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Synth Review: Ten Years Of The MicroKorg
It's hard to believe that the MicroKorg is ten years old - it remains one of the most popular synths ever made, so we asked our keyboard Guru Lee to tell us why!
30th
June
2012
ViewHey Lee here from Music Junkies Keyboard department, I’m here today to tell you about the Korg microKORG synthesizer.
The MicroKORG is the synthesizer that changed the music industry and hit it with force. When released back in 2002 I was so excited by the look the sound and features, I use it still after 10 years when it was released it’s small but yet so powerful. Its simple to use and the sounds are truly amazing. With that said the main feature I use on the MicroKORG is the vocoder, which is great, I will now tell you about the features of this small but big sounding synth.
This mini retro looking synth has the same dual oscillator synthesis engine as the one found in Korgs acclaimed MS2000 also offering a wide range of waveforms than any modelled synth. There are 2 Oscillators; oscillator 1 offers a total of 71 waveforms. Which include the traditional sounding waves like saw, pulse, sine and noise. Oscillator 2 is to create the complex timbres that are a true sign of advanced synthesizer.
It also offers an 8 band vocoder with features like freezing the format of your voice which allows you to play that across the keyboard, you can shift the format of your voice sound to male, female, or even like a child and also into some crazy sounding voice there are sixteen vocoder presets. You also get a microphone included with this synth, which is a flexi gooseneck style.
There are three types of modulation effects Chorus/Flanger, phaser, ensemble these are stereo or can be used mono too. It also offers a 2-band equalizer to add the finishing touches to the overall sound of this great synth. The delays can be synchronised with the appeggiator or to an external midi clock, all these effects can be edited so that you can have the sounds that you want.
There are 128 sound presets in this little but yet powerful synth, the sounds range from vintage classic sounds to the latest sound you here in today’s music. There are plenty of controls on this synth such as The pitch bend wheel, Modulation wheel and five other knobs which give you real-time control over filter cut-offs, attack, release and many other important controls that you would use. The edit mode lets you edit any sound and then store it in the synth to recall back at a later date.
The audio in inputs on the back of the MicroKORG lets you input another audio source for example cd players, mp3 players or any instruments, once any of those are plugged in then the fun begins as you can use the filters and effects in this synth to create some truly amazing sounds.
All in all, the MicroKORG is one of the best affordable synths you can buy. Come and check it out now in our flagship music store in Leicester and see for yourself!
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