a new toy - Korg MicroKontrol

egw · Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2003 9:20 am Post subject: a new toy - Korg MicroKontrol

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A new midi controller from Korg. It's very portable - only 21" x 10". The use of minikeys gives it 3 octaves, which is my view is a big improvement over it's 2 octave competitors like the Oxygen8 and Novation Remote25. Also it has 8 sliders, 8 knobs, 16 velocity sensitive pads, and a joystick! That's a lot of midi control in a small package. A nice touch is the displays that show the parameter and value for each of the knobs and sliders. It has a usb interface, and presets for lots of popular softsynths. But I got it for performance, not to use with the computer. The small size and plethora of controls make it ideal for that purpose. Some people can't stand the minikeys, but I don't mind since I have played melodica and accordion. I wouldn't use it as a main keyboard though, mostly to trigger arpeggios, drones, and sound effects. The keyboard is a bit spongy, but adequate to the task. The knobs are continuous. Knobs and sliders are assignable to any midi cc, and also to NRPNs. They can all be on different channels. The pads are assignable to midi notes or cc, each pad can be on a different midi channel, and they can be either momentary or toggle (toggle mode is nice for triggering drones, arps or rhythm patterns).
The overall build quality seems pretty solid. After some limited use, I only found a couple of negatives. The pads can't send program changes, which would really be nice. Switching midi channels for the keyboard requires a couple of button presses and turning a dial, which is too much fiddling during a performance. You can save 12 scenes with the controller assignments, but unfortunately the keyboard channel isn't saved with the scene. There is a message mode that let's you send program changes or other miscellaneous midi messages (only short ones), but these can't be saved or assigned to pads, so it's not very useful. You can't write your own labels for the knobs and sliders, you have to pick one from their list.
The current selling price is $300. A very nice device for people who value portability!

elektro80 · Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2003 9:54 am Post subject:

I have one at home now! Very nice. I have borrowed it for the weekend. You all know I am pretty stupid with midi, but I am trying to set it up with a g4 500 running Oddity ( the ARP Odyssey clone ). So far I am having a great fun. I might have a recording available on monday or tuesday.

mosc · Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2003 2:18 pm Post subject:

Looks great to me. A good price IMHO.

seraph · Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2003 3:05 pm Post subject: Re: a new toy - Korg MicroKontrol

elektro80 · Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2003 7:03 am Post subject:

Yes, now I agree. I hate the minikeys. After I figured out how to make this work, then playing this was not that fun. The 3 octaves is great but the minikeys is a disaster. YMMV.
I have huge difficulties handling the minikeys well. The Korg product is solid, works fine.. just me and my fat fingers.. sigh...

mosc · Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2003 7:55 am Post subject:

This is all personal preference. That's why there is competition. There is no perfrect solution, only ones that are attractive to certain people.