Do you own a MicroKORG? Do you dig those crazy sounds I get out of mine? Well today is your luck day!
I’ve had my MicroKORG for a good 8 years now. I got it just barely used for a really good deal. During this time it’s been used in just about every band I’ve been involved with. It’s come in handy – mostly due to the fact that it’s so small that I can take it anywhere, while still being quite versatile. Over these years, either out of necessity or inspiration, I’ve created a whole handful of my own patches, because frankly, the sounds that come stock on the MicroKORG are pretty annoying.
The result: a unique MicroKORG sound bank.
There’s a strong retro / vintage / avant garde electronic music / hauntology / twee / indie pop vibe across my patches, since those happen to be the sounds I’m most interested in.
Listen for yourself! These tracks feature the included patches exclusively.
The patches included in my library are:
- Þ.AnalogHorn.prg – This is a somewhat typical synth horn. Something between what you might get on an analog synth like a Moog and a FM synth like the DX-7. Sounds good down in the tuba range and up into trumpet. I think the most special thing about this patch is that turning up the modulation wheel makes it growl.
- Þ.Churchbell.prg – The Phil Specter in me needed one of these. This isn’t going to fool anybody, but it sounds rad nonetheless. Sounds like a synth. Especially if you turn up the mod-wheel vibrato.
- Þ.DeepRzBass.prg – This one has embarrassing origins. I was trying to emulate the sound of the fuzz bass in the intro to that Muse song, Time is Running Out. Nevertheless, THIS PATCH IS MY SECRET WEAPON! Whenever I need to kick up the intensity of a section of a song a notch, I just layer one of these in. Fills out the low end with a really pleasant saw sizzle on top. Really thick. Similar to that Shins song, Sphagnum Esplanade. But that’s not all! Turn the mod wheel and you’ve got a slow attack on the low-pass filter sweep. A really deep, thick analog Moog-style bass sound. And for the clincher, turn on the arrpegiator and it’s instant François de Roubaix.
- Þ.Forbidden.prg – Inspired by the film, Forbidden Planet, which I believe features the first electronic music score. Basically it’s a theremin-sounding patch with a ridiculous amount of echo.
- Þ.G.Armonica.prg – The glass armonica is an instrument invented by Benjamin Franklin, based on playing wine glasses with a wet finger. This is my emulation.
- Þ.Glass Pad.prg – Don’t write this one off. A very glassy/digital sounding pad.
- Þ.Glockspl 2.prg – Metallic/bell-like sounding patch. Nothing to write home about, but has it’s uses.
- Þ.Glockspl 3.prg - Metallic/bell-like sounding patch.
- Þ.Male Bass.prg – Sounds like a sample of a man with a very deep voice saying “UHHH”
- Þ.Marimba.prg – The sound of chromatic wood blocks struck with a mallet.
- Þ.Mrimbababa.prg – A slightly different marimba sound, except with loads of delay on it. Trying to emulate the sound found in recordings such as Leslie Gore’s You Don’t Own Me. Not fooling anybody, but still cool in its own right.
- Þ.MTBoyChoir.prg – Another of my pride and joys. This emulates a Mellotron Boys Choir. All the “choir” patches that the MicroKORG comes with are rubbish. This one sounds close enough to the real thing when in the mix.
- Þ.PSRFantasy.prg – Years ago I fell in love with the “Fantasy” setting on my friend’s Yamaha PSR keyboard. I recreated it here somewhat, except with more resonance on the filter to make it SING. Magical.
- Þ.S&HCompute.prg – A vintage sci-fi staple — the old sample-and-hold computer-processing-information sound. Beep boop beep bap Beep beep boop.
- Þ.Sci-fi Goo.prg – While it is tonal, it is more a sound effect. A thick sound with an intense sweep that sounds like goo dripping.
- Þ.SpaceWater.prg – This is a sound effect. If you can imagine what it would sound like to step in a puddle in zero-gravity.
- Þ.Stage E-P.prg – The BEST electric piano you will find for the MicroKORG. I’m proud of this one. It’s actually usable! More of a glassy Rhodes sound than a Wurlitzer, but still not way digital sounding or anything. Pleasing velocity sensitivity – from muffled and soft, to glassy, to a little growl. I’m not going to bash the stock piano sound on MicroKORG–it’s unique–this on the other hand is definitely a much better emulation.
- Þ.Theremin.prg – This is pretty basic — a sine-like tone with portamento. Doesn’t compare to the real thing, but lacking an expert theremin player in live situations this suffices.
- Þ.Thorioline.prg – This is one of my oldies but goodies. In the early 60s a strange sound started making its way onto pop recordings — the solo in Del Shannon’s Runaway and the lead in many Joe Meek recordings, including The Tornados’ Telstar. It was a monophonic keyboard produced and sold under various names — Clavioline, Ondioline, etc. This patch makes similar sounds. Mod-wheel increases brightness and vibrato. Wide usable range — from basses, to leads, to whatever is above that.
- Þ.Toy Piano.prg – Sometimes I don’t understand how I managed to recreate a complex organic sound within the confined parameters of the MicroKORG. But this sounds like a toy piano (hardly a piano, since it has metal bars instead of strings).. such as you’ll hear all over the Amelie soundtrack.
- Þ.TransOrgan.prg – A transistor organ like a Vox Continental. There’s a similar patch that comes with the keyboard, but I felt like this was closer to what I wanted.
- Þ.TubulrBell.prg – A nasty big bell sound. Useful if you want to create disorienting “music.”
- Þ.TWOrgan.prg – Tone-wheel organ. I was thinking of a Hammond B-3 or similar organ with the bars drawn so that it’s over-driving some. Not going to fool anybody, but a useful addition to your arsenal.
- Þ.VideoGame.prg – My first patch. It’s weird! It’s loud an intense. Mod-wheel slides one of the oscillators up an octave. So it goes from sounding like an 8-bit video game sound to.. well.. somewhere between another 8-bit video game sound and a Farfisa compact transistor organ.
- Þ.VL1 Pops 1.prg – My first go at it. More diffused sounding than the next.
- Þ.VL1 Pops 2.prg – This sounds like a Casio toy keyboard “pops” setting. Sounds like the hook in Outkast’s Hey-ya.
- Þ.Whistle.prg – Sounds like a synth emulating a person whistling. Depending on how you play it it can range from somewhat convincing to ridiculously awesome.
That’s a total of 29 patches!!! Is that worth $15? That’s $0.50 a patch. That’s about the price of a one CD! Sounds this awesome will help you sell at least one CD to recoup the cost, right? Basically, you can’t afford to not buy these patches. Thanks! :)
^^^ Just use that PayPal button, and I’ll send you an email with all my MicroKORG patches so you can download them.
Patches in .PRG format can be loaded onto your MicroKORG using the MicroKORG Sound Editor software, available from the KORG website.
Don’t have a MIDI interface to your computer? No problem! You have two options. I’ll send you screenshots of all the settings files so that you can manually enter the settings into your MicroKORG. Otherwise, I highly recommend you get yourself a MIDI interface for your computer. It makes loading, organizing, and creating patches much easier. The cheapest MIDI interface I’ve found is $8.99 from Buy.com. If you want a more reputable interface, Sam Ash has MIDI interfaces starting at $39.
PS — Let me know what name you record music under as I’d like to link to musicians who are using my sounds!
wow! sounds amazing… would it be possible listening to the patches individually?
Hi Pablo — thanks! I’ll work on recording them individually.
I would for sure buy this if you had an actual list of the settings. I don’t have a MIDI cable to plug it into my interface and don’t wanna go through the whole install thing haha.
Hi Danny — I think I’ll try taking screenshots of the settings in the sound editor software when I next have a chance if that’ll do.
Regardless, I highly recommend investing in a USB-MIDI connector… I think I got mine for $20 and that was a good five years ago. The ability to transfer and back-up patches on your computer is priceless, even if you don’t want to involve your computer in music making (software synths, max/msp, daws, etc.)
UDATE 1: Individual patches can now be heard: http://justanothersnakecult.bandcamp.com/album/custom-microkorg-vintage-retro-patch-library-demonstration
UPDATE 2: I’ve taken screenshots of the settings for each individual patch, so people without a MIDI connection to their computer can still manually load my patches into their MicroKORGs.
Hey dude, 1. you’re awesome and 2. I just bought it via PayPal and I just need the screenshots. I’m sure it’s already contacted you, just wanted to make sure. Thanks!
Hey Danny, thanks! Coming your way.
Does these patches work also with Micro Korg XL?
No, unfortunately MicroKORG patches do not work with the MicroKORG XL due to the fact that they use a different synthesis engine.
In theory these patches should all work with the KORG MS-2000 and MS-2000R, since that shares the same synthesis engine as the original MicroKORG.
Ok, it can’t be helped..Nice patches anyway!
And JustAnotherSC sounds great too!!
Here’s our instrumentalband from Finland
spotify:album:3iXc8nYZAjNWkUSn0o12lf
Have a nice day!
Hey man, i love some of these sounds. I’m very interested. But i don’t have a midi-connection, nor am i interested in one. Do you think we could solve this?
Hey Filip, yes — I’d send you screenshots of all the settings and you’d manually enter them into the MicroKORG. Quite a few people have done this. It’s definitely not as easy as MIDI, but is definitely doable.
So if you send the screenshots is basically what you’re sending me the things to enter im edit select 1 and 2? And will you send both screens and midi?
Yes, from the screenshots you can deduce all the values to input using the edit select knobs. As you can imagine, this takes a bit of extra time to do, and if you value your time at an hourly wage, it’s probably cheaper to get a cheap MIDI interface such as the one I link to at the bottom of the post. And so yes, I’m more than happy to send both the screenshots and the patch program files, as it’s inevitable that some people will give up with doing it manually.
Hey, is it possible to send me the screenshots? I like these patches a lot, and I would like to use my microkorg more often since I don’t really like the patches that are on it. I don’t have a credit card or paypal so I can’t order midi cables.
I’d suggest getting somebody with a credit card or paypal account to do the ordering.
Hey man, patches sound way cool. I just purchased tonight on pay pal and wanted to request the screen shots. How did you learn to create all these great patches? I got my micro a month ago and having lots of fun with it but hard to find info on making own patches not just downloading w/ midi. Any advice? Keep up the sweet sounds. Blessings, Ryan
The MicroKORG is an analog modelling synth, which means that though it’s fully digital it emulates the functionality of an analog synthesizer. So making patches on the MicroKORG follows the same basic principles as pretty much every analog and analog-modelling synth made since the 70s.
The signal starts with an oscillator. This is just a raw sound signal. On digital synths it is called a DCO (digitally controlled oscillator) and on analog it’s called VCO (voltage controlled oscillator). Typically you choose a waveform that has the type of overtone characteristics of the sound you’re after. For example, a clarinet due to its construction produces mostly odd harmonics — so you would use a square wave as a starting point for a clarinet patch, since square waves have only odd harmonics.
When you hit a keyboard button this typically does two things. 1. It controls the frequency of the DCO or VCO, thus changing the frequency of the note to match the desired keyboard pitch. 2. It triggers an envelop. Envelopes generally have four parameters: Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release (ADSR). Attack controls how fast the volume change from silent to full volume occurs. Immediately after reaching the peak volume decay determines how fast it falls to the sustain volume. Sustain determines what volume level to hold the sound at while the key is pressed. Release determines how long it takes for the volume to fall back down to null after the key has been released.
The signal is also typically routed through a filter. The filter is essentially a very extreme EQ. Different synths have different filters. On the MicroKORG you have four to choose from. The 12db/octave and the 24db/octave are typically the most useful.
Synths typically also have low frequency oscillators (LFOs). These are also wave signals, but are so slow (low pitches) that they don’t create a sound themselves. They are typically used to modify the DCO/VCO, for example, to add vibrato.
On old analog patch cord synthesizers you were limited by how many modules you had, but you could patch everything into anything in any way you desired. The MicroKORG has only four patch slots where you have some freedom in assigning a few predefined controls to modify others. This is typically enough to accomplish a sound with nuance.
Those are the basics… I’d suggest reading up on the basics of analog synthesis as a starting point and then apply these concepts to the MicroKORG. Hitting “shift+3″ on your MicroKORG will initialize a patch for you to work from.
I got the patches today, thanks that was really fast! So far programed 3 and taking my time to hear how the sound evolves along the way. Thankyou for taking the time to respond, now I have a good better starting point. Peace- Ryan
Great work, but I own a microKORG XL. There are only 3 patches I can use right now: Hammond B-3 Leslie patch, sax / horn patch and a really good flute patch (ie Tull or can’t you see intro). I know you work on a different system but if you could build these for me I would be interested in a purchase.
I think you may be doing yourself out of money with advice, the Microkorg xl can use MS2K, MS2KB, MICROKORG patches also. Just thought I would let you know that the engines are all compatible (pretty sure they are identical) and i know they all share patches as i recently used the factory microkorh bank in mt XL. all the best
Hey, great patches, I just sent payment to you, when should I expect to get them?
Thanks! I just sent them now.
I usually try to send them within a day or so, but during the summer if I’m traveling out of town it can take a few more days.
hey there, great sounds
i like a few of them, but most of them wouldn’t fit to my needs. do you think it’s possible to purchase only a few of them (about 4 or 5)? this would be so great!
Hey, I emailed you — we’ll figure something out.
hi. my name is richard and i just bought a microkorg and dont dig all the techno/dance crap on it either! i like your patches though! I am very new to synths and dont really know much about patches or midi. Would it be easy for me to program the patches onto my microkorg from your info? Lemme know!
Thanks- RWA
It takes time to enter the patches in setting by setting… if you value your time against an hourly wage then it’s probably worthwhile to spend $30 on a cheap USB MIDI interface, because it’ll probably take a few hours to enter all the patches in. And if you ever want to program your own patches, it’s much easier to use the software than the dials on the microkorg.
OK. After I get one how does it work exactly? remember I am very, very new to patches, synths etc.!
If you have a MIDI interface hooked up to your computer, you plug your microkorg into it. Download the MicroKORG SoundEditor software from the KORG website, and use that software to transfer the patches to your MicroKORG. You pick a slot on the MicroKORG and overwrite the preset with one of my patches (which you can always undo with the MicroKORG soundeditor software or with a system reset directly on your microkorg).
I highly recommend getting a MIDI interface if you don’t already have one. Otherwise, the other option is to enter the patches manually into your MicroKORG setting by setting. This takes a lot of time. This is done via the two big dials and the other smaller dials on the MicroKORG. When you’re done you just hit “write” twice and it saves the patch to the current preset on the microkorg.
Hi ! I bought your patches (that sound way cool ! nice job !) but i do not have a midi interface, could you send me patches screenshots with the .prg files (i’ll try to set MIDI later, hard stuff for me !)
Thanks, Glenn
No problem. I’ve sent you both just now.
hey man i really wanna buy these patch from you but first i wanna know how to put .prg files to the microkorg sound editor
please help me
Yeah, no problem. Do you have a MIDI connection between your MicroKORG and your computer?
It’s just plain wrong to sell these Microkorg patches. I already have alot of these programs that I got for free http://micropony.blogspot.com/2007/12/microkorg-patches.html.
Shame on you
Hello!
I’m interested in purchasing these patches in the next couple of weeks. I saw the date on this was over a year ago so I just wanted to make sure you’re still selling them?
Thanks a ton,
-L
Hi Lucas, yep! Still selling them.
Hi there!
Do these patches work with microkorg xl or microkorg xl+?
Thanks!
Best,
Daniel
nope, sorry. Wish they did. I have an XL as well, and some day will get around to porting them, but there’s such differences between the two synths, especially the effects engines.
Thanks man, if i get a microkorg I’ll buy you patches.
Best,
Daniel
You should definitely remove that BUY button above the list of tracks and move PayPal button higher because someone like me can accidentally buy MP3s instead of Microkorg patches.
Hey,
it’s David. I just bought your great patch. Can you send both patch and screenshot please ?
Thank you et congratulation for that great job
David
No problem, and thanks!
Thanks for pointing that out! Done and done.
Hey, I’m just wondering if you’re patches are still available to purchase?!
Yep!