Korg MicroKorg XL: The Sequel is Even Better

In the immortal words of Han Solo, “She may not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts, kid.” My initial reaction to the MicroKorg XL was a little like Luke Skywalker’s after his first look at the Millennium Falcon. All the same, I was still gear-lustful, and any doubts weren’t about the look, which is a huge aesthetic jump over the avocado-and-woodgrain livery of the original MicroKorg. It was more that the feel of the hard plastic body reminded me of the dashboard in a Chevy Aveo. Well, just like the Falcon, the XL’s got it where it counts. Specifically, in a great big synth sound that comes courtesy of a complete do-over of MicroKorg the First.

Click here to hear a cover of Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon" that reviewer Ken Hughes whipped up using only MicroKorg XL sounds!

HANDS-ON: MICROKORG XL

Forget the feel of the old MicroKorg and MicroKontrol keys — the XL's itty-bitty piano-profile keys are impressively musical and quite easy to play. A tempo knob (second from left) does triple duty for arpeggiator, LFO, and delay. You can sync the LFO and delay to the arpeggiator, or sync any of these to external MIDI clock. Eight musical genres, plus eight keyboard sound types, plus an A/B switch (the block with the two large knobs just to the left of the display), add up to 128 internal sounds, any of which you can overwrite. A panel-mount XLR jack accepts the included gooseneck mic or any other dynamic mic if you prefer, so you can sing into the built-in vocoder. To the right of the LCD we have the quick-tweak department, where the left knob selects function groups for the other three. Mono line-level signals go in on the back panel. A switch picks this or the mic jack on top — you get one or the other, but not both.
The all-plastic case feels a bit low-rent, but is desirably light and admirably rigid. A slot on the back lets you attach a Kensington laptop lock so your XL won’t grow legs.

CONS

INFO

NEED TO KNOW

What is it? Battery- or AC-powered miniature virtual analog synth with 128 sounds, velocity-sensing keys, and onboard vocoder.
Comparison to original MicroKorg: Only the name is the same. The XL is more powerful, with a better vocoder and keys, a proper display for editing, lots more waveforms, and a more flexible audio input.
Should I buy it? If the idea of a super-portable synth with a capable vocoder quickens your pulse, and you’re cool with the mini-keys, it’s for you.

KEYS

There’s an original MicroKorg at my disposal on a regular church gig, and my usual feeling about its keys is, “Meh.” The XL’s keys are a breath of fresh air. They’ve ditched the “note-entry appliance” feel, with longer throws and a more piano-like shape.

In addition to using it in my studio, I took the XL to church and fit it into my usual live rig — right where the old MicroKorg usually sits. I played leads and pads on the XL, piano on a Roland RD-700, organ on a Korg BX3, and Reason soft synths on a first-generation M-Audio Radium 61. Point being, these are four very different keyboard feels. The XL’s keys perform better than the Radium’s, in fact, and playing without watching my hands became easy after just a few minutes. Your mileage may vary, but I bet you’ll be able to play musically very quickly.

SYNTH ENGINE

The architecture is familiar; a pair of multiwave oscillators feed a mixer (into which the external audio input also feeds), then go into modifiers including a waveshaper, two multimode filters (with 12dB- and 24dB-per-octave slopes), the vocoder, a dual-band semi-parametric EQ, and an effects processor.

Two complete signal chains (Timbres) made of the above stuff can be stacked or split across the keyboard. It’s a greatsounding voice that’s convincingly analog and fat. Up to four-voice unison detuning at the oscillator level helps create thick slabs of analog-osity. The Moogish leads and OB-ish brass blasts among the factory sounds even show off a little grease and grunge. I own a vintage Roland JX-8P and an Alesis Andromeda (both real analog synths), and I love the sound of the MicroKorg XL.

The underlying synth engine has much more in common with the higher-priced R3 (reviewed Oct. ’07) than with the original MicroKorg. Hence, you get a bunch of glassy, digital, and realistic sampled sounds alongside the XL’s virtual analog personality. Pianos, arco strings, pads, voices, Wurly, Rhodes, and Clavinet all add versatility. These sounds make the XL a bit less of a solely-vintage-vibe synth and a bit more of an all-rounder, as though a baby Triton was hiding inside.

The edit matrix formed by the six-position page select knob and three other knobs makes for easy tweaking of the filter, volume envelope, effects, and arpeggiator. The last position of the page knob, “Full Edit,” is for going deeper — it steps through all the edit pages with a single knob. A glass-half-full person will appreciate that the stuff you’ll grab most while playing is brought out to the quick-access knob trio. A glass-half-empty person will correctly moan that programming sounds from scratch is time-consuming. Fortunately, Korg’s editor/librarian app for both Mac and PC is available for free download (see image below), as are the USB drivers that let the XL talk to your computer. It’s a great editor, clearly laid out. Though you don’t get to audition your onscreen edits in real time, it’s the best way to program sounds from scratch.

Musicians who want alternate tuning temperaments will be delighted to learn that the XL offers several. Another very cool feature is Virtual Patching. Six outputs with a dozen possible sources each connect to six inputs with over 40 possible destinations each, giving you a flood of options for modulation and expressiveness.

The vocoder is also more crisp and intelligible, in part due to having 16 bands where the original MicroKorg had eight. Several casual listeners, including a client, my wife, and my father-in-law, could easily understand words I’d “sung” through it and recorded.

CONCLUSIONS

For a likely street price of just $500, the MicroKorg XL’s synthesis prowess is pretty hard to argue with. Sure, there are plug-ins that sell for less and offer more synth power, but they don’t run on batteries or have a built-in vocoder with included mic, not to mention keys and pitch and mod wheels. Mini keys do carry some perceptual baggage. Thanks to the piles of tinny toy keyboards sold in the ’80s, credibility as a “real” instrument is tough for a mini-synth to get, but not impossible — witness the huge number of original MicroKorgs proudly displayed in the keyboard rigs of nationally-touring acts. The XL is a more capable synth in all regards, with a much-improved keybed, so it’s a fantastic value proposition. I know of no other mini-synth that offers this much musicmaking juice — definitely the best of its kind. When something is the best of its kind, not to mention this affordable, it deserves a Key Buy.