Korg M1 some custom patches and editing! 

yeah, and don't forget the keyboard itself, it is so much better than anything you can buy these days even in 3x price range.. Real mechanical keys and they are so nice to play.

THanks!!👍

I own the Wavestation too. Is really a fantastic synth!:)

yeah, thanks! RU-vid chews up some high frequencies, in fact it sounds even better when you listen in person

Thanks man!

Thanks! yeah exactly, it is a synthesizer, not a preset player :)

I agree, thanks!

Thank you =) Don't forget M1 has great mechanical keyboard. If price is good, I would get it even for the keyboard itself, it is very nice.

Thank you so much!

Thanks! I just love to dive deep into synthesis, it is fun :)

The DSS-1 is far more complex than the M1. You lucked out. Of course now you can never part with it because it is the size of a Volkswagen.

Are you not disappointed that I do not show typical presets? :) I had a feeling that those who once owned it, would say like "whaat?.." In fact, sounds there are great. I can recognize a dozen of my favorite songs from the 90s that used these sounds.. It's such an iconic synth..

You playing with the distortion and the drum kit reminds me a lot of what I used to do back in the 90's when I owned one. Such great string sounds too. I especially like that Sawtooth patch with aftertouch, that's something I never did back then.@@SkinnyVampiress

It's nice to hear, thank you =)

For $100 you will not be disappointed :) Even as a midi keyboard, it's cool. Very nice fully mechanical keys with aftertouch, etc.. But it is bulky and takes up a lot of space in the room. I think it's good for strings or pads (as of 2019), maybe bass.. and some pseudo-realistic retro sounds. But the editing is not that simple, everything is done through the menu.. If you want to use an external midi controller, you need one with SysEx support.

@@SkinnyVampiress It's gone! In just few hours after it was added! I'm gutted... There is another one for ~200$ in perfect shape... Must save up and get one though... Your vid made my mind on what I need :) I'm new to synths, normaly a bass player, sludge/stoner/doom, but after I got my first keys I just gone wild. I got yamaha psr36 and yamaha pss 380 both in mint condition for about 60$ altogether and I manage to squeeze some decent dark ambient sounds from them. They are cool, as the synthesis (although limited) is controled with sliders, quick and easy. Still, I don't mind the way you create sounds on M1, I record on Korg D4, which is 4 tracker and digital effects processor (flangers and pitch shifters makes those yamahas much more alive), and it has very simmiliar input method. I actually enjoy it, I hate to use laptop when composing. It destracts me. Dedicated hardware is the way.

Cool, I also have some metal/industrial/doom background =) But now I am more into synths for some reason.. You can look at the rack version, M1R, and their -ex addition.. In fact, these days, you can find many old digital synthesizers at very attractive prices. Don't worry too much about M1, if you can not find it..

It cost me about $115 and a few nights of repair :D thank you!

@@SkinnyVampiress Well worth it! :-)

it's from 1989 :)

@@SkinnyVampiress no offense but on Korg's website it says "In 1988 KORG released the legendary M1"

@@bevolkisch4628 ok..... why I thought it was from 89.... lol. Congratulations with your M1R by the way :)

@@SkinnyVampiress I actually thought it was 1989 also but then I just googled it to make sure. Yeah I got it for that bass "organ" sound in this song ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ps2Jc28tQrw.html but it's used a lot actually and it is a preset.

​@@bevolkisch4628 yeah I know, and for me especially - there is a lot of russian songs from 90s that used M1 sounds, and this organ preset too, I grew up on this kind of music... it always brings some memories :)

haha cool \m/

I'm actually recording some ambient music on a cassette tape right now

I don't know :) maybe it is m1 ensemble effect. thanks mate!

тебя тоже!))

maybe a little late... but... first, create very basic synth saw patch. I used saw + pulse osc octave below, but it doesn't matter. Then go to combi, and add your patch in all 8 slots, detune and pan.. should work.

@@SkinnyVampiress thanks :-)

Well, I need to do more patches first because there are too few of them to release as a preset pack.. But it's so boring to navigate trough all menus all the time, so I wanted to make a programmer for M1. I mean hardware programmer with 60+ knobs for parameters and all that stuff.. it's not that hard but it will take a lot of time probably. So I always in the state of "yea I need to do it, but first I need to finish %something%..." and so on. So I don't really know. I want to do it and put a lot of patches for download though..

I agree... but if you want just a little resonance, you can use the exciter effect, it's different but anyway. and ringmod could be kind of faked with chorus 2 (or 1, I don't remember) where modulation can go to audio frequencies.. again, it is not exactly ring mod, but something like that. M1 lacks many features but it has a lot of samples to work with, don't forget osc pitch adsr and combis... with careful programming you can do a lot. It is a special synth, not for every day use, but it can generate very interesting textures.

@@SkinnyVampiress I agree, in fact it is not a synthesizer for conventional use ... unfortunately my M1 got ruined because it took water. Now I really like the Volca Fm, the microfreak e Roland jdxi. Congratulations for your compositions. 👍

@@riksentenza thanks!

cool, man! thank you! I am really grateful that you did it :)

you actually did a great thing! I can see 200% increase in views and some new people too! thank you a lot!

I don't think I have enough patches to sell them as a pack.. maybe in the future.

well, you can check the entire front panel with a multimeter.. the switches are organized in some sort of a scan-matrix, you can check if it's working by probing the connector itself.. I don't remember if there are any diodes on a front panel pcb, if so - you should check them too.

​@@SkinnyVampiress Thanks a lot I will try it

I would really recommend you to replace the battery and upload factory sysex… because there are also combi sounds, you can tweak them... and get outstanding results.. It's a little difficult to program everything from scratch for multi-layer combi

Yes . I'm trying to clean and restoring a little the caps and joystick piece... it's very damaged... . I changed battery. But in the process I figure out the dirty state of the interiors and started a deep clean...and recording the process. Now the plastic from the front panel recovered a piano black polish I'm very proud... hope It come back to life very soon😃

oh well... I need to make more patches and made them available then.. How I did that sound - I think there is a distortion in fisrt slot (maybe with lo-end boosted) and a long reverb in second fx slot...

@@SkinnyVampiress Thank you man. going to subscribe to you.

@@RF-go5lp cool, thanks!

cool, do it :)

haha yeah :D thanks! actually M1 sounds really alive for a digital synth, I would totally agree with that

@@SkinnyVampiress I have a Korg Kross 2 and have been making customised patches for various songs for use in my live shows, it wasn't until digital sampling technology improved and became affordable without having to sell your car, no house, to buy a Fairlight that synthesizors started sounding more alive and organic in my opinion...ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-k_4PQYwWhoM.html

I never thought about it... Maybe I will make a pack for downloading, so far it is nothing more than a few presets.

do it! I'll buy it

@@SkinnyVampiress I would buy these! I'm very interested in exploring the more experimental side of the M1. Do you have any tips for programming it?

@@technopriest8686 well.. I treat it like a VA with somewhat unique oscillators.. You could program it like any other synth, then swap the oscillator sample to something unusual and interesting.. FX section also adds a lot of character.

@@SkinnyVampiress would also buy!

not really, it uses all voices of the polyphony. you can make it duophonic without significant change in sound though... but in order to play chords you need to limit the voices. It will sound good anyway, but not that massive.

It is just all 16 voices playing the same note, you can combine up to 8 identical patches in 'combi' mode, and you have 2 waveforms/osc per patch, so 16 oscillators in total. I used a little bit of overdrive on top of it, but it is not really necessary..

@@SkinnyVampiress That's what I thought you used, just want to confirm. Thx

There is a small PCB on a keyboard... It has two trim pots, one controls gain and another - sensitivity. or treshold.... So one will control when aftertouch starts to act, and another - how easy it will reach 127. So you need to adjust them to your taste, use something like midiOX to monitor midi messages...

banks are stored in sysex files. usually. then all you need to do is to download a software that can send system exclusive messages, I used this: www.korgforums.com/forum/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=99291 or midi-OX but it is more complicated, you also need proper audio interface with midi-out, or midi interface. cheap usb-midi cables won't work sometimes, so you need normal interface. And then just follow the instruction, press receive on M1, send the sysex file from computer, it is very easy.

It sounds great, but its engine is pretty simple, based on samples, so you can't do a lot..

Thanks Skinny ... I did find a demo Korg VST everyone , says it sounds very similar ...Ive been playing around with it today creating patches ,I guess the M1 came with different sounds cards , if you buy the Korg M1 Vst you get them all ....very interesting ...heres a link if anyone wants to try it out www.korguser.net/m1le/download/@@SkinnyVampiress

you can also try the Korg Legacy Collection, I don't have it, but people who have tried it, say it sounds pretty close. you can buy it or download it for free from the internet :D

ah, lol it is Korg legacy collecton. I didn't check the site from your link

@@SkinnyVampiress noprob Skinny. It let's you try it for ten days, it's just a stand alone vst so you don't need any other software

First you need to change a 3v battery inside the M1, or it will not "remember" any of patches that you create.... then I would recommend to load factory .syx anyway, because programming everything from scratch is very long and not so easy to do with all menus and stuff.. You don't need any equipment to upload factory patches, just a sound card with midi out, or usb-midi cable, or any other midi interface... although some usb-midi cables are buggy and I won't recommend them unless you already have one. Or ask some friends maybe someone have midi on a computer... then just follow guides on the internet, it's actually very easy to do, and your M1 will be like new again.

@@SkinnyVampiress thank you so much! Finally accomplished a few nights ago! Learning from your videos how to customize them now!

@@mattmorton9488 cool :) have fun with your M1 🎶

да, надо бы позаписывать) только для серьезных треков нужен особый настрой, состояние мозгов..

Yeah, youtube really does that.. It's all nice to hear, thanks man! :)