Extraordinary KORG MOSS Physical Modelling from Last Millennium 

MOSS Pros: impressive, expressive and refreshing. Cons: expensive, limited polyphony, maybe discontinued. What I could recognize: 0:00 Moonlight Shadow 6:08 Wouldn’t it be good 10:55 Also sprach Zarathustra 12:10 Holding back the years 12:35 Money’s too tight 14:18 Careless whispers 15:05 The Riddle 19:59 The one and only 25:54 Don’t dream it’s over Good video, thanks

Yes! The MOSS board is the main reason why I’m keeping my Triton! You can get better sample based sounds as VST plugins, but the expressiveness of MOSS is unbeatable. You can get some pretty weird, haunting sounds when you use the brass or reed models to create physically impossible instruments with really long tubes.

I bought my Triton from new back in 1999 and had the MOSS board installed at the same time. Still going strong to this day. I love my Triton. Lovely demo Woody. Thank you.

Back in the day when the acoustic physically modelling side of MOSS, the Stanford Technology, showed up in Yamaha and Korg instruments, it was profoundly futuristic, the next step in synthesis. The VA in MOSS, and VA in general was also showing up in other keyboards from Roland and Yamaha, most of that VA tech was not derived from the Standford patents. However, VA didn't give us any further musical expressiveness than a real analog synth would. One exception here though would be the Yamaha AN tech was able to morph parameters between two scenes or sounds. VA did improve each year up to now as we expected it would. But after 25 years that Stanford technology responsible for the brass and wind, and even the plucked and strings sounds is still cutting edge in many ways. Turning back to these older instruments is the only way in many cases for most people to get these incredibly expressive physically modelled sounds. Back then when this was new I never thought that it would remain that way for this long. Like VA I thought by 2020 not only would it improve, but I speculated it would even be the predominant means of synthesizing acoustic instruments replacing sample based methods. It never happened. Essentially this state of the art technology back in 1995 remains at a standstill for mainstream instruments till this day. Not sure why, the Stanford technology was adopted by other systems, including sofware based, but Korg and Yamaha no longer incorporate the Stanford modelling as far as I know. Does anyone know more, I would like to learn whatever happened to it.

I have a MOSS board in my Triton Extreme synth that I bought years ago. The sounds and playability are stellar. The Triton Extreme is still my main keyboard. Great demo Woody!

Hi. Another great video. Great-sounding system. I really miss my Triton. I never had the MOSS Board but the Triton is what inspired my loyalty to Korg.

22:00. Man, I can feel that thing vibrating in my chest. ... and I’m wearing headphones!

I'm happy to see that Woody is back on vintage stuff

Brilliant, I just barked up my TEX and played along. Not all your patches equate to my MOSS patches but was fun. The best way to spend time without having to think is just turn on the power button and instant songs!

Hey Woody. I'm always happy with a new episode of you. Thx u verry much 👍👍👍🎹

This thing sounds leaps and bounds better than my Acces Virus KC!

Thanks for demoing the MOSS board! The first song is really relaxing :)

Great video Woody, that opening arrangement of Moonlight Shadow sounds so good (have replayed it numerous times!).

Beautifully performed sounds Woody!

I had the moss in my Trinity Pro X V3. What a beast, wish I had never sold that keyboard, I reckon it would be very usable even today.

One day soon the reality will dawn on the many of just how good the Triton is. It is often dismissed as a fancy rompler with quality effects built in. Even without the MOSS board, the Triton is legion in what it can do and the sound exquisite. From the build quality (my 21 year old Studio version looks and sounds like I bought it 12 months ago) to its many facets, it puts most contemporary kit to shame. To coin an unfortunate phrase "they'll have to prise it from my cold dead hands" before I ever let the Triton go. Great vid btw Woody - thanks.

Funnily enough I just recently dusted off my Karma with MOSS and Prophecy which have been in the loft for the past two decades during lockdown. Its easy to forget just how impressive they were back then when the regular old analog synths sounded tired old and as dull as dishwater. You can also download the Z1 patches (From the Korg website) to the MOSS board so you get two synths for the price of one. Great video.

really impressive sounds from this board, I need it, i have the korg triton rack, with studio expansion inside, thanks mr Woody

I appreciate you making this video. I always wanted a Korg "Z1" or even the "prophecy". I was always fascinated by physical modeling things like the "VL-1" from Yamaha.

For some reason I've never been a huge Korg fan, but this sounds way better than I realized.

Wow The Sound Are Very Amazing!

MOSS come from Z1... The fact is, the core of Z1 is the TMS57070 DSP chip customized by TI (Japan), each chip provides 2 voices (Z1=12voices by 6 DSP chips; Z1-EX=18 voices by 9 chips, very expensive). This DSP chip only licensed and made by TI Japan corp and stopped production in 2000, never ship to other countries. That's why only few Z1 were produced and no longer seen after 2000 (Actual production time-slot only less than 3 years), the only rest parts have possibly been built as MOSS-board for Trition Expansion but not a lot. Z1/MOSS sounds are unique due to hardware's difference comparing to later Korg gear and competitors. It's truely a lost tribe never seen any more. Rest in peace !!! MOSS is 6 voices...

Picked up an 88 variant of the Triton Extreme from eBay very recently, it came with a MOSS board - I was massively overjoyed as I've been after a MOSS for some time. For aging tech, this really is a powerful addition to your machine and stands up today. I've said it before, whilst analog synths are great fun and powerful in the studio, there is no substitute for a synth like the Triton/Extreme when it comes to live stage performance (the rich dynamics throughout many of the programs/patches are solid). Triton for life :)

I had both a fully expended Triton Classic and Z1EX with the 18 note polyphonic expansion. The variety of sounds that they produced was outstanding but they were very complicated to program. The Z1, whilst itself a beautiful keyboard with outstanding real-time control and a wonderful keyboard action, was itself very sluggish to operate. It was like the CPU was struggling, even when simply selecting different sounds. It's fx architecture was also very limiting. However it could produce an amazing amount of different sounds from phenomenal VA emulations to acoustic instruments. I did fool a few people at a gig who thought that there was an actual trumpet player on the stage! The X/Y touch pad was awesome and I set it up to control the vector joystick on my Wavestation AD and Wavestation SR. It was the precursor to Korg's Kaossilator series without all their coloured lights! The MOSS board in my Triton affectively gave me another 6 voice synthesiser monster in that already powerful workstation. It's very sad that MOSS wasn't developed further but I heard that it's inventor sadly passed away, taking MOSS to the grave with him.

I had the MOSS board in my Korg Tritons. I miss those sounds, I wish I still had them.

Nice job with the demo. Enjoyed hearing wide variety of sounds of the MOSS board. Wish I had a Triton keyboard rather than the TRack to get the after-touch and joystick effects. Korg made some really ground breaking instruments back in the day.

That Wurly didn't sound bad by any means! I was digging it!

This is amazing woody! Thank u for showing this.. been a your subscriber since 350subs

Thanks for the tour of the illusive MOSS board. Crazy those boards are more costly now than the Triton itself.

Excellent my friend!

These sounds from 1995 are simply a testament to the prowess of Korgs' engineers (and sound designers) of the day. They were grandfathered to the OASYS and finally they dropped the Kronos bombshell. What a technology feat in terms of R&D investment! It's also interesting to note that although a lot of these synth engines went to the Kronos, some of then are missing (for example the brass modelling). Maybe Korg decided that some of these sounds were best achieved with massive sample libraries and didn't port them to the x86 Kronos operating system, or were they too CPU heavy?

I still have my korg trinity v3 - never going to sell it.

I love my triton from 2000❤️

moonlight shadow, Mike Oldfield? Love the Triton sounds👌🏻

This could be heaven... I just discovered not one but 2 MOSS boards for sale as well as a 61-key Triton and a 88-weighted-keys Triton LE. Now wondering if the latter will accept a MOSS board too. Thank you so much Woody for showing off the sounds and possibilities of this expansion. Ofcourse this video is still too short, but hey, maybe you'll find yourself revisiting them in a synthjam of some sort. Have a great week Woody! Cheers!

Very rich beautiful sounds with neuances, I guess worthy keeping the card and an accompaning synth to leanr the card's potential to squeeze out even more...

The pluck model sounds like if Roland had included a guitar patch on the RD-1000/MK-S20. The brass & bowed models, while still sounding synthetic, have nice acoustic-esque artifacts, which makes them really deep & useable. That VPM! 😍 & I've never met a synth pad I didn't like & these are so very lush.

Hold onto your MOSS - XB boards!... I have a Triton Extreme 88 plus MOSS-XB board fitted, still love it, it is a mine feild of unique sounds combined, oooohhhh..... nothing like it!

I think what keeps the moss board back is the polyphony, but this was a limitation of thevtime. Korg kronos brings all of this to the next level.

Glad i was young and smart enough to buy the MOSS card when it released. I could nt afford a z1 back in 2001 so i bought the moss card. Its not complicated if you know how it all works and its best to experiment with settings. Best advice all and any moss patches work so i downloaded all the patches from all models that used the moss engine like the z1 & the trinity + 700 user created patches

I'm going to have to go and play mine now!!! Oh and great tan!!! Must be great weather in Sweden!

Great vid, thanks. I have a Triton Extreme 61 and really like the organ sound there on the MOSS board. Better than the stock ones. I gig with the Extreme as a top board and was thinking of possibly swapping it for one of the new cut down workstations. Mainly for reduced weight and more up to date sounds. Might consider instead installing the MOSS upgrade if I can find one at a good price.

Sounds nice :)

Awesome 😎 I hope that the MOSS is resurrected as a plugin. It’s too good not to be. Happy new year 🥳

Dear Woody - I have the JD-990 and the sax, among other instruments, is unbelievable.

I’ve got the korg z1 that uses the moss engine it’s a synth that’s rarely mentioned but in some ways ahead of its time

12:10 holding back the years " sounds so sweet

Thank you for an review. Pretty structured sound. I've just picked up Triton Classic for a price of an apple earbuds and found out that MOSS boards are way more expensive. But even standalone this synth has a nice soundbanks)

Crowed House at the end sounded lush :)

I love triton. I still own it. With programming you can approximate many of what the moss can do. With exception i think the bras and vpm

I Love Physical Modelling

I only recently learned the Z1 existed and the Trinity had the MOSS, too. This sounds really great. Like with Yamaha's VL tech, I'm disappointed they kind discontinued this.

I heard the "M1 Lore" sample behind the opening piano (background pad). Very cool. Korg ported that sample over to the wavestate as well. I use it a lot :) This video also made me realize that the Korg Triton software version does not have the MOSS architecture in it. Very disappointing. Correct me if I'm wrong. No "bank F" in the software either :( Great video Thank you Woody.

I recently asked Derek sherinian on Instagram if he used the moss board to obtain that gnarly sounds when he was in dream theater,and he said yes!

Such a good job. It would be great if you got a Prophet 5 and got it fully restored then walked through the steps.

Nice playing Woody, not bad for a 20 year old workstation, Korg were ahead of their time. That Wurli sound is incredible. I still have my Korg Z1, there are still a few things it can do that I don't believe can be done even with the latest VSTs. Example: Yes, you can get great physically modelled VSTs such as the SWAM stringed and wind instruments. But, even though they are easier to use and mor realistic than say, the MOSS bowed instrument model, you can get access to the synth parameters and change aspects of the model. This is great if you're into sound design, as you can get great ambient (and weird!) sounds out of it!

The resonance on the synth drum preset reminds of the string model on the Korg Volca Drum.

Thank you for playing Moss demo. I have a question. How do you do a screen capture of the Triton?

Get the MOSS and fall in love with those 6 voices. Enter the Z1 with the extra 6 voice expansion..... hello 18 voices!!!! 🤟

Try using the joystick down on the plucked string models to transition in and out of muted sounds. Very expressive and fun to play.

When I got my Triton Extreme, it surprisingly came with the MOSS board, but it didn't really seem like anything I don't already have better alternatives for in my arsenal. I would sell it if I wasn't already retired.

Had a moss board in a Triton rack but sounds nothing like the Korg prophecy that’s a beast all of its own

Bravo. Un. Grande.

I say, this is very impressive for 1995! Dare I say, maybe ahead of it's time. But some might disagree, and that's fine :).

Roland had SA synthesis on their RD-1000/MKS-20 pianos in 1986, which was a physical modelling technology.

The alien chattering patch is weird, it sounds like talking. The moss board is quite a versitile addition to an already great synth.

ESPECTACULAR KORG MY FAVORITE KEYBOARD HY FROM MÉXICO

I’ve spent thousands on Kong. First the Kong M1 then the Kong trinity then the Trinity v3 hdr then the 88 key korg triton v3. Trying to integrate them into my I-ad pro studio. 🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿

Merci ! ;)

My main man woody, back at it again 😎 Is this a similar technology to what was used in the Jupiter-50/80 boards or am I way off?

The MOSS board sounds great and it's a big upgrade for the Triton. But it was expensive and sold in small numbers. So they're very rare and pricey today. You can pick up a Triton Rack for as little as $250, but MOSS boards-if you can find one-are typically $1000 or more. As good as it sounds, that's hard to justify with so many good modern synths in that price range. If you do get one, make sure that your floppy disk works, as you'll need it to load the sound set. It would have been great if the new Triton VST emulated the MOSS board. But, unfortunately, it doesn't, so original hardware is the only option.

Nice video Woody. Thx. Do you know if these Exp are available for the Triton VST ?

Awesome demo. Just love the sounds of the Moss board. Did I hear "local hero theme" by Mark Knopfler/Dire Straits with the guitar modeling OSC's? Cheers Daniel of Eat and Listen channel Daniel of D.S. (Swedish synthrock / electro-industrial project)

I have a Korg Karma and a Triron Rack, no Moss board inside (way too expensive) but on their own, the Karma and Triton Rack are great already :-))

I have the MOSS board fitted to my Triton Extreme, which combined with the valve makes some absolutely monumental sounds!

Wonderful video... I recently got a triton classic and I want to make my own collection of sounds... What is the best librarian to handle pcg easily?

At 8:30 famous Lately Bass in action (from Yamaha TX81z). Also known as Solid Bass on DX100.

Oooooooh that organ 😍

Woody, for some unknown reason I have difficulty accessing the moss Combi sounds. Programms play just fine in the F bank (its lit up) where should I enter them? In the manual its marked as B000 for Piano Forest Keyboard but obviously in bank B you normally have its own native sounds when I press the B button. Enlighten me please if you are in the know.

Cool information. I thought the Moss board was monophonic. This information makes the board worth buying.

Good sounds indeed. So many of these patches needed legato play mode tho. Is that a per-patch setting, or global?

It was 1 of the first VA synth but the first was the Nord Lead 1 from 1995 (i have the MOSS Board and i love it By the Way)

I know that sounds never get old, whatever is the sound source! Is there anybody that refuse this fact?

You should eventually get hold of a Korg Karma. Marillion's Mark Kelly kept using it for quite a while!and is still using it today!

I have Yamaha Motif XS 8 from 2007. But Korg Triton from 1999 is still best workstation 👍👌and references keyboard.

I traded one of my tritons years ago and forgot 2 take out my Moss board, :(. I purchased a Korg OASYS PCI board and never used it. It's sitting on a shelf in my garage inside a Mac that I never used. I think that board was similar 2 the Moss board.

The KING of all was the VL-1, then everything else and then for me it would be the Yamaha EX5 and then everything else down the line

There's a little typo in your description with the spelling of "OASIS" which should be spelled with a Y instead of an I. Looks like this uses a similar type of Karplus-Strong algorithm as found in STR-1. And VPM as found in MOD-7. Ring, Sync and Cross can all be found in AL-1. Analog sounds are of course taken care of by the EX synths in the Kronos. The Wurly and Organ are also in the Kronos. Most of those Kronos engines might be using algorithms inspired from the MOSS but are more than likely rebuilt from the ground up. If you would like help with learning any of those programs feel free to reach out to me.

I know very little about all the extras you can add to this keyboard, but it is enough to me just being able to enjoy having one of this keyboards. Y enjoy everything about them

is these sound available in Korg TRITON plugin?/ if no I can create it? Thanks ...

Where do you get the moss expansion board for Triton Pro X?

Still got my Z1 as my master keyboard.. but when it was released, when i bought it.. what awful factory presets !!! Still in need for a Z1 VST... I don't understand what Korg was thinking about with those factory presets, not revealing the full power of the beast.

MOSS is BOSS!

The sax is nice ...

How do you record, save, load, and play a song on the Korg?

You need to get an EX5 (and a VL1). The MOSS king was the Z1 if you can find one.

I like racks because they take less space. However, a Triton Rack with the EXB-MOSS board will easily go north of €/$/£1000, which is considerably more than a Z1. Of course, you get the Triton thrown in as a bonus, but I might not necessarily need one.

Good🌹👍

Is it true if you have a moss board that you can use sounds from other keyboards?

PLEASE QUESTION: ¿Is the EXB-MOSS CARD the same for the Triton, Triton Pro, Extreme and Karma? Coz, I have gotten the opp.of purchasing a 2cnd hand MOSS but it is going to be tasted inside a Triton Pro.. I guess.. Txs in advance. Cheers!