Tuesday 18 March 2014

Korg PS 3200

It's a real pleasure and indeed an honor to own this synth.

Weighing in at 37kg the 3200 was much derided due to its lack of the famous Korg triple resonators found in its brothers, the PS3300 & PS3100. Korg replaced the resonator with a graphic equaliser.


 I still love it to bits. It has much warmth & richness ....a truly unique machine.

In this first video the Doepfer Dark Time sequencer is triggering drum sounds.


 The synth is much much deeper than this first demo (I'll post more videos in the future to demonstrate).



The PS3200 is a fully polyphonic, 16 memory semi-modular system.... yes memories / presets.
The system Korg used for editing the sounds is unusual. You pull the knobs out to make your changes, then push them back in to store your new settings. You can see me do this in the video.
Above the Dark Time sequencer you can see a bank of 16 white buttons. These store the presets.

Released in 1978, it has 2 VCOs per voice. You can play all 48 notes simultaneously.
It was the last of the PS series. .... strangely the order was: PS3100,PS3300 then the PS 3200.
You can see a resemblance to the MS20 (but it sounds nothing like an MS20).

My PS3200 has a Kenton MIDI retrofit.
This old video demos this. I used a ipad running an old version of the genome sequencer app.
There is probably a much better version of the app now.



 More videos to come.

3 comments:

  1. Excellent series of videos using your lovely 3200, I did not know that about the production order of the series. More history and tech. on this device please. What is your units history, how did you come across it, state of operation at the time, do you have the keyboard cables? Very rare series I'd love to know more.

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  3. Hello DR Fresh, Thanks so much for your interest. The 3200 was the last of the PS series built by Korg. Sadly Korg removed the resonator on the 3100 & 3300.
    However I also have a PS 3100 and will one of these days demo the resonator vs the equalizer.
    I purchased my unit from a dealer Japan many years ago. It was shipped to Australia at great cost. It weighs over 40kgs. I love it to death and think the expense was worth it. I have the original keyboard & cables. In future videos I will use them.
    Cheers Jono

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