This hardware sequencer is probably the best for this price. The build is very sturdy and I would have had no qualms about using it live. The pads are not velocity-sensitive, but this doesn't matter to me as I like to record sequences with an external keyboard anyway. The pads don't have a well-defined activation point (they don't click), but they are very responsive nonetheless.
I immediately updated the firmware to the latest 2.03, which adds important features and bug fixes --- without them I would not even have considered this sequencer. Updating the firmware worked fine on GNU/Linux with wine.
Unfortunately, the latest firmware still leaves a lot of things to be desired:
- while it is possible to record sequences for the three melody tracks via MIDI, the drum track can only be recorded through the pads.
- it is not possible to "arm" recording, so you need to start playing at the exact same time as you hit the play button --- or wait for the sequence to come back around
- there is no metronome or a count-in click. I ended up laying down a simple drum track first, but it's inconvenient.
- after an hour of fiddling with a four track sequence I wanted to save the pattern, but hit "Load" instead. It loaded an empty scene immediately and there was no way to get back to the scene I had just composed.
- when recording chords, the sequencer doesn't automatically tie notes when the sequence jumps from the end of the last bar back to the first. Without harsh quantization this leads to a very noticeable break in playback.
- it is really easy to make mistakes and be unable to fix them. When quantization is off it is very hard to make out on which step notes are introduced or tied; editing chords after recording them is very cumbersome. Even on the small display it would have been possible to show notes in some sort of compressed piano roll, but instead all you get is a cryptic table. It is easier to disable a step completely and overwrite the recording than to edit.
- the unit froze on me twice when I had routed program change MIDI from my keyboard to the sequencer. I had to unplug it because not even the power button would respond.
- the arpeggiator is cute, but really has the wrong name. It's not very useful as an arpeggiator as it is limited to working on notes in a single step and is way too fast for most applications.
- clearing tracks also resets the step length, but adjusting the step length during playback causes the tracks to go out of sync. They have to be resynchronized manually, which is cumbersome and requires hitting the buttons for multiple tracks at the exact same time.
Having said all that, I really wanted to like the sequencer. It has a very immediate interface that becomes fairly intuitive very quickly. Other polyphonic sequencers below EUR 300 have poorer hardware or an even more menu-driven workflow.
If only Korg would let enthusiasts write custom firmware for this thing! The hardware on its own might be worth the price, but I can't justify the purchase when Korg could abandon development at any moment and leave me with a terribly buggy brick.
