MicroKorg XL

I can get one for $350.00

I've wanted a hardware synth forever.. tired of using my mpk25 midi controller.. is it a good choice?

Can I record into Live using it if I wanted to?

The mpk25 is more hands on and knob twisty than the impotent looking microkorg xl. If I needed a cheap hardware fix I would go for the http://meeblip.com/ or https://sites.google.com/site/preenfm/ + mpk25 combo. There are probably some other interesting DIY stuff too. If you ever are playing with your open source synth kit toy and you think "why can't it do that?" then you could probably find someone to pay to code it in for you.

Yeah well I've since sold my mpk25 (lol someone just bought it haha for $200)

MicroKorg XL looks pretty sick though, plus with the live performance I could jam with a few friends now.. rather than having to bring my laptop, messing around with live and so forth..

so I can jam live and produce ;)

ugh, modern Korg synths are the worst. extremely thin sounding, even for digital. I had a Radias for a while and hated it, and I've heard it's sorta the Microkorg's big brother. i'd say save your money for something that isn't a toy, unless a toy is what you want. it's simple and intuitive, sort of an instrument in the classic sense of the word, but I can't see one getting lost for hours programming one (this could be good or bad depending on what you are looking for). personally I want a synth that always has me thinking "hmmm, what would it sound like if I connected this to that?" rather than a basic subtractive synth that has a few presets that try to mimic the run of the mill tones we've all heard a million times. if I were going for simplicity, I'd want it to be of the best quality. a minimoog bassline never gets old ya know? but a basic subtractive patch on a Korg... forgettable.

I thought the microkorg was a slightly downgraded, reshelled ms2000, am I mistaken?

oh. the radias uses the same engine, my bad.

do not buy a fucking microkorg.

for $350 you can get loads of good stuff from ebay/craiglist etc.

what are you looking for in a synth? if this is your first synth i'm thinking you probably want a good all-rounder that you can use to compose complete tunes?

i'd think about maybe getting some kind of groovebox - maybe a Korg EM1 or Roland MC-505 (get the MC-505, not MC-303), or Yamaha RM1x... they're great as first pieces of equipment because you can use them standalone but also easily integrate into a larger setup when/if you get more gear... could use a groovebox to sequence other gear, use it just for drums, whatever...they're versatile and a great way to get into hardware.

  On 7/13/2012 at 11:08 AM, BCM said:

i'd think about maybe getting some kind of groovebox - maybe a Korg EM1 or Roland MC-505 (get the MC-505, not MC-303), or Yamaha RM1x... they're great as first pieces of equipment because you can use them standalone but also easily integrate into a larger setup when/if you get more gear... could use a groovebox to sequence other gear, use it just for drums, whatever...they're versatile and a great way to get into hardware.

This. I started out with an RM1x, I can still put it to use (it's great for jamming actually), you can program beats with it and the synth sounds are usable. The microkorg is just plain bad - you can tell it's cheap even before you play it. It's made so people that aren't familiar with synthesizers are impressed with its overblown presets, but nearly all of them are unusable and sound plasticky and thin. Even if you are an expert at creating patches, it'll be a pain to make something nice with it. Plus the keys are a bitch, so even if you aren't that worried about sound quality, it'll hamper your performance. It really is a toy, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone if they're serious about music.

If you want an inexpensive polyphonic VA synth, I'd recommend the Blofeld. It has a lot more character than almost everything Korg is making right now, and it has a lot of potential even with very little tweaking.

  On 7/13/2012 at 11:51 AM, kokeboka said:

If you want an inexpensive polyphonic VA synth, I'd recommend the Blofeld. It has a lot more character than almost everything Korg is making right now, and it has a lot of potential even with very little tweaking.

this.

Im intrigued. I was gonna make the same thread and since theres been such bad press about the microkorg, someone please tell me more about the mc 505 or link a nice run down video.

plz and thanks

not all that much to tell re: the MC-505, it's basically a ROMpler with a sequencer and FX built in... tweakable sounds, easy-to-use sequencer, lots of fun. i've just got a bit of a soft-spot for it as used to have one (also owned a Korg EM-1). although it's a ROMpler, it has bags of usable sounds (including all the classic TR808/TR909 drum sounds, and a good collection of sounds from a wide range of Roland hardware - old analogue stuff up to more recent gear), it's super-quick to get started on and it's got lots of knobs and sliders for hands-on action.

I got a microkorg in great condition for only $100 from someone I knew... It was a good deal. But at $350 totally not worth it, im just happy with the midi functionality and if I wanted I could sell it for twice the price i bought it for.

There's a lot of other Korg gear that's older and sounds better you could grab for 350.

I have one of these and it does the job; it has 8 note polyphony, eveything is analog except the sampled waveforms (which I actually prefer to VCOs in a polysynth because there's far more options than saw/triangle/square/sine and can be combined to make some crazy sounds), stuff is super easy to edit even though it looks complicated at first, and it sounds pretty good. Along with all the other goodies, aftertouch, velocity, patch memory, etc.

It also has rudimentary MIDI implementation so you could use it as a hardware controller if you want.

It has a couple downsides, like a really effing loud keyboard, but honestly, at ~400 bucks you can't really do better at getting a mostly analog polysynth with a good amount of keys.

i've got an Alesis Micron, it's quite nice. convinced a friend of mine to buy one as well, he got a pretty good deal on it, definitely falls in your price range. not a killer synth by any stretch, but for the price it's pretty damned good.

i used to have a micron, nice little synth and exactly the same as the alesis ion in terms of the synth engine, just doesn't have all the knobs and sliders. i'd definitely take a micron over a microkorg.

I'm still gonna push for the Korg DW 8000. It's grand, I love mine. Not a day of disappointment.

http://www.vintagesynth.com/korg/dw8000.php

  On 7/14/2012 at 11:09 PM, auxien said:

i've got an Alesis Micron, it's quite nice. convinced a friend of mine to buy one as well, he got a pretty good deal on it, definitely falls in your price range. not a killer synth by any stretch, but for the price it's pretty damned good.

  On 7/14/2012 at 11:22 PM, BCM said:

i used to have a micron, nice little synth and exactly the same as the alesis ion in terms of the synth engine, just doesn't have all the knobs and sliders. i'd definitely take a micron over a microkorg.

Does it have the same sort of tweakability for patches that the microkorg seems to have. I just want something that I can fuck with my pads.

oh yeah you can definitely tweak the patches on a micron - has three assignable knobs and two assignable sliders... it's actually pretty easy to knock up pacthes from scratch on it and use it as a "proper" synth, but it just takes a bit more patience and fucking about than with it's big brother, the alesis ion, which has on-board knobs and sliders for almost every parameter.

Only question is, where the fuck can I buy one?

I had a micron for a while. The editing interface is awful, the multitimbral functionality is also awkward, you can't delete patches easily, and the MIDI implementation is generally annoying - way too much reliance on NRPNs, which I guess is the cost of higher resolution.

The effects didn't sound that great to my ears. Also the envelopes were weird - there was this sort of aliased, breathy sound when the attack was really fast.

That said it had some really killer features and other than the envelopes it sounded really good. I especially remember the FM sounding really cool. I might pick up another because the size is great for live use. But I cringe at the thought of trying to edit that thing again, and this is coming from someone who's pretty comfortable with editing the TX81Z from the front panel.

Not sure about the MicroKorg XL. I thought it looked cool conceptually but when I've played with it at guitar shitter it was way clunkier than the manual led me to believe it would be, and the VA engine had the sort of bland, washed out sound I remember the EA-1 having. The kitschiness of it is really attractive though, just the weird shit they threw into it. Like having piano samples in there, and being able to use that within a mod matrix is pretty funny.

I'd echo the above sentiments about used gear. Get a VA from the 90s or an 80s Ensoniq synth/sampler. I still miss my SQ80 sometimes.

Gonna hopefully be picking up a Microkorg today. I was inspired by Dam Funk using at his gigs and figured if its good enough for him then its sure as hell good enough for me! Looking fwd to it ... its gonna be my last purchase for a while I reckon tho. I'm sure I'll get some bate comments from BCM but fuck it lol. I'm getting it for a good price so if it sucks I'll just sell it off for same or a little profit.

i'm buying one, it looks good

i'm saying nothing...

  On 7/24/2012 at 5:11 PM, BCM said:

i'm saying nothing...

Did you own one?

Have had my microkorg almost ten yrs now. Allthough i currently have better synths, i still goto the microkorg from time to time. Its aLso great for throwing in a pack and taking on the road or to a jam. Im a bit of a korg fan tho.