Korg Legacy M1

[ronnie]

As a former M1 owner I checked out the Korg Legacy M1 and was pleasantly surprised. I have quite a few ancient sequences that I used the M1 on and now I can bring them back to life. It sounds pretty spot on for the most part, as I remember it and when compared to the tapes. I just wish I still had my old presets and SYSEX files (which I have to still check my old 286 machine with the Voyetra OP-4001 MPU-401 clone which I think still boots up with Sequencer Plus and Texture).

The Legacy M1 sounds much cleaner than the 12 bit original. The hardware noise was digital so it was not very musical although it wasn't deadly. I didn't really lnow better at the time and I used it a lot and really enjoyed it for a few years. But now there's none of that digital noise and no 3rd party editor necessary with only SYSEX control. The controls are well laid out on the screen and not in those many pages of scrolling and tabbing through the tiny LCD. It comes with every M1 card that Korg ever made for it so it's quite a bargain at $49.99.

The sound is now super-clean and does not sound too thin and with some Scope effects to warm and fatten it up it really sounds great - at least to me. I put it through a SpaceX V-8 right away and it sounds really creamy just with the valves on!

I didn't have any other Korg hardware that's now nativized in the Legacy collection, so I can't comment on them - I didn't get them. I don't want to really add to my collection at this point but I have a thing for getting the native stuff from HW that I used to have and now I have in native or DSP versions like the Mini Moog, Rhodes, B-3, Farfisa, Casio CZ-1, Yamaha FM stuff and the M1 makes my collection pretty much complete. I had an ARP Odyssey but I basically used it for bass lines and arpeggios and not much lead sounds but that PrOdyssey is still on my list!

[tlaskows]

The Korg Legacy Collection has a very nice sound. I bought the M1 Le for $60 on eBay that's upgradable to the whole collection for $100 so I will save $40.

-Tom

[tlaskows]

Oh, what do you use for FM? I kind of miss my TX802 :/

-Tom

[Nestor]

I too had the joy of been an M1 owner, it gave me lots and lots of fun. And I still own the X5

[ronnie]

Oh, what do you use for FM? I kind of miss my TX802 :/

-Tom

I've been using the NI FM7 since it came out and the VST still runs! Also lately the FM8. I have tons of patches that date way back. I think the FM7 has a nicer interface but the FM8 has an nice morphing feature - just don't press reset until you save your patch.

I've heard some demos of the BigTick Rhino which sounds fantastic but I don't know if I'd get it cause I've got too much stuff already and the Rhino looks pretty deep. I have to say that the "motion" that the Rhino has in doing evolving sounds, especially pads, is really nice. With 6 oscillators per voice and the ability to load sound fonts as waves also sets it apart.

They had a deal on it for $20 bucks a couple of years ago but I missed it.

http://www.bigtickaudio.com/rhino/features

[ronnie]

BTW, Faxi Nadu does a great tutorial using Modular IV to build a hybrid with FM based on Roland Kuit's input.

https://youtu.be/dQXtWTSdfMs

[sunmachine]

Korg just released the iPad version of the M1 recently by the way.
It's on sale until the end of June ($19.99 instead of $29.99).

http://www.korg.com/us/products/softwar ... _for_ipad/

Re FM: DAS made an FM synth for SCOPE.
http://sonic-core.net/joomla.soniccore/ ... 60&lang=us

[tlaskows]

Thanks Ronnie.

Yeah, you can't seem to buy the FM7 anymore hmm. And the FM8 is expensive...

Yes, I am aware of the DAS FM bundle, I think it's a good deal. But I don't think it can load DX patches...

Thanks guys,

-Tom

[tlaskows]

Oh man, I accidentally clicked on the percussive organ patch. I think that was the one used in every dance song in the 90s?

lol

-Tom

[Mr Arkadin]

I got the M1 and Wavestation Legacy on sale. Amazing plug-ins, but it looks like the GUI will remain forever small unless Korg open it to someone else to develop. I tend to just use presets as a result, but there are thousands available so that's no issue.

I always run these through Space F's FAT channel to, well, fatten them up a bit.

[tlaskows]

I saw on their website they had the whole collection on for sale at 99$ during Christmas, that's a no brainer...

-Tom