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I've owned this thing for several years and have put it down/got bored with it occasionally. The thing that is remarkable is how after collecting dust for months this pup can be turned on and take you right back into its grip. It's eminently reusable and instantly gratifying. The sound editor is actually really easy and intuitive to use, and the guests I have over always LOVE to mess with this beast for hours.
Then you consider the more than capable on-board vocoder and its ease of use, and this thing has a definite edge over the competitors, even the larger ones.
There are some cons to this too: I don't mind the smaller keys but the console could use more than 4 note polyphony - however when used as MIDI there is no limit. Also, the way the voices are organized into arbitrary genres is primitive. And also, the screen doesn't give you much info, but thanks to all the info you need being laid out right on the MicroKORG, this is suddenly not such an issue.
Still, this thing is endlessly usable, and something is to be said for the sounds that come out of it - the most important part. It is true that the small size may fool you -- the sounds that come out of this box are every bit as crisp, warm and powerful as any professional would want theirs to be.
That's why it is no surprise to see this baby in use by successful artists.. constantly. Acts ranging from Annie to Beck to the Neptunes to the Killers to the Prodigy to J Dilla to Duran Duran have been known to use and abuse this machine, sometimes pulling out multiple units for a single live performance.
So it has to be doing SOMETHING right, right?
I heard that the team behind this stuff are some genius audio technicians from Japan. Props to them, they've pulled it off alright.
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