# VST or other hardware that compares to a Korg Radias



## dpasdernick (May 18, 2019)

I just bought a used Korg Radias and am in love with it. The problem is that it is pretty beat up. I found it online at a Guitar Center and the photo was pretty small. The guy at the guitar center said it was in "excellent" shape but when I received it the rack ears are folded over on the right side and that makes me believe it may have sustained a serious couple of bangs or more. The Radias does not have removable ears as they are just an extension of the front face.

Anyway this thing sounds so amazing and I got it for a decent price compared to what I see on Reverb and Ebay. Is there a VST that does this multi-layered sequence and arp stuff and sounds as huge? (I have Omni)

I have 45 days to return it and would be kind of bummed but I'm concerned about its lifespan and my ability to resell based on the shape it's in.

Thoughts?

All the very best,

Darren


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## storyteller (May 18, 2019)

Most rack ear bends (from my experience) are from trying to get it in and out of a rack and the screw is jammed. The ear gets bent trying to free it. I had that happen to a Rosetta 200 not too long ago.


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## dpasdernick (May 18, 2019)

storyteller said:


> Most rack ear bends (from my experience) are from trying to get it in and out of a rack and the screw is jammed. The ear gets bent trying to free it. I had that happen to a Rosetta 200 not too long ago.




This looks much worse. Like someone put it in a vise and folded the whole thing over. I am nervous if it was because it was dropped there may be some real problems down the pipe.

Thanks for your reply!


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## Wes Antczak (May 19, 2019)

I have a Radias module as well as a pair of MS2000 r's and they are definitely keepers! To me, part of what makes the Radias so great is the user experience or interface. You can also look at the MS2000, which I think of as the first generation of the Radias concept. It's like a grittier more lo fi version that still sounds great, albeit with much much lower polyphony. (Only four voices on the MS2000.)

There are usually some MS2000 racks on Ebay. There are several Radii as long as you don't mind them coming from Japan. As long as your current Radias is working and as long as you got a good price on it, you can always keep it while you wait for one to pop up on Ebay.


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## storyteller (May 19, 2019)

dpasdernick said:


> This looks much worse. Like someone put it in a vise and folded the whole thing over. I am nervous if it was because it was dropped there may be some real problems down the pipe.
> 
> Thanks for your reply!


I hear ya! Go with your gut for sure. I guess what I’m trying to say is that rack ear bends are typically not from drops... they’re usually manually inflicted. Now where I’d have an issue is that you were sold a device in excellent condition and it isn’t...


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## Mark Schmieder (May 29, 2019)

I actually hated the RADIAS and sold it fairly quickly, after a few months of customizing it and not getting on with its core sound. But I loved it conceptually, along with the interface. I almost wish I had instead kept the MS2K, which had so much personality and graininess, but I was able to recreate my most important patches in the Mono/Poly VI, which shares much of the architectural basis of both hardware synths. I almost feel like it can get you that hyper-digital sound of the RADIAS and also the grainy mid-fi analog sound of the MS2K VA Synth, for the best of all worlds.


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## EvilDragon (May 29, 2019)

Radias is quite special. Nothing in software world sounds quite like it, Mono/Poly is quite far away from it and it doesn't do many, many, MANY of Radias' tricks.


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## Mark Schmieder (May 29, 2019)

Probably true, I didn't still have my RADIAS when the Mono/Poly soft synth came out, but I did still have my patch librarian for the MS2K and a lot of tracks recorded with that synth (plus only a few from the RADIAS), and I am amazed at how hard it is to tell THOSE two apart when I compare versions of the same track recorded with one or the other and do a blindfold test.

Mt primary interest in the RADIAS was the vocoder, as the one on the MS2K was the most versatile available at the time, but a bit TOO grainy, or rather low-resolution in terms of the number of bands offered. The problem with the one on the RADIAS -- which technically is much better -- is that it was far harder to control and get consistent results from, in real time at a live gig, than the MS2K.


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## EvilDragon (May 29, 2019)

Yep it has its own character, definitely. It's quite polarizing indeed, there's no middle ground. But there's nothing else like it.


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## Mark Schmieder (May 30, 2019)

Just to be clear, I was not dissing it -- it just wasn't for me. I know several people involved with its development and have the utmost respect for them, as well as understanding what they were trying to accomplish beyond the MS2K. My favourite part of MS2KB (I upgraded) anyway, was the Vocoder, along with the DWGS waves. I kept this way longer than the JP-8000, which had a huge number of weird glitches but a lovely interface.

Did anything that came after it, retain the DNA or character of the RADIAS (all-caps for some reason)? If so, then maybe Korg (oops, I think that's all-caps too, like VOX), will eventually release soft synth versions like Roland has been doing with several generations of their own tech.


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## Mark Schmieder (May 30, 2019)

For anyone interested, someone made a platform independent application for their RADIAS last year and posted info at Vintage Synth Explorer.

It's a librarian, a MS2000, microKORG, microKORG XL, R3 patch converter and a patch randomizer in one.

You can download it free from http://lipi.atw.hu


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