cubasis seem to be all right in the audio regard but I have yet to make a good side by side .
It could be the best guitar emulation on iOS indeed but it lacks the articulations and the "intelligence" of a dedicated virtual guitar or bass instrument like we have it on desktop OS.
If you have a desktop machine, try one of these limited free or full trial instruments for example:
https://www.amplesound.net/en/download.asp
Right on. Yea that is true.
Sublime, immaculate, "god-tier" as the younguns call it. As far as I'm concerned, Vince Guaraldi was some kind of a music god! True story mate. A gentleman by the name of Michael (not our Michael, lol) asked me to learn "Cast Your Fate to the Wind". I didn't just learn the piece itself. I studied Vince Guaraldi's life and his works and watched many videos on Youtube of him playing the piano to study his techniques so I could put out an authentic performance of "Cast Your Fate". And ever since then, I listen to Vince Guaraldi's "Greatest Hits" album before each performance.
See, I'm a firm believer in "what goes in will come out". In other words, if I listen to loud Pop music before I perform piano (such as Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album), that's what comes out of my fingers, and quite a few people in a cosy restaurant setting don't necessarily appreciate that. 😅 (Plus, the servers are like "we can't hear the customers!") However, when I listen to Vince before I perform piano, that gorgeous, heartfelt, slightly melancholy sublime sound literally oozes from my fingers onto the keys, everybody's blown away, and then I make a shitload of money in my tip jar. 🤣 Hell, I even play "Clair de Lune" with a few of those Jazz riffs tossed in, and it fits so well.
Ever since I've adopted Vince's licks and riffs, my performing has gotten compared to him on a number of occasions by the older customers who enjoy his music almost as much as I do. (They are super fans, I'm obsessed, lol.) If that isn't one of the highest bits of praise I've ever received, I don't know what is, mate.
...now I'm interested in listening to, studying and researching Mr. Bill Evans to see what licks and riffs I can glean from his recordings and performances.
Cheers mate! That was a great piece of music!
Exactly mate, and on iOS, we are spoiled for choice these days as to what we can "cook" with. NS2 is what I mainly use these days (with a little Cubasis 3 sprinkled in for vocals) since I am on an EDM creation binge right now. Gadget is great for marking down ideas as well as producing full tracks, and it doesn't get much simpler than that. AUM right now would not be my go-to for EDM, but for producing live Ambient? Nothing tops it in my tool kit. (Of course this is my personal opinion from personal experience. Favourites always vary from person to person.)
Well, you're not exactly wrong either. Beathawk has the best World sounds out of the bunch, better than Module (unless some KAPro World Instruments IAP is released, lol).
This uses Luth Sus and some chanting from the Middle East pack.
Well it's not limited once you factor in the IAPs and Gadget-compatible synth apps, but in of itself, you can still produce some decent House music without those external purchases for sure. I spent probably over $1000 accumulated over the years buying everything released from Korg that works within Gadget. 😵 Or at least damn near close to $1000. Worth every cent.
And if you purchased Darwin/iM1, you can definitely recreate the theme to Seinfeld.
(This was Gadget 1.)
To me, the "Korg sound" is soft, warm, and round. NS2 has bite to it. I like both, but each for different reasons.
Same here, even if just as a sketchpad until I port the melodic idea over to NS2 and build a track in that.
Exactly! Do you also like Beathawk as an AUv3 mate?
@jwmmakerofmusic I actually used to use Beathawk a lot. The downside was that it used too much memory so I couldn't load many instances of it. If I was using Beathawk alone with a few apps, it would have been great. But I tend to stack a few synths depending on the performance, so having Beathawk be a resource drain was a bit of a letdown.
It is still excellent with a lot of it's IAP. I really like the UI but I wish it was more intuitive to use and change samples quickly.
Let’s not forget about if and when sampletank iOS should get auv3.
It's number one if you're fine in a closed system and you don't require specialized effects and are willing to do sound design for new sounds. Otherwise, the fact that it's closed puts it near the bottom.
After Garageband, I always point people at Gadget for music making. It's got too much value to ignore, on sale that is. At normal price, it's about right.
It’s not so closed, Taipei is the door. I use it mostly for rhythm and sequencing in Apematrix, and having all the freedom to work with any synth and fx.
I don't even use Taipei. I just change the settings from Easy to Advanced MIDI and I can easily use any sequencer I want in Audiobus 3 or AUM. I tried Taipei and I keep wondering what the point of it is.