Get ready, folks! NAMM 2024 is just around the corner, and Korg isn’t twiddling its thumbs until the party officially kicks off. They’ve just dropped the curtain on about a dozen shiny new toys, with a spotlight on revamps for two classics—the trusty 10-year-old KingKorg and the enduring 22-year-old MicroKorg.
This bad boy is multi-timbral, meaning each patch can blend or split into different sounds, packing three oscillators for some serious sonic exploration.
You’ve got a buffet of 138 oscillator options, from simple waves to PCM samples, and 18 filter emulations, including the classic MS-20. Toss in two LFOs, two envelopes, and a buffet of effects—from your usual delays and reverbs to amp simulators and funky decimators.
Now, rewind to 2002 when the OG MicroKorg dropped and became an absolute legend. Fast forward to May 2023, and Korg’s still riding the wave, blessing us with special editions.
The MicroKorg 2 keeps that compact charm, gooseneck mic, battery power, and the trusty dial for cruising through patches by genre. But beneath the surface, there’s a spanking new sound engine and a slick 2.8-inch color display, making sound design a breeze. Bonus: there’s now a built-in loop recorder, making it a solo performer’s dream.
Mark your calendars: KingKorg Neo hits the shelves in February at a cool $1,000. As for the MicroKorg 2, it’s playing fashionably late and expected to strut its stuff in June—no word on the price tag yet.
Fingers crossed it stays in the ballpark of $500, just like its OG counterpart. After all, part of the MicroKorg’s charm was its accessibility, making synth magic available to everyone, from newbies to seasoned pros.
