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Welcome to my "Birth of the i-series" page!
New Feature! Scroll down to the i3 section. Derek Hamilton, a long time
i3 friend, has kindly scanned one of the two i3 manuals and is in the process of scanning the other. He has also kindly donated
some ftp space so you guys can download them. The first link is below. Thanks, Derek!
Wouldn't it be great if they came up with an i1 with today's advancements? Well, they sort of did. See the SP-500 on my home
page.
But for now, let's take a look at the actual history of the Korg i-series, beginning with the i1...
The Korg i1
i1 88 KEY INTERACTIVE Keyboard
The i1 was Korg's 88 note 'Super i' keyboard featuring Interactive accompaniment functions.
Features included:
14 megabytes of PCM waveform memory including 8 meg stereo piano sample (total of 3 piano sample
choices) 32 note polyphony 88 velocity & pressure sensitive keys with ADJUSTABLE weighted action keyboard. Korg's AI/2
synthesis system 16 part multi-timbral operation 47 dynamic effect types with 2 stereo effect processors 80 ROM & 12 RAM
styles 4 card styles 64 arrangements 16 track sequencer section with 10 backing sequences /10 song / 100 patterns and 40,000
events 3.5in. 2DD DOS format disk drive 240x64 graphic LCD display and a stereo 40Wx2 sound system. The i1 contained a variable
key touch control that mechanically altered the keyboard feel.
The Korg i2 (as contributed by Howard Bedient)
Howard started out the new year 2003 on a great note. He installed
the Hard Drive/Memory Expansion kit into his i2. AND...he is sharing all the juicy details with us with pictures! Here's the
scoop:
"Here's before I changed anything. IC 29 is to the right and at
the edge of
visibility."
"Here the EPROM has been changed. When viewing the keyboard from
the front the "nose" of it has to be pointing to the left."
"Now I have installed the spacer bolts after removing the 2 screws
that hold down the center of the mainboard. Replaced them with the spacers, then pushed the PCB into the socket where the
style cartridge went."
"Here I've put on the HD board, which stacks on top with another
spacer bolt."
"This is after I stuck the HD to the bottom of the keyboard, as
recommended and I was getting ready to put it back together."
And here is a bit of an overview and some extra helpful comments:
"That HD/memory expasion finally arrived from Germany and I successfully
installed it this afternoon. I wish I had had a pictorial to see where they fit. But after awhile I realized the only ribbon
cable was the one going to the HD so I looked for ways to plug the sucker in. I put the HD ribbon on backwards and it kept
the whole thing from working, so I took it all apart and re-assembled it. When the errors repeated I powered down and reversed
the ribbon to the HD and it woke up like it should. When you go to the disk page before or after selecting what disk operation
you hit the A button and rotate the alpha wheel to select anything from the A: to C:-Z: partition. Then the B or C button
to select the file. That HD is outstandingly fast!"
The Korg i3
Click here to download the Korg i3 Players Guide, a pdf file donated and hosted by our long time i3 friend, Derek Hamilton
of Scotland...
This songbook was handed out by Korg i3 dealers with the purchase of the i3. Email me for the 3 pdf files of the entire songbook.
Your email server must be able to accept up to a 5MB file...
Check out two more great photos that reveal more of a detailed view of the i3 on the tips
page...
Click here for i3 factory preload and pipe organ files...
Some of the best styles that Korg ever made were on the i3.
Some of them used up more memory than those found on the i30, for example, the great Big Band styles...
Click here for some i3 styles corrected by our good friend, Juozas...
Some of the original disks that came with the i3...
The Korg i4s
Click here for some i4s downloads...
When the Korg i-series line of interactive keyboards was introduced, with their Ai2 method of digital sound synthesis, people
all over the world sat up and took notice that quality sound was married with an arranger keyboard. The i-series immediately
set the benchmark for what an arranger keyboard should be. Their unprecedented editing capabilities, among other things, helped
them to build on the foundation and quality of the 01/W Synthesizer. This gave birth to a whole new genre, the Korg interactive
keyboard. Thus began the i-series, with variations on the theme such as the i1, with 88 weighted keys, the i2, with 76 keys,
and the i3, with 61. These were and are... pure and simple... fun machines. What is so great is the fact that Korg decided
to take this kind of machine very seriously. They gave some considerable effort to the end of producing high quality sound
generation and style creation with this series. Many people feel that the i1, i2 and i3 still rule...They are great keyboards,
and all of their incarnations are supported here at my site in one way or another. For me, the i-series rules!
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Now, let me introduce you to some terrific folks...
Georg Oeing, who lives in Germany, specializes in creating his own unique styles for Korg i-series keyboards, and I and the
rest of the Korg community have benefited ever since. The i3 has four available memory slots for loading user styles in addition
to those that came preloaded. Fortunately for all of us, Georg started giving us a whole new world of styles to choose from,
thus expanding what i-series keyboards could do. If you own an i-series Korg, and want to expand beyond the possibilities
that the presets that came with it give you, then by all means pay Georg a visit. And the really great part...he offers them
all to you at no cost what so ever. How great is that?
Georg's website
I am always appreciative of those who have, through their own ingenuity, found a way to expand the capabilities of the Korg
i-series. One such gentleman is Oliver Schwartz, also of Germany. His company, called musitronics, developed some time ago
a way to expand the four user styles memory capability of the i3 to sixteen. This was considered to be a minor miracle to
Korg users of the day. These days, Oliver has developed ways for owners of virtually all i-series keyboards to have hard disk
storage installed. Also among his efforts is a pc-to-keyboard hard disk USB interface that allows those with keyboard hard
disks to access them with either a desktop or laptop computer for easy organization and backup purposes.
Oliver's musitronics website
Introduce yourself to this gentleman from Scotland. His name is Derek Hamilton. Derek has created some fantastic music around
the i3. You will not believe how wonderful his MP3's are. If you visit his webpage, take the time to download at least one
of them. Chances are, it won't be the last! And now Derek tells us that he has the i30, and I can't wait to see what comes
of that!
Derek's Homepage
Click below on any of the i3 resources you would like...
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