yo! basically all in the title. i’m mainly a hip-hop dude, but i’m diving super hard into old school jungle and hardcore stuff and i’m slimming down my choices of what i wanna use as my first synth. i picked the Microkorg and the S-1 because of their small size since my studio’s pretty small and i need all the real estate i can get lol. i’m trying to make some nice pads, leads, weird sound effects to sample into my MPC and mangle em from there. for those who’ve used either one, which would you say is best for my use case?
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I think they each have 4 voices of polyphony and both are perfectly capable of making good, if not complex, sounds.
Microkorg has 2 LFOs which might help with pad movement vs s1 has one LFO. VS I think S1 can use more oscillators per voice.
S-1 probably makes your hands feel big and microkorg you gotta menu dive to do anything, so which are you having better luck with? Which do you prefer the sound of? I’d focus my attentions there and get a little more familiar with it.
Unfortunately, there’s no real magic in synthesis. You could always use presets or prepared samples, but as far as tweaking sounds I think you could say it’s a choice of interfaces and personal preference as neither of those synths has what I would consider a clear advantage.
The microkorg presets are more geared towards genres so maybe start there and then tweak a preset and see if you get a feel for it.
Now is when having a modern MPC would come in handy though, but I understand you’re more productive with the 1000 which is why you came back to it, and that’s all well and good, I use numerous samplers too and I often compose something off box and then sample prewritten stuff or take a phrase I want to destroy and move it over, but as far as the synth itself it’s more about familiarity and knowing what you want out of it rather than any inherent advantage when you’re dealing with devices with similar capabilities.
It starts to lean harder towards the synth when there are more complex modulation sources and high polyphony or really good onboard effects, but even then, the user can totally make it sound worse by having no idea what they’re doing so it’s like do the shoes make you jump higher or did that dude already have hops and he got the good shoes? We may never know the answer to that one.
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Of those two options I’d go S-1 because…Roland. However, in the price range I’d recommend a second hand Microfreak over both options for what you’re after.
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I have an S-1 and the new MicroKorg MK 2. I used to have an original MicroKorg (was my first synth when it first came out).
The original MicoKorg sounds good but I found it very hard to program as a novice. The S-1 is OK. I quite like the MicroKorg 2 because it’s super easy to program, but I don’t think it’s all that popular.
If the MicroKorg 2 isn’t your thing, I would actually recommend the Yamaha Reface CS. It sounds amazing, is well loved, and used by professional musicians (shows up in quite a few videos I’ve seen). It is also super easy to program.
If you need presets, I’d get the MicroKorg 2, but lack of presets on the Reface CS is not really an issue because it’s so easy to get good sounds.
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He’s trying to use what he has, I think. Not buy more.
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I would go for a completely different device: Roland MC-101. When used as synth module, it’s a great allrounder in a small box. Beside of great va sounds there are tons of 90s pcm sounds included. Essential for old school dnb stuff like huge intro pads, layers, sub basses etc.
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S-1 will jungle
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I’m seconding a microfreak, and mc-101 (unless you need keys in which case don’t bother with mc-101).
mc-101 is loaded with 3000 sounds perfect for abusing into jungle, and a random patch generator which is very useful. Customising presets or making your own patches is tougher on the mc-101.
Microfreak has a ton of wild patches and I found it really nice to play and customise patches. No fx, some cheap pedals will get you that.
So depends if you want presets to mangle or to sound design the synths yourself.
I used to own ms2000 (basically same engine as micro Korg and loved it).
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i’m down to use presets or make my own patches, either one works fine for me! i’m intending to treat my MPC 1K like a S-series Akai and taking whatever i play and looping it or breaking it up into pieces and timestretching em. from what i’ve seen i know the Microkorg isn’t the easiest to program but it’s not impossible, and the S-1 is easier to program but much smaller, but i don’t think i’d mind it.
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Price might be too high, but Roland SH4D has a lot of great presets, not as good as mc-101, but lots of knobs for sound design so could be a great middle ground.
woah. i didn’t consider the Reface CS but now that i see it, it looks almost exactly like what i’m looking for. the lack of presets is whatever, i gotta look more into it
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i did see this one while i was looking around! it reminded me a ton of those old JV/XV romplers, but i’m not sure if i can program/tweak any of the presets that come with it. the prices definitely look nice enough to consider it 
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maybe a sampler like the Roland SP404 MK2? It is great and used a lot by hip hop artists.
There’s a good thread on here somewhere. Lots to read and lots of videos to watch. 
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Oldschool Jungle huh? For that particular genre, I’d +1 for the microfreak. It can do bass that will bring the roof down (keytracked resonant HPF anyone?), plus it can do those Jungle pads now that it loads samples and has wavetables.
The other options arent bad either but theyre digital devices… which means you probably can already do what they do with the Air etc synths on board your MPC
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Uh, it’s not hardware, but there’s a JV-880 emulator out there that sounds really nice…
if you’re thinking S-1, I would urge you to consider the SH-01A instead. It may seem like a similar feature set, but the faders are so, so much more playable and tweakable than the tiny knobs. People love and rave about the SH-101 and have for decades, and a large part of that is the actual interface, which the SH-01A gets right (while including things like 4-note polyphony and chord mode, as well as ext trigger in and an audio rate LFO option). Yeah, the faders are short, but they are not too short to play expressively, and the thought of twisting two of those S-1 knobs simultaneously in a groove feels like a discouraging amount of discomfort.
Do the SH-01A or something that isn’t the S-1, in my opinion.
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Here are a couple of my favorite CS videos, btw.
I believe it shares some DNA with the Yamaha An1x, which is a synth that Boards of Canada used.
Also, it does a great Twin Peaks sound.
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Interested in this trade-off as well. I’m guessing there are some similarities, eg: the classic Roland sounds. SH-4D seems to be an approximation rather than a direct emulation of anything. More hands on control, but less of a groovebox as such. I imagine despite the size that it’s easier to programme melodies than on the buttons on the SH-4D? Assuming you can sequence both of their 4/5 MIDI tracks externally?
SH-4D is mostly zencore, with some added filter models AFAIK. Its not ACB like many of the other modern digital Rolands
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I bought the s-1 a few weeks back and love it. It’s very simple and is near impossible to make bad sounds. YouTube has a many examples of people making great sounds with the s-1.
I owned the sh01a some years back and regretted selling it. But I prefer the s-1. It has excellent reverb and effects. The sequencer is easy and most things are easy to access. They keys are fine for making sequences. I don’t think it’s good if you’re trying to get experimental.
The knobs are small but easy to be precise compared to the sh01a, you can dial in the exact value you want.
To me it’s very convenient with size, battery and connectivity. It’s user friendly and sounds amazing. It might be worth looking into the sh4d too.
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