21st century extras

Korg’s CMT standard is really used to full effect here to recreate the sounds of the original synths in exacting detail, but as good as that is, it’s the modern flourishes and additions that make Collection 3 a relevant set of synths for the modern producer.

The plugin pedal effects on miniKORG, for example, really do add necessary dirt and dynamics, and the 2D top-down view plus three screen size options make it a welcome UI for contemporary softsynth users.

With Triton Extreme, the modern twists are there for other reasons: to make this monster synth easy to deal with! You get an ‘Easy’ mode that just has the main parameters on screen, and the (literally) thousands of presets can be navigated by type or character (Bright, Dark, Acoustic, Electric and so on). The old sequencer has been removed, though – you can do all that in your DAW – but the original dual polyphonic arpeggiator is there along with 307 patterns to aid songwriting.

Finally, Prophecy has polyphony and more on display to allow for more scope for experimentation, something you can say about all three plugins.

Modern extras include the ability to show miniKORG in 2D; so much more like a modern synth