I've just begun a 5 day countdown until I get my new synth workstation:
The Korg M50!
* cue "aaaaah" voice *
I'm getting a 73-key version, six octaves, for a very specific reason:
- I simply cannot survive with a piddly five octaves
- Though I would love to have the full 88-key version, it comes with weighted keys and thus makes the whole rig quite heavy. I wanted something light; I'm not known to have impressive upper body strength, really.
And isn't she gorgeous.
It's been a veritable NIGHTMARE trying to get one of these babies into India. None of the online stores ship to India. I tried contacting Korg's India distributor in Bombay, who told me that they didn't have it in stock, but they could order one for me. I asked how long it'd take, and they said "well, it'll take about 4 months for Korg to process it"
What.
The.
.
4 months? My vacations will be long over by then! (Well technically they'd be just over, but I don't want to brag). I tried a couple of other ways - tried sourcing it from within Bangalore... turns out they also would take 4 months. Blah.
I settled on a retail store in Manchester, UK. I'd wire them money via bank transfer, and then get DHL to pick it up from the store. One hiccup - the price was a ridiculous 1250 GBP. I could have gotten it for as many dollars from the US online stores and saved about 40 grand (in rupees). So Dad suggested we do buy it from a US online store and have it sent to one of our relatives. Turns out DHL charges practically the same for a shipment from the US as it does from the UK. So that's what I did!
SweetWater did a brilliant job of delivering the M50 to my relatives. It was done in a day and a half, which is remarkable given that shipping within the US is FREE (subsidized by SweetWater themselves). No strings attached.
I'm waiting now for DHL to pick it up and bring it to India... we estimate that it'll take until Friday to get here, so 5 days to go!
I wanted to review the Korg M50 in this post, but since I don't have it yet, it'll have to wait until monday! I'll be boring everyone who isn't into gadgety stuff, but what the heck. I doubt more than 10 people in the world read this blog on a regular basis anyway!
See ya!
~ Advait
