I am shopping for a good used workstation synth and seriously considering a Korg T1, T2EX or T3EX. I am curious what the major differences are between these three. I am leaning toward the T1 for the 88 weighted keys, and the 3.5 disk drive. Does it have less sounds than the others? What are the benefits (besides size and weight) that the T2EX and T3EX have over the T1? I confess that I am have always been a Roland user, but my boards were stolen from my home studio and I have to start over and decided to go with something different. Thanks for any help!

Hi,

I own a T3EX, and as far as I know there is no difference what so ever between T1,T2 or T3 except that T3 is 61 key and T2 is 76 key and the T1 is 88 WEIGHTED key. All three have two program banks (100 sounds each bank) and one combi bank (100 sounds). All three have an 8 track sequencer with 20000 note capacity. Two midi outs, one midi through and one midi in. All have the 3.5 disk drive. All have the same sound engine, which is the same as the M1 except they added more samples to the T series and the disk drive and an extra bank over the M1.

If there is anything else you need to know, I will try to help and I am sure others would know at least what I know even more.
Good luck.

P.s. I am looking for T3 keys (my D2 key broke and looking for a replacement if anyone can help.)

Forgot to mention that the EX stands for the capabiltiy of your board to load PCM samples (samples formated with DSM module from other keyboards or Sampled from any instrument). The capacity is very small (0.5 MB) nevertheless I find it useful on my T3. So a T3 without the EX does not have that option.

I have also a T3EX, but it have 4 Midiouts.

Apologies , yes there are two midi outs for A and two midi outs for B.

I also own a T3EX and still love it dearly even though most of the labelling has peeled off and it needs a new replacement battery!

It does have 4 midi outs but these are set up as 2x2 outs- ie- 2 outs share 16 channels and the other 2 outs share another set of 16 channels giving 32 midi channels total- this is very handy for hooking up extra gear to use with the T3 without requiring and extra patchbay or using midi thru etc.

The T series are built very solidly- much better than the newer Korg units like the X and N series.

The 8 track sequencer is like the M1's design but also contains 200 patterns and has a 50,000 note capacity and space for up to 20 songs (memory permitting).

The 3.5 inch floppy drive accepts hi density disks only not double density like the newer O, X and N series. You can use the drive to store up to 1 MB of sample ram data plus one bank of program/combination/sequencer data or set it up to store 4 different banks of data without the sampled sounds.

The user interface is really excellent for a keyboard of that time thanks to the large screen and the sounds hold up very well even today. The biggest limitation with the T series synthesis architecture (and all the Korg synths from the M1 right up to the N series) is the very weak sounding digital lowpass filter without resonance. I did a fairly respectable resonance simulation using extreme flanger settings but don't expect squelchy synth sweeps etc from these keyboards.

All 3 boards are the same except for the keyboard length.

You will not regret purchasing a T series keyboard! I will never get rid of mine .

Thanks so much for the info! Can you save & load sequenced tracks on a floppy disk? Also, I have heard that it is not easy to hook up a T synth to an external sequencer, ie Cakewalk on a PC. Something having to do with lack of General MIDI compatibility... with patch numbers and drum mapping, but I have heard there may be ways around this(?) How easy is it to hook up to external sound modules and drum machines and can these external modules be sequenced using the on-board sequencer?

I will never get rid of my T3 either.

As far as sequencing:
1-yes you can save sequenced data to ur disk
2-I have not faced any problems with my T3 on Cakewalk. I use my T3, and I have two other keyboads/modules hooked to it via midi and going through to the Cakewalk on my PC. I have used the 16A and 16B channels nicely to send sounds from my T3 and the other two boards. Yes T3 does not have General Midi but so what?

I am still looking for T3 keys (my D2 is broken and I need to replace it)...any ideas where I can find one? I am willing to buy another working or non working T3 for a good price.