Korg cares what about Roland?

Yamaha also did a survey of XS owners. Maybe that inspired Korg

It seems pretty obvious to me that the survey by Yamaha and the subsequent OS update in June where they're adding use of a qwerty computer keyboard through the USB port and seemless switching of sounds within Mix mode- it seems obvious that this was largely driven by competition with the G.

And the Korg has announced price drops in addition to a survey. Competition is real.

It does feel really weird though that Roland has no spokespeople on this site- like they're some giant corporation that has no willingness to engage with "the little guy", their end user.

This was one of the reasons I felt confident buying a Yamaha XS- not only are they a presence on the official website, they offer substantial technical support (esp. in the first 6 months of the product release), responding to technical questions people are having.

And it was the hands on support of YAMAHA_US (Athan Billias) and their whole website of support that came up with a really sweet "Loyalty" package for folks upgrading from the ES / FX / etc. to receive the piano sound from the S90ES (which was further adapted to the XS to respond to half-damping). That and other perks in that package created a great feeling of support.

The core of that team is the US Marketing manager (Athan) and one of their top clinicians (for heavyduty questions and articles describing in-depth capabilities not in the manual). Maybe if you contacted the US sales manager for Roland products in this division he could get the ball rolling?

The Korg USA product manager does monitor and post to the Korg Forum boards regularly. This is an individual effort (not necessarily a "corporate effort"), that I highly commend. Access Virus staff also posts from time to time on the VirusTI board.

Yamaha also did a survey of XS owners. Maybe that inspired Korg >>>>>>>>>>>

I thought that Korg is owned by Yamaha

I thought that Korg is owned by Yamaha

No. The yearly Yamaha Annual Report does state that Yamaha has some type of "ownership interest" in Korg, but a Korg person told me that this was a small amount.


I do think it is great when companies ask their customers for feedback about their products. Yamaha has had two formal surveys (one after the Motif ES, and one recently) and Korg has now released a similar survey.

Companies always collect feedback, but it usually is not by such a formal manner. Obviously Roland collected some user feedback prior to the development of the Fantom-G.

I guess this is where you look at Synths (and musical instruments) as more of a specialized tool versus a commodity product. I like that synthmakers design their own twist on a product- but then leave some open-endedness to allow for customization. I like certain painters for their style- and would never imagine them bending to peoples wishes and painting whatever people wanted. They have their own style and create something that hopefully some people will just love.
I like the Roland sound and have a warm fuzzy feeling about them (since my first JV-80 back in college). But Korg and Yamaha both have great synths as well. I wish I could afford the best form each and live in Utopia.

Yeah, but you can only realistically use and be surrounded by so much gear ... how many workstations does one need to make good music ... not too many, IMO ... I'd rather have more analog synths or something like a V-Synth ...


It's funny how some people were hoping for a Fantom X/V-Synth integration (the Fantom V ... MUCH cooler name, BTW) How far off the mark was THAT one?!?