BOOcast - Synth of the Month: Korg MicroKorg

[@mattsavino5223]

Omg this is such a great in depth video. I pulled out my Microkorg after like 3 years. ❤ Thanks

[@BOOelectric]

Thank you very much! Give that ol' MicroKorg some love!

[@arcadeapocalypsemusic]

Hahaha LOVE the vintage labelmaker stickers on the "genre knob"! I put them on mine too but turned it into an instrument knob (bass,leads,strings, etc)

[@practicetracksdmc]

Plugged my microkorg in last week after having it leaning against the wall for many years. I was surprised how much fun it was to play much better than I remembered. Great synth

[@dfreeman120]

Sounds great for any style

[@TheDungeonDive]

I love this synth so much. I’ve been playing synths since the early 90s, and this is still one of my favorites. So inspiring.

[@BOOelectric]

Yes, I feel a bit bad for neglecting mine so long... It's out in the open now though!

[@909revolution]

Still great, still sounds fresh !

[@kierenmoore3236]

8:15 the wobble on that knob is mesmerising 😵‍💫

[@BOOelectric]

You should see it fall off. Heartstopping!

[@matred3538]

Thanks loads. I've finally started trying to make my own patches because your video finally made it seem not so much hassle. Thanks again for making it seem a bit more straightforward. 👍

[@BOOelectric]

Thank you very much, that's great!

[@matred3538]

@@BOOelectric I've got a handful of kind of usable patches sorted out already. Thanks to your calm and straight forward explanation of the Microkorg interface. I just slowly work my way through the dials. And then spend time tweaking when I'm done. As you said, it's kind of quite straightforward once you've done it a couple of times.

[@BOOelectric]

I'm always pleasantly surprised when I return to the MicroKorg... I suppose it is a bit one-step-at-a-time programming, but it's certainly not the roughest experience in the world! Keep building those patches, sir!

[@Hazochi]

Absolutely incredible video. I have to get one!

[@BOOelectric]

Go for it!

[@Unfunny_Username_389]

0:25 - at least three things: Akai S20 sampler - still going strong. Roland XP-60 - ditto. Yamaha DJX - roflz. But it, too, still going as it should. I absolutely want a MicroKorg though. I need summert dinky.

[@BOOelectric]

I congratulate you on your care of these items! I have a smouldering heap broken stuff from that era!

[@Unfunny_Username_389]

@@BOOelectric well none of it's ever been gigged - that helps, for sure

[@kgbinfo]

The MicroKorg was my first synth. I didn’t know anything about subtractive synthesis, and I have to say I don’t think it was the best starting point for someone who wanted to learn to program their own sounds. The edit select system is elegant, but I’m envious of people getting into synths now, with stuff like the Minilogue and Microfreak and stuff like that. Sure does pack a lot of punch for its size though, and I think if I had one now I’d probably be much more at home programming sounds on it.

[@BOOelectric]

Thank you, yes, I hadn't thought of that... I suppose the editing system could be a barrier to learning... my first synths were the Yamaha CS01 and the Roland SH01... both analogue and both pretty simple synths with everything on the front panel... I guess what I meant was that the MK is a lot of synthesis for a small price, but you're right, if I hadn't had experience with the "real thing" I may not have made the connection to the edit system... when I use it, I'm almost forced to visualise what might be happening on a real synth with a real interface just to make sense of what's happening.... If I hadn't had that experience, maybe It wouldn't have made any sense to me? Good point!!

[@vicseven6456]

Totally agree...Learning how to program this synth is torture.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Same. It was both my introduction into it and my impetus to prefer one knob per function stuff… my eyes go cross-eyed trying to reference the table for knob functions. That said, I’ve been thinking about controlling it from my big poly for a long time, and this video might be the impetus to actually get round to it. I can customise the CC-out for every knob, so I should be able to get a lot more out of the microKORG than I did on its own.

[@vicseven6456]

Thanks so much for this explanation!!! TIP....The Vocoder is fine if you use a different microphone.

[@arcadeapocalypsemusic]

Exactly. I have a Shure SM-58 & have used the MK's vocoder on my music w NP. WORLD of difference compared to the little mic that comes with it

[@bestrickie2]

The Korg XL is also fantastic as is the Micro Korg S. The S is similar to yours and has built in speakers.

[@BOOelectric]

We played with a band recently that had 2 Microkorg S... Nice update!

[@muppetpaster]

2:32 Just a "good" Vocoder... A true Vocoder uses the clean mic signal mixed in...Most people tend to use it wrong...They expect it to be like "autotune" but in reality , if you want to hear what is being sung, you ORIGINALLY Neede to mix in the voice with a separate mic. So this Vocoder is EXACTLY as it is meant...The Microfreak for example does not do it much different/better.

[@thomasyon4332]

What a dreamy review!!! thank you

[@randomxaos]

after 3 seconds of demo I'm sold

[@muppetpaster]

2:54 Strictly speaking it IS multitimbral....there ARE 2 (which is a multiple of one!) timbres to be used.

[@omarbonifacino3381]

The great sound wow Micro Korg Is very good

[@WeeInnovate-uk]

Great video. Could you do a top 5 budget synths? - anything in mid/small size from the last 40 years?

[@BOOelectric]

Nice idea... I'll try to make some time for this. Thanks!

[@leewightman8619]

Well I'm using a Yamaha DJ x from 1998 and it's still mint condition

[@alvinmason758]

probley my favorite keyboard

[@BOOelectric]

splendid!

[@dillipphunbar7924]

me too

[@steveswan5714]

Ambient electronic music is my go to ultimate for escape from the troubles of this world. I am an old prog rock teen of the 70's my first synth was a maplin 3800 which i sold along with my crumar performer and a wasp for £100 the lot 😱 i was rather distracted with troubles at that time many years ago 😔 but since then i have got back to my dream 😊 i now have the crumar, an original Eminent solina, a hand built minimoog clone, JV80, a few mini behringer synths and sequencers but my favourite is the MICRO KORG 👍😂 Oh i forgot ro mention a Fantom XR i picked up for £40 😱

[@BOOelectric]

Ah, Maplin! You just brought a tear of nostalgia to my eye. I feel your pain, I sold my Juno 6 for £100 in 2003. I said to myself I'd just get another when I had the space and money, never expecting it to become twenty times it's price. I hope your synths are bringing joy, and thank you for the MicroKorg love. It's a beauty!

[@Ninzumecha]

I used to go into Turnkey, bought a JP8000 from there

[@BOOelectric]

Loved Turnkey.

[@kaitlyn__L]

You know, I had completely forgotten it has 4 voices; I always made the layered sounds and then got frustrated when I could at best outline chords. I don’t think I’d found the extra waveforms though, so if I used those tricks to get a chord per key I could probably get my favoured 4-6 stacked chords coming out. That’s of course an old synthesist trick but this was my first synth after only ever playing acoustic instruments (sax and guitar). So I still came at it from a “classical” perspective - always playing every note manually. It was only much later I’d learned about getting chords out of a single key and playing chord melodies single-fingeredly! Personally I prefer vocoders with low intelligibility, though I’m also inclined to agree with the assessment of its utility - I got much more use out of the “vocoder” as a guitar effects unit! I’ve mostly left my microKORG alone since I got a bigger analogue poly, though I always intended to hook them up together because I knew in theory the sounds weren’t that similar despite the microKORG calling itself analogue modelling. This video reminded me of how different the filter and the wave folder sound, super glassy and crisp stuff. So I definitely want to integrate it back into a bigger permanent setup with MIDI snaking everywhere. Especially if I automate the wave selection through CCs from a DAW, and also run its output through the analogue filters in my bigger synth… Wave scrolling with analogue resonance: that could be a fun mix!

[@claudioricci431]

Had one. Some sounds and waves were a bit cheesy, but you got a complete, deep, powerful (quite vast sound palette and lot of modulation possibilities) and polyphonic little portable synth, and relatively inexpensive too.

[@foolycooly6738]

It is funny, that the sound on 21:00 (you said about it "you are not gonna use it") is used on Gorillaz song "The Joplin Spider" (here kzbin.info/www/bejne/qoq5o6lmp5qYock )

[@kierenmoore3236]

Yeah, similar

[@7alken]

my go to for making pads and arppegios for my friend new song - experiment; trust for fun ))

[@tblv9300]

classic

[@bestrickie2]

U play very nicely.

[@BOOelectric]

That's very kind of you!

[@bestrickie2]

It’s a fantastic synth. I owned the Micro Korg XL a few years ago. I’ve owned other keyboards over the years including Novation Mini Nova which to is EXCELLENT. Please check me out here on youtube thanks.

[@BOOelectric]

Our friend's first synth was the Mininova, and he loves it still... He was a folk musician before he touched the Mininova!