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Going into your local music retailer to try out a potential synth purchase can be a challenging experience. The store may be crowded and noisy, and the monitoring might be less than optimal. But what also makes this a daunting exercise is the fact that today's synths have grown so feature-rich and complex, that a quick tour of the basics may not give you the best picture of what that synth has to offer. Fear not - with a little bit of prep you can get to the heart of a synth's personality!

For the purpose of this article I'm going to use the newly released Korg M3 often as my example, but you can apply a lot of what I'll suggest to other products, in spirit if not in exact detail.

Listen up
My first two suggestions are simple but critical. First up - bring your own headphones to the store; ones that you are familiar with and can easily judge sound quality as compared to the gear you already own. Headphones cut out the noise from the store, and remove any variables about speaker quality, location, etc., that can confuse your evaluation.

Timing is everything
The second suggestion is to give yourself enough time with the product. Don't show up near closing time, or come at the busiest time at the store. Even better, some stores will let you schedule your visit so they can assure you uninterrupted time with the instrument. Rushing through a synth because of external influences will never help you, and all manufacturers and sound designers dread the "one finger on the keyboard, one finger on the Up button" scrolling through sounds at a lightning pace that all too often masquerades as a critical evaluation.

Prep time
Next, you should consider doing a little pre-research on the synth in question. Visit the manufacturer's website and see what materials they have there. Read all their information, listen to the audio demos and watch the videos. But do this with a purpose - what are they promoting as being special or different, and what are the demonstrators doing to play the sounds? You'll learn things that you can bring to your own trial evaluation when you're in the store. Downloading an Owner's Manual can be the most complete way to find answers to your technical questions, as not all companies list enough specs to be meaningful (but Korg certainly tries to!).

Many people like to visit user groups and forums to read about what others are saying. This can be a double-edged sword, as some people don't like their first impressions to be colored by other people. And others love the dialog and skirmishes that occur, stating that they learn a lot from it as long as they recognize that not everyone posting actually knows about the product in question, and some people just love to stir things up for the fun of it. I say it's well worth some time as long as you can separate the "wheat from the chaff," so to speak

Finding your way
Now, let's get into trying out the sounds themselves. There are two schools of thought here - checking out specific sound groups that matter the most to you, or just taking a free-form tour and seeing how the personality of the synth strikes you. Neither are wrong, and I recommend doing a little of both. To find the sounds that matter the most to you, try to find out how each synth allows you to select sounds by Category. On the M3 this is easily done by touching the pop-up menu above the sound name on the TouchView display. It even says Category and then lists the current sound's category. This can be done while in Program or Combination Modes, so it's fast and easy. Once the window opens you'll see various sound categories listed on the right and left sides of the window and you can touch the one you want and then the appropriate sounds will be displayed in the center columns. This is actually true for not only the M3 but the OASYS, and most incarnations of the TRITON family.

Some products aren't as direct as this, but will have another logic for selecting by Category, so a little pre-store research for this method of navigation will save you plenty of frustration while in the store.

If you want to take the free-form tour approach just start with the first Bank location and move through sounds from there. All companies put thought into what the early sounds will be in their instruments, aiming to show off what they think are the best, and most diverse groupings of sounds to entice you into liking their product. No harm there, it's good presentation and marketing. But not all companies mix up their sounds, so you may find that by simply starting at the front and moving from there you will already be in Category Mode, and you're not getting the diversity you want. So you'll need to force some randomization on your tour by changing the bank often to skip around the product.

Know your Modes
When first checking out a new synth you'll need to know what Mode it is in, and how to change Modes. Modes? Why are we talking about old Greek scales for music in this synth column? Well¡K almost all synths have different setups for playing single sounds, and more complex grouping of sounds such as layers and splits. These are usually presented as a mode of operation - in Korg-speak single sounds are Programs, and grouped sounds are called Combinations. Some others called them Voices and Performances, or Patches and Performances. So again - reading the website and/or a manual will help you to get acclimated before visiting the store.

If you want to judge basic sounds, always start with Program Mode. This will let you know how the main sounds come across, and are the elements that you will likely use when sequencing to build up your tracks. When you want to hear the full potential and impact that a synth offers, go to Combination Mode. This mode will have all the "bells and whistles" and are the sounds that will show off the synth to its fullest.

Take control
Ok, now it's time to actually start selecting and playing sounds. Let's start assuming you are going through Program Mode on your selected synth (remember, I'm using the M3 for my examples).

After selecting a Program and playing the keyboard a little, you might be tempted to just pick another and keep on going. Wait/stop/halt/don't touch that dial! There's a wealth of things to explore on the M3 and most modern synths, and you're missing a lot of the picture if you just move on. Did you try the joystick to see what it's doing? Moving it to the left and right will do pitch bend, which is pretty common. And moving it away from you (called JS+Y) often will produce vibrato, just like a Mod Wheel, but not always, so check it out.

Note: If your synth only has a Pitch Bend and Mod Wheel you'll be missing out on some of these next tips, but the functions may be found on other controllers.

Going deeper
Now try pulling the joystick towards you - it will often bring in another cool effect or gesture. Often in Korg programming this can be locked in to hold it in place using the SW2 above the joystick. This can be seen on the main display as JS-Y Lock, or JS-Y+Ribbon Lock. Speaking of the Ribbon, it will often be used for cool filter effects, and sometimes Pitch Bend, since sliding on a ribbon is a different physical gesture that some people prefer. Again - it may be able to be locked in place by SW2. Don't think this is only good for synths sounds - you can easily adjust the brightness of a piano by sliding across the ribbon until you like what you hear and then locking it in with the ribbon!

Moving on, SW1 is often used as a modulation source, and the main display will show this by saying SW1: Mod.1 (CC#80). By pressing it your sound will change in some fashion, The M3 has an advanced Control perhaps adding some distortion/grunge to a sound, or adding percussion to a tonewheel organ. Be sure to try it to hear what it's doing. SW2 may also be doing this - check the display to see.

The M3 has an advanced Control Surface that has multiple modes of operation. Other synths may have some knobs and/or sliders, and they may have some real-time expressive control possibilities - look for and use them.

On the M3, check to see if the Control Surface is set to Real-time Control - now the sliders can be used to interact with a sound. The first four sliders are always controlling the following functions:

If you want to see what is going on you can always change the display from the main page to the Control Surface Page using the tabs at the bottom of the screen to see the assignments in more detail.

The 8 switches are set to turn on/off each of the Insert/Master and Total FX - many people like to figure out how a sound is mixed, and having this individual control over each effect is very helpful. Some synths only allow you to turn all the effects on or off, which is OK, but not as refined.

Hit me!!
The M3 has a cool new feature called Drum Track, which is an additional timbre dedicated to playing a rhythm to put each sound into a musical context. If it is turned on, great, you're already enjoying it. But if it is not be sure to try it for each sound - it'll have you jamming in no time. If the tempo isn't suiting your mood just look on the right and you'll see a dedicated Tempo Knob - don't be afraid to use it.

Note that in Combi Mode the drum track may not always be active for each sound, sometimes KARMA does more of the drumming for you, or the drums only come up in certain Scenes when KARMA is turned on. We used it creatively and never wanted to overdo it.

You'll notice the 8 drumpads below the M3's display - these are used in the Factory Voicing to store up to 8-note chords that each programmer played in as part of the KARMA function. Be sure to try them out with and without KARMA turned on - they're like inviting the skilled programmer over to play each of their sounds for you!

KARMA kapers
Speaking of KARMA, you'd be missing out on a lot of the M3's potential if you don't explore those settings. On other synths this would be like never exploring its arpeggiator, or step-sequencer, or some other note-generating function. But the KARMA experience is the ultimate, and you'll want to be sure to try it.

Be sure that the Control Surface is set to KARMA (the bottom button), and then turn on the KARMA function using the on/off button below the KARMA logo. The best way to start exploring it is to use the drum pads I mentioned earlier. While trying the various voicings provided, try changing the Scene's using the dedicated buttons labeled 1/5, 2/6, 3/7, 4/8. Be sure to play the drum pads and change Scenes in time - you still have to be musical about these things - technology can't do it all for you!

To switch to the other four Scenes provided you'll need to press the KARMA button in the control surface function controls another time, and when the light blinks next to the current Scene set label (1-4 or 5-8) you're ready to press any Scene button to switch to the other group.

For your first "tour" of KARMA I'd suggest not jumping into changing the slider just yet, but if you're brave and want to venture further my best suggestions is to move sliders subtly to hear what happens - don't go too crazy! But using the 8 switches is a great place to explore - be sure to set the display to Control Surface Mode to see what's going on. And as mentioned before, see how the Drum Track has been programmed to interact with KARMA.

Touch me
There's still more - the M3 is certainly a deep synth! To the right of the display is a button labeled X-Y Mode - when you turn this on the screen becomes a Korg KAOSS Pad that allows you to generate real-time effects a mix changes by sliding your finger around the display. Be sure to try it, it's very addictive. Using the Hold button means you can keep the effect where it's at even when you release your finger from the display. Just be sure to turn off the X-Y Mode before you try to select a new sound, or change the display.

Wrap it up
Whew!! Just think about all of this - if you've kept up with me you've just learned all the things you can and should do to explore a single Program or Combination. Now multiply that times the hundreds, even thousands of sounds in the M3 and other modern synths and you'll see that there's a lot to explore and enjoy. You can easily spend hours checking all this out, and it'll be fun, not a chore. Modern synths are expressive masterpieces and deserve the time to explore all they have to offer sonically and expressively. Just be sure to lift your feet as the store starts vacuuming up before closing time!

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