Hey all. I just picked up my new Korg Triton this morning. Before this, I had an xp-60 for most of a month.

I paid 1850.oo US NEW for the 61 key Triton, and could have gotten a Tirton Pro for 2200. US.

Let me tell you, they do not even compare sonically.

The roland does indeed have a nice piano, but the rest of the Roland really stinks compared to the Triton. The sounds on the Triton are just so much more useable.
And dont forget, you can always SAMPLE your favorite piano on the Korg. Its just a vastly superior machine.

Heres an example on the strings. The xp-60 strings(same as all the other xp's and 1080 amd 2080) tend to melt together, and be a bit sluggish. On the Triton's strings, you can hear the bow cutting against the strings of the instrument. The strings on the Triton cut and bite and dive, which is how strings should be . I hate synth saxes, but the Tritons is the best I have ever heard. Onboard drums? Absolutely no comparison. As for the rock organs, Korg wins out as well. The xp/Jv has a really nice pipe organ, but thats the only one that beats the Korg organs.

The effects are not even close. NOt to mention I can upgrade my Triton with the MOSS physical analogue modelling synth card, and have one of the hottest synths out there, possibly the best digital synth programming outside of the kurzweil VAST system.


The xp-60 sounded dated and cheesy to me as well. Alot of the sounds were pretty useless, and alot of the sounds seemed like they should belong on a 500$ casio keyboard.

Dont forget, even if and when the Triton is superceeded, it's sampler makes it very up to date. It will never die.

It is, IMHO, the greatest synth I have yet tried(so far).


The thing with Roland is that they are still utilizing old technology from the 80's.
My old roland d-10 sounds very much like the xp-60 I had. In my opinion, the Roland d-10 I had was a better sounding synth than the 60, and it did not have a decay grunge issue.

I can upgrade my sample ram to 64, pop in some sound boards, add on a SSCi drive for a hard drive or zip drive, I can route a voice (or any other instrument) through the incredible effects section, I can use the built in vocoder, and I can pop in the MOSS card.

This machine is a beast. After having the xp-60 and taking it back just recently, and now having this Triton in my room, I can honestly say this is the better machine by a LONG shot.


My only complaints so far are that the keys are a bit noisy and rumbly.

I love my new Triton!

Arvon45= I'm glad that you are happy with the Triton- Yes it is an awesome silver beast! If I had to choose between the XP and the Triton I would definately get the Triton because it is easier to use and has the extra features such as sampling, AD inputs, vocoder and better effects.

However, I still like the sound of the Roland XP/JV range. They sound different to the Korgs and compliment the Triton/Trinity sounds nicely.

I myself will be getting a JV2080 when I can afford it (ie- when their price goes down!). As far as I am concened, a Triton plus a JV2080 (both fully expanded of course) would cover all my sounds in a pinch if I was only allowed to hold on to those 2 instruments. And also I'd add the new Korg D16 hard disk recorder with SCSI CD burner, Mackie or Event poweverd monitors, a nice mic or 2 and a nice sounding mic channel. MY IDEAL PORTABLE STUDIO TO TAKE ANYWHERE!!!!

Regarding piano sounds, I don't like any stock/factory piano sounds in any synthe period! However, the piano expansion board, whilst still not good enough to replace a real steinway, improves on the crappy factory sound a hell of a lot. In the XP60, the piano on the Session expansion board is very nice also. And of course, there is alwasy the sampler in the Triton!!!!

If you want to get into serious sampling on the Triton, remeber to budget for the SCSI interface and some sort of external hard drive for storage- you'll run out of space and patience with all the floppies lying around! Regards.

Hey Tom Scanlon,I too have an XP-80!But I also have an EX-5.And though some of the sounds are unique,I am just not happy with it.I keep hearing all of these good things about the Triton.I too am very happy with the XP-80 as it gives me a good selection of sounds to choose from.I have the drums/bass,vintage synth and sessions boards and am thinking about getting that techno board.I also wish that the piano sounds were more like that of the A90EX.Are the piano sounds in the Triton really that bad?I have heard that they are some of the best piano sounds in a versatile workstation to date.All I want is a piano sound comparable to the Alesis QS8.Any thoughts?

I would skip on the techno board- the loops are useless and all the vocoded sounds are a valuable waste of PCM ROM. Look at the fantastic hip hop board instead, and/or try to find an older Roland Dance card or module. These 2 latter offerings are excellent. I own the Techno board and would have gotten rid of it ages ago if I could recover the amount I paid for it (so I'll keep it because this won't happen!!!!).

I just want to restate the advice Korgasm gave: definitely pass on the Techno board for your XP-80. And, yes, do opt for the Hip Hop board instead. The Hip Hop board has TR-808 and 909 sounds just like the Techno board, plus has many more useable percussive hits and ~"broken beats". It has several useable and sequencer-syncable loops (the components of which can be combined in various manners to form new loops) and cool "lo-fi"/toyish dance-type sounds. Furthermore, when it comes to editing sounds, I think a lot of the waveforms used on the Techno board are the same ones used on your Vintage Synth board. Lastly, modifying the 909-ish kick sound on a few of the Session drum kits can give you a pretty good 909 kick emulation.

I find the Triton to be an impressive workstation, but, more specifically, very initially impressive and less and less impressive the more I learn about it and use it. If the XP-80 had a sampler, I'm sure I'd prefer it to the Triton. I like the Expansion Board sounds, keyboard, sequencer, value dial/wheel, omnipresent 16 track buttons, waveforms, filters, outcome of sound editing, and disk drive of the XP80 better than that which compares to those things on the Triton. I like the Triton's Touch Screen (makes OS navigation incredibly intuitive), but I still seem to have to scroll through as many menus/screens as I do on my XP80 to get to where I want to be. I can push a button just as easily as I can a screen. I do like the realtime controllers on the Triton better (mainly because there are RTCs for the arpeggiator and because most RTCs are knobs instead of sliders) as I do the effects (although I'm quite happy with the XP80 effects - quality moreso than routing). Also, as a standalone workstation, having SCSI capability, sampling, and the MOSS upgrade option make the Triton very appealing.

I have not decided if I will return the Triton or not yet (I have until this weekend). When I weigh what else I could buy for $2800 (=61 key Triton with SCSI and MOSS board) - like an XP-30 + Yamaha A3000 + Waldorf Microwave XT...or used XP60 + Yamaha A3000 + Nord Micromodular or Waldorf Microwave II - returning it seems like more of a reality...

Korgasm's complaints re: the Triton above are pretty much my exact complaints and it is very good that most of these are addressable by OS upgrades (need time-stretch, crossfade looping, and one-touch UNDO/REDO function pronto!). One other question I have has to do with sampling: when I sample an audio signal, the resulting sample is not velocity-sensitive when played on the keyboard...is there some setting I can change to make this so? This is my first real sit-down with a sampler (and even I can see why crossfade looping and time-stretch are so essential) and my endless searching through the manuals has shown me nothing to correct this. I guess I could sample the same sound at different (vol.) levels and create a combination that would play the layered sound (levels) according to keystroke velocity, but I feel like there should be a way for a multisample-turned-into-program to be velocity sensitive. I had brief exposure to Kurzweil sampling and, if I remember correctly, some kind of velocity map was applied to the samples automatically. Anyone know if the Triton can do like the Kurzweils? If so, please share! Thanks!

I think you have to adjust the velocity once you convert your sample to a program.
You can also add the effects, change the parameters ect.

If you have figured out how to get your sample the full length of the 61 keys please let me know.


I had an xp-60 for 29 days before returning it and getting the Triton. The Triton is FAR better IMHO. The options are great, the sounds are great, it sounds fatter to me (especially the synth sounds), the realtime controls aren't as "clippy"( more smooth), and it doesn't have an annoying grunge/decay defect.

The xp's synth engine is a bit more powerful, but I feel the TRITONS just SOUNDS better, of higher quality. Plus, you can get the MOSS option and have the strongest synth engine out there right now.


The Triton is a complicated piece of equipment. It takes a good while to learn it. It is a little overwhelming at times.
But that is a good thing. It's a powerful machine. And it will always be up to date and rellevant thanks to it's sampler.

Oh, and the realtime control options are great. Much more expansive and useable than the xp.

Thanks for the input, but I need specifics. I figured setting up a velocity map would be done either in sample mode or in program mode, but I can't figure out how to do it (using the manual). I'll probably start a new topic and ask the question. Surely some Triton owners have been sampling like crazy and can give me some details. I did a few hours of sequencing on the Triton tonight and I do enjoy the sequencer (but I can't stand that it doesn't have a one-touch undo function, a "rehearsal" mode [although it may and I have not discovered it], and a key-triggered start to recording [what Roland calls "Wait Note"]). It definitely is a cool workstation, but I like the EXPANSION BOARD sounds of the XP synths FAR better (a matter of personal taste, eh?). Anyway, thanks again for your input, Arvon45.

Arvon45: I'll give what input I can re: your question about having the sample sound across the entire keyboard.

There are a few ways to accomplish this, the way I understand things. First of all, in you wanted to have the original sample played at the root key of C2 (lowest key on 61 key Triton) and the rest of the sample automatically transposed up the remaining 60 keys (although you can actually do it for up to 88 keys), you'd do this:

Enter SAMPLING...make sure you select a new MultiSample (at top) and new Sample (1/4 of way down screen) first...in the Recording Tab, select Orig. Key as C2 and Top Key as C7...then, go to the Preference Tab (3rd tab) and set the Zone Range to 61 keys. Go back to the Recording tab and sample away. The sample will play across the entire kb.

Alternatively, say you wanted to your multisample to sound better, so you decide to sample an original note every octave. Then, you'd have to record 5 (for 60 keys) separate samples and link them all to form your multisample. Here's how:

Enter SAMPLING. Set new MS and Sample. In Recording tab, set Orig key as C2 and top key as B2. In Pref tab, set Zone Range to 12 keys. In Recording tab, tap the Index number five times to get 001...005/005. Then, set the xxx/005 to 001/005. Record your sample and it will sound across the first octave of your keyboard. To sample the second octave: select a new SAMPLE (not multisample), select 002/005 and sample away. Just keep selecting a new sample each time and go until Index 005/005 is sampled. Of course, remember to sample C3 when the root key of the sample is designated as C3 (etc.)! Hope this is what you were looking for...

Wilkes --- Thanks for the reply.


HEre is a link to the Tritonica site. It is a great resource for TRITON owners. You will probably get your technical questions answered
here:

http://free.prohosting.com/~triton/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi?action=intro