microkorg vs. alesis micron

[lighttrail]

hi all, i'm a keyboard player in group that performs live music, and i'd like to get a synth to make more versatile sounds and such. i'm trying to decide between the microkorg and micron, but i don't know a whole lot about synths and was wondering what people thought of these two? which is better for what kinds of things? any advice in general?

[v-un-v]

Hello lighttrail. to electro-music.com!

Go for the Alesis. It's light years ahead of the Korg. IMO.

If you are after a monophonic device, it's also worth looking at the Evolver by Dave Smith instruments

(the Evolver is probably is even better than both of the above )

Oh yes, when you have made your purchase, come back and talk with us about it!

[bigtex]

Bear with me on the story, I'll get to the point...

A little over a year ago, one of my good friends had his keyboard stolen by some drug addicts. He's a great musician, and it pained all of my other friends to see him deprived of his musical tools. So for his birthday, rather than each getting him some small joke gift, we pooled all of our money together and got him an Alesis Micron. I picked the Micron out after debating between that and the MicroKorg. I also had a friend who worked at Guitar Center, so the discount really helped

A little while later, I saved up enough to get myself a Micron. Boy do I love that thing. The sound is better than most other analog modelers I've ever heard, and you can do so very much with so few controls. The interface is better than you might think with the one main programming knob. There's a community-developed editor/librarian in the works called Micronizer, as well. It helps big time. Anyway, I think the Micron is a great keyboard and I have no hesitation recommending it to other people.

Back to my friend who got the Micron as a birthday present. It was to replace his old Yamaha CS1x (that got stolen). He actually preferred the CS1x, amazingly enough. He's just a different kind of player and is looking for a different kind of sound. Thinking about it more, I realize that the MicroKorg would have been a better choice despite it's less-advanced synthesis engine. It's basically an MS2000 with mini keys. It's not a bad synth, but it does sound digital. The vocoder is apparently better than the one in the Micron, though. The Micron's vocoder is really it's worst feature. I can't believe that with such good modeling of everything else that they'd get the vocoder so very wrong.

So, anyway, I'm sure you've been reading various reviews in various places, and maybe even heard some sound samples. Those won't necessarily tell you what you want to know. See if you can get yourself into a store that stocks both and actually try them out. See what it's like to actually EDIT a patch and create a sound that you like. Perhaps you'll actually like the sound and workflow of the Korg better. I prefer the Micron, but that's just my taste.

[lighttrail]

thank you both for your thoughts! i've read a bunch about both, and still am not sure which i like better. bigtex, i hadn't thought of trying them out (but now it seems obvious i should), so im gonna go do that.

[elektro80]

[bigtex]

Or for that matter, the original Nord Modular fits into the small but powerful keyboard category and can be picked up for a rather nice price these days on the used market.

[jksuperstar]

Good suggestion, talk about "more versatile sounds & such".

[bigtex]

In fact, anybody care to add to the list of good, modern (i.e. patch storage, versatile, effects, etc) synths in the ~$500 or less category? Lighttrail didn't necessarily ask for anything beyond the alesis vs. korg, or specify if he wanted a used board, but I think there are a lot of viable keyboards out there that would be great for gigging.