KORG i3 Review - Does It Live Up to Its Legacy? 

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8 pounds great on the gig....great in the studio...the EQ sounds exactly in place...on the fly... done 40 sessions and 3 gigs a week last year....i am 75 and an B3 player...playing trio jazz, country piano 14 piece jazz band...it never let me down

I had this in the mid 90's....it will get you thru the cover gig any style...

I just got the i3 in matt silver and I love it. Exactly what I needed out of an arranger and a workstation from the same machine. I can't ask for more. But again it perfectly suits my personal needs, your mileage may vary. Thanks Jeremy for the nice as always review. Cheers !

Just pre-ordered this today. Great review, thanks!

Jeremy's channel is the best on keyboard advice.

Thank you Jeremy. Before I buy a new Keyboard I always search on youtube for your honest opinion and recomandation. You give a great help with your videos. Thank you again

Before watching the whole video only I can say that ur review will be the best and unbiased

Jeremy certainly knows how to do a comprehensive review, excellent stuff

Great review and thanks a lot for pointing out what is missing

Thanks so much for this review ; it is the first complete one on RU-vid and it's great and very informative ; the lack of audio interface is a shame so I still prefer Kross 2 but with a far more complex user interface ; as for styles I find Yamaha's to be more usefull with better fill-ins and a huge choice of addtional styles via web sites Michel

Finally a nice review . Thank you ! Thumbs up 👍

Excellent review!

User Friendly... Sounds Good... Great Features... Awesome Deal for me.... Nice Job Korg!

Thanks, Jeremy See. Great enlightening video.

You just saved me $600 Jeremy, thank you! The search goes on for the perfect arranger!

The suspenseful introduction music for your discussion of the Korg i3 is very effective, in my opinion. I recently purchased this workstation keyboard and I like all of its features. I only wish that Korg had included an arpeggiator. I'll make use of that feature on my Yamaha PSR-EW410 still in my collection of keyboards.

I'm an ardent Korg user since the days of M1/T3/01W workstations, i-Series to more workstations and PA-series. What I miss in the newer keyboards is the Pattern Program method, where you can create short patterns, and later Put/Copy into the Sequencer track/s. Would love to have this feature in the sequencer section of their accompaniment keyboards too.

Top notch work, Jeremy. You are the best by far, hope you don't get discouraged. Can the i3 foot controller trigger drum fills, while simultaneously maintain sustain??

Your videos are certainly illuminating. I Used the i3 in the 90’s then went bigger over the years. Now I’m old and can’t tote those big boards anymore. I now use an arranger module and I like the idea that you proposed Re: using the i3 as a (light weight) controller that may offer some added options. You also mentioned the Koss. What would you suggest since they are both are light weight and both have the standard midi out connection. Thanks.

Nice and brief review, I'm shocked that it doesn't have quantize.

I think Korg is a friendly keyboard. I've been using M1, old i3, 01w fd, Pa800 and now i'm using Pa XPro with Pa 3x

Great video Jeremy! For me, this Korg i3 should have been better for the price. First, it should have a better and newer Sound chip, at least based on the Kross 2 or the Pa300 ones. Second, the screen should have been a little bigger. Third, better sequence. And many other things. For the price, better choices are Korg Kross 2, Pa300, Yamaha PSR-S670, and even the cheap Casio CT-X3000/X5000.

I've had my i3 for a year now, and although I really love its ease of use (which is an awesome thing when you feel depressed and not up to playing much), I feel that the sound quality could be better, and I feel like the MIDI implementation could be better, too. There's a very annoying problem that I ran into when connecting the i3 to a DAW via USB midi. If I have either upper1 + upper3 or upper1 + upper2 selected, the i3 sends double notes (an original note + an octave higher one) into the DAW. Sometimes, I'd like to record a 2 or a 3-tone layer into a single DAW track, and would like to record the unduplicated MIDI notes at the same time, but this prevents me from doing it. If I go and select upper2 + upper3 and actually turn off upper1, then it's all fine. Go figure. But other than this and the rather weak piano/e-piano sounds (a few EP's and a few grand pianos are quite decent, however), it's a wonderful little keyboard to practice & write songs on. I still kick myself, however, that I didn't get a Krome EX instead :(. UPDATE: I ran the MIDI-OX utility to see what's going on, and yes, the i3 was sending a C4 piano note on upper1 and a C3 dark pad note on upper2. The weird thing is that the octave for both is set to "center" by default. Lowering the octave by one for the piano ends up sending double C3 notes, and FL Studio ends up ignoring one of them, so the end result ends up being normal. I guess I can understand the reasoning of sending multiple notes when multiple voices are selected on the i3, but the implementation feels weird, and there is no configuration setting on the i3 to control what happens, and FL Studio's MIDI tab doesn't seem to have anything to counter this. I tried setting the MIDI omni preview channel to 2 in FL Studio, and that gets rid of the extra note, but then it ends up playing some extra drum notes in certain ranges, which is just not too helpful.UP UPDATE, 6/5/2022: There is an actual Generator Muting feature in the MIDI setup part of FL Studio that I've started using to basically just not receive any MIDI info on the selected channel of my choosing, so that has been my workaround to eliminate these double notes. In the end, I think that i3's MIDI implementation is very ok, but it's just not really configurable, which is a letdown, but I guess also to be expected for an entry-level keyboard. You get what you get out of the box, and there really are no onboard tools on it to configure MIDI options (other than local on/off), so the workarounds will mostly have to be implemented in DAWs or MIDI editors, trackers or whatever software you might be using with it.

Hi, thank you very much for the video, you helped me a lot. If possible, make a video on how to create your own Auto-Accompaniment Styles, including drum programming and saving to User Bank. Thanks in advance.

Finally got mine today (took months to get the matte silver because of covid) but I can't figure out why it's not playing through my JBL Pulse 3 speaker when I connect it. How did you connect yours?

Years ago I had a Korg M1 and I loved it. Would I be happy with this i3?

Thanks for this review!!! Question for you - for the grand piano sound, how long is the sustain portion of the envelope? I bought a Casio PX-560 a decade ago and was immediately disappointed with the piano for this same reason. I know this is a very inexpensive keyboard but wouldn't it be delightful if the samples were very high quality? Oh, and can I assume this keybed doesn't have aftertouch? Maybe that's something not seen on boards this inexpensive?

Given the price difference, can you give a comparison between this and EK50L? If the engine and style are more or less the same. One has built in amp and speaker, why should i30 cost more? Better Keybed or audio internal?

Hi Jeremy, thank you for this video. A beautiful Keyboard with great sound, but can I load styles from PA4x in the i3? And it is able to save the registration memories in to a file to save and relaod it? Greetings!

Many thanks for this superb review! It's great news for me that you find the keybed so good it's comparable to PSR-S670. If I look for a synth action board in the next few years, chances are this will be in my short list -- actually, very recently I grabbed a preowned P121 so cheap and really found it good, as I already learned from your previous review. (As you know, this piano's footprint is almost as small as the i3's.) Glad I could make a good informed decision thanks to your vids, and hopefully next time too!

I’ve smashed the bell, the computer the keyboards.. all done! Eveything in hulk smashed at home. :-)

You are the best.

I want the 01/WFD reboot. LOL 😋

Does this keyboard has user programmable styles? I had 1994 Korg i3 in late 1990s. I also had 1994 Roland xp 50. Old memory. My Yamaha modx 6 came with cubase Ai activation code. But my older Yamaha older keyboards came with cubase CDs.

Jeremy you talk about the sequencer limitations. Can you make a video of using just the sequencer without the accompaniments?

A tip on Ensemble time 8:00. You can not choose a different ensemble, it's what you get from Korg. BUT... In my opinion the standard ensembe for Arcordion is too much. So I looked into another style with different ensembles and I find an ensemble with 2 voices, fine for me. All you have to do is now load the accordion to that place and save it to a setlist. We can only store 1 setlist on a usb stick. This could be improved a lot. So we don't have to switch USB-sticks all the time by choosing a different Setlist.

Hi Jeremy, this Korg I3 and Yamaha Mx61 - whichs one better ? Thánk you

MUST you press SHIFT in order to TRANSPOSE in semi-tones? And if so, is it possible to assign MIDI CC to pedal? +/- 1? FYI > the Korg i3 is available at American Musical Supply on payments!!

Can you plz tell me, that is it possible to use the 2 EQ knobs as assignable knobs in my Daw to control kontakt vst instruments? I am looking for an all in one instrument for use with Daw and in stage (budget friendly one).

Hi, I was having fun with fast tracker on PC with soundcards 25 years ago. I suppose Į would like to Play with sequencer inbuilt keyboard. Sampling is also actual. What could you suggest up to 800euro for remixing toy?

This is a great review, Mr. See. Thank you for your input. As a professional who plays at least 50 gigs a month, this keyboard would make a good bottom keyboard for a live rig setup in a band. I play at senior care facilities for a living (hence, my 50 gigs a month), as well as play in two bands. I am looking for portability and this keyboard fits the bill. To be honest, I am also looking at the D1 as a bottom keyboard and know its features as well, not to mention its weighted action. Since I was classically trained, the D1 would be preferable but I love the portability of the lighter boards for all the gigs I do. An ideal setup that is low priced would be the I3 and a Kross 2-61. You could get the best of both worlds with that setup. I have a number of boards I take on a gig, but the main ones are the Korg PA700 (for nursing homes and band gigs) and a Korg M50 (ancillary sounds). I also have about 8-10 other synths that I can bring and my big live band rig setup are the two boards above, as well as a Kross 1-61 and an Ensoniq VFX. It makes for a potent sound on stage with the bands. Adding the I3 may allow me to leave the PA700 at home for most gigs... Thank you again, sir, for your video...

Good review, but it would have been nice to see a demonstration of the "chord" function.

Sir Novaction lanchkey 61 is best or not for music production

have you done any of yamaha mx61 v2 review on your channel? I love the blue color of that yamaha mx61 v2 workstation and I know it's few years old and cost maybe little bit more of this i3 so I still can't decide yet... any suggestions?

Hey Jeremy! I m still trying to figure out how the heck you always come up with the kind of review that I m looking for👌🤔😂Well I ve just ordered Casio ctx-5000 but the local seller told me I can still Change the order in case I change my mind. Now that I watched this review I m a bit confused. I know the ctx 5000 has a veeeery nasty UI but I m willing to fight it😂 Do you think that korg i3 is superior to ctx 5000 in midi functions, sequencing, and communication with DAWs? I am a noob on midi stuff and I saw somewhere that Korg i3 can do "MIDI real-time recording" . Is it something special that Casio ct-x 5000 cannot do? Cause everything else is well understood from your quality reviews of Casio ctx 5000.. Thanks

Korg's first foray into the entry-level workstation. Watch out Casio

Hi, I’m a lounge pianist from a small island nowadays quite famous called Funchal… Because of that, being a island access new material and new keyboard is still very difficult… Returning to reason of this message, being a professional musician I once in a while a need to attend bigger party with two singers, for that I use my own arrangements, for many reasons, budget and all, I make them in Midi files, I normally use my own old vintage keyboard Korg IS40, it’s sound very good but it’s very heavy and difficult to transport, and also I not getting any younger… For a while I looked up for portable midi players but there are very expensive… Korg weight makes it very portable… The question is, does it play’s Midi files while I play along piano?… and does its sound any good, off course I know it’s GM2 sounds, but Korg IS40 has one of the best quality GM Sound in the market… Concerning access… Is it easy to access the files on the keyboard?… Does it loads fast from the USB pen drive our it’s better to save it first on the Korg I3 memory bank to make it reasonable fast to the file start playing?… If possible could I send you one our two of my own arrangements for You to try it and check up the sound?… Best regards from Funchal…

Being in the same price range what would you prefer. The Korg I3 or the Medelli Akx-10?

Hi is it capable to play trance sounds like kross 2? I was thinking about getting one of this keyboard either i3 or kross 2 but the sounds I'm looking is similar to x5d.

hello, i have a long time watching your videos because im looking for a piano with hi sound quality and not so expensive like the Yamaha montage series etc.. have you a review of the Numa Compact 2 in mind? it will be great to se a review from you testing the split mode and showing us the low end and also the rest of the feautures of that stage piano.

@Jeremy See, How is the quality of sounds/voices in i3 compared to Yamaha S670 ?

Compare the i3 to medeli akx10, who is the more better due the value for money matter, jer ? Pls advice. Thanks

What is the difference between the korg i3 and the korg kross 2?

Hello sir which ones you recommend the ek 50 or the i3 because I am going to buy myself a keyboard and I hesitate thank you sir

Is this one can read the Set of Pa1000 from Usb ? Thanks.

I have a12 year old PA 500. Would the i3 be an upgrade?

Could you sir please tell me if there is any note cutoff while changing voices assigned to the banks during live playing.In other words there are many expensive keyboards suffer from glitches while changing from electric guitar to piano

What you think about the korg Kross 2?

I can load sound and style from korg pa on usb ?

Can the i3 play back midi files recorded on another device?

Is there program change function through pedal on this keyboard ?

can you have style creator & key assiment... how is output..pls say

is there a video where the engineers and developers themselves demonstrate the synthesizer?

How many indian sonunds and style in this work station?

Does it have (full) chord detection?

Which is better and more recommended sir? Medeli akx10/thomann ak-x1100 or Korg i3. I am planning to buy which of the two should o buy. Thanks for your response sir. GODBLESS 😇😇

Jeremy is the best! You never fail to inspire me with your constant upbeat cheerful videos. Are the sounds basically the same as the ek-50 please. Thank you.

I have problem by korg i3 when I change any voice styles change too please help me

Can you please review some compact fodable keyboard stand .???

Is this better then the korg kross 2?

Hi Jeremy, thanks for your vids. I have one question. Can i create my own rythm on the sequenzer of this keyboard?

Ji jeremy i amgoing to buy a korg. I am not a musician! I'd love play and enjoy. What can i choose? Korg i3 or kross2? Thank you

Is this good for pegasso style?

So the sequencer is quite limited then. No quantization even?!? Thanks for pointing that out.

What would you suggest has the best symphonic sounds between all the arrangers from Korg and Yamaha?

This looks like a modernized Korg M1...which is good!

How does the Casio CT-S500 measure up to this?

Good review and comparison. But from my standpoint the styles is the only thing in an arranger...I own a Kross 2 and it has great sounds.The Daw integration on Kross2??....Well.🙄

I just want a good sounding Keyboard that sounds like a real grand piano, I play in Church is all I need it for..

How to freeze the Rhythm while playing,( eg :when we change tones while playing same rhythm it automatically change rhythm ) how to freeze same rhythm and change tones in live

I hv bought i3 keyboard 2 weeks ago

19:00 I find built in speakers almost a dealbreaker. They make the keyboard so bulky and heavy without adding any value: at home i got headphones and monitors and on stage these aint doing anything anyways

You reviewed a Korg Krome EX one year ago, so you could integrate that model in your comparison too, otherwise nice review, except subtitles which have lots of spelling errors. F.i. every time you say Korg it shows „cork“, lol. As a RU-vidr you can edit your subtitles, helping viewers understand better.

All I want to know is If you had to buy Korg I3 Or Korg Kross 2 Which would you buy

Does it sounds like EK50 or worst than Korg PA300? Based on a few RU-vid videos, I think i30 actually sounds better. Strange. Could it be it has better sound engine, DAC converter and effects? They sound fatter and rich. Good all rounder keyboard with great sound but no fancy features. Perfect budget keyboard for church and busking.

Does korg i3 has key transpose ?

I want to buy korg i3 but i scare about one thing. It is really run on 6 x nimh 1900 mAh - It run all time without turn off ? I have one keyboard who need 12 V like this korg, and it can run on 6 x nimh but when i play and play more hard it turn off. I scare to buy unuseful keyboard. Can you tell me what keyboard is best run on nimh? i read about roland juno ds who need 9 v and run on 8 nimh. What about casio or yamaha?

Jeremy, could you please explain to me what the Korg Krome EX61 has over the Kross 61?

I am amazed that you don't explore this keyboard's unique sequencing feature. You can create an arrangement where the keyboard follows your left hand chords like any other arranger AND THEN you can record this into a sequencer where the parts are divided into (up to) 16 separate tracks. Then you can edit (replace/overdub) those parts so if you don't like their bass part, you can make your own. Or you can add something to it. This is a songwriter's dream because the arrangement is done for you but you can adapt it to your liking. The only problem is that this previously unheard of feature is on a keyboard that does not have high enough sound quality, at least from the videos as I have not played it in person. This keyboard would be a no-brainer steal if the sounds were great. Will Korg or other companies put this feature in other keyboards? Did they already and I just missed it?

This is not a synthesizer so those 2 knobs for adjusting EQ/tone suits to duty...

I don’t know why Korg market this keyboard as a workstation. This keyboard is according to me a half job done. Like you said many important futures are missing and it’s really a confusing model and plus they have comes out with the EK50L model and Kross is decent selling model and value for money. I don’t where this keyboard can stand. Sounds are 100% based on PA50 which is only plus point but there no in-depth editing 😢

Looks like they found a stock pile of weird 90s i3/ Wavestation hybrids in a warehouse. Are they trying to push 90s as vintage, re-issue worthy? So confusing. I can't believe this is new.

Personally I think the chord mode function could be expanded to let you assign your own chord, or as the Pad function in the PA series to support short drum/percussion/arpeggios/groove loops.

Es mejor que el kross 2?? Lo podrías subtitularlo

Useful... Please make a video of style and voice demo.

Casio MX-P1 any good?

RANDY JUDAH TORREZ ❤️ < Personally I prefer The *ROLAND FANTOM 7* and The *KORG TRITON pro*

Not sure if I should get the Kross 2, Yamaha MX 61, Roland Juno-DS61 or the Korg i3. I want to add a Synth for max 600 Euro with good natural sounding instruments like Strings and Choirs. But it must be easy to use. I own a Casio MZ-X500 which is great on layering, effects and Synth sounds, and it is a dream in terms of usability with the touch screen. I also own a Behringer Deepmind 12. I really need some good sounding acoustic Instruments and Choir. Any suggestions?

how much it cost?