Haven’t used enough Korgs to name a “best” but my personal hits or misses, in order of personal acquisition…
Volca Sample 1— Miss. A fun little machine undone by its limited pattern memory and inability to export.
Sure, you can take it on vacation, but only if you’re happy deleting your patterns, or bring a separate recorder, or are only planing on making like 2 songs the whole time you’re away.
ES-1 —Miss? Fun instrument; challenging to use for melodic samples and pretty limited by modern UX standards. Like the other 'tribes, seems prone to mechanical breakdown.
Volca Bass — Hit. Simple to use, paraphonic, just plain fun. Sounds great through a Tube Screamer.
ESX — Massive hit. It made me fall in love with sampling. I wish replacement pads weren’t so hard to find or I’d still play it all the time.
electribe 2S — Oh boy, big miss. What happened?
Monologue —Hit, BUT I wish it wasn’t so damn quacky.
Minilogue XD — I think it’s a hit? but haven’t gotten deep into it enough yet, too much other stuff going on.
As for the Korg “sound,” to me it’s a very distinct kind of crunchy, compressed sound, which the engineers there seem to be actively going for since it’s so pervasive across their line. I like that sound a lot, but I understand why people might find it off putting or just too much of its own thing.
If you don’t already understand how to keep a simple machine interesting for long periods of time, this will teach you. and it sounds fucking GREAT for what it is. It isn’t the “Most-Korgy” sound but its just a killer little box especially once you start modifying it.
I haven’t used mine in a bit, but it has so much going for it - so many little tricks between the details in the sequencer, MIDI implementation, control config, microtuning, LFO, etc. etc. The best time I had with it was throwing batty arps and CCs at it with Tidal Cycles - it didn’t break a sweat where far more expensive synths would be out of breath and lagging. The quacky, buzzy filter is its main weakness (I wonder if it can be modded ), but overall it punches way above its weight. This would be my vote for favorite Korg I’ve owned.
That Trident MkII is a pretty sweet string machine with a great flanger. It’s probably my favorite of the properly vintage keyboards I’ve tried. Kind of wish I had one.
I think of more modern Korg as always trying something a bit different from the rest of the Big Three, so I’d say the Korgiest thing from more recent years is the Wavedrum. A drum rompler with a real drumhead on it! Tablas you can pitchbend on! That or the Volca Modular. “Hey guys, let’s put a Buchla in a little tiny box! For $250!”
I hoped for V2, but this did not happen. Newer analog Korgs had more features, but never as consistent and cool as this package. Sometimes even less feature - where the heck is Random LFO on *Logues (the source of FM-ish noise goodness)
I had and sold X50 & R3, currently own Opsix, Monologue & Wavedrum hardware and M1 & Wavestation plugins. I love Korgs for their sound, but I always get a bit turned off by either interface, build quality or some weird limitations. It’s kind of a love/hate relationship.
So far I was probably most impressed by Opsix and Prophecy (I only tried the Prophecy plugin demo and was quite amazed by it’s sound and capabilities).
Thinking how cool it could be if Korg repack back their MS2000 or better MicroKorg mk2 engine and turn it into modern “groovebox” - knob per function interface, like Digitone / Analog4 architecture - 4 parts, 16 voices, sequencer with mode mod lines, p-locks, probability. Everything else it already has - flexible mod matrix, nice effects, interesting korgy sound!
My first synth was the Poly 800. Still have it save in a case. Next was the DSS-1. great sampler, great filters. Sits in a shelf waiting for some repair. Micro switches and maybe display . Has a disk emulator in it. Just a huge f***ing keyboard. Love them both.
The one I used and loved the most:
The OG MS-20 was one of the first synths I learnt analog synthesis on, and was a staple with me for years.
The one I regrets selling
770, a super cool oddball of a synth
The one I wanted to love but couldn’t
The Sigma. Such an interesting and original concept, but it sounded awful most of the time. I think I bought and sold it three times…
It’s Prologue 16. It sounds so good for the money and is so aligned with my style of programming that despite not using any depth of its digital engine (because it is not aligned with my style of programming) I still rank it as my first or second best sounding instrument (Eurorack excluded). And the one I still have GAS for, despite owning one. I need to slap my face, when I open Reverb when new 16 appears for sale, to stop me from buying another one, because I try to downsize. But I do miss it, when I have to move between sites and I am far away from it, so in perfect world I would have two - one for each place…
I love its analog oscillators, I love its very characterful mixer section, and same for its filter, with three characters each, which - together with drive settings and LF Comp - gives great permutation of characters from which I love ALL.
Thanks for your attention and I hope that you are not convinced, so that there are some spare units on the market in case mine breaks.
I enjoyed this one during the brief period I had it. To be fair it was mostly about the joystick, filter, chorus, and paraphony which was novel to me at the time. The drawbar-style wave programming was very silly.
I had really had a lot of pleasure on the Korg delta. This was a real old organ with a mono synth. I had ten years of joy with it but too big for my place so he had to move.
Took the prologue 8 and I can say that this is a really good synth ! The analog + VA voice is a really good choice. And the control are simple, clear and easy !
), but overall it punches way above its weight. This would be my vote for favorite Korg I’ve owned.
