microKORG XL+ 37-Key Synthesizer/Vocoder with Expanded PCM

I've been wanting to get this thing for awhile now, and now that I have it, and as an aspiring electronic musician it's one of the best purchases I've ever made. This is my first hardware synth, I've had it for a couple days now and I can't stop playing with it. Although I do plan on making songs with it as the lead once I get an audio interface, just tweaking the sounds and making beats is a blast. I found it extremely easy to use and figure out, since I've had experience with software synths and I've watched a lot of videos on the microKORG. So if you have some basic synthesizer/sound design knowledge you should have no trouble figuring this thing out just by playing around with it. The only thing I've had to refer to the manual for so far is how to turn off the write protection so I could save my own sounds, which was no trouble at all. The microKORG has 128 preset sounds (including vocoder), all of which can be tweaked in just about any way you can think of. They range from standard trance/techno sounds to huge bass sounds to ambient and experimental stuff, pretty much anything a (starting) electronic producer might want. With 128 presets and tons of settings to tweak, there's always new stuff to come up with. Before when I only used software synths I usually ran out of ideas for songs and beats, but I can mess around on this thing for a couple minutes and ideas just pop into my head. As for the hardware itself, the microKORG is built very nicely, it doesn't feel at all cheap. The microphone for the vocoder is alright, although it can be a bit wobbly and it will give feedback if you have it too loud. So if you plan on really using the vocoder a lot (I don't), you might wanna consider a better microphone. Overall, this is probably the best entry-level synthesizer out there, for every reason. Although I absolutely recommend it, I recommend it for people who have basic knowledge of synthesizers. If you have no idea how a synthesizer works and you never used a software synth, I would recommend learning about synthesizers and how they work before buying a hardware synth. Even $400 is a big investment. So I definitely recommend this, as long as you're confident that it's going to do what you think it's going to do. As long as you know what you're getting into, this is a great purchase.

I'm not a pro at all, but this is so well made and the range of sounds is insane, super fun. I've been playing with almost everyday. I bought a midi - usb cable to save an load presets, I got presets from Cuckoo, and it's a game changer on crazy sounds! If you like, old school video-game like sounds, this can be customized to sounds like a NES or GENESIS very easily! The key size is kinda small, so I believe this would be incredibly fun for a kid as well. I'm buying an extra one soon, to give to my nephew, pretty sure he will love this!

I wanted the following in a keyboard/synth, and it does all of them... 1. vocoder - not perfect but perfect enough and with meaningful parameter controls. If you want a good robot voice *as an option in a piece of gear that does more than that* then I think this is a great option. If all you need is a robot voice, it can be found in other less expensive and more intuitive gadgets. 2. midi functional 3. small enough to carry around with ease but not so small that operation feels awkward 4. high-quality materials, comfortable weight, shock resistant (dropped it once already from approximately 4 feet onto a short-hair rug about a month ago with no problems), no super fragile parts other than the goose-neck mic (but I was never going to use that a lot anyways) 5. can load and trigger samples 6. create percussion lines on the fly during performance that are not cheesy (trying to avoid ending up with beats that sound like Da Da Da by Trio) but don't have to be epic And most importantly, assuming it does everything I want, I wanted to never have to buy another keyboard again, be it to replace, repair or upgrade, which I believe I have pulled off by being willing to spend more money on a This does everything I want it to and there are tons of hidden gems that I haven't unlocked yet. The last part is my only complaint: not super intuitive for a non-keyboardist. But a little bit of sleuthing (or, dare I say, reading the instruction booklet) is a very small price to pay to unlock all it's arcane secrets - I need the thing for basically 4 functions, which it has, but can also do so much more.

I wish there were more OF them. The 128 sound bank is a great start especially given the ability to tune them into other completely different sounds, but some of them are virtually unusable noise. I admit, I haven't dug whole-heartedly into the user manual (shocker, right?) but I would much rather have sounds grouped and named as instrument types rather than the genres that they supposedly came from. The complaint about the lack of sounds is remedied by the ability to use the onboard MIDI in/outputs though. This allows for the use of 10's of thousands more sounds if you're using the MicroKorg w/ some type of computer software. The vocoder or auto-tune feature is a neat little gadget to play around w/. It may even be in the top reasons a lot of people purchase this board. It works, I've used it a little and the included microphone was a nice addition. I can't really say much more about it than that at this point though. The display could definitely be more user friendly and dummy proof too. As it is now, you have to familiarize yourself w/ the codes and their meanings using the manual, or bumble blindly through the settings and listen for the change in the sound. This obviously is not the best way to go about any kind of serious music composing. Initially I wasn't thrilled w/ the size of the keyboard either. Despite the word MICRO being right there in the name, I was expecting something substantially larger. (This was definitely my own fault and in no way is reflected by the rating I chose.) I think that at least using full-sized keys on this one would've made it more to my liking, because I'm more of a hunt/peck player than an accomplished pianist. (._. ) But after some careful consideration regarding returning it I realized that for someone that travels as much as I do, I would be EXTREMELY hard pressed to find another board w/ the capability, sound quality AND portability that this MicroKorg embodies. I can easily fit it into my suitcase in between clothes for a road trip or flight and maybe even into a larger carry-on bag. I've only had the MicroKorg for about 3 weeks and haven't had a ton of time to dedicate to learning all of its ins and outs but overall I'm pleased w/ my purchase. My brother owns a Korg Triton so I was already aware of the quality product Korg generally produces and to me, this one did not disappoint. As long as you plan to invest the time into learning the board and exploring the capabilities, I don't think it'll let you down.

I cant imagine anyone being disappointed in this beauty

I was skeptical seeing this for 36% off of the usual price on other sites... but figured I'd give it a chance since I could always get my money back through amazon. My skepticism was unnecessary! It arrived only a few days after I ordered it, from Japan to the US btw. It is a Japanese model but you can easily find English users manuals on the KORG site. The box was only wrapped with bubblewrap & "please handle with care stickers", but UPS must've heeded that sticker well because it arrived in absolutely perfect condition. I can see how that could backfire on a buyer, but in my case it worked flawlessly so I have absolutely nothing to complain about. Love the keyboard & I'm so glad I didn't spend $600+ to get the same thing from another store.

This synth is a little monster! I have the novation ultranova, and to me this sounds much juicier and warmer, and clearer. It is really straight forward to edit, the mini keys aren't bad, they aren't really hard to play on and are pretty well cushioned so it's not like most synth action keys that feel hollow and plastic.To me the sounds are the best and the adjustments are really well laid out. I don't think you'll find something as good at this price, It can do the work of a few different synths all in one, it has great basslines, leads, and all kinds of effects etc..... I am shocked at how much this thing has to offer, and the vocoder works well too.

Easier to use and Fun to use. Love the sounds !!!