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

Jay Lane I’ve tried it on a friend’s computer and I don’t find it better than other stuff, so if someone has some suggestions, I’ll give it a shot when I see him again. Sorry for the OT since this is a Korg post.

Hey, how’s it going? It’s been a while since I last posted.

I’ve been spending a few days with these Korg pianos and honestly, I love them—but probably for some really controversial reasons… The Modern D and the Rosewood Grand are my current favorites, but when I have to play live shows with different bands, those two have… I don’t know how to put it… a strong personality. And the Italian from the SGX is like… versatile, flexible, almost too perfect—which makes it feel a bit unrealistic, but perfect when you just need a neutral piano that gets the job done and fits into any mix. It really feels like these pianos were designed for gigs, to sit well and cut through the mix effortlessly… and that’s why it’s definitely one of my top picks. Obviously I wouldn’t use it to record a solo piano album, but for live shows I think it’s perfect—especially in more pop and rock contexts.

Also, they respond super well, I barely had to tweak anything in terms of velocity curves or whatever.

Oh, and by the way—I use Reaper and a screen reader too… On Mac, the interface is a little more accessible than on Windows, but either way… I was thinking you could do the initial setup with some visual help, like saving a default preset for each model in Reaper, and then Osara exposes pretty much all of the plugin’s parameters… so yeah, it’s totally usable. Just in case David wants to give them a proper try haha.

Anyway, all of this is just my personal take… but I really loved these pianos.

Cheers!

rodrigopv Can you go into specifics about how to set it up initially? I find the standalone app interface completely impossible to work with on Windows.

Hey David, sure! Let me explain how I did it.

On Mac the interface is relatively accessible with VoiceOver, but I imagine you could do the same on Windows with a bit of visual help from someone. You only need to do this setup once.

First, open the SGX plugin in Reaper. A screen will pop up asking you to locate or download the samples—have the person helping you click “Download.” It’s about 4GB; on my Mac with fiber internet it took around 5 minutes, but of course that depends on your connection.

Once the samples are downloaded, the plugin should produce sound automatically when you send MIDI from your controller.

If your plugin isn’t activated yet (which I assume is the case), ask your friend to click either “Try” or “Activate,” depending on what you see. In demo mode, the plugin works for about 20 minutes (if I remember right), then you have to close and reopen it. Internal preset saving is also disabled in demo mode, but you can still save your presets using Reaper’s preset menu.

Next, ask your helper to select a basic preset from each piano model. The main ones are: German Grand, Italian Grand, Japanese Grand, Small Japanese Grand, and Japanese Upright. The idea here is to select one preset from each model and save them as Reaper presets, so you can easily access them later. Once you’ve got those saved, you can load one and tweak it using Osara’s parameter list—most of the parameters seem to be exposed there.

Hope that helps, and enjoy the pianos! They don’t replace the Modern D, but I feel like they fill a different niche… they serve a very different purpose.David Lai

rodrigopv Fantastic, thank you! So when in the installation process, you can just load the plugin on Reaper? I didn't know that. Maybe I should give it a try tomorrow. Thank you!

David Lai Yes David, you can load it up in any DAW 😎

jdg78

jdg78 Modern D still has a more 3 dimensional sound ,…

I have both Modern D and Korg, and noticed this too (Modern D seems to sound more 3D, in a way that's more appealing). I queried ChatGPT about this and it suggested "3D" sound might be comprised of stereo imaging & panning; reverb and ambience; microphone positioning (virtual); depth and dynamics. Of the plugins it suggested I tried the stereo imaging plugin "Izotope Ozone Imager" (which is free); it visualizes the stereo width and allows you to adjust it. Modern D's is noticeably wider than that of Korg SGX-2 (in Modern D's hammer, close, side, and to some extent room mics) and increasing Korg's to about +65% brought the sound (in this sense of the imaging) surprisingly close to Modern D.

zrstr I feel it goes down to how the microphones were used or mixed that creates the difference. VILabs prefers to simulate listening to the instrument in close or player range. That said, there are ways to make the sound more distant / centered / concentrated. It's easier to first create the full range, and then collapse it in post.

jdg78 "and for some reason my usual 3rd party velocity curve app (Velpro) doesn't seem to work with my DAW,"

What DAW are you used that won't work w/Velpro?

zrstr Of the plugins it suggested I tried the stereo imaging plugin "Izotope Ozone Imager" (which is free); it visualizes the stereo width and allows you to adjust it. Modern D's is noticeably wider than that of Korg SGX-2 (in Modern D's hammer, close, side, and to some extent room mics) and increasing Korg's to about +65% brought the sound (in this sense of the imaging) surprisingly close to Modern D.

Thanks for the tip! I downloaded the Ozone Imager plugin, and it does indeed makes the SGX-2 sound a bit more dimensional - nothing drastic, but a subtle improvement. I also run it through Liquidsonics Seventh Heaven reverb which also helps increase the body and sense of space.

Overall, the Modern D still has more depth and roundness to the sound, but the SGX-2 has a cleaner, sharper attack so it's bit of a wash as far as I'm concerned. Although I still much prefer the piano used for the SGX-2 German D overall. It has a more distinct bell-like tone in the upper registers, and more warmth in the mids and bass, whereas the Modern D comes off as a bit muted and and cold in comparison. But this purely comes down to personal preference.

Either way, they are both fantastic instruments, and I think I could be happy with either one as my primary piano VI.

doctae What DAW are you used that won't work w/Velpro?

It actually does work - was just my error. I hadn't used it in years and forgot that it doesn't function as a plugin, but instead needs to be run outside of the DAW.

David Lai You're right. I think, possibly, the mic location, mic model, the arrangement (ORTF, XY, AB, etc) used must make the main difference. I noticed the mic location used in Korg SGX-2 sounded close, similar to Modern D's close mic, maybe (along with being dry, with good staccato releases), but with a difference in the imaging (the Korg sounded more flat or simple in the imaging, which probably makes sense if it was originally the built-in sound of a hardware keyboard). I thought widening the stereo separation in the Korg surprisingly brought the two closer? The visualization in the plugin, comparing the two, is convincing, looking at this one aspect (with the Korg's stereo separation increased to +65% to maybe +75%). But I'm sure there must be other differences.

jdg78 The SGX-2 has a lot of detail in how it gets growly in the lower notes, and it's easier to elicit that, while the Modern D, with a lot of detail (and nuance), does seem to be a newer instrument?

I ran the DPBSD test (a MIDI test file at Pianoworld, designed to indicate whether piano VSTs have half-pedaling, repedaling, sympathetic resonance, etc). Some of the situations tested are more obscure than others. IIRC, of tests #1 thru #6, the SGX-2 passed all six, possibly with the exception of "silent replay". Most VSTs can't do this. If people are curious or want to check, they can run the test too.

DPBSD (Digital Piano Bullshit Detector)

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= Test Listing =

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In the order they appear in the MIDI file:

0. Max recording level (start @ 0:02)

1. Pedal and other sympathetic resonance test (start @ 0:14)

2. Key sympathetic resonance test (start @ 1:16)

3. Silent replay test (start @ 1:36)

4. Quick partial damping test (start @ 1:46)

5. Late pedal partial damping test (start @ 1:57)

6. Half pedaling test (start @ 2:20)

7. Sample looping test (start @ 3:16)

8. Sample stretching test (start @ 5:32)

9. Sample layer switching test (start @ 6:20)

10. Undampered transition test (start @ 6:56)

• Hello everyone, because the KC bundle is currently on offer and I have a KORG coupon. So I purchased this sample library. At first, I thought SGX2 didn't have String Resonance, but after trying a few times, I found that SGX2 actually does have String Resonance. When I use the default volume of the German Piano with String Resonance at +3dB, the specific volume of String Resonance is about -26dB. And when I turn the String Resonance volume to maximum, there is an unknown noise on the C key. I'm a bit puzzled about this, because the String Resonance volume on the piano I'm currently using is much higher, and it also has some effect on the tail of the notes. Overall, I'm happy with the sound (still miles better than the M1 piano, haha), so I won't blame KORG for it. I'll probably look for something with stronger string resonance on Black Friday—maybe Pianoteq.