Hello! This is Jooyoung Kim, a mixing engineer and music producer.
Recently, I bought a small portable synthesizer: the microKORG XL. KORG currently sells the microKORG XL+, but this discontinued version has a very reasonable price on the used market (just about $140 in Korea!), and its sounds are still perfectly usable.
The keys are made of cheap plastic. However, I can connect an external controller via a MIDI cable or transmit MIDI data via a USB cable.
It also has an external audio input, such as a microphone or line input, which can be used for the vocoder function.
There are two kinds of outputs, unbalanced L/R and headphones, which are very convenient to use.
The synth has 8 categories/genres and 2 selectable banks. Therefore, a total of 8 X 8 X 2 = 128 preset programs are available.
But I’m really disappointed by the microKORG XL editor software provided by KORG. It’s no longer usable, and I cannot even install the program on my Mac system.
Also, I have microphone preamps but no DI box. So, I decided to purchase a stereo DI box. However, you might realize I’m not an affluent musician if you’ve been following my posts. After some web searching, I found a cheap DI box made by Bolanle (just $33!) being sold on Aliexpress.
I really didn’t have high expectations for this gear because of its price, but surprisingly, the build quality is great!
I can’t say I love all of the sound presets on the microKORG XL. However, I am particularly fond of one lead sound preset and one keyboard sound preset. The vocoder function is quite valuable as well.
Now I am eager to get a full analog multi-voice synthesizer. Music making always drains my wallet!
That’s all for today. See you in the next post!
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