Bad Gear - Microkorg XL - Too Bad For Hipsters???
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ส.ค. 2020
- In this episode of Bad Gear, the show about the world's most hated audio tools we are going to talk about the Korg Microkorg XL. Is it too bad for Hipsters?
❤Thanks to Mats for the Microkorg XL❤ - เพลง
"People hated the limited hands-on control of the original, and Korg addressed this by reducing it even further" 🤣👌💯
Perfect business rationale;)
Amazing.... Absolutely amazing, honestly
leave it to Korg to F it up!@@AudioPilz
The "bald aging guy talking about synths in his living-room with a strange accent boom" is the best kinda boom.
Thank you!
Strange accent? I did'nt notice any accent, but then again I'm from Australia (just drop a few letters and hey, you're in bad gear land!)
Some of us are not ageing, and also have 8 limbs (or claws).
@cat and biscuit Yeah I'm not too sure myself. I suspect I may have been intoxicated when I wrote that. Sure, lobsters and crabs are common in Australia, and apparently they don't age, but not sure what the relevance was!
How can something simultaneously be "micro" and "XL"? Seems like they put as much thought into the title as they did the actual synth!
It's strange...
My GF should know this...
Jumbo shrimpy
The keys are bigger and solid = more fingery licking pleasure as you whip it back n forth?? The other mods are built for Brits hand so they are smaller?
The MicroKorg was my first intro to synths. Having no experience with a better interface, I just fell in love with the sounds it could make. Super powerful tool with the right keyboardist behind it.
I have a microkorg and an XL amongst other synths. The XL is the one that stays plugged in at my studio at all times because it has the best sound engine in my opinion
Truly powerful engine!
Oh man, I can't get over how good this series is. Incredibly informative, entertaining, and really high production value. And only getting better. Bin stolz auf dich!!
Besten Dank!
Check out the OG Microkorg episode: th-cam.com/video/cI6YDQLwxpM/w-d-xo.html
I don´t know about the algorithm but I´m sharing your videos with all my synthhead friends for what it´s worth.
Keep them coming!
Thanks for sharing!
A dx7 owner is talking about bad interface... interesting...
I don't think he owns a DX7, just borrowed one? But you do have a point....
🤫😆😆😆🤣🤣🤣🤣
Fair point😅
at least we could say hre, it is like 30 years of evolution found his dead end in the 80s
You have to remember that the DX7 is pretty much a piece of scientific equipment.
I watch this series for the bad gear, but mainly for the host. He should be a star. When does Bad Gear - The Movie come out?
Thank you so much! Bad Gear - The Theme Park!
Jes we like a movie 🎦
@@AudioPilz Bad Gear - the Flamethrower?
The kids would love that one!
Bad Gear: The Movie, starring the AudioPilz team, and 10 tables full of wires, mixers, compressors, eqs and, of course, all your favorite bad gear! Wait, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense to be a live touring show! :D
I’ve got all his CDs & DVDs. The production value alone is amazing!
It is a small synth with a huge sound. I like mine.
Great synth engine
I can't really complain about the sound on mine... but the interface effectively limits it to just using presets. It was fun at first, but it quickly became a harsh lesson on the value of interface design.
Way easier to get the sound you want if you hook it up to a computer and use the software for it. Which suck though if you want portability since it is supposed to be an on the go synth.
those keys look like they smoked 40 a day for 10 years
The owner of the synth really likes them cigarettes
Probably just an ABS plastic composition fault - it can rapidly age and become brown. Super Nintendo was infamous for that, and most 6-16 year olds don't smoke.
I used to have an M-Audio Keystation that the keys turned yellow like that. I've never smoked in my studio and the friend who gave it to me was a non smoker. It really looked like it had set next to an ashtray for 20 years or more.
lol
Looks like an excuse to rip it apart and retrobrite. Lol
that last tune you played was incredible. I'm a sucker for those haunting and icey future garage sounds. youre video editing hasnt gone unnoticed either. good work!
Thanks a lot!
As an original microkorg owner, you've perfectly captured my immense disappointment I felt being hyped for a new microkorg and walking into the music store to find this
Yeah, quite obvious money grab
This series gets better each episode, and it was already great.
Thanks!
This channel lately got something like a rabbithole for me to escape the real world to try to tame my synthesizer addiction, thanks 😬
Thank you!!!
i love your bad gear series, i hope you are able to keep them coming
Thank you. Working on it!
While I don’t hate the MicroKorgs I still give it that sad disappointed parent look whenever I see one. It’s like watching someone you love slowly drift away and by the time you realize it...it’s too late and the engine that once inspired so many sleepless nights, is tucked away behind a keytar. Oh to love and lose, such is life~
What an allegory...
immer wieder erfrischend, kurios, informativ und lustig zugleich..
Vielen Dank!!!
I look forward to the videos every week - as a struggling music producer from 1992-2020 I have come across most of this gear in one way or another -- Here I am partial to the Micro Korg XL + that came out later - has most of the same genre style presets and you get the upgraded piano (sg-1,M1), el.piano, organ, mellotron strings, mellotron flute presets - all supper useful to give the synth some workable 'acoustic' tones to blend in with your tracks
The waveforms are really nice! All the best!
We all know it but damn this channel is terminally under-appreciated for the minute
Working on it ;)
If you want to hate on menu diving, look no further than the Alesis Micron. I have one and would never get rid of it cause it's basically the best chameleon synthesizer engine you can find, but programming it quickly is not doable without years of practice and memorizing where all of the parameters are. It has shortcuts where you can hold a function button and push a piano key to jump between menus, but each menu has SOOO many parameters...and this is all done mostly by a single knob. I can't imagine that the XL here is worse than that. The upside, though, is that the Micron's sound is just superb and ridiculously flexible. And it also has a vocoder.
The micron came up quite often. I'll take a look. Thanks!
I've owned two microns (not at the same time), and i wouldn't recommend trying to do anything much in terms of programming, other than using the pre assigned settings on each preset. Unless of course you're into programming synths that have a front end that is akin to roller skating on an oily surface; you'll get there, but your trousers, hands and knees will be in a sorry state.
They were THE BEST bang for the buck VA for a while, and easy to fit into a mix. They used the same engine as the ION, but also had a useable sequencer of sorts, with each multi timbral part having its own sequence IIRC. There was also a high quality set of reverbs & delays etc, which was a lovely touch.
Alesis should have put the sequencer in the ION, as well as the high resolution effects engine ,but didn't.
This reminds me of when other manufacturers occasionally build better features into their smaller (and cheaper) gear, but you can't do much with ease with all the added stuff due to the (sometimes drastically) reduced user interface, which is par for the course with cost cutting.
Ironically, the Radias was one of the better VA's that probably replaced both the aforementioned synths as the best bang for the buck.
@@AudioPilz The Micron is the platonic ideal of powerful under the hood with an awful interface. It sounds great and has some really cool features but there is nothing spontaneous or fun about creating with it.
Recently replaced the keybed in mine... doesn't get the love it deserves even from me but I'd loath getting rid of it. It does some sounds very well (others less so) and the multitimbrality and sequencer mode using the keys to switch on sequences made it an excellent performance/sketchpad machine.
Every time I think of the Microkorg, I think of the Micron. I think the Micron is actually a little better in terms of playability, once you've got the patch programmed but the menu diving is insane. Still not as aggravating as my Roland D-20.
I bought a Micron when they were new, for $299. I sold it after a year or two because I wasn't digging that interface. Years later, deeply regretting selling it because I missed the sounds of that Ion synth engine, I bought a nice used example for about $270. Yes, the interface sucks, but there are ways around that if you really need them. It's gotta be one of the most underrated synths of that particular era of VA modeling. It really does produce unique sounds unlike any other. It's not necessarily the best at recreating every particular sound, but it does most well, and has a real character of its own.
And it's so deep. It's no surprise that it's so versatile when you have so much control over so many parameters. It becomes a matter of hunting to find that particular sound you are looking for, or just exploring how many different ways you can create sonic oddities. I love it so much.
It's a shame that the Ion is so much more expensive and lacks a few features that the Micron has. And they're ridiculously cheap. Pristine examples are selling for even less than what I paid a couple years ago. Same for the Akai Miniak (same thing as a Micron but with 3 wheels and slightly different UI layout/design). There's a controller from Argentina called the Micromini from a company called Volt Crafty that I'm tempted to purchase.
Another great bad gear vid! Week complete.
Thanks!
The vocoder is actually pretty cool. Great video as always my friend!
Thank you so much!
Bruh. Hook it up to your computer, fire up the included software, and hit the 'randomize' button. You can have tons of fun without needing to get a PhD in synthesizering.
True, but this would be a rather boring episode;)
Just picked up the Microkorg XL+ a couple months ago as my first "real" synth, and I haven't been disappointed yet really. I haven't gotten the hang of the full edit mode on the unit, and I haven't quite figured out how to properly hook it up to my computer for the software editor, so I'm just rocking presets at the moment, but they're doing what they need to do for me right now. The big knobs do feel a bit wonky, but I have been throwing this in my car and taking it for battery powered jams out in the real world a couple times and it has done nicely.
Yeah, it seems to be more robust than I expected
Love your videos. Straight into the vein. ah yes thats some good stuff.
Safe use, kids! Safe use! (Thanks, btw;)
Great content mate. Just found your channel, binged it during my home office workday *cough* *cough* and loved every minute of it. You can make those crappy and not-quite-so-crappy synths sound better than I can do with my OB-6 after a month of working on a single track. Very inspiring. Kind of sad, but also very inspiring. Subscribed ofc - Ehrensache. ;)
Danke! My tracks were quite bad when I worked on them for month;)
You’re doing great on TH-cam and on a sharp rise in subscribers. Was at a hipster venue today. Hipsters make me feel old so I don’t like them 😂
Well, there are old hipsters, too (last time I checked in the mirror;)
@@AudioPilz What is the max age for a hipster.. is there an apprentiship scheme or am i told old..? I have the Micro korg and the XL still prefer my Prophecy
@@nickfbatombrew1436 we should discuss this over some cold brew;)
@@AudioPilz At least with the prophecy when you menu dive you’ve got good feedback from the limited display
@@AudioPilz Also the keys are right size and you can smack your b*$%h up nice and easy without having to break your knuckles on the smaller keys
Unbelievable. Another outstanding video.
Thank you so much!
i subscribed instantly after listening to ur minilogue bad gear video i watched as soon as i heard your little jam session that you did at the end, ur crazy man very very good music. especially on this video too!
Thank you so much!!!
Patiently waiting for that SH-32 vid!
Guess I better hit the bell notification.
Yeah, hit that bell. I was offered one but I was too busy. Gonna chase that one over the weekend
Most entertaining synth video channel ever!
Thank you so much!!!
3:55 Machine Girl, is that you? that part was sick!
Thanks!
I have the XL and XL+ and while I would not use it in the studio, it is a perfect thing for a live gig, the dials make it easy to get into the right presets while improvising and it is not that complicated to learn the parameter “shortcuts” to further modify the sounds. And it has a vocoder and runs on batteries. It has beefy synth sounds, some mellow strings and a variety of electric pianos, organs etc and weighs next to nothing. The worst thing about it is the omission of sustain pedal input - that can by solved by a special midi pedal through the midi input.
A great gigging tool. Just like the OG
With all the hate for this thing, when you said "it is a perfect thing for a live gig" I thought your reason was going to be that you end the show by dramatically smashing it to pieces!
Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm interested to know more about the sustain midi pedal hack and play some piano patches, can you give me information about this?
@@ivanromero8951 right - it is a custom box, powered by 9V battery, it has TRS input for sustain pedal and midi DIN output that you connect into MIDI IN on the microkorg. Inside is a programmable chip that just sends sustain on/off signal from the pedal. You just have to be careful with polyphony, if you play too many sustained notes, it will eat the firt ones for the sake of the newer ones. You can also achieve this by connecting the Microkorg to a master keyboard with sustain input (via midi)
great episode as usual! keep it up
Thanks!
Glad to hear you’d had a “living room boom” 💥 😎👍😁 Loving the channel- keep up the awesome content 👌
❤️
I've got one and played multiple gigs with it. the lack of programming is annoying but some of the sounds it can make are surprisingly good.
The sounds are tight! (Mostly)
Another great vid
Thanks!
Man, this video editing is on point
Thank you!
Lol, this is the only channel that I want to click the subscribe bell. LOVE YOUR VIDEOS!
Thank you so much!
As some one who suffers from seizures I appreciate the warning at the start. Don’t get me wrong I still watch the videos.
In fact my only complaint is that one of your videos hasn’t triggered a seizure yet, more strobing breakcore/gabber videos please
OK, I'll try to up my seizure triggering game ;)
your little demo a moment ago, all korg xl was amazing. Loved it all by itself.
Thanks!
Thanks for sharing!
This is my new favorite channel :3
I hope one day you can cover the Roland MT-100 module/sequencer, imo it sounds like a PS1 game but also has a sick built in reverb.
Thanks! Wow, forgot about that one!
Your videos are just SO DAMN GOOD! Glad to see your subscriber count climbing. As I said before, you'll be at 100k in no time.
Thank you so much
@@AudioPilz You are so welcome, and you are deserving of so much praise.
Hey. You're doing videos that are good. This is nice. I will enjoy watching more.
Thank you so much!!!
Keep grinding my dude. I'm confident your channel is going to blow up!
Thank you so much, it means a lot to me
That jam with the Volca Beats was awesome
Thanks!
The XL is great. The keys have much better action than the stiff keys on the original microKORG. The synthesis engine offers a bit more features, including the sub-oscillator. The 8-voice polyphony means you can do a bass note and 4-note chord without running out of notes like on the original mK. I've gotten some fantastic sounds out of the microKORG XL. Not super tweakable, but great for sound design. Great synth, great size, great price.
Agreed! But it looks and feels so bad
Ah yes the majestic sequel
Also of the beautiful intro track
Holy shit its gorgeous
Thank you so much!
I bought one yesterday for 25 bucks. Very excited about it!
Wow, that's a bargain!!
TBH, I discovered this channel because of the original microkorg video.
BTW, loved the Amen break segment.
Thank you so much!
I had an original Microkorg back in 2007 for maybe a few days before returning it. The sounds were useless to me at the time. A few years later I gave the R3 a spin and I wound up returning it for a weird tempo flutter problem. I got my XL in 2010 and I love it. I've used it in the studio and live on the stage and it's a powerhouse of a synth. It is a little limited by it's interface and I'm not a fan of the brittle plastic everywhere but I would love to re-house this someday in a sturdier wooden body.
Yeah, I'd love to have it in a different box
bOOM Mood, great stuff as usual
Thanks!
Bad Gear is a really good show, I love it!
Thanks!
That amen piece you made is quality
Thanks! Amen, brother...
Finally a synth that won’t look out of place along side my toaster. Shut up and take my money. Another excellent video either.
Thank you!
The most amazing thing about it is that somehow it is still avalible new.
There seems to be a market for it (or they produced a sh*itton of them;)
I love this synthpost channel
Thank you!
Wow! I have one of those :,D
Another amazing episode though! Blessings from Sweden!
Thanks!
That AMEN break track was really dope…
Thank you!!!
Mah gawd the amen brak tune is epic.
Amen, brother!
I'm in an '80s New Wave Revue band. The XL is absolutely fantastic for this. Maybe it doesn't tick any boxes for ravers and DJs, but for a keys guy in a full band, it's perfect.
That intro was awesome
Thanks!
Wow 20K viewers in 2 days, you deserve it AudioPilz
Thanks!
Welcome to bald hipster!
;)
Great video!!!
Thank you!
You got some great sounds out of it. Makes me want a Radias. Lol
Radias is tight!
Good jams. :)
Thank you!!!
sold my XL to a buddy years ago and i don't miss it at all haha
Is he still your buddy?
@@AudioPilz fortunately yes
The backbone of the RK100. Love it. Followed Vadim around for years with it! So dragonforce here in JP sold me on its application but I love the sound to the day. Never bored of it. Bad gear? Not even close. That's purely sacrilegious to those of us in the keytar cult :P
Quite some Keytar worship on this channel ;)
@@AudioPilz As there should be! Sorely underestimated and undervalued instrument.
Phew. Nearly bought one years ago. So glad I didn't now. Another excellent video. How about the Korg 01wfd?, or Casio V L tone?. Keep up the good work
Thanks! Great suggestions!
@@AudioPilz Thank you. Always look forward to your shows. I have a Nephew in Vein, a professor in music.
I own a MK XL+. It' s a nice synth. Does the work and was the first in the MK family, with usb output
The USB connector comes in really handy
I've got to say, I've watched all of your videos, and I seriously dig your channel. Great work man, I will avoid microkorgs like the plague lol.
Much love for the OG! Thanks for watching, stick around!
@@AudioPilz I wanted the og when it dropped years ago, couldn't afford it at the time. I really wanted an Ultranova if I'm being honest with myself, but the microkorg seemed more attainable.
but the original Microkorg episode IS legendary!
Thank you so much!
@@AudioPilz Speaking of early zero years' Korg gear, the bright yellow/hot pink Korg Kaossilator is some prime Bad Gear material! It was the first synth (if you could call it that) I ever owned, and maaaaan do people hate that thing
Great fun as usual. I have an MS2000r and a MicroKorg. They may have the same engine but you cannot make the Micro sound like the 2000, the filters maketh the beast.
Really? Didn't know there was much of a difference. Interesting...
that last piece is rad
Thanks!
The original demo content is getting prettyyyy prettay good
Thank you so much!
Some of the sounds you used in your example track remind me of an interesting musical fact... The original Korg MS2000, the synth which has its sound engine reused for both Microkorg models, was used to produce the music for Metroid Prime, a video game from 2002. What I find makes this worth bringing up in this context is that, due to having nearly the same sound engine, the MS2000 patches used in said game can be loaded onto either Microkorg model. In fact, I could even recognize a patch used in the game within your example track. Some of the default presets in the MS2000 must've carried over to these synths. Interesting.
Good to know. I have to listen to that soundtrack
“both MicroKorg models” ?!
Assume you mean the OG and the S, as the XL *doesn’t* have the MS engine, so you can’t load MS/OG/S patches into the XL … Just to be clear.
Stretching out the keys in editing was super nice :)
Thanks!
top show congrats
Thank you so much!!!
That little techno jam at 2:20 has some nice Guy Gerber vibes.
Also, I would like to see the Roland SH-32, Roland MC-09, Roland EF-303, Yamaha AN200 and Yamaha DX200, if you are able to find any of those :)
Thanks for the input and the Guy Gerber comparison
You got a new Volca Beats now? :O Time for the snare mod video!
Have a nice day, thank you for your videos btw. They are great!:
Thanks!
I think it looks Great!
...but it feels strange ;)
@@AudioPilz I see what you're saying!
Yeah the original microKORG episode was the one that popped up in my suggestions. It's a great hook, because people actually love the lil box. It's got the sounds, it's got the looks, it's got affordability. I never bought one, but i tried it a number of times and fell in love every time. I loved all presets. I love the good ones for being good. I loved the bad ones for being so bad, i'd overwrite them without a second thought. Much better than a box full of presets which are all... kinda good but not very lovable or inspiring. Like say Mininova, or the XL. By the way, i think back then i concluded that, yeah neither, but if i had to choose between the Mininova and microKORG XL, it would have to be Mininova. Why, i don't remember for sure.
Oh oh Bad Gear, Bad Gear! Remember the Yamaha Reface series? "Oh we're gonna take aging synth tech and stick it in a sleek little keybox hot off the heels of microKORG success!" The first unit was i think the CS and it got rave reviews, and DX was about to hit, and it was curious, like, how are they going to solve the classic programming puzzle? But then it came. And it was a 4-operator synth, not 6 operators like an actual DX-series unit. So it sounded like ESS AudioDrive 1868 ESFM that you got on the cheapest PC soundcards in the 90s! Or similar capability like SEGA Megadrive, fundamentally, but clean and unsexy. I was so immensely disappointed, i didn't even care about controls or anything.
Especially funny since KORG a little later made a little cheap box of their own which was the complete opposite, the Volca FM, with proper 6-op DX series patch compatibility and synth features. But of course predictably cramped interface. And with MIDI WTFs. But it's cheap! And of course there is hacked firmware now.
Still trying to find an angle on the ReFace series!
Now we wait for the 3rd... microsampler!
Microsampler is on the shopping list
Well, I went to a punk concert and there was this band with a very attractive female keyboard player, and she played a Microkorg XL. So I bought one. I don't really care about the synth engine or the menu diving, because I use the XL just for preset sounds. I have played rock gigs with this. Sort of a Swiss Army Knife keyboard. I must say: I like it a lot.
That sounds like the classic job for a MK OG ;)
AudioPilz OG doesn’t have as many PCM and MMT oscillator options. These cover a much wider selection of sounds than the OG.
its pure trash ahahahaha
I love my microkorg XL+ but I agree with all your points 😅
Thank you!!!
Always forget this thing existed. Now I want a radius
We all do ;)
You have a really cool channel. 🎹🎵 (and a new subscriber 🙂)
Thanks!
As both a ms2000 and radais owner i really like both the sound engines. The ms2000 can sound like an actual analog synth while the radias really shines in things like complex sfx and pads
That sums it up pretty nicely!
I always wanted an MS2000...I like boxes with tons of knobs on them, even if they're monophonic or, in the MS's case, only spit out 4 note polyphony.
I hate the radias engine. Sounds so much worse than the ms2000 engine. It has a weird glossy/plastic sound to it no matter what.
@@VincentsVideoVisions this is a fair assessment, but it does have alot more modulation points and more voices. It's not good for leads or basses like the ms2000 but for big wierd pads it's fantastic
@@floppydisk921 To be fair, I've never owned a Radias, just a R3. I sold it less than a week after I got it. I thought it sounded weird at first so I decided to start making my own patches. No matter what I tried, I couldn't escape that overall sound that it has... glossy/plasticy/smeary. It's kinda hard to describe, but for me it sounded more like a mediocre VST than what hardware should sound like. I love VA/digital synths and most Korg products general but that's one that I gotta pass on. Even if I got one for free I'd just sell it and buy something else, but then again it's all subjective taste. I personally think the MS2000 / Microkorg sound far better.
I love the Micro Korg XL and XL +
Great sounding synth but IMHO the interface is a step back
Dorian Concept and Crystal Castles made the MicroKORG a legend
❤️Dorian Concept❤️
As soon as I heard those korg trance leads I was ready for some bad gear screamo
It always takes me 3 days to not sound like the Marlboro man after doing screamo vocals
ive had a xl years ago,i liked its bass with arp
Simon The Magpie brought me here. cool channel!
Happy to hear that!
That final jam was mega
Thanks!
I am bald and 30 years old. I approve this Channel !
Bald Gear!
Both Microkorg and Microkorg XL benefit more with an external controller like the BCR2000 or something where you can map out all of your cc controls. I have a love for the thing I use it as a Midi controller for one of my sequencers, but I can understand why they are hated.
Yeah, I agree. There's an episode on controlling the OG
Its sounds amazing imo
Agreed!
More greatness.
Thanks!