Korg Gadget Review (Nintendo Switch)

It’s never been easier to get into music production than it is today and with software such as Ableton Live and FL Studio, it’s possible to create just about any sounds you can possibly imagine. But for me, here is where a problem lies. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve opened a new project and stared blankly at the screen as the mind boggles with the literal infinite possibilities… They say “limitation breeds creativity” and I definitely think there is something to this.

Korg Gadget for Nintendo Switch is a complete sandboxed production environment featuring 16 virtual synths or “gadgets” as they are referred to, ranging from leads to basses to drum machines, many of which pay homage to iconic boxes of yesteryear in both sounds and looks. The most notable Gadgets for me where the Chicago, an instantly recognisable 303, The Dublin for those rich Moog mono bases, and sample based synth Marseille which is clearly a Nexus clone featuring many classic sounds including the M1 house piano preset which is the definitive classic house and rave piano. The London PCM drum machine comes loaded with presets to emulate all the classics like the Roland 808 and 909, and plethora of sampled kits for just about every genre you could want to create. There are even some great experimental Gadgets like the Kingston, a subtractive synth optimised for the classic 8 bit or “chip tune” sound, and the Kamata, a wave table synth based on Namco’s Custom30 sound chip used in all the classic Namco arcade games of the 80’s!

You’ve clearly got a diverse pallet of sounds to work with but how do we arrange them? The sequencer is more like a classic hardware sequencer than a linear sequencer you’ll be familiar with the likes of Logic or Cubase. It almost a hybrid of Ableton Live Session view and a classic Tracker if you’re old enough to remember those. So you’re work flow is to chose a gadget, add it to the project, select the empty pattern in the first scene, draw in your notation in the piano roll, then add a new scene to create more parts with the same instrument and add more gadget instrument to build your track.

You have to be realistic with the expectations of what you are going to be able to create with this software. It’s not a rival to any of the previously mention DAW’s but it’s certainly more than a toy or curiosity. It’s possible to make some really impressive compositions across a huge variety of genres, and I genuinely had fun working to the limitations of the interface.

The interface is the one part I did struggle with at first with the Switch’s relatively small touch screen and obvious lack of mouse and keyboard, I found myself working with the controller most of the time which felt a little cumbersome at first but once I got used to the shortcuts and tricks such as altering parameters by tilting the controller with motion controls, I starting flying through the menus. It also had to be noted that Korg Gadget is also available on PC, Mac, tablets, phones etc… all of which I understand offer some more robust features for exporting and sharing your projects, and easier to navigate interfaces. But for me, the appeal of this software is the detachment from my studio set up. If I’m writing music in the studio I’ll use my conventional setup, but chilling on the sofa and feeling the creative itch during a game of Mario Odyssey and being about to flip the app to Korg Gadget is a fun and creatively satisfying experience… as can be seen in the amount of hours I’ve spent with the app so far (35+ hours)!

I’d be a little hesitant to recommend this to complete beginners. There is a tutorial in the app to get you started but Korg Gadget does follow a lot of professional production conventions which might not be instantly intuitive, but if you’re prepared to invest some time and watch a few videos on YouTube, I think most people could get value and enjoyment from the app.

In summery I really enjoyed my time with Korg Gadget. Even after fairly long breaks with from the app I keep finding myself coming back to it to scratch that creative itch. More so than any game I have installed. Depending on your attachment to a games consoles you may have a better experience on another platforms like an iPad, but either way I would highly recommend checking out Korg Gadget!