Korg Forums

Hi there,

I am a first time synth buyer.

I have demo'd the Micro X and the R3 in a guitar shop, and like them both. Obviously I was a bit blown away, and only managed to poke and roll my way through the presets. Now I'm back home and have researched a lot, I am down to these choices:

Korg R3
korg Micro X
Alexis Micron
Novation X25 or Xiosynth station


my specific question about the Micro X is wrt the arpeggiator, can it be used to "latch". I have seen this on video demos of the R3, but havent found it on the micro X, and its a tool I would want to use.

Also, for someone for whom a vocoder is a nice novelty but not a requirement, which of the models above would be the best synthesiser for the beginner, looking to expand band sounds, play along to 80s stuff in my house, and generally learn a bit of keyboard / synth?

Thanks and please be kind I'm a noob, you dont need to tell me that.

OK, I replaced my Micron with a microX and the Micron had replaced a Novation K-Station, so I have a pretty good idea of most of your options. The microX will have the widest palette of sounds by a long way, because o fits sample ROM based architecture. Its arpeggiators are also a step-up from the Micron and they can indeed be latched. The advantage of a XioSynth is that it can also be used as a USB audio I/O device, which is handy if you are also using a computer but completely useless to you otherwise. [I don't even know if it can be used without the computer attached.]

I bought my first synth in 1981 and since then I have owned a lot of them. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the microX is the best synth I have ever owned. I aboslutely love it to death - it has all the great things about a Triton in a small, easy to work with package. My K-Station and Micron were both great synths but had nowhere near the flexibility and power of the microX. There are a few things that one or the other of them did well but overall, nothing else stacks up IMHO.

Hi thanks for the reply.

One question can the arpeggiator be latched on and off in real time using the Micro X, like the Korg R3?

Not sure, I don't really use it at all, even though it was one of the reasons I was interested in it.