Should I get a Microkorg XL?

[SerFox]

I've got £400 that I earned in the Edinburgh Festival, and that's all mine for myself, my student loans when they come through will cover everything else.

I have a passion for prog, yes, but I'm also a very keen electronic artist and possibly pop producer in the making, overall I like production, and I lack a hardware synth that's really hands on. I have Reason 4, Logic 8, but they're not as direct as having an actual synth and I think having something like this would help me in inspiration, as well as being a very good sounding synth.

Should I?

[EvilDragon]

On your place I'd rather add a couple hundred more (around £600) and get:

Waldorf Blofeld Keyboard!



Beats the living crap out of Microkorg. Does your VA sounds. Does your wavetable sounds. Does weird modulation stuff. Great for punchy, aggressive, cold stuff, and on the other side awesome for atmospheric pads and stuff like that, neverending evolving soundscapes, etc.

It also: looks cooler, is portable enough (4 octaves with aftertouch, I think it could have release velocity as well), is easier to program than Microkorg, has better keybed, has 60 MB non-volatile flash memory for samples to do your mangling (a la Nord Wave, but better ) and better display and parameter feedback!


Do it, do it doit!!!11


Jem likes white. WHY DOESN'T HE HAVE ONE?!

[SerFox]

I've tried the blofeld and I hate to say but I really, really didn't like it. The sounds I got out of it were 'nice' but they didn't inspire me, the sounds felt plasticy, and I'm sure it's very versatile but it just didn't appeal to me. Waldorf rarely do.

I might as well expand on this, I don't need large, atmospheric, unpredictable pads. I have Reason and Logic for that, with the CV control and layering capabilities of Reason paired with it's very volatile softsynths and samplers and whatnot. I'm also going to be taught MaxMSP this year at uni to further expand my creativity.

The microKORG XL seems so warm, very programmable (I'd rather design my own sounds on a computer and have actual control via the hardware, which is my problem with what I have right now, Reason behaves too... predictably).

And as I said, I didn't like the Blofeld at all.



I also beg to differ. Way cooler


One last note, had a look at pricing, the Blofeld unit on it's own is £349, the average for a MK XL) yet the Blofeld with keyboard can go for up to £700, so thats an extra £350 for what is essentially a MIDI keyboard...  :|

[EvilDragon]

;_;


Oh well, can't help different tastes. I'll just add that Blofeld doesn't sound plasticky if you make it to

[Jem]

I've got £400 that I earned in the Edinburgh Festival, and that's all mine for myself, my student loans when they come through will cover everything else.

I have a passion for prog, yes, but I'm also a very keen electronic artist and possibly pop producer in the making, overall I like production, and I lack a hardware synth that's really hands on. I have Reason 4, Logic 8, but they're not as direct as having an actual synth and I think having something like this would help me in inspiration, as well as being a very good sounding synth.

Should I?

I say yes. Definitely! Well earned and well deserved I say.

[Jem]

Waldorf Blofeld Keyboard!


Jem likes white. WHY DOESN'T HE HAVE ONE?!

I do have one.  

[Pajter]

I do have one.  

Oh you have everything. :lol:

[Jem]

Alas, it merely looks like I do.  

I've been quietly selling off loads of stuff. I have a rule that if one thing comes in, another must go out. It makes for a tidy Cube.

[EvilDragon]

You DO have it? Then it confirms my thesis that you're dying to have white stuff

How do you like it, is it a keeper? I'm anxious to get one, and possibly to have it as my only VA for a long time. There's a decent amount of non-volatile sample memory inside (no waiting for minutes for the synth to power on! Blimey!) and I see those samples destroyed in many ways imaginable, I would think not even Nord Wave could do such things I mean, using samples to FM a filter is one wacky idea I have in mind. Ring-modulating electric piano with didgeridoo also sounds nice I'm not saying that Nord Wave can't do that, I'm just saying that Blofeld will kick more ass, because it has the DRIVE section before the filters. And that Drive section is very, very detailed. Allows for a lot play

So Jem, your kind opinions on the board?

...yet the Blofeld with keyboard can go for up to £700, so thats an extra £350 for what is essentially a MIDI keyboard...  :|

Not quite. You get sample option enabled by default on the Blokey (as I call it endearly). You need to pay additionally on the Blofeld module (I think the price is 100€), and you must know that the keybed of the Blokey is vastly superior to the one on Microkorg. I think it even has release velocity, which is kind of rarity (I say I think, I know I spoke to Waldorf about this, they said that they'll transfer the suggestion to the design team... dunno what they decided. But I know that release velocity can be USED as a modulation source. You don't get that on Microkorg).

So I'd say the price is justified.

[SerFox]

You DO have it? Then it confirms my thesis that you're dying to have white stuff

This conjures up lots of HORRIBLE images. YOU ARE VERY BAD I HATE YOU  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

...yet the Blofeld with keyboard can go for up to £700, so thats an extra £350 for what is essentially a MIDI keyboard...  :|

Not quite. You get sample option enabled by default on the Blokey (as I call it endearly). You need to pay additionally on the Blofeld module (I think the price is 100€), and you must know that the keybed of the Blokey is vastly superior to the one on Microkorg. I think it even has release velocity, which is kind of rarity (I say I think, I know I spoke to Waldorf about this, they said that they'll transfer the suggestion to the design team... dunno what they decided. But I know that release velocity can be USED as a modulation source. You don't get that on Microkorg).

So I'd say the price is justified.

RE the previous post: I shouldn't have to 'make' it sound good. If the presets and init sounds are plasticy and a bit weak sounding, I shouldn't have to work to make it sound fuller. I want to start with a warm, huge sound and have the power to make it sound even bigger.

Despite those little extas I still do believe the price isn't really worth it. If I was going for a Blofeld I'd get the standalone module and hook it up via MIDI to my Fantom X8 or my pretty rubbish but usable Behringer MIDI keyboard.

Actually here is a comprimise for you. Since I don't have the money for a BloKey as you call it, how about I get myself, if I do decide to, the MicroKorg XL, and when I get my birthday money from Mummy and Daddy I can get myself the Blofeld module and whap it on top of the MKXL, as it has a keybed and MIDI and I believe a line in (Vocoded Blofeld anyone?)

Sweet prince of justice

[catherine]

Ring-modulating electric piano with didgeridoo also sounds nice

 :shock:  :shock:  I'm sure there are local bye-laws that prohibit that sort of carry-on.

[EvilDragon]

@catherine - not here in Croatia

@SerFox - well, decent idea too! You got me at "vocoded Blofeld"

And, about presets - Waldorf's synths are NOT for preset bunnies. They are all DYING TO BE TWEAKED. If you want a preset bunny synth, get a Virus and be like everyone else out there. But Waldorf stuff... that's pretty individual. Anyone uses them differently and that's why they rock.

I know a person who bought an awful lot of synths in his lifetime. For each board, no matter how simple or complex, the first thing he did was ERASING THE FACTORY PRESETS, and doing his work from scratch. Each and every board he used that way sounded bloody AWESOME!

So yeah, you SHOULD tweak and make it sound better!

[SerFox]

@catherine - not here in Croatia

@SerFox - well, decent idea too! You got me at "vocoded Blofeld"

And, about presets - Waldorf's synths are NOT for preset bunnies. They are all DYING TO BE TWEAKED. If you want a preset bunny synth, get a Virus and be like everyone else out there. But Waldorf stuff... that's pretty individual. Anyone uses them differently and that's why they rock.

I know a person who bought an awful lot of synths in his lifetime. For each board, no matter how simple or complex, the first thing he did was ERASING THE FACTORY PRESETS, and doing his work from scratch. Each and every board he used that way sounded bloody AWESOME!

So yeah, you SHOULD tweak and make it sound better!

I don't rely on presets, ever. But I use presets in a music shop when buying new gear to give me an impression of how it sounds, hence I have a bad impression of the blofeld. But hey, some stuff on it sounds good, especially the atmospheric stuff on youtube with videos of the sea and mountains, very... JMJ.

And if I could afford a virus, I would.. then delete all the presets. THATS a synth I want to twak. Come on, it's white and gourgeous and huge sounding. Though in that price range, it's a fight between an Access Virus, the white one, a KORG Radias, and a Nord Lead.

REALLY hard choice.

[EvilDragon]

I'd pick a Nord Lead (2x) over Virus any time of the day or night.

Then again, I'd pick up a Waldorf Q+ over THOSE anytime

[Pedro]

Asking Jem if a keyboard is a keeper....genius!