Why was the Korg M1 so special in 1988? 

Glad to see you're still posting after all this time. Great stuff as always!

The radio voice is back and shows us the legendary Korg M1, which was released in 1988. The year my mother also released me 🎹😅 ... Love it

the m1 still holds up today, id love to have a physical one at some point

Alright, drop everything, Martin's back with another one. I remember going to music shops to play the m1 as a kid. These shops were fairly darkly lit rooms which def added to vibe. I have such a soft spot for the look and feel of the round illuminated buttons on the keyboard version. I might end up fulfilling the childhood dream one day, just to play in the dark and be transported away.

Thank you for this wonderful flashback! I've got a wavestation, I love the Korg of late eighties and early nineties. Have a good time with your beautiful M1 !!! 🎶

Great to know we have a new post from you. Many thanks for sharing!

Even the Korg iM1 iPad app is special!! Serves me well.

Best video about the M1 so far. Thank you !

Good to see you still in the studio mate!!

Welcome back! M1 organ and piano presets are legendary, but cannot forget M1 finger snap!

it’s so good to see you back

Happy to see you again!

Nice to see you back

First time I saw someone playing an m1 live, I could believe my ears. Seemed like anything was possible now!

My 1988 Korg P03 Symphony Orchestra module is still banging in 2024!

Hello old bean, this sounds like the real hard house

Long Time No See… best synth of the 80s! 🦾

The keyboard player in my first band had an M1 back in 1989 ... it was glorious 🤗

He's back!

Love the M1, its such a classic❤ peace from germany

been after a M1R ex for a while . Nice vid.

The D50 was slick, very PM Dawn. The M1 was drier and perceptively "smaller" on its own (though obviously effects exist) and much more interesting imo. With an M1, a couple of drum machines and a Roland S50 sampler, I made a bunch of indie film-scores and ad music. I never used the onboard sequencer at all, i found it easier to just use other gear for percussion or other foundational track and play parts on the M1, partly because it was finicky to use the little screen and if there was a way to have a bigger monitor i did not know about it. Particularly useful at the time was the way you could use alternate tunings for mallet sounds and such.

The famous synthesizer that has permanently found its place in the deep house genre

Fresh as ever 👏🏻

Thank you

welcome back

cool beat at the end

Man those pads remind me of Silent Hill OST, love 'em. Nice work

I always thought the M1 was about the infamous house piano sound. The only 90s Korg i really ever wanted was the TR-Rack, after that the sound of these machines got a bit washed out.

Sounds pretty amazing! I only wish this was longer so we could hear more of its sounds. That intro part you played was fantastic. Just some chords you wrote, or from something?

I love my m1 so sleek.

Before the Wavestation, Ensoniq released the ESQ1 and SQ80, which are pretty interesting, but had no onboard effects. It took awhile for everyone to adapt to the new norm established by the M1. But the new crop of do it all synths followed soon after, like SY77, and newer Roland like U20 which in fact was pretty popular in the UK, and the Ensoniq VFX.

new vinyljunkie07 video today can't get any better

You have perfectly right ! I got an M1, M1R and M3R..so good. Do you have any link to get an editor under win 95/xp for the akai s900-s950 ? Thanks

hello bro very clever ideea to get a m1 rack . i had the same in the studio in 1999 along with akai s1000, roland jd 990, yamaha tx81z, casio fz 10m and proteus3 . i really enjoyed the overall sound of m1 and particulary i like presets like " zephir", "stratos"," universe", "organ2", "fwave" . i really hope you'll do a studio tour next time

Consistent once a week uploading is for total amateurs. Once a year, that’s boss level YouTubing! Always great to see a new VinylJunkie video. Did the JD08 survive in the studio?

It's a very special synth. I tend to ignore the haters and the 'rompler' word. Had mine for 30 years plus and still use it reqularly. Plus if you are brave enough to try and program new patches, its definitely worth the effort...huge rewards

Is the microQ booted from the setup now? Would love to see a new video showcasing your current setup?

I now regret selling this for around £400 2 years ago. Shouldn't even thought of selling it in the first place :(

You know what was even better and also released in 88, the Akai S950. 😉

That's some nice Balearic House!

M1 souds better today

me bruda

are the strings in the intro a preset?

What console is that to your right?

SH-101 for the leads?

.....and WHY was so special? -.- because it was the first 'low cost/average man' digital midi workstation with 8 track sequencer, 8 part multitimbral, integrated digital programmable Fx unit, acceptable polyphony (16 oscillators) and pcm sound sources with (considering 1988) good acoustic instruments emulations....and with the combination mode you could easily layer or split up to 8 parts for live stage musicians. isn't there other thing like that? yes...synclavier was a very advanced sampling and synthesis workstation, but it was more than 100k dollars and not trasportable on stage easily...even fairlight was a good workstation but yet it was 60k dollars. So M1 was 'so special' because it was at time a good compromise for an average/professional keyboard player or composer in terms of features, price and learning curve. D50 was far superior in terms of powerness, stereophony and synthesis power (still today if well programmed can compete with real analogue like prophets or oberheims), Dx7 was stll an undiscovered planet but fm is difficult to handle in terms of customizing sounds....and both had no sequencer or multitimbral capabilities. Soon it will arrive Yamaha SY77 which was really a revolution mixing the best of both worlds (but korg still wins at time due to some musically pcm waves like m1 piano or universe, used in many records....korg sounds were used a lot in commercial productions).