New Korg SGX-2 Piano Virtual Instrument Now Released - Any thoughts?

Jay Lane
Ask a friend on PM. There is always a 'last resort' option.

jiang I think the Korg Kronos, Korg Nautilus and the Grandstage have these pianos already. The Korg Nautilus is basically a Kronos without the Karma Sequencer and also some hardware slidee and buttons. It's way cheaper.

PASHKULI As in someone could Dropbox the files?

Jay Lane
I do not have a full DropBox but Google drive might have some 10GB. Catch me outside!

Jay Lane Still can't download the samples 😭

Bummer, sorry.

I can confirm that the download time was pretty long for me (like almost 2 hours), so they definitely have slow servers. But it eventually went through. I'm using an M2 Mac mini.

At the risk of sounding dumb, have you tried shutting off and then rebooting your computer before attempting to download again? Sometimes it's as simple as that...

jdg78 Not at all don't worry but yes I tried that 😂 I'm not that desperate, I'm sure Korg will fix it.

PASHKULI I don't know how to do that mate.

Jay Lane
I created a private discussion with you. Maybe missed it out?
You can either start a Private discussion (left panel on main list of threads) then click on Recipients to add <user name> there. Or on that left panel choose User directories, search <user name> in the field above then click on the three vertical dots next to <found user name> and click Send Message.

PASHKULI Yes saw it and we chatted. Many thanks mate 😎

Having lived with the SGX-2 for the past week now, I have to say that I'm even more impressed with it than I was at first glance. At this point, if I had to rank all of the dozens of piano VSTs I've owned or tried over the years, it would be something like:

*1. Modern D
*2. Korg SGK-2
.
.
.
*10. VSL
*11. Everything else

Modern D still has a more 3 dimensional sound, and a more sophisticated emulation of sympathetic resonance and other subtle behaviours, particularly after the latest update. However in terms of speed, responsiveness, articulation, and finger/sound connection, it's pretty much a wash, and if anything I might give a slight edge to the Korg. It just has a certain breezy, fun quality that the Modern D doesn't quite match. And despite having fewer velocity layers, it still feels extraordinarily smooth and responsive to dynamics.

I also vastly prefer the tone of the Korg German D (I'm assuming it's a Steinway) over the Modern D.

For all its technical excellence, the chief drawback of the Modern D (at least in my view), is that they managed to find the most utterly characterless, plain vanilla Steinway as the basis for the VST. I suppose this was intentional as it is extremely neutral and will offend no one, but I also find it somewhat uninspiring as an instrument.

The Korg German D, by contrast, has a beautifully clear, bell-like tone, with a slightly more percussive quality at higher velocities, and just sounds much more distinctive and characterful to my ears. It also includes a lovely Italian Grand (I'm assuming it's a Fazioli) with a slightly warmer, softer tone, and a Japanese Grand (assuming a Yamaha) that's quite bright and forward, suitable for certain genres like pop. Not to mention a lovely baby grand, and a very nice upright.

And although only the Italian Grand includes real sampled una corda, I've discovered its very easy to program an una corda simulation to the other piano models within the main interface. The plugin has a built in modification matrix which allows you to assign a wide variety of sound effects to any trigger input. If you select the una corda pedal as the trigger and then assign "Velicity Bias" as the effect and set it at around -30% or so, you get an extremely convincing emulation of a muted una corda sound. It actually sounds more realistic than many other VSTs natively programmed una corda simulations (ahem, VSL).

The biggest drawback in my view is that there isn't a built-in velocity curve adjuster. There is a "key touch" knob, but it doesn't really seem to do much as far as I can tell, and for some reason my usual 3rd party velocity curve app (Velpro) doesn't seem to work with my DAW, so I'm still looking for a workaround. But the playability in stock form is still so good that it doesn't bother me all that much.

All in all, I can't remember the last time I've enjoyed a piano plugin as much as this. Even if doesn't quite match the all-around polish and realism of Modern D, it makes up for it in certain other areas, and the fun factor is off the charts as far as I'm concerned.

jdg78 For all its technical excellence, the chief drawback of the Modern D (at least in my view), is that they managed to find the most utterly characterless, plain vanilla Steinway as the basis for the VST. I suppose this was intentional as it is extremely neutral and will offend no one, but I also find it somewhat uninspiring as an instrument.

That’s my main complaint about MD and the reason why I sold it. On top of that, it also has this slightly nasal quality.

CyberGene

jdg78

Wasn't it somehow a new or refurbished piano they used, fresh out the shop or something to record it? Maybe with strings settled so not really "straight out the factory".

jdg78 Very interesting take on these pianos. Unfortunately I could only hear demos of the Korg, but I like what I'm hearing. 🙂 I still love Modern D, with all its new improvements and realistic behavior. I'm very proud of VILabs and what they're doing!

I've played the Korg pianos again tonight and agree that they are decently setup and sound pretty organic. @David Lai I think you'd dig the Korg pianos, if you got hands on. Is the installer tricky from an accessibility standpoint or is it the ui?

Jay Lane Yes, the UI isn't accessible via NVDA. OCR is a bit difficult.

CyberGene That’s my main complaint about MD and the reason why I sold it. On top of that, it also has this slightly nasal quality.

Unfortunately VI Labs doesn't have the greatest track recording when it comes to selecting instruments to sample. Ravenscroft was another technically excellent VST let down by a questionable choice of instrument.

Modern D isn't anywhere near as polarizing as the Ravenscroft was, but I think if they had chosen an instrument with a little more character, it could have been even more exceptional.

Either way, I look forward to seeing what they do next. And like many others, I think a CFX would be an ideal choice.

jdg78 The instrument selection looks like a very hard thing to do, they need to satisfy a lot of different tastes in different players, ETC. Hopefully when they do their next sampling project, they could have a new approach to how they select instruments.

That said, as long as they have a similar quality, I'd be glad to play their new products and offer demos, ETC… so long as the instrument fits what I'm looking for in a concert grand -- there, the "good taste" button at play again.

Yes I was only interested in the plain presets. I have to say in actuality the German piano sounds good.

I no longer use the SGX2 — I now use only the MODERN D V1.1.
It’s far superior in terms of simulation and realism, and by tweaking a few settings on the MODERN D, I can get a Steinway Hamburg-like (German D) sound that’s much better than the SGX2.

OlivierW In that case, I hope you only used the free demo.