The PS-3200 is truely a monstruous synth. It's an eye-catching, impressive looking instrument. Full polyphony, modular options and programmability all packed in beautiful high-quality hardware. Seems to be every one's dream synth.

Is this true? However, many PS-user rate the PS-3200 as the best of the bunch. That's a serious indicator, as far as many of those user directly compare the synth with its smaller brother PS-3100 and even with the monster-synth PS-3300.

General construction - a step ahead of the PS-3100
Today's PS-3100 usually don't appear in perfect cosmetic condition, not at all! That's simply due to the instrument's weak overall construction. As this instrument is built in one huge piece, it's not easy carrying or moving the PS-3100 without knocking its wooden corners. Beside that the wooden construction itself seems to be weak...

The PS-3200 is far better designed: keyboard and synth are seperated and therefore problems of transportation are solved. Further, the synth offers nice handling grips which are lovely implemented into its wooden construction. So handling the PS-3200 is far easier. Beside that the wooden construction is - compared to the PS-3100 - simply of much higher quality. Still it's no massive wood, as to be found on the lovely prophet-5. But the construction is very solid, well-made and therefore a real advantage compared to the PS-3100.

Interesting detail: when opening the PS-3200's backside, a power-supply labelled "PS-3300" appears. This makes clear that not only the wonderful PS-3010 keyboard was taken from the massive predecessor, but the whole PS-3200 was constructed rather as a scaled-down version of the the PS-3300...

PS-3010 - beautiful keyboard
This control-unit is simply unique. It offers much higher quality than the PS-3100 keyboard, is smooth to play, feels great. It's clearly visible: PS-3100 and PS-3200 were constructed in different classes of hardware quality. Certainly knobs and metal construction are the same, but at least the 3200's wooden frame and keyboard are well above the smaller brother...

The real bonus is the lovely joystick. It's pleasant to use, offers unique possiblities of musical expression. Sadly the massive aluminium wheel of the PS-3100 offers only one-axis modulation possiblities - as all wheels do. A Joystick would fit perfectly to the nice overall features even of the smaller PS-synth.

Compared with other joysticks - like the one to be found on the Synthex - this PS-3010 joystick again is of unbeatable quality. Well-dimensioned, heavy metal, feeling good and perfect to use. By the way it offers modular outputs, so its modulation destinations are not determined as on the Synthex...

Finally the MOMENTARY-switch is another Rollce-Royce-unit. A real huge button compared to the tiny switch found on the MS-20, huge compared to the PS-3100's switch.

Honda goes Keyboard - PS-3001 60Pin-Connector and its history
Just a few words around history and production of this cable...

It's clear what you need it for: connecting a PS-3300/3200 with the PS-3010 keyboard. Or connecting the PS-3100 with the same keyboard (as recommended in the original PS-3100 users manual to "extend musical expression").

The remote-programmer of the PS-3200 equally uses this connector, so... the cable is quite important!

Finally it's used for linking some PS-instruments in a row. You've got a few PS-3100 at home? Take the optional junction box, a handful of 60Pin cables and connect them all together, no problem...

[There is one famous pictures showing Keith Emerson sitting in front of a PS-3300 (which sits on top of a PS-3100) - connected via the PS-3001 cable...]

Why I'm telling this story? The original connectors are not available any more, that's the point...

Pic: PS-connector made by Honda. All pins are labelled with numbers...

The 60Pin connectors were made by Honda. They were constructed and used way back in the 50ies... originally they served as telephone cables in Japan... However, Korg decided to use this specific type of connector for its PS-range. That was not a bad decision at all: the cables are of high quality, very solid, real good hardware...

So far everything looks perfect... but end of the 90ies Honda quit part of its connector-program. Sadly the specific 60Pin-connector was not produced any more.

How can you connect two PS-3100 these days without proper cable? (Certainly there are other solutions by using new bus-connections...). Well, PS-user are lucky, as Hirose went on reproducing part of Hondas cable program. Hirose series Minicon 1300 offers a 60Pin connectors that equals the original Honda one. They do look a bit different, but the Hirose substitute works out well... Certainly the equivalent sockets are available as well...

Pic: waveforms control knob of LFO1

Therefore I can highly recommend every PS-owner to buy a sort of "connector survival-kit". This might not be too expensive, and who knows - maybe Hirose decides one day to quit this part of it's production line, just as Honda did...

In the meantime it's not sure if Hirose still produces the Minicon 1300 series. Feel free to contact us for any new information you figured out...

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Back to musical aspects of the PS-3200...

PS-3200 and its conceptional changes: benefit or hazard?
First I have to be honest: my personal favourite synth is the smaller PS-3100. So the massive PS-3200 needs to be at least of the same strong musical character...

In my opinion both instruments are more different than they first seem to be...

Have a look at the PS-3100 review... some groundbreaking differences are discussed there...

Pic: Sample/Hold and LFO1 (synchronization switch for speed)

PS-3100 contra PS-3200

Certainly this sort of listing gives you no idea what the PS-3200 really sounds like...

Musical aspects:

Conclusion
Well, there are some plusses and some minuses. First I was disappointed of the PS-3200, as the tonal character of the PS-3100 is not reached. After a while I recognized that the middle instrument of the PS-range is a rather different synth with its own musical qualities. Its warm and deep padsounds are brilliant due to two VCOs and the variable chorus. You get nice and very natural sounding leadvoices by using the pleasant joystick (controlling filter and, lets say attack time at once...). Aggressive and mad musical textures are easier to be found on the PS-3100...

Pic: in my opinion the smaller Korg PS-3100 is the better sounding instrument...

Finally the programmability is in many people's opinion the big advantage of this instrument. So, if you've got a big wallett, and if your studio offers enough room, you might be happy with both synths - the PS-3100 and PS-3200...