Korg M1

Synthesizer Workstation

The Korg M1 was one of the first synthesizers (together with the Roland D-50) to use PCM samples to create sounds - and the sounds it made! Clear, vibrant and very acoustic sounding. Some of the sounds were pretty soon used in a large number of recordings, such as the swirling and immensely impressing  "Universe" sound, not to mention the very easily recognizable percussive sounds, such as the "Pole" which really sounds like a metal pole being struck.

The M1 is also a workstation, meaning that it combines a full eight-part multi-timbral capacity, a generous amount of polyphony (16 voices), plenty of ready-to-go sounds and drum kits with onboard multi effects and a powerful sequencer.

The design of the synthesizer is almost artistic in its nature - very slick with a smooth and sparse front panel, a large display and a pleasant five octave keyboard. It really looks like an advanced electronic musical instrument!

The heart of the M1's synthesis system (cleverly called AI-synthesis) are four megabytes worth of 16-bit samples. These are various samples of many acoustic instruments, ranging from pianos and guitars to more abstract sounds like different digital waves and percussive sound samples. Some samples are one-shot sounds and some are looped waveforms. A few are very peculiar sounding loop waveforms, such as the now famous "Lore" and "Flexatone" Many samples are the attack transients of acoustic sounds, which when combined with a digital waveform is supposed to create completely new, yet acoustic sounding result.

The M1 is a 16 voice synthesizer in Single mode, or an eight voice instrument in Double mode. It is not very much by today's standard when 64 voice instruments are quite common, but it seemed like a lot when the M1 was introduced.

The synthesizer features two digital multi-effect processors, which can add a various delay, reverb, exciter, flanger, phaser, panner or chorus effect to the sounds. You can have up to four different effects for each program combination and they are all very useful! All sound processing takes place in the digital domain, so there is no added noise. And the M1 is very silent indeed!

The onboard 8-track sequencer can store up to 7700 notes or 100 patterns. If you don't have a computer based sequencer it is quite useful, but anyone who ever got used to the intuitive and graphical interface of a PC-based MIDI software would probably never go back to a dedicated hardware sequencer again.

The M1 was a truly classic instrument .

http://www.vintagesynth.com/index2.html

http://www.korgfr.net/

M1 factory default combinaisons.syx
M1 factory default Programmes.sys


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