Korg Microsynth

[Dubious]

greetings.. new to the forum... been reading the mag since waaaaay back i the day (i think i started around issue 5) but been more of a forum lurker

I just borrowed a Korg Mikrosynth for the last month or so with the intent of checking it out before buying it.

my criteria were i was looking for a good complement to my Roland sh-32 (which was rolands tabletop analogue modeling synth) and also somethign with less bells and whistles for my wife to play with live (she finds the sh32 a tad too airplane cockpit with all its lights and zillions of knobs / sliders)

the vocoer while fun is almost impossible to get many usable sounds from.. i tried numerous mics but vocdoder is very very sensitive and distorts rather easily... got a couple cool things recorded from it but nothing to write home about.. if you looking for Roger Troutman you're gonna need a talk box.

the presets are pretty good... definatly good building ponts.. the pads are universally very lush / round and metallicy.. all korg trademarks.. very very musical.

the arpeg is also excellent... again very musical in that classic analogue synth manner.

the bass tones are very korg... metallic and heavy with a nice roundness to them
overal li found the sounds very nice, round and realistic and with a rather "dark" tone overall.

however i think the programming on this sucker is just very irritating..one knob prameter editing is just really really irritating.. you need to have the manual beside you al lthe time as everything is so buried in the menus. setting the arpeggiter for example.. why they couldnt put a tap on there is beyond me. i think the sacrifices to the panel layout lead you to rely on the presets as twiddling more than just the res / freq requires endless menu scorlling to find the parameters you want.

additionally i found the sound to not sit particularly well in the mix... this is a personal thing of course... i do disco / dance / new wavey rock type shit with live bass ./ guitars and usually real drums ... i think the micro is a bit too lo mid rangey and dark to really kut thru the mix well in this case... obviously cats like the neptunes bust this thing out al lthe time. .but their music is crisper and more digital at its core and thus the midrangeyness of the mikro adds a nice warmth to the proceedings.

the basses for example while excellent don't tend to cut thru well on their own.. and thus i tended to use the thing mainly for subs, pads, and layered sounds.

compared to my sh32 id go with the roland any day.. its much more "nasty" "piercing" nd just down right ballsier.. the volume is much loader on the output and you can drive the thing to distortion very easily.. in a musical satisfying way.

if your into more IDM / boards of canada layered type steeze then the mico might be for you.. if you want a more cutting acid / DFA type sound the roland is the way to go... and at $199 (if theyre still even around on musiciansfriend) the roland is a RETRARDED good deal... the front panel has got knobs for everything.. its 32 voice poly and the arp / effects are tap tempo controlled.. no ext inputs though.

personally i think the mikro is over priced for what it offers and as a result im taking a pass on it.. its a fun tool and definalty useful but compared to my roland i find it limited and not as much personallity out of the box. im very intrigued by the alesis micron though.

my 2 cents

[Brian Brock]

Funny. I find the presets rather cheezy on the Microkorg, but I love programming it - mind you, I'm not a big synth-head, so I might not know what I'm missing.

The first thing I did to the Microkorg was decide which preset bank I could least tolerate, (it was number two, like "techno - wiz - bang" or something), erased every patch but three (one has an awesome arpeggiated thing that is synced up to like an LFO thing that makes even the unarpeggiated patch sound like a rythm machine), and started out with sawtooth waves. I have some SICK shit going on with that thing, let me tell you.

b

[theenvycorps]

for kid a type sounds, id get something old-ish... but polyphonic... like an ensoniq ESQ1 or something wierd like that... maybe a sequential circuits SIX TRAK or something... i was messing around with one of those and i swear i got the 'everything in its right place' sound. the only problem with alot of those synths is the programming interface is kinda shitty... i don:t mind them, but you gotta be cool with cryptic menus and entering numbers and shit like that. no knob twiddling...

john

Yeah, I've used the Sequential Circuits one before and loved it, but only got to use it for a day. I think Everything In It's Right Place was on a Prophet, isn't that similar? I'm looking for something easy and digital but still with that old school sound...

[inverseroom]

I believe the MS2000 and Microkorg are identical inside, but the Micro is harder to program. Same with the Ion and Micron...although the Micron has extra bells and whistles, like reverb and delay, drum patterns, and an arpeggiator (though the latter is weirdly implemented). If you don't mind trading programming ease for extra portability, you get the little ones.

As far as I can tell, both the Micron and Microkorg are awesome for the money.

[apropos of nothing]

I've got an Ion, and I've played around with the MS2000 and the MicroKorg, as well as the Micron.

All good synths.

The only thing I'll mention is that on the reliability tip, there is none. These are all prosumer synths, and the sacrifice that you make for the price-tag is that you gotta expect they'll wind up in the shop sometime.

That said they all make some waycool sounds. For someone who wants to learn analog synth-programming, either the Ion or the MS2000 would be very good. Programming on the both the MicroKorg and the Micron sux0rz. But if you're either A) hardcore and don't care, or B) just want to play with presets, either of the cut-down versions are fine too.

I don't know for a fact, but I would be very surprised if the Microkorg was not the same sound-engine as the MS2000. They do sound very similar, and it would be retarded for Korg to spend more R&D $ when they have a product that does the requisite tricks.

I love my Ion. Filters are a little digitally for me, but most people aren't going to notice or care. More or less an aesthetic thing anyway.

I've got to take it in for keybed cleaning number two (one for each year I've had it), cuz middle-G and high C# are out. I don't think my hands are that dirty, and I'm pretty careful with it when I take it out of the house. Cheapcheapcheap.

[kdownes]

i love my micro korg.
i find it to really come in handy when one of the bandmembers cant sit still
and shut up during mixing. this thing keeps them quiet for hours.

ive also had luck duct taping down the corresponding key to the song we were
tracking and setting the vocoder next to the drum kit... trippy.

[apropos of nothing]

ive also had luck duct taping down the corresponding key to the song we were tracking and setting the vocoder next to the drum kit... trippy.

Nice!

Vocoder is about the most under-utilized effect available. There are twenty million and one things you can do with it that are way cooler than saying "domo arigato..." through a ring-modded osc. I like to use it as a variable filter on guitar lines. Much cooler than a wah-wah. (...Being x many fixed filters run in parallel rather than a single resonant LPF.)

[toothpastefordinner]

an awesome way to use the vocoder is to send drum sounds (or anything rhythmic) into the formant (microphone) input... drum machines sound nice and robotic, and real drums sound pretty sweet too.