Korg Forums

[MaxStatic]

Not looking for flame wars. Legitimate question. Why? Batteries, smaller package, less menus, what?

Been eyeballing a Microkorg XL for the last month or so but saw that Korg has a $100 rebate on the R3 making it the same price. I went ahead and got the R3 for a number of reasons I'm just looking for reasons why someone would go for the XL instead.

Happy holidays all.

[thehighesttree]

You made the right choice, my son.

I've only had limited access to the MicroKorg/XL, but short of not being able to be battery powered, they don't hold a candle to the R3. Between the flimsy build quality, lack of display, lesser vocoder, mini-keys and (for the regular MicroKorg) older engine and lesser polyphony, patching options, etc, there's plenty reason to side with the R3. It's better in almost every way. Congratulations on your purchase!

[Re-Member]

Batteries and overall smaller package. I wouldn't say less menus, as the XL actually has one less editing knob than the R3, so there might be even more menus. The XL does have the acoustic piano mode, but it's not like you can't attempt to create a piano sound on your own. It is a VA synthesizer, afterall.

Korg is still manufacturing the original MK, so the XL is probably not selling much. The genre knobs has held me back from considering either of the two, I find them extremely tacky. The instrument selection on the R3 is way more tolerable, though I often find myself scratching my head since I like to create split timbres with two types of sounds.
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Roland Juno-60, SH-101, TR-606, MC-505, Casio CZ-101, Yamaha DX100, DX11, Kawai R-50e // Korg R3, microSTATION, Monotribe, MS-20 Mini, SQ-1, minilogue, electribe sampler, Volca series: Bass, Keys, Beats, Sample, FM, Kick, Moog Theremin

[MonoxideC]

I had the same dilemma recently, and decided to go with the R3. REALLY glad I did - it's awesome. Also, it was a great deal - $350 brand new after rebate!

[xmlguy]

The MKXL has half the effect types of the R3, no reverb, and only 2 MFX slots instead of 2 IFX/timbre + 1 MFX. The R3 has all the effect types of the Radias. The R3 also has the modulation sequencer.

[X-Trade]

There is no reason to buy the MKXL.

The original MK has a unique charm of its own though, but I wouldn't choose it as my primary synth.
The XL is just a marketing trick to try to sell MMT to the market who would have bought the original.

If the XL had the same DSP algorithms as the original but with the dual filters, modulation choice, etc of R3/Radias, I would be more impressed.. That would actually be an awesome synth.
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Current Gear: Kronos 61, RADIAS-R, Volca Bass, ESX-1, microKorg, MS2000B, R3, Kaossilator Pro +, MiniKP, AX3000B, nanoKontrol, nanoPad MK II,
Other Mfgrs: Moog Sub37, Roland Boutique JX03, Novation MiniNova, Akai APC40, MOTU MIDI TimePiece 2, ART Pro VLA, Focusrite Saffire Pro 40.
Past Gear: Korg Karma, TR61, Poly800, EA-1, ER-1, ES-1, Kawai K1, Novation ReMote37SL, Boss GT-6B
Software: NI Komplete 10 Ultimate, Arturia V Collection, Ableton Live 9. Apple OSX El Capitan on 15" MacBook Pro

[DaniH]

Preference really. Maybe to reduce CPU usage from a vsti??
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Korg R3, Roland SH-201, Roland MC-909, Novation Mininova, Novation Impulse 49, Korg EMX, and a bunch of VSTi's

[MaxStatic]

Ok, seems I wasn't missing any hidden mojo points or anything then. The XL is just one of those things that would be cool for half the price, but its not so....

As far as the original MK goes, I plan to get one of those in the future too for its own little unique niche that it has. Just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed something glaring in the XL discription.

Looking forward to the new R3, it will be my first keyboard layout synth. Happy and safe holidays all.

[Re-Member]

[MaxStatic]

R3 arrived today, a day early. Some thoughts.

So let me start off by admitting that I'm not a piano player, nor a keyboard player either. I'm a guitar guy by trade but have been into beat boxes and sequencers and electronic music for some time. Used Rebirth for years and within the last 6 months started getting some hardware boxes after missing Rebirth. So I know my way around some of my Korg boxes and a new to me Roland groovebox pretty well at this point.

Keys, as in keyboard/piano keys....um yea, very new interface for me.

So I take the thing out of the box, initially surprised at the weight of the thing. I'm not disappointed that it is light, just surprised. I guess the guts are pretty low key though as it's probably just a board with a DSP and a few other chips on it. I digress.

I get the thing plugged in and POOF! The next time I look up an hour has gone by. In that time, that felt like 5 min, I managed to get sounds from several songs that I like from the presets. Textures I have admired for years wondering "how the hell did they get that sound" and "man that part in the back sounds sooo F'ing cool" were immediately apparent and tangible. Not exact but deff within tweaking range for sure. For some all I had to do was throw on the arpeggiator(with the stock pattern) and wa-la, there is the song.

I have my wife come over and check it out. She digs the vocoder and insists that I should start making her workout music mix tapes.....

So we play with it together for another 30 or so min. She took piano for years as a child so she looked comfortable on the keys....well much more so than me. I look like an ape pounding on a typewriter.

She looses interest and I sit back down with it solo, still not really understanding what anything does. Just going through the preset banks. Changing the first two knobs a little here and there. BANG, another two and a half hours goes buy!?!?!??!?!! Four hours flat out disappeared.

I haven't had this much time loss syndrome in a piece of gear since I got my AxeFX, which admittedly wasn't that long ago, but still shocking none the less. I've acquired several new pieces over the last few months to include some Korg beat boxes, old and new, a monotribe which has spent numerous hours with me on the throne thus far, kaoss pads, new guitars, blah blah blah. This thing really pulls me in. I feel pretty overwhelmed by it too. It's completely new territory for me, not sonically, but performance wise.

I don't know if it's combination of immediately recognizing sounds from music that I've grown up with or the completely new way of interfacing with an instrument for me or both. Either way, I'm thrilled and feel this thing REALLY rounds out my gear. I think that little missing link of expression has been found. So many times on beat boxes/sequencers I feel....well....boxed in for lack of a better term. It's hard to stray from the 16 steps. This leads to frustration and stagnation in the writing process as I struggle to add an element of performance that simply isn't there given the interface and my lack of high level programming skills. On the keyboard I can go off the reservation as much or as little as needed to round that out. The performance aspect is going to be a steep learning curve for me and I'm thinking I might go and take a piano lesson or two just to get a little more familiar with the keys. The extra fluidity it will provide will fill the gape that the 16 steps leave. Order for chaos and chaos for order.

At any rate, thought I would share. This thing sounds awesome, is immensely powerful, exactly what I needed/wanted, and a hell of a deal with $100 back for the next three days. I will absolutely be adding an original Microkorg to the stable in a few months but will pass on the XL as I think I have everything and more in the R3, everything I care about anyway.

Happy and safe holidays all.

[LordVampyre]

so sorry didnt realize this was from like 200 years ago..

again sorry.