HI. I
I was ready to purchase my first keyboard (Trinity) but now Korg has come out with the Triton.

Was wondering what are the major differences between the two. Is the Triton supposed to be a replacement/upgrade of the Trinity ?

Since this is my first keyboard purchase, I would appreciate non techinal answers.

Thanks a lot ! ED

Yes the Triton is an upgrade to the Trinity. I owned a Trinity for 3 years before getting the Triton so I can tell you about similarities/differences etc. I have since sold my Trinity to get the Triton.

Let me just start off by saying the BOTH KEYBOARDS ARE AWESOME in terms of sounds, sequencing and effects- ie- as workstation keyboards.

Soundwise there is not much to choose between them only that the Triton has alot of extra drum sounds.

Effects wise, whilst the Trinity is very flexible, the Triton improves slightly in the way the effects are implemented.

The Triton contains a proper sampler whereas the Trinity required the 'flash ROM' option to load extra samples into memory- it could not sample it self. The Triton's sampler can be expanded up to 64MB of ram.

In terms of synthesis, the Trinity has better filters whilst the Tritons has better LFO's.

The Trinity allows you to add a 4 track hard disk recorder that can sync to the sequencer but I don't think it is worth the money.

Both allow you to hook up to external hard drives if they have their SCSI option installed.

The Triton has almost twice as much polyphnoy as the Trinity- 62 notes as opposed to 32 notes. The Triton also has 4 real time control knobs on it's front panel.

Both offer flexible onboard sequencers but the Triton's is a little easier to get around and contains a few extra features mainly the ability to trigger patterns from any key, cuelists (able to chain parts of a song together to create one large song) and there are also 2 very flexible arpeggiators onboard.

The Triton has 6 freely assignable outputs verses the Trinity's 4 outputs which offered very spastic routing options.

Both instruments contain huge touchscreens but the Triton's is better to use.

It probably looks like the Triton offers more than the Trinity. However, if you get a good price on a Trinity, don't be afraid to just go for it (I think about it's biggest limitation is it's 32 note polyphony!).

However, I must say that you are better off getting the Triton as the extra features it has over the Trinity (mainly the added polyphony, sampler and arpeggiators) are well worth it.

However, try both boards out for yourself and come to a final decision only after playing both.

Hope the above helps you. Cheers.

PS- I forgot to mention that both con have an extra 6 voice MOSS board installed to offer an extra physical modelling synthe on a card. The Triton's board is multi timbral whereas the Trinity's is not.

An older solo synthe board is also availble for the Trinity. Cheers.

Hi ! Thanks for all the good info. I have a couple followup questions and a comment.

1)Please clarify the following:
>>In terms of synthesis, the Trinity has better filters whilst the Tritons has better LFO's <<

2)I used to regularly play a T2 (not mine) and I always ran into polyphony problems especially with loaded combinations. Have you ever run into polyphony problems with the Trinity ?

3)What are: >> 4 real time control knobs on it's front panel.<< How are they used ?


I've briefly tried both boards in the store. I will primarily be using the board as a portable piano so I've also considered Roland as they probably have the best sounding pianos however, Rolands orchestral and synth sounds leave much to be desired (IMO). Korgs piano's aren't the best but they're usable considering I want a board with good orchestral and synth sounds also.

How are Korgs 'add-on' piano's ? Or could I simply get a Roland rack and use the Trinity/Triton as a controller ?

And lastly, what kind of amps work best ? Need adequate power for a room about the size of a gymnasium (but no where near as live)

Thanks again...Ed

Hi Ed,

I agree with Korgasm for the most part. I own a Trinity myself and have not bothered with the upgrade to the Triton because of that. If I were buying a new board today and didn't own either, I would probably select the Triton. They are very similar with the Triton having a few more desirable features like the polyphony (especially) and the sampler.

Anyway, I'll answer your query about the pianos and such. The Korg pianos suck IMHO. I really can't stand them. The Roland pianos are okay and usable. In regards to the Orch. sounds on the Roland, I'm assuming that you listened to the JV-1080/2080 modules. Did you listen to the Orch expansion boards? There are 2 and they sound quite good. The Trinity orch. sounds are okay but don't give you a lot of variation IMHO and the solo sounds are not very good. The solo violin for example is brutal as you can easily hear the loop points (it sounds like a bad vibrato). If you decide to get a Roland module for just the piano and orch. stuff, it may be a good idea to get something like the JV1010 which is quite cheap and allows you to add one expansion card.

The Trinity/Triton eat up the Rolands for synth sounds, I agree. They are tight and punchy where they need to be and the ability to add a Z1 board is great.

I'll finish saying that no one keyboard or module will give you the best of everything IMHO. I've tried and, while one gives you great synth sounds, it lacks on some bread and butter sounds and vice versa. Getting a couple of pieces helps you round out your sound palette.

HTH
Fernando

Hi Ed,

I forgot to mention that in busy sequences, yes you can run out of polyphony on the Trinity (I have). If you get a Roland module, the chances of that happening are minimized unless you only use the Trinity for every track.

The other thing to note too is that the Trinity has a maximum of 16 tracks for its sequencer. If you are using the sequencer to control another module, you only have 16 parts maximum between the 2 units. This is a big drag IMHO. I'm not sure if the Triton's sequencer operates in the same way as I didn't play with the sequencer at all.

HTH
Fernando

Hi all, Thanks for all the good info. Appreciate it very much.

One last thing-
Why are the Trinitys priced higher than the Tritons ?? You would think that because the Triton is the replacement for the Trinity that the you would see a price drop for the Trinity.

The PCM piano board for the Triton is quite good. But it feels much better to play these sounds (or any piano sounds for that matter) from a weighted keyboard using a sustain pedal. If piano sounds are your thing, go for this board or find some good samples to load into the sampler.

I would look at a nice PA system (the new self powered PA's coming out look like what you're after). Something such as a nice compact Behringer, Mackie or Spirit mixer teamed up with a pair of the new Mackie HR450, RCF Art300A's or JBL EON speakers. For more bass punch add a subwoofer if you need to. There are so many good compact mixers to recommend but it all comes down to how many channels you need at once. A few choices to look at are-
MACKIE- 1604VLZ, 1402VLZ, 1202VLZ, new 1642VLZ. They have recently brought out some nice mixers for live use which have onboard master 9 band graphic EQ and effects (CFX12, CFX16, CFX20).
BEHRINGER- I own a Eurorack MX2642 which is great. Other choices include MX2004 (I like this one!), MX2802, MX1604 and they are also bringing out a fully featured live/recording desk (rackmount) with built in effects which I don't know the model number.
SPIRIT- Spirit Folio (I own an older 12/2 desk in it is super clean!). Folio SX, Folio FX16, Folio FX8.
YAMAHA- MX12/4.

There are also heaps of others!

The Trinity filters featured lowpass, highpass, bandpass and band reject modes (all with resonance) whereas the Tritons filters have lowpass and highpass modes only (highpass mode without resonance). The Tritons LFO's can sync to MIDI clock and there are more waveform choices. It also seems to me that there are more modulation destinations in the Triton than in the Trinity.

Yes I did sometimes run out of polyphony when in combination mode on the Trinity and for me personally the extra polyphony of the Triton makes a BIG difference. However, lets just say that you don't need 62 notes of polyphony for everything you do so you might just be happy with the 32 note limit. The lower polyphony shouldn't put anyone looking at buying a Trinity off as this board will become a classic one day!!!!!!