The Synth Thread...

[Zork]

Oh, that looks interresting!
I found myself preferring more "vintagey" synth sounds so it's probably not for me but cool nonetheless.

[mackerelmint]

Leaked via a Reverb ad yesterday but now has legit links.

https://www.arturia.com/products/hardw ... ak/details

Microfreak with real keys and 6 voice polyphony. I got tired of waiting on behringers big analog polys so I preordered one of these.

Too bad the aftertouch isn't poly anymore! It was pretty odd how it had those capacitive keys w/ the poly aftertouch.

I'm still holding it in a knot for the UB-XA.

[Shadoweclipse13]

In the last 2 or 3 weeks, I've read an article and watched the corresponding video from Reverb, and now several other videos, about Korg microKorg synths. I know that I'm quite new to the synth thing, but I didn't remember hearing about them much around here.

I'm intrigued and like what I hear. The versatility of them is really cool.

Anyone have one?

[Zork]

Yes. Mine looks a bit different, though:



I love it. It is very versatile, the matrix is okay to work with (once you got used to it) and it sounds very nice, indeed. I'm a bit emotionally biased since it was my first synth, though.


Cons are only four voice polyphony, the horrible keybed and not enough knobs to spontanously tweak your sound.

I replaced my microKorg eventually with a Novation K-Station in my live setup because I really wanted more hands on control (gimme more knobs!) and full size keys. The Novation is also very nice by the way, but I sold it to buy a Moog Sub37 which is now my live synth. The Korg gets still a lot of use in production work, though. It's just a great little synth. I actually know quite a few people who eventually got really fancy synths but still use their old microKorg on a regular basis for certain things.

[tammyw]

Speaking of the microKorg, does anything have a better easy to use vocoder? I don't currently have one, but I was thinking I'd like to use a vocoder for something this year, and I know the microKorg totally nails it, but I wanted to see if there was anything new out there, and just couldn't find anything to top it.

[Zork]

Microfreak can do vocoder but I don't know if it's better than microKorg. The Boss VO-1 could be fun, too.

[Sauerkraut]

In the last 2 or 3 weeks, I've read an article and watched the corresponding video from Reverb, and now several other videos, about Korg microKorg synths. I know that I'm quite new to the synth thing, but I didn't remember hearing about them much around here.

I'm intrigued and like what I hear. The versatility of them is really cool.

Anyone have one?

They're fine. Considering what they cost, I think they sound great. I upgraded to a Minilogue for two reasons: if you're a little more ambitious and want to change presets, you're going to have to do a lot of menu-diving with the Microkorg. It's not much fun. The software is really bad. I actually couldn't get it to work. So being new to synths, I ended up not really understanding what I was doing half the time. On the Minilogue, everything's right there in front of you, so it's much easier to get a grasp of the basics of synthesizers. That and OG Microkorgs have seriously terrible preset selector buttons, which aren't much of an issue for home use, but in live situations can be very annoying.

My girlfriend just bought a Microkorg XL. It has a different engine, but sounds great too and it has a more intuitive lay-out, better buttons and 8-voice polyphony. Well worth it in my opinion, especially considering you can find them for the same or just a little more money than the OG used.

Btw, you can find excellent presets for these here.

[Maggieo]

In the last 2 or 3 weeks, I've read an article and watched the corresponding video from Reverb, and now several other videos, about Korg microKorg synths. I know that I'm quite new to the synth thing, but I didn't remember hearing about them much around here.

I'm intrigued and like what I hear. The versatility of them is really cool.

Anyone have one?

I've got one, it's a blast. Honestly, I like it better than the OP-1. And if it's good enough for LCD Soundsystem, it's good enough for me.

[mackerelmint]

In the last 2 or 3 weeks, I've read an article and watched the corresponding video from Reverb, and now several other videos, about Korg microKorg synths. I know that I'm quite new to the synth thing, but I didn't remember hearing about them much around here.

I'm intrigued and like what I hear. The versatility of them is really cool.

Anyone have one?

Yeah, dude. They're the greatest digital synth of all time.

Not because they're the best, but because they're dirt cheap and can cover pretty much any sound. Cheap keys, no knob per function, and only 4 voices of polyphony, but the Korg 2000(?) is its big brother that has none of those shortcomings. And they're certainly the best selling synth of all time. If the keys break, you can chop it down and make a desktop unit of it and it looks right. The perfect sidepiece synth for a guitarist or bass player. They're absolutely the coolest thing going, and have been in production for 20 years!

[Zork]

Yeah, dude. They're the greatest digital synth of all time.

Sums it up perfectly.

[mackerelmint]

Yeah, dude. They're the greatest digital synth of all time.

Sums it up perfectly.

It's cool to see others agreeing with me on this. It's a synth with its share of detractors, but... what can't it do?

They're easy to find used for cheap, sound amazing, are easy to learn, and just get the job done. There's never been any more accessible hardware synth. It's the people's synthesizer. At some point korg will stop making them, and about 10 years after that, they'll become more popular than ever, with all the fanfare, but probably without the price going up much.

[Zork]

Kind of like the MS-20 before, right? A true synth for the people in its time and there are still so many around that prices only creep up very slowly. And it's one hell of a synth, too! Korg is just an awesome brand. Has anyone seen Alex Ball's Korg retrospective on youtube? It's both very entertaining and informative.
https://youtu.be/v7hqDRmx3yI

[mackerelmint]

Kind of like the MS-20 before, right? A true synth for the people in its time and there are still so many around that prices only creep up very slowly. And it's one hell of a synth, too! Korg is just an awesome brand. Has anyone seen Alex Ball's Korg retrospective on youtube? It's both very entertaining and informative.
https://youtu.be/v7hqDRmx3yI

Yes, well said. Alex Ball is such a youtube treasure, and I've absolutely watched his Korg retrospective. Korg IS an awesome brand. They just keep doing great things, and 9 times out of 10, when some new piece of synth gear comes out and I'm immediately like "OMIGOSHINEEDTHAT", it's a Korg.

[fortytwo]

Kind of like the MS-20 before, right? A true synth for the people in its time and there are still so many around that prices only creep up very slowly. And it's one hell of a synth, too! Korg is just an awesome brand. Has anyone seen Alex Ball's Korg retrospective on youtube? It's both very entertaining and informative.
https://youtu.be/v7hqDRmx3yI

Yes, well said. Alex Ball is such a youtube treasure, and I've absolutely watched his Korg retrospective. Korg IS an awesome brand. They just keep doing great things, and 9 times out of 10, when some new piece of synth gear comes out and I'm immediately like "OMIGOSHINEEDTHAT", it's a Korg.

If you liked that one, you should check out his ARP one, if you haven't already.

[Shadoweclipse13]

I ordered some server racks for the pedals themselves, and some rack rails so I can build my own rack/cabinet. I'm so excited to start messing with this it's not even funny.

So, how's it going with the project?

Since the wedding has passed, and we finally got the house back together and cleaned after getting back from our European honeymoon, I finally some time to work on this! I had some edge-glued wood from a board game shelf that I built a few years ago (which I decided to go a different way with, and disassembled), so that's what I used for this project. I cut enough wood for 2 cabinets (one for the pedals, and one for the other rack modules) down to 14" wide. I finally bought some short (6U) rack rails for the upper cabinet (the one for the other rack modules), so, then I can finish putting the second rack together. But for now, until those come and I finish building the other cabinet, I just put all my modules into this one...





Now I just need a ton of patch cables to go from the back of the patchbays (still need 2 more) to the pedals themselves. I ordered some pedalboard tape from The Gig Rig this morning, and have a couple new pedals on the way as well, so I will have to mess around with pedal order. Having to mess with efficient order and layout on the sliding server rack shelves, making patch cables, and hooking up power supplies, sounds like a really fun winter project