I love electronic music. I was always drawn to it, even as a little kid. The Moroder driving arps of The Chase or Donna Summer’s I Feel Love just cut into me in ways other genres have not. Michael Cretu’s Enigma MCMXD a.D. album from the late 80s/early 90s is one of the most listened to CDs of my life. Maybe in the thousands of times. I read that in some eastern countries, it was mesmerizing enough to be banned out of concern it was satanic. Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works 85-92 is solely responsible for my econ degree at the University of Texas, looping every night from about 10pm-4am, and calming my brain enough to absorb awful things like econometrics and engineering calculus. Also, on Sunday nights, a local radio station would play this eclectic syndicated electronic music show called Musical Starstreams (shoutout to Forrest in Maui). I never missed it.
So, of course, I’ve always wanted to CREATE electronic music. And after an uninspiring try at Ableton Live and FL Studio, where I would get bogged down with too many options (a problem when you have adult ADD), I stumbled upon Korg Gadget 2 for both iOS and macOS. And, oh my god, is this good software.
It’s not a DAW per se, in the more traditional sense, but you absolutely can create full tracks with it, including samples and effects. It has a mixing console for adjusting levels. And on iOS (a shockingly good platform for creating music, by the way), I can master my tracks by exporting to the app AudioShare and then importing that into the app Grand Finale.
I’m still new to it, but having come from both Ableton and FL, the workflow of Gadget was almost instantaneous to pick up.
And those Korg gadgets. Jesus, do they sound nice.
You see, Korg Gadget has “gadgets” which are really just lighter implementations of full software instruments made by Korg. They strip out all the extra bells and whistles (more likely, they’re just abstracted away from you) and give you some delicious presets that can be adjusted easily and without feeling overwhelmed. And perhaps most importantly, you can start a loop and then tick through each preset on the instrument you’ve selected and hear the loop change instantaneously. Its just so easy to find the right sound on Gadget.
Korg Gadget 2 for macOS is $199 and it includes all the available gadgets (as well as being able to import these gadgets into other DAWs like FL Studio). Korg Gadget 2 for iOS is $40 (a steal, IMO) and includes much, if not most, of the gadgets. Some you still have to buy outright from the app store, such as the iconic Korg Mono/Poly, Korg Polysix, and the Korg MS-20. They’re run you about $30 each. And because I like making synth/retrowave music, the MonoPoly and Polysix are critical purchases to get that 80s vibe.
If I have one gripe, its with the Polysix (not Gadget). The Fat Line Bass preset is the signature 80s driving bass sound, and for whatever reason, Korg doesn’t include it. You have to cycle through the various Polysix bass presets to find a close match, and you can…but still. How do you leave out the Fat Line Bass, Korg?
I;ve always felt you learn best by recreating something you know well. Right now, I’m recreating Timecop1983’s song Dimensions (an absolutely beautiful song created in FL Studio) in Gadget. It surprises me how close I’m able to get to that song with this software.
So if you’re thinking about learning to make electronic music, you have a semi-recent iPad, and you don’t want to give it a go by spending lots of money on a DAW, various plugins, and even some hardware, give Korg Gadget 2 a try.
It really is a beautiful piece of software.
And no, nobody compensating me in any way for this review.
Timecop1983 - Dimensions