Is Gadget 2 still worth it 2023? And when is the next sale?

R_2

@HotStrange said:
Marseille is one of my favorite gadgets actually. Love the 90s/Triton workstation vibes of it.

Besides the obvious iM1 and iWavestation add-ons, Module’s “Triton Best Selection” is also great for those type of sounds (if you haven’t got it already). 100 good sounds and less than 35MB.
Speaking of space, Module’s restore menu offers the option to delete pcm packs in case you temporarily need space.

Simon

Is Gadget 2 still worth it 2023?

Doug seems to think so...

rs2000

@Simon Oh yeah, it still has its great uses.
I just connected an old iPhone running Gadget +Stockholm IAP to my Digitone via Bluetooth MIDI, and now I can not only trigger loop slices from the DT sequencer but also p-lock most Stockholm synth parameters from the DT MIDI tracks. Connecting the iPhone's headphones out to the DT stereo audio inputs works great too and now I have a huge REX loop collection ready for use with the DT. And should I need a nice analog polysynth or wavetable synth, it's in Gadget too. For me that covers everything that I would otherwise need a Syntakt for.

HotStrange

@jwmmakerofmusic said:

@HotStrange said:

@jwmmakerofmusic said:

@HotStrange said:

@jwmmakerofmusic said:

@HotStrange said:

@jwmmakerofmusic said:

@HotStrange said:

@Strizbiz said:
I don’t use it much at all these days tbh but I wouldn’t say it’s not worth it. Korg hasn’t added any new features in at least 2 years , maybe they feel it doesn’t need anything else but if you get Module and buy sound expansions Korg makes sure they work in Gadget also. I do wish Korg would shake things up and drop a new synths that’s supports AUV3, it would be awesome if they released the Wavestate or Modwave for the IPad. I would mind an IPad version of the Prologue either, but anyway Gadget is still good imo.

An iOS AU version of Modwave, WaveState, or OpSix would be an insta-buy for me, no questions asked.

Gadget+ Module is a killer combo though. Especially if you have some IAPs from Module. You could really do almost everything.

Like this symphonic orchestral dance music piece I cooked up today.

Oooo my interest is piqued. Got a link for it? I’d love to hear it.

Just a snippet for it now. https://www.dropbox.com/s/rbdbg3p77cb86e4/JWM - The Wild West-trimmed.wav?dl=0 I didn't master it, just simply used Gadget's Limiter and rendered straight up from Gadget.

Oh man that sounds really great 🤩 👏

Thank you mate. ☺️

Are you using the IAPs in module for the orchestral stuff? I’m doing the trial now and was blown away by how good they sound. Very storage heavy though.

Well here's an unsolicited long answer about how the track breaks down to demystify, lol.

I used the Chicago Kick in Recife for the sidechain. I also used Recife for the main EDM drums. The orchestral drums were from (I think it was called) KAPro Epic Drums in Glasgow (aka Module Pro), and the white noise "whoosh" sound is Wolfsburg. The "boom" sound is Amsterdam, a criminally underrated gem of a gadget for sound effects.

For the basses I used Dublin for the deep bass and Montpellier for the upper bass.

Now we get to the brass section. The KAPro brass pack is amazing for those hauntingly beautiful French horns! However they lacked a bit of high end, so I layered a cheap brass patch from Marseille on top. The string stabs (which are not so audible as they're meant to fade in the background) are from a KAPro pack in Glasgow. The high strings are from Marseille, and I put some IFX to make them sound richer.

The smallish Trance lead is Phoenix. Usually for a big and powerful supersaw Trance lead I layer Montpellier (the phatter, thicker sound) and Lisbon (the crisper, sharper sound) together, which is heard in "The Collector's Heart". However, in the case of "The Wild West" I used Phoenix since it has a thinner sound that blended better in the mix.

When the kick drops out of the mix, you notice a choir and strings come in that would otherwise make the overall mix muddy and busy af (well, too busy that is lol) due to how powerful and rich the sound is. That's one of the choir+string patches from KAPro in Glasgow.

In the beginning of the B section, I used two instances of Darwin for the haunting sound (one of them being a waterphone). The triplet synths in the B section are Berlin and Phoenix. During the final 8 bars of 24 in the B section, I used Montpellier for a powerful triplet synth riser being pitch bended upwards, and I used the KAPro Cluster Choir in Glasgow to give an unsettling feeling.

The snippet you heard is 100% Gadget, no mastering. (One this track is mastered, it won't be so overlimited, lol. I usually mix into a limiter to get the best mix possible (this method won't work for everyone), if not a bit overcompressed. When I master, I try to keep my compression and limiting softer and more amiable, lol.)

---

@rs2000 said:

@HotStrange said:

@jwmmakerofmusic said:

@HotStrange said:

@jwmmakerofmusic said:

@HotStrange said:

@Strizbiz said:
I don’t use it much at all these days tbh but I wouldn’t say it’s not worth it. Korg hasn’t added any new features in at least 2 years , maybe they feel it doesn’t need anything else but if you get Module and buy sound expansions Korg makes sure they work in Gadget also. I do wish Korg would shake things up and drop a new synths that’s supports AUV3, it would be awesome if they released the Wavestate or Modwave for the IPad. I would mind an IPad version of the Prologue either, but anyway Gadget is still good imo.

An iOS AU version of Modwave, WaveState, or OpSix would be an insta-buy for me, no questions asked.

Gadget+ Module is a killer combo though. Especially if you have some IAPs from Module. You could really do almost everything.

Like this symphonic orchestral dance music piece I cooked up today.

Oooo my interest is piqued. Got a link for it? I’d love to hear it.

Just a snippet for it now. https://www.dropbox.com/s/rbdbg3p77cb86e4/JWM - The Wild West-trimmed.wav?dl=0 I didn't master it, just simply used Gadget's Limiter and rendered straight up from Gadget.

Oh man that sounds really great 🤩 👏

Are you using the IAPs in module for the orchestral stuff? I’m doing the trial now and was blown away by how good they sound. Very storage heavy though.

I've just messed around with Marseille and the iWavestation (milpitas) IAP (Module was a bit too expensive for my taste 😉)
Btw, Stockholm gives me all I ever wanted from acoustic drums and more.

Sounds like a fun musical sketch there. You should structure it out into a full track and release it. Yeah, it doesn't matter how many of the IAPs and Gadget-compatible apps you have mate. I've made music before just by sticking to the limits of Gadget 2 LE.

Thanks for that! I love reading about everyone’s process so that was cool to see. Marseille is one of my favorite gadgets actually. Love the 90s/Triton workstation vibes of it.

I love that about Marseille. 🙂 It even has patches for the infamous M1 Piano and M1 Organ Bass.

This has me excited to get back into Gadget now. It’s oddly underrated these days it seems.

Which is sad in a way considering that Gadget was one of the pinnacles of iOS music creation/sketching back in its heyday before Korg stopped adding features to it. I guess I'm just trying to prove that Gadget is still worth the money and that most anything can be made in it.

I love the sounds of the IAPs in Module but man they take up some space. I’m doing a trial of 3 of them right now and it’s gonna be hard to let them go lol. I’m sure I’ll end up buying them eventually.

Ha, this is true. A device with larger storage space is highly recommended. 🙂 (I'd say at least 256gb).

Same! I have the M1 app and love it, and I know it’s also part of gadget, but I love the simplicity of Marseille. Agreed about Gadget though. It’s the app that took iOS music from sketch pad/fun to truly something I wanted to dive into. I was all about it for years. But now I’m rusty and having to get back into the swing of things workflow wise. I’m hoping they have something up their sleeve for it but who knows. Honestly it does so much already that I’d be fine if they only did maintenance updates. Though AU hosting would be insane and take it into the stratosphere.

My current iPad is 256gb but I’m finding I need even more now lol. I’m planning on upgrading to the new pro this summer and I’ll probably get the 1tb version.

HotStrange

@R_2 said:

@HotStrange said:
Marseille is one of my favorite gadgets actually. Love the 90s/Triton workstation vibes of it.

Besides the obvious iM1 and iWavestation add-ons, Module’s “Triton Best Selection” is also great for those type of sounds (if you haven’t got it already). 100 good sounds and less than 35MB.
Speaking of space, Module’s restore menu offers the option to delete pcm packs in case you temporarily need space.

I do have both of those apps, but I’ve been considering that Module IAP just to have those sounds in AU form. Is there a demo showing exactly what sounds it comes with? I’m assuming all the more popular ones.

R_2

@HotStrange said:

@R_2 said:

@HotStrange said:
Marseille is one of my favorite gadgets actually. Love the 90s/Triton workstation vibes of it.

Besides the obvious iM1 and iWavestation add-ons, Module’s “Triton Best Selection” is also great for those type of sounds (if you haven’t got it already). 100 good sounds and less than 35MB.
Speaking of space, Module’s restore menu offers the option to delete pcm packs in case you temporarily need space.

I do have both of those apps, but I’ve been considering that Module IAP just to have those sounds in AU form. Is there a demo showing exactly what sounds it comes with? I’m assuming all the more popular ones.

Doug has 2 extensive demos on YouTube. But I’d say doing the free trial is best.

manaftermidnight

Is anyone else experiencing clicking noise while recording with internal mic using Zurich? The clicking is there while recording but not on the recording itself. I am using a ipad pro m1, 11 inch.

jwmmakerofmusic

@manaftermidnight said:
Is anyone else experiencing clicking noise while recording with internal mic using Zurich? The clicking is there while recording but not on the recording itself. I am using a ipad pro m1, 11 inch.

I didn't get any clicking. What's your buffer size. Are you using wired headphones via the adapter or Bluetooth?

I'm using an iPad Pro M1, 12.9 inch, with Beats bluetooth headphones.

manaftermidnight

Thanks. Im using wired headphones via the official apple adapter. Buffer size is 512, also tried with 1024 and there is still some clicks. I think it might be caused by a sample rate issue 44.1/48 khz or something.

jwmmakerofmusic

@manaftermidnight said:
Thanks. Im using wired headphones via the official apple adapter. Buffer size is 512, also tried with 1024 and there is still some clicks. I think it might be caused by a sample rate issue 44.1/48 khz or something.

Ah yes, the sample rate issues. Oof. Never happens with my Bluetooth headphones, but it does seem to rear its ugly head when using wired headphones. I'd like to think of myself as an expert of Gadget, but apparently I don't know how to change sample rates in Gadget or even if it's at all possible. 😅

manaftermidnight

Do you know what the default sample rate in Gadget is? It seems that the audio files that are recorded using Zurich are baked into the project-file so i cant check at what sample rate they are recorded in.

manaftermidnight

I suspect its 48 khz.

Samu

@manaftermidnight said:
Do you know what the default sample rate in Gadget is? It seems that the audio files that are recorded using Zurich are baked into the project-file so i cant check at what sample rate they are recorded in.

You can access all the *.wav files recorded in Gadget using the Files.app (They are at root level in the Gadget folder)
ie. they are not 'baked in' into any project.

All recorded *.wav can directly be used with other Gadgets using samples which is a quite nice bonus.

Gadget can export at various sample-rates so I suspect (have not checked yet) that it uses 'device sample-rate' to do the recording. So 48k on 48k devices and 44.1 on 44.1 devices.

It could also do as some apps do and 'resample' everything to 44.1k when recording.
(ie. for example GarageBand uses 44.1 internally even on 48k only devices).

manaftermidnight

@Samu said:

@manaftermidnight said:
Do you know what the default sample rate in Gadget is? It seems that the audio files that are recorded using Zurich are baked into the project-file so i cant check at what sample rate they are recorded in.

You can access all the *.wav files recorded in Gadget using the Files.app (They are at root level in the Gadget folder)
ie. they are not 'baked in' into any project.

All recorded *.wav can directly be used with other Gadgets using samples which is a quite nice bonus.

Gadget can export at various sample-rates so I suspect (have not checked yet) that it uses 'device sample-rate' to do the recording. So 48k on 48k devices and 44.1 on 44.1 devices.

It could also do as some apps do and 'resample' everything to 44.1k when recording.
(ie. for example GarageBand uses 44.1 internally even on 48k only devices).

Hm, In my root folder in Korg Gadget all the projects are there, but not the audio files. Most of the projects are about below 1000kb in size, but in the projects where I have recorded audio files the projects are much larger (200 MB for instance), depending on the number of recordings.

R_2

@manaftermidnight said:

@Samu said:

@manaftermidnight said:
Do you know what the default sample rate in Gadget is? It seems that the audio files that are recorded using Zurich are baked into the project-file so i cant check at what sample rate they are recorded in.

You can access all the *.wav files recorded in Gadget using the Files.app (They are at root level in the Gadget folder)
ie. they are not 'baked in' into any project.

All recorded *.wav can directly be used with other Gadgets using samples which is a quite nice bonus.

Gadget can export at various sample-rates so I suspect (have not checked yet) that it uses 'device sample-rate' to do the recording. So 48k on 48k devices and 44.1 on 44.1 devices.

It could also do as some apps do and 'resample' everything to 44.1k when recording.
(ie. for example GarageBand uses 44.1 internally even on 48k only devices).

Hm, In my root folder in Korg Gadget all the projects are there, but not the audio files. Most of the projects are about below 1000kb in size, but in the projects where I have recorded audio files the projects are much larger (200 MB for instance), depending on the number of recordings.

Yeah, I can’t see the live recorded audio either.

Samu

@manaftermidnight said:

Hm, In my root folder in Korg Gadget all the projects are there, but not the audio files. Most of the projects are about below 1000kb in size, but in the projects where I have recorded audio files the projects are much larger (200 MB for instance), depending on the number of recordings.

Looks like they (Korg) have changed something?!
Anyways, the Gadget project files are now 'bundles'. I shared one over to my Mac and checked.

On the 11" M1 iPadPro (which uses 48k as it's native sample-rate) Gadget records [email protected].
So it's safe to conclude that Gadget records [email protected] regardless of what device is being used.

R_2

@Samu said:

@manaftermidnight said:

Hm, In my root folder in Korg Gadget all the projects are there, but not the audio files. Most of the projects are about below 1000kb in size, but in the projects where I have recorded audio files the projects are much larger (200 MB for instance), depending on the number of recordings.

Looks like they (Korg) have changed something?!
Anyways, the Gadget project files are now 'bundles'. I shared one over to my Mac and checked.

On the 11" M1 iPadPro (which uses 48k as it's native sample-rate) Gadget records [email protected].
So it's safe to conclude that Gadget records [email protected] regardless of what device is being used.

Another recent change seems to be the export naming, where it said iTunes before. They’ve listened to you

Samu

@R_2 said:

Another recent change seems to be the export naming, where it said iTunes before. They’ve listened to you

Yeah, I've noticed that
There's plenty of 'small' that have been fixed here and there which is nice to see.

Btw. Gadget totally 'flies' on the 11" M1 iPadPro, wonder how many tracks it can take before grinds to a halt?!

Samu

@R_2 I also like that you can freely re-organize files inside the Gadget folder.

The 'Open' menu doesn't show sub-folders for projects but it still lists all projects in what ever folder they are stored in inside the Gadget folder.

So for now my 'Root Folder' in Gadget only shows the current Projects & Samples (and exported files)

New projects and exports still get saved to the root-folder but they can easily be moved once finished.
(This is a good way to only keep the current project and its exported files at the root-level for easy access).

Guess I'll have to re-dig into Gadget and see what else has changed

manaftermidnight

So if Gadget seems to be locked to 44.1 kHz there might be a conflict when recording audio on Devices operating at 48khz when using the default audio interface, ie headphone adapter on the iPad Pro m1. At least I am getting some strange noises in the headphones, but not in the recording itself.

manaftermidnight

Otherwise gadget is smooth as butter on the mi1 iPad Pro 👌

Samu

@manaftermidnight said:
So if Gadget seems to be locked to 44.1 kHz there might be a conflict when recording audio on Devices operating at 48khz when using the default audio interface, ie headphone adapter on the iPad Pro m1. At least I am getting some strange noises in the headphones, but not in the recording itself.

So far I've not noticed any strange noises when using the Apple USB-C -> 3.5mm dongle or when using an external audio interface. I'm always running the latest 'release version' (16.4.1 for now) of iPadOS.

This also goes when streaming audio from Gadget to AUM where the AUM session is running at 48k.

Don't know if you've closed all other apps than Gadget when you experience the 'glitches' ?
These could happen due to background activities done by other apps, like Siri polling the audio-interface (My Siri is disabled).

Apparently Korg does listen to feedback even though they are not active here at the forum so reporting issues directly to them seems to work which is good to know.

Cheers!

manaftermidnight

Yeah, could be that I need to reduce the number of gadgets in my projects as well. I only have gadget open so I can’t find any other culprits 😊

R_2

@Samu said:
@R_2 I also like that you can freely re-organize files inside the Gadget folder.

The 'Open' menu doesn't show sub-folders for projects but it still lists all projects in what ever folder they are stored in inside the Gadget folder.

So for now my 'Root Folder' in Gadget only shows the current Projects & Samples (and exported files)

New projects and exports still get saved to the root-folder but they can easily be moved once finished.
(This is a good way to only keep the current project and its exported files at the root-level for easy access).

Guess I'll have to re-dig into Gadget and see what else has changed

Nice that Gadget still sees all the projects in different folders. Good way to keep stuff ordenend for those who prefer that.

@manaftermidnight No audio clicking noise when recording into Zurich with (and without) Apple EarPods in headphone out on my Pro 9.7.
I assume you’ve restarted your iPad to see if that does anything.
Did you test with a fresh project without any other gadgets?

Indeed, Gadget still runs smooth as well on my Pro 9.7 (2016) with A9X.

manaftermidnight

Thanks for the suggestions. Ok, so starting a fresh project there are noe issues. So I assume that Zurich itself and audio recording in Gadget is putting a lot restrain on the CPU.

manaftermidnight

But its still strange that the artifacts are not recorded in the audio files and is just there when monitoring while recording.

Samu

Korg just dropped a 20th anniversary edition of the Micro Korg...

...it would be so nice to have it as an AUv3 and 'Gadget' for the iPad, one can always dream right?

R_2

@Samu Would be nice, maybe next year at Gadget’s 10th anniversary

Meanwhile Korg Berlin is cooking up a ‘Acoustic Synth_phase5’
Prototype:

stormywaterz

Hopefully gadget will play well with the new Logic Pro like it does on desktop. That would be worth it

ik2000

On the announcement of Logic Pro for iPad… it’s bye bye Korg gadget… it’s been a blast, but you failed to keep up with the tech! Logic on iPad will spell the death of Korg on iPad.