In this video, via Noisegate, synthesist and music educator Brett Little (Collarts Australian College of the Arts) demonstrates the reissued Korg PS-3300 polyphonic synthesizer.
All music in the video is by Little, and features sounds of the Korg PS3300. The tracks are from Little’s upcoming album.
PS-3300 owners can download Brett’s patches (.zip file).
Features:
- 49 keys / 49 voice analog polyphony (the original model had 48 keys / voices)
- 3 Layers: The PS-3300 consists of three synthesizer units (PSU-3301) and a mixer & utility section (PSU-3302)
- Three independent oscillators, plus multiple filters, envelopes and amplifiers for every note on its keyboard, for a total of 147 synth voices of raw analog power
- Microtuning knob x12 on each PSU-3301 unit
- New panel memory function (16 programs per bank and 16 banks = 256 slots)
- Modernised for contemporary music use with the inclusion of USB / MIDI jacks, and a dedicated librarian app for easy preset management
- Semi-modular
- 3-Band Resonator: Three frequency bands can be emphasised, a feature unique to the PS-3300 (original was a Cadmium sulfide circuit, but it was replaced with modern components for safety and to comply with regulations)
- Keyboard unit (PS-3010) included
See the Korg site for more information.
Korg did everyone dirty with their “waitlist” and “interest” surveys that prioritized certain studios and industry people over regular people. A lot of people were told they are on the priority list and they never reached out to them again. Shame.
I hope Behringer clones one of the modules. 🙂
I’m on the qualified waitlist as well and patiently waiting for my order link any day/week/year now. Like so many of these small custom reissues, the Steiner-Connolly is another example, I waited years before mine was ready. I’m patient though and I hope in this case it pays off.
I’m on the qualified waitlist as well, this is an incredible tool for music hobbyists.
I wish that Korg would offer their full-size reissues without the superfluous bells and whistles.
With the ARP 2600 reissue, I would have loved to get the full-size reissue, but without the premium to get the extras like the fancy road case and keyboard.
With the entire package, I think the reissue was something like $4-5k and sold out immediately, so the FS limited-edition reissue was clearly a hit. But they’re also leaving money on the table by not giving us the opportunity to just buy the full-size ARP 2600 – with no road case or keyboard – priced in the $2-3k range.
It’s great that the premium limited edition options are available, that Behringer has the knockoffs available so inexpensively, and that Korg has a great mini option. But I think there’d be a pretty big audience for the full-size reissue, by itself, too.
The keyboard is a pretty vital part of the entire package, imo. It provides the performance, transposition, vibrato/delay, arpeggiator, duophony, and additional modulation that brings the entire system together. It is absolutely something that Korg should have made a mini version of for that re-issue, even if they sold it separately.
I was super lucky to be working at night when these were announced as available and got of the purchase list immediately with no inside contacts at all and love owning the FS 2600 very much. I fully agree Korg should make more, and I believe they did at least one more run of them, but the waitlist was likely loaded for that already.
As far as the road case goes, I think that it was more a practicality for shipping than anything else. You would have had to wooden crate these things for shipping and the cost for just making a factory case fully foam padded on the inside probably evened out.
The entire thing was pretty massive and was individually van trucked to my home by Sweetwater. It was the craziest thing just having it sitting there on my porch and the size of it was far more than I had expected.
Antonus