We told you two issues ago about the amazing Triton Music Workstation / Sampler from Korg, and it's no surprise that we've had a tough time keeping them in stock — until now. We've caught up on all the back orders and there are now lots of Tritons starting to show up in our warehouse, which is great news for the thousands of musicians who want the latest, best sounding instruments — and the Triton sure does sound pretty amazing

Maybe one reason is because our own Daniel Fisher was part of the team that created the sounds for this exciting synth. With that in mind, I thought it would be interesting to speak with our erstwhile Director of Soundware Engineering and get the inside story on this advanced instrument from a guy who really knows it. — Bill Hoover

Bill: Okay Dan, I've got my pen and lots of paper, so tell our readers, first hand, what's so great about this machine.

Daniel: No problem, Bill. I could talk about the Triton for days. It's a powerfully inspirational keyboard.

Bill: Maybe you can start off by telling us about the voicing work you did for the Triton and what it was like to interact with Korg USA and Korg Japan.

Daniel: Sure! It was impressive, and very much a world-wide team effort conducted entirely by e-mails and enclosed files. The programming team members were scattered all around the globe in places like Canada, Germany, the US, and Japan — in fact, all my e-mail from Japan addressed me as "Daniel-san." Each of us would electronically submit programming work at various stages of development where it would be gathered by the project heads in Japan and then sent back to the programmers as a collection of everyone's output. Then we'd all take the latest file and continue building from that. It really was an amazing process. Over time you'd get a sense of every programmer's style to the point where you could almost guess who did each Program or Combi. I was also deeply impressed by Korg's commitment to making every knob, every controller, and every switch do something exciting and musical for each and every Program and Combination. I honestly can say I have never seen factory presets that were this fully developed.

Bill: So what part of the process did you enjoy the most?

Daniel: For me, it was making Combinations. That's where the Korg "magic" really happens. Making Programs was fun, but when you start combining multiple Programs, and apply both Arpeggiators for Bass lines and Drum patterns, and then add MIDI-sync'd Delays and other effects, you get goose bumps!

Bill: OK, I get it; you're pumped about the Triton. Any final thoughts?

Daniel: I'd have to say that the Triton has the power to inspire you to play in styles and grooves that you've never even tried before. And the best part is, once you get a groove going in the Combination mode, it's so easy to import all of the elements of that Combi into the Sequencer (even the Arpeggiators!) and just keep going. It's the fastest tool I've ever seen for going from inspiration to presentation.