From atteanwi@atc.mil.seWed May 10 09:06:25 1995 Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 10:15:46 +0000 From: Anders Wikholm To: Simon Swain Cc: analogue@hyperreal.com Subject: Re: Trident Mk II > I have been offered one of these for sale. I love it, esp. the flanger. > can anyone tell me a bit about it, and is there any way on earth of > modding it -> externally controlling it > > Simon > The Tridents are eight voice synth/brass/strings combination instruments, with separate outputs. The brass and the strings are actually using one of the synth oscillators with some waveshaping. The instruments can be split over the keyboard, but the splitpoint is fix. Synth and strings are completely polyphonic (except for the bowing effect on the strings). The brass voices share a common filter. The synth part is very basic. Two oscillators (one with saw, pulse, and pwm with speed and depth, the other with saw only), one ADSR EG (the MK-II has two ADSR's), and resonant filter. Vibrato isn't programmable, and works for the whole instrument. You can set an amount with delayed start, or use the joystick. The joystick works so well that it actually lets you do vibrato with the bend function if you have a fast left hand. The strings has a separate LFO for vibrato, but is also affected by the general vibrato. The MK-I stores 16 programs and the MK-II 32. With stretched tuning and three different sounds at once the tridents are capable of some very fat sounding chords. Wine Country sells a midi kit for the tridents. Since the market for these are rather limited they are pretty expensive. I haven't tried it. There are some CV input jacks for external control. You can independently control the volume of the strings, brass and synt. You can also control the filter frequency on the synt. The brass has inputs for trigger and filter frequency. I usually trigger the brass from a drummachine, and modulate the synt-filter with one envelopegenerator on a Korg MS-20. Go ahead and buy it. I've played my MK-I for at least two hours every day since I bought it 1982 (for a hefty 17.000 sek) and I still love it. The only service needed in all these years has been an adjustment of the stretched tuning and a replacement of a blown fuse. :-) /AW ------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Wikholm aka MOULIN NOIR "Follow the music to it's source with KORG" (Silly sticker from the good old days when KORG made interesting instruments.) ------------------------------------------------------------- From atteanwi@atc.mil.seWed May 10 10:29:16 1995 Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 18:47:10 --100 From: Anders Wikholm To: analogue@hyperreal.com Subject: RE: Trident Mk II > >Does anyone know the difference between the Mk II and original Trident? >How can you tell the difference, externally? > >RM > It was long ago I actually saw a MK-II, but here it goes as far as I can remember: TRIDENT DIFFERENCE TABLE ------------------------------------------------------------------ Funcion MK-II MK-I ------- ----- ---- External heat sink yes no Marked "MK-II" yes no Program locations 32 16 Programmable volume yes no Number of ADSR EG:s in synt 2 1 "Grab the knob and edit a stored program" yes, and only detune and it's possible fine adjustment to store as new of filter frequency program ------------------------------------------------------------------ Anyone out there with a MK-II who can correct this? /AW (MK-I owner) ------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Wikholm aka MOULIN NOIR "Follow the music to it's source with KORG" (Silly sticker from the good old days when KORG made interesting instruments.) ------------------------------------------------------------- From atteanwi@atc.mil.seThu May 11 10:58:58 1995 Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 18:01:00 --100 From: Anders Wikholm To: analogue@hyperreal.com Subject: Re: Korg Trident >Good morning! > > Anybody familiar with Korg Trident? What is it? Can anybody describe its > architecture, sound etc? > > Thanks! > > J:L Here's a new transmission from the raving mad "KORG TRIDENT is the greatest instrument ever" lobbyist: Korg Trident is a combination instrument from the days before midi. Eight voice analog programmable synt, eight voice string machine, eight voice brass synthesizer and a flanger in a rather big box. Each has a separate output. The synth is very basic, 2 osc per voice, VCF with resonance, one ADSR EG (MK-I) and not many modulation routings. Sounds great. The strings are marvelous. The brass are mostly usable for filter clicks, percussive sounds and decent 303 imitations. The eight brass voices share a common filter and ADSR EG. The instrument uses stretched tuning. The sound? Assign the synth to the flanger with a chorus setting and pan it hard left, pan strings hard right, trigger the brass from a drummachine, take a two fisted chord and you have a massive shimmering soundwall. Not much bottom in the sound, so it's very different from the oberheims, prophets, jupiters, memorymoog and such stuff. This instrument isn't used on any records I know of (except mine). Since I have received frequent questions about trident lately I'll type in the complete specification some day soon... /AW ------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Wikholm aka MOULIN NOIR "Follow the music to it's source with KORG" (Silly sticker from the good old days when KORG made interesting instruments.) And just when I said that they came up with the OASYS... ------------------------------------------------------------- From atteanwi@atc.mil.seSun May 14 13:07:28 1995 Date: Sun, 14 May 1995 20:33:44 +0000 From: Anders Wikholm To: analogue@hyperreal.com Subject: Korg Trident specification Well here is (almost) everything about my favourite instrument. Since I'm behind a silly firewall I can't upload it to music.machines. The possibility that someone don't know this is very unlikely but here are the used abbreviations: (LFO-Low Frequency Oscillator, EG-Envelope generator, VCF-Voltage Controlled Filter, VCA-Voltage Controled Amplifier, VCO-Voltage Controlled Oscillator, PWM-Pulse Width Modulation.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- KORG TRIDENT SPECIFICATION ----------------------------------------------------------------- Two models were made MK-I (1982) and MK-II (?). There is a probability I've forgotten something about MK-II but I believe the main differences described here are correct. >From the manual: "This remarkable instrument provides the variety and flexibility of a stack of several keybords, all packed into one. It's a super polyphonic ensamble featuring memory equipped 8-voice polyphonic synthesizer plus brass plus strings. And you can assign each section to the upper 3 octaves or the lower two octaves of the full 61 key keyboard as you like. For added convenience, the trident is equipped with a built in flanger, joystick, presets and multiple interface jacks." Rear panel: =========== Memory protect on/off Interface jacks: Total expression (0..+5 V) Expression strings (0..+5 V) Expression brass (0..+5 V) Expression synthe (0..+5 V) Brass VCF FcM in (-5..+5 V) Brass trig in (GND) Synthe VCF FcM in (-5..+5 V) Synthe damper (GND) Outputs: Strings Brass Synthe Mix out high Mix out low Front panel =========== Flanger: -------- Knobs for speed, feedback, intensity and manual. Buttons for selecting input: synthe, brass or strings. Only one of these can be sent to the flanger. Synthesizer: ------------ VCO-1 has knobs for scale (16', 8', 4'), waveform (saw, square, pw and pwm), PW/PWM and PWM speed. VCO-2 has knobs for scale (off, 16', 8' and 4'), and detune. The waveform is saw only. A detune memory switch (on/off) allows you to adjust the detune in the stored programs. VCF has a switch for keyboard track (off, half and full) and knobs for cutoff freq, resonance and EG intensity (both positive and negative). A non programmable knob cuttof freq fine allows adjustment of the stored programs. Solo release switch (non programmable). When this is on only the last note in a serie gets the set release time. The manual says it's useful for solo playing. VCA has a switch for EG mode. Either the EG controls the VCA or it's on/off when you press a key like an organ. EG has knobs for attack, decay, sustain and release. (The MK-II has two EG's the MK-I only one.) Programmer: Stores 16 programs. Buttons for program 1..8, bank A and B, programmer write and manual. You edit in the manual mode and the store the program. Unfortunately you can't edit the stored programs with the exception of detune and filter frequency mentioned above. (The MK-II stores 32 programs and allows editing of the stored programs. It also has programmable volume.) Presets: Buttons for piano 1, piano 2 and clav. These can be altered if you adjust trim pots inside. Brass ----- Buttons for scale (16' and 8'), multiple trigger and trigger select. Trigger select has a knob silence note (2, 4, 6 and 8). This determines how many keys you have to press before the brass sounds if the trigger select button is on. The VCF has knobs for cutoff freq, resonance and EG intensity (positive only). EG has knobs for attack, decay, sustain and release. All eight voices share the same VCF and EG. Strings ------- Buttons for scale (16', 8' and 4'), bowing, vibrato off and ensamble off. Vibrato has knobs for delay time, intensity and speed. EG has knobs for attack and release. The filter (called equalizer) has knobs for high and low frequencies and keyboard balance. The bowing effect has knobs for tone and level. All voices share the same bowing effect. General ------- Strings, brass and synthe has separate on/off buttons and volume controls. Joystick/LFO has pitch bend in x direction, vibrato in y-positive and trill in y-negative. There are knobs for intensity and speed. The joystick always affects the whole instrument. Delay vibrato uses the same LFO as the joystick. It has a knob for intensity and a delay vibrato button (on/off). The instrument uses stretched tuning. In reality the brass and strings use one of the synt vco's for the soundgeneration, but they still feel like separate instruments. Weight: 21 k. Dimensions: 1012 (W) x 52 (H) x 524 (D) mm. Personal view from the raving mad "Korg Trident is the best synth ever" lobbyist. ================================================================== I've owned a Trident MK-I since it came 1982. It's still the synthesizer I spend most time playing. The tuning is extremely stable after a while. Overall the quality is very good. The service required since 1982 is one blown fuse and an adjustment of the stretched tuning. The joystick is the most playable modulation device I've yet encountered. The sound can best be described as shimmering and fat, but not with much bottom. A perfect tool for making massive soundwalls with big chords. The synth is rather limited, but sounds extremely good. The strings are marvellous. The brass synthesizer isn't exactly usable for brass simulations, but handy for percussive sounds, filter clicks and decent 303-like bass. The flanger is very good but rather noisy. All three instruments in this box are good, but when used together it's magic. Add a drummachine with trigger outs, a Korg Ms-20 and... ...oooooops, I almost told you the trade secret behind the Moulin Noir sound there..... I wouldn't trade it for anything, not even a Matrix-12. (Well I would, but then I would sell the M-12 and buy a MK-I and a MK-II and have enough money left for a marion as well. The M-12 goes for fantasy prices here.) Since the tridents are underrated in most markets they are ridicilously cheap. In sweden they often go for as low as 2500 sek. (The original pricing in sweden was 19 995 sek for MK-I and 29 995 for MK-II. One usd is somewhere around 7.50 sek now.) /AW ------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Wikholm aka MOULIN NOIR "Follow the music to it's source with KORG" (Silly sticker from the good old days when KORG made interesting instruments.) And just when I said that they came up with the OASYS... -------------------------------------------------------------