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MicroKorg - as a guitar effects pedal???


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Hi all

 

I'm a guitarist who has recently lbeen tinkering around with a collection of vintage 80s casiotone and early yamaha home-user keyboards. While they do have the potential for cheesiness, you can manage to squeeze some sweet and quite charming old analogy sounds out of these things.

 

Anyway, I'm thinking that I wouldn't mind exploring the possibilities of keyboards as well as synths a bit more and have been looking at the Korg Micro as well as the Alesis Micron. The Korg is so far the front runner because it looks easier to use (all the knobs and labels are printed on the thing, as opposed to the Micron). I notice the Korg has a line in for instruments.

 

I'm wondering if anyone has tried plugging a guitar into the korg and then outputting it back into an amp, and if they have, what on earth it does to the sound. For example, is it possible to use the MicroKorg as a basic guitar effects pedal (using the phaser and delay (?) built into the MicroKorg). I'm basically looking at reasons why the korg may be good value. Trying to justify the purchase it by fooling myself that it can do a number of things.

 

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

 

Cheers

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Hi all


I'm a guitarist who has recently lbeen tinkering around with a collection of vintage 80s casiotone and early yamaha home-user keyboards. While they do have the potential for cheesiness, you can manage to squeeze some sweet and quite charming old analogy sounds out of these things.


Anyway, I'm thinking that I wouldn't mind exploring the possibilities of keyboards as well as synths a bit more and have been looking at the Korg Micro as well as the Alesis Micron. The Korg is so far the front runner because it looks easier to use (all the knobs and labels are printed on the thing, as opposed to the Micron). I notice the Korg has a line in for instruments.


I'm wondering if anyone has tried plugging a guitar into the korg and then outputting it back into an amp, and if they have, what on earth it does to the sound. For example, is it possible to use the MicroKorg as a basic guitar effects pedal (using the phaser and delay (?) built into the MicroKorg). I'm basically looking at reasons why the korg may be good value. Trying to justify the purchase it by fooling myself that it can do a number of things.


Any help or advice would be much appreciated.


Cheers

 

Considering about 88% of Microkorg owners are guitar players, I don't see why not! :)

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Hi all


I'm a guitarist who has recently lbeen tinkering around with a collection of vintage 80s casiotone and early yamaha home-user keyboards. While they do have the potential for cheesiness, you can manage to squeeze some sweet and quite charming old analogy sounds out of these things.


Anyway, I'm thinking that I wouldn't mind exploring the possibilities of keyboards as well as synths a bit more and have been looking at the Korg Micro as well as the Alesis Micron. The Korg is so far the front runner because it looks easier to use (all the knobs and labels are printed on the thing, as opposed to the Micron). I notice the Korg has a line in for instruments.


I'm wondering if anyone has tried plugging a guitar into the korg and then outputting it back into an amp, and if they have, what on earth it does to the sound. For example, is it possible to use the MicroKorg as a basic guitar effects pedal (using the phaser and delay (?) built into the MicroKorg). I'm basically looking at reasons why the korg may be good value. Trying to justify the purchase it by fooling myself that it can do a number of things.


Any help or advice would be much appreciated.


Cheers

 

 

I did that. Actually I watched this video and realized that I can make similar sound using my MS2000 which is basically micro korg in a bigger box. I used it live by splitting my signal and sending it to my keyboard player who had to start the arpeggiator wit ring modulator so I can achieve something similar but it worked. I don't use that synth live anymore so I miss that sound, I guess I'll have to buy that ringtone pedal...---->GAS

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Considering about 88% of Microkorg owners are guitar players, I don't see why not!
:)

 

Ha. I guess this is where the limited polyphony of the keyboard is an asset. As a guitarist you wouldn't wanna play more than one note at a time and spoil all the fun would you?

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Ha. I guess this is where the limited polyphony of the keyboard is an asset. As a guitarist you wouldn't wanna play more than one note at a time and spoil all the fun would you?

 

How about the fact that it's a cheap, compact, runs on batteries, has a nice gimmick (vocoder), cheap, compact (did I mention cheap?) gateway drug synthesizer? ;)

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I would be shocked if you could get useful tones out of a microkorg with a guitar connected.

 

 

1. Use it as the vocoder modulator (rather than the mike).

 

2. Use it as the vocoder carrier (rather than a synth voice).

 

3. Set up a patch with a latched arpeggio that uses the external audio mode of osc1. Play guitar in and get a beat chopping effect, adjust tempo and gate time to taste.

 

4. Like 3 but with gate set to 100% and single triggering. The guitar should be heard without chopping. Set filter to taste, use osc2 ring mod, etc.

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How about the fact that it's a cheap, compact, runs on batteries, has a nice gimmick (vocoder), cheap, compact (did I mention cheap?) gateway drug synthesizer?
;)

 

Actually, they cost $800 Australian where I'm from ($650 on ebay). The only reason why I'm considering them is I'll be in japan in a few weeks and the suckers go for $400 Australian over there.

 

As for gateway drug synthesizer, you can blame my casiotone MT70 for sparking the interest in the first place.

 

I had a dabble with a microkorg in a store the other day after posting this and am now thinking its actually a lot more synthy goodness that I probably need or could ever use. I'm thinking the way to go might be to actually add effects to my Yamaha PS-30 (old, cheesy analog synth) and to concentrate on music making. I'm afraid that the microkorg is a gateway to endless knob twiddling that I will be unable to resist.

 

Feel free to pressure me back into it though.

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  • 8 years later...
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Any synth with an audio input can be used as a "guitar pedal" or vocal processor. Since the MicroKorg has a vocoder as well there are more possibilities.

One of my tricks years ago on the original MicroKorg was to have a friend sing into the vocoder mic with a really nasty grungy synth patch dialed in while one of the keys was taped down to allow continuous hands-free audio processing. It could have easily been a guitar going through the patch. Experiment away and see what happens. :-)

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