KORG S3
PCM Drum synthesizer

About

KORG S3 is a drum synthesizer and sequencer. It has a PCM playback engine and 2 multi-FX.


KORG S3 (1989)

Overview as a drum synth

12-polyphonic, 16-bit PCM playback engine without a filter. KORG calls it SI (Sonic Integrity) System.
2 Multi-FX inherited from KORG M1.
A drum sound is made of 2 oscillators with multi-step amp envelope and various velocity modulation.
Many acoustic drum sounds are devided in 'head' and 'shell' waveforms. It's possible to mix the attack portion of snare (head) with the release portion of tom (shell). There are several synth waves as well.
2 PCM card slots to expand the samples.
8 velocity-sensitive pads.

S3 .mp3 Sound Demo

Here are examples of the sounds made with S3. All sounds are recorded without external effects.

Pad (632KB)
Tom Head (386KB)
Snare Shell (339KB)
Hi-Hat (331KB)
Bell (376KB)
SynBass (232KB)
Tambourine (647KB)
Tom Shell (322KB)
Sine (477KB)
Waves (261KB)

Below are sounds made with the optional DANCE PCM card.

Pop (584KB)
Bass (431KB)
Chord (265KB)
Clap (296KB)
Digi Bass (385KB)
TR (229KB)
Dist (227KB)
Snare (263KB)
Slap (282KB)


Related Models

KORG DDD-1 / DDD-5 are the drum machines with velocity pads. S3 can be seen as their hi-fi version.


KORG DDD-1 (1986)


KORG DDD-5 (1987)

KORG M1 is the PCM synth workstation with 2 multi-FX. S3's synth engine seems to be the filter-less version of M1.


KORG M1 (1988)

KORG S1 is the prototype of S3 with sampling function. It was advertised together with the sequencer Q1, but they were never actually released.


KORG S1 (1989)


E-MU PRO/CUSSION is a 16-bit/32-polyphonic drum synthesizer. It has 4-OSC filter-less PCM playback engine with an LFO.


E-MU PRO/CUSSION (1991)

Roland R-8M is a drum synthesizer based on U-110, which is a filterless PCM playback synthesizer. It has the 4-oscillator mode.


Roland R-8M (1990)

Links

Sound on Sound S3 review



Deep Synthesis: Home

9. 13. 2007