Korg microKORG Compact Analog Modeling Synthesizer w/Vocoder Mini Mic, 4 Voices and 6-step Arpeggiator

I've been wanting to get this thing for awhile now, and now that I have it, and as an aspiring electronic musician it's one of the best purchases I've ever made. This is my first hardware synth, I've had it for a couple days now and I can't stop playing with it. Although I do plan on making songs with it as the lead once I get an audio interface, just tweaking the sounds and making beats is a blast.I found it extremely easy to use and figure out, since I've had experience with software synths and I've watched a lot of videos on the microKORG. So if you have some basic synthesizer/sound design knowledge you should have no trouble figuring this thing out just by playing around with it. The only thing I've had to refer to the manual for so far is how to turn off the write protection so I could save my own sounds, which was no trouble at all.The microKORG has 128 preset sounds (including vocoder), all of which can be tweaked in just about any way you can think of. They range from standard trance/techno sounds to huge bass sounds to ambient and experimental stuff, pretty much anything a (starting) electronic producer might want. With 128 presets and tons of settings to tweak, there's always new stuff to come up with. Before when I only used software synths I usually ran out of ideas for songs and beats, but I can mess around on this thing for a couple minutes and ideas just pop into my head.As for the hardware itself, the microKORG is built very nicely, it doesn't feel at all cheap. The microphone for the vocoder is alright, although it can be a bit wobbly and it will give feedback if you have it too loud. So if you plan on really using the vocoder a lot (I don't), you might wanna consider a better microphone.Overall, this is probably the best entry-level synthesizer out there, for every reason. Although I absolutely recommend it, I recommend it for people who have basic knowledge of synthesizers. If you have no idea how a synthesizer works and you never used a software synth, I would recommend learning about synthesizers and how they work before buying a hardware synth. Even $400 is a big investment. So I definitely recommend this, as long as you're confident that it's going to do what you think it's going to do. As long as you know what you're getting into, this is a great purchase.

I was skeptical seeing this for 36% off of the usual price on other sites... but figured I'd give it a chance since I could always get my money back through amazon. My skepticism was unnecessary! It arrived only a few days after I ordered it, from Japan to the US btw. It is a Japanese model but you can easily find English users manuals on the KORG site. The box was only wrapped with bubblewrap & "please handle with care stickers", but UPS must've heeded that sticker well because it arrived in absolutely perfect condition.I can see how that could backfire on a buyer, but in my case it worked flawlessly so I have absolutely nothing to complain about. Love the keyboard & I'm so glad I didn't spend $600+ to get the same thing from another store.

I wanted the following in a keyboard/synth, and it does all of them...1. vocoder - not perfect but perfect enough and with meaningful parameter controls. If you want a good robot voice *as an option in a piece of gear that does more than that* then I think this is a great option. If all you need is a robot voice, it can be found in other less expensive and more intuitive gadgets.2. midi functional3. small enough to carry around with ease but not so small that operation feels awkward4. high-quality materials, comfortable weight, shock resistant (dropped it once already from approximately 4 feet onto a short-hair rug about a month ago with no problems), no super fragile parts other than the goose-neck mic (but I was never going to use that a lot anyways)5. can load and trigger samples6. create percussion lines on the fly during performance that are not cheesy (trying to avoid ending up with beats that sound like Da Da Da by Trio) but don't have to be epicAnd most importantly, assuming it does everything I want, I wanted to never have to buy another keyboard again, be it to replace, repair or upgrade, which I believe I have pulled off by being willing to spend more money on a This does everything I want it to and there are tons of hidden gems that I haven't unlocked yet.The last part is my only complaint: not super intuitive for a non-keyboardist. But a little bit of sleuthing (or, dare I say, reading the instruction booklet) is a very small price to pay to unlock all it's arcane secrets - I need the thing for basically 4 functions, which it has, but can also do so much more.

Easier to use and Fun to use. Love the sounds !!!