Working with Korg Gadget 2

Korg Gadget 2 in Use

Recently I decided to purchase Korg Gadget 2 to use in conjunction with Logic Pro X from my studio. I had been looking for quite a while for the right plugin that would give me a host of new cool and cutting edge sounds. After meeting with the Product Specialist from Korg Luke Edwards who demonstrated the plugin to me, I knew this was perfect for what I wanted.

In general I record real instrumentation at my studio, but I like to enhance the drum kit with samples just to give them that little extra power, normally just on the kick and snare. I have used many plugins over the years to do this, but was shocked at the results Korg Gadget offered.

You have numerous plugins within gadget, with my two favourites being Recife and Gladstone. Recife is more electronic but will sit amazingly underneath a well recorded kick drum, to make it sound absolutely huge. This is the same with the snare.
It’s very easy to scroll through the plugins until you get the sounds you like. I like to add two samples to both kick and snare, one that provides the low end and one to place in the mix very subtly that provides a little high end. Gladstone is a culmination of real sounding drum hits. The samples here are really good and sound very realistic and come in very handy when you get the musician through the doors who just can’t afford a real drummer.

I always like to use real bass, which I record with 3 mics on my Ashdown Bass Rig but it has become very common practice to track bass in modern music with synth bass. Bruno Mars is one fine example. Korg Gadget 2 provides numerous plugins with great sub bass if that is simply what you are looking for. However if you are looking for a more realistic bass sound there are two great plugins on offer. The Madrid plugin offers many different bass sounds which you can effect and add different amp sounds too. I particular like the distorted effect on this plugin. One plugin not to be missed is the Marseille plugin which houses a great fat realistic bass sound which sounds great in conjunction with a real bass or simply for programming.
In real terms you have no shortage of bass sounds with this software.

Throughout all the plugins you are provided with cutting edge synth sounds which you can affect to your own liking. It can be time consuming finding the sounds you like but once you become familiar with what all the plugins do, you generally become much faster at knowing where to look. There are also loads of piano sounds to choose from which I am fully yet to explore but that is next on my list when I’m back in the studio. This is the same for brass, which on first look is more like the 80’s synth type brass sounds.

One plugin nobody can dislike is the Miami plugin. If you need to create a wobble fast and are into your Dubstep then this plugin is perfect and I absolutely love it. At the moment a lot of people ask me for those 70/80s kind of sounds whether it be handclaps, snares, finger clicks etc and for this you have the London plugin. Its just full of old school quirky electronic sounds and basically a plugin that will quickly give the customer what they want.

I could talk all day about this great product from Korg but I think its time for you to explore it for yourself. It’s relatively inexpensive so definitely worth the investment in my point of view.