Korg microKORG 2

Looks exciting

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Interesting!

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A lot of welcome upgrades, especially on the I/O side. I wonder if it is compatible with MS2000 patchesā€¦

Very interested in this.

G

The old one was very dated. They managed to squeeze out as much juice as possible out of the old one and now it seems it became something entirely new. Which might be true, it looks quite an interesting little keyboard. A worthy rival to Microfreak perhaps?

? All that reworked, new synth engine,ā€¦. still a bottlenecked control panel. For the low price of 700.

If they really would have asked anyone I would think somebody may have considered mentioning putting a more robust control set on the front panel.

Make it like the original MS2000 or Radius only in the compact form factor. But I guess that wasnā€™t something they thought they should consider given it did so well without that.

It looks nice and Iā€™m sure the screen will aid in the comprehension of modulation/routing.

I gave up on it being new to synthesis at the time and regularly not knowing what parameters I had modulated on a patch that Iā€™d come back to and find it was cutting out the sound entirely, not being able to retrace what parameter I was modulating, or even have a clue as to what I was doing to figure it out.

So Iā€™d just scrap those patches. And eventually sold the microkrog for another synth b/c it was just annoying me and taking away my enjoyment of using it at all.

They went out of their way to revamp this twice now. And this is what they decide on, a menu system. Just cheaper than more knobs I guess. Aside from the updated synth engine and portability Iā€™d just say buy a used MS2000 or a Radius. You can get them cheaper and they have up front controls.

I kind of wonder as synths have been around for so long now, I wonder are there studies on synths with control panels vs oneā€™s with menu systems and what the majority prefer?

Doesnā€™t seem like these companies have solved the question. But they need to toss something ā€˜newā€™ out.

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I am definitely secretly hoping for a MS2000 reissue. I agree about used ones but I have been looking at some and have had no success in finding units without some kind of defect. Knobs seem to be a concern specifically.

The MS2000 also was able to go 4+4 voice count when paired with another, but it would be nice to see 8 voices in a single unit.

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That might be why thereā€™s the KingKORG NEO - SYNTHESIZER | KORG (USA) in the newer Korg medium knobby format?

Are Korg chasing ghosts in 2024?

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Innovation has left the building.

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This looks very cool. There have been so many editions released of the microKorg that just mainly had aesthetic changes, itā€™s nice to see a big upgrade. The white one especially looks good and that new screen is very welcome.

$699 street according to Sweetwater. +$270 from the classic and +$140 from the microKorg-s and latest crystal version.

Im a fan of the microkorg, as it was my first synthesizer.
For me the charm was always its limitations and the cute retro look. It also sounds really good, I like it much better than the old nord Leads, but thatā€™s subjective I guessā€¦
This thing now looks just like any other new synthesizer. For me the proper update would have been more voices and maybe more oscillator types but leave the look and controls as is

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I am such a sucker for synths with fun graphical interfaces lol.

But yeahā€¦ this isnā€™t for me. Swore off any closed architecture (non-modular) synths. But this does look pretty neat. Itā€™s probably gonna have absolutely shitty keys though.

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Release price is a bit steep but it will probably be sold at less than MSRP soon enough.

If it sounds anything like the MS2000 Iā€™d be interested. I really love that early virtual analog sound and the original Microkorg is probably the only synth still on the market that gives you that.

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Interesting. Unfortunately weā€™ll have to wait again for a potential 8 voice Minilogue XD or new Prologue with more modulations and sequencer. The Microkorg is cool, but I never liked the interface.

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I think people here underestimate how big the Microkorg was (and is!) outside the sphere of classic synth-users. Before the LoFi-Retro-wave with the Juno 60/106-hype, if there was an Rock/Indie-band in the 2000/2010ā€™s that wanted to use a synth IT was almost always a Microkorg.
Nowadays it changed a bit with much variety of easy-to-use and cheap synths, but years before the Microkorg was the absolute Classic for Bands.

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I saw a video of a microKorg on Instagram just last night and I thought: ā€œwhy they donā€™t release a new version? It was very popular a lot of years ago! (But It seems obsolete now)ā€.
Then I felt old and sadā€¦ :sweat_smile:

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I had a microkorg. It was an amazing sounding thing, so many possibilities. But a total pain in the arse to programme. So I sold mine.

Will this new version with a big screen make it fun to programme? I dunno. Would be cool if it did. The microkorg really does sound good.

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I remember it being all over early nillies N.E.R.D. / NEPTUNES records. Sounded great !

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