The new microKORG is a great sounding, feature-packed, affordable little synth, with the heart of a monster! For its small size, this synth has lots of sonic potential, and is also fully-editable. The editing is accomplished using a grid matrix style of editing, which can look a little intimidating at first. In this tip I will show you how easy it is to create a hip hop style lead sound. But before we dive into the matrix, let’s cover a few basics:

The first thing we are going to do is start from an initialized program, which is a sound that uses a sawtooth wave sound and has no program parameter settings. This will make it easier to create a sound from scratch without having to edit one of the factory sounds.

To initialize a program: 
1. Press and hold the SHIFT key and then press the PROGRAM NUMBER 3 key.
2. Confirm that the LED screen reads “ini” and that the 3 key is flashing.
3. Press the flashing 3 key and the program will be initialized. 

Now, let’s talk about the matrix. The trick to reading the matrix correctly is to remember that once you select a parameter using the EDIT SELECT 1/2 knobs, you then read from left to right on the matrix and use the Performance/edit knobs 1-5 to change the value of a parameter. See the following example.

Change the waveform from a saw to a sine wave. 
1. Choose OSC 1 with the EDIT SELECT 1 knob. 
2. Follow the grid and use the 1/CUTOFF knob to select a different waveform. 
Remember that you may have to turn the knob all the way to the left or right to “catch” the current setting before you can change it. Also, make sure you refer to the Owner’s Manual to decode the readout on the LED screen of the parameter you are editing, as some of them can be a bit cryptic!

Now that we have the basics covered, let’s make a hip hop lead/bass sound using the matrix. 

Assign a triangle wave to OSC 2.
1. Initialize a program (see above).
2. Use the EDIT SELECT 1 knob to select "AUDIO IN 1/OSC 2".
3. Use the 1/CUTOFF knob to select “tri” on the LED screen 
4. Next, we need to raise the level of OSC 2 by selecting "MIXER" with EDIT SELECT 1. Adjust the level to “127” using the 2/RESONANCE knob. It should sound like this.
5. Now, let’s select a band pass filter by choosing "FILTER" with EDIT SELECT 1. Use the 1/CUTOFF knob to change the TYPE to “bPF” in the LED screen.
6. Now let’s adjust the CUTOFF to “27” and RESONANCE to “37”, using the 2/RESONANCE and 3/EG ATTACK knobs respectively. It should sound like this.

Assign the cutoff amount to the MOD wheel and disable pitch vibrato.
This will allow us to tweak the filter using the mod wheel.
1. Using the EDIT SELECT 2 knob, select "PATCH 1". 
2. Use 1/CUTOFF to select “nod”, 2/RESONANCE to select “Cut” and 3/EG ATTACK to assign the MOD INT to “41”. This assigns the mod wheel to cutoff amount and sets the range to 41. 
3. Disable the vibrato on the mod wheel using EDIT SELECT 1 to select "PITCH" and the 5/TEMPO knob to change the value to “0”. It should sound like this.

The last thing to do is add some delay.
1. Use the EDIT SELECT 2 knob to select "DELAY", and the 1-4 knobs to dial in a delay setting that works for you. 
2. Play your lead sound using the mod wheel to tweak the filter. 

Now you can write your new program into memory using the WRITE key. Before you can write a program into memory, you’ll need to disable the memory protect.
1. Press and hold the SHIFT key, and then press the PROGRAM NUMBER 8 key and turn the 1/CUTOFF knob to the left so that the LED screen reads “off” 
2. Press the PROGRAM NUMBER 8 key again to exit, and then write your new program into memory.


For those of you with a MIDI interface for your computer, you can now download the free microKORG Editing Software for Mac or PC.

James Bernard