| M1 by Korg | |||
| Synthesis type: | Digital Sample-based Subtractive | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Polyphony: | 16 | ||
| Oscillators: | 16 | ||
| Keyboard: | 61-key Aftertouch + Velocity | ||
| Left hand control: | Spring-return Joystick (Pitch and Modulation) | ||
| External control: | MIDI | ||
| Produced: | 1988 - 1994 | ||
| Original price: | $2166 | ||
The Korg M1 was the world's first widely-known music workstation. is a Japanese Multinational corporation that manufactures electronic Musical instruments and Electronic tuners The company is one of the Basics of sound When any mechanical collision occurs such as a fork being dropped sound is produced A digital synthesizer is a Synthesizer that uses Digital signal processing (DSP techniques to make musical sounds Sample-based synthesis is a form of audio synthesis that can be contrasted to either Subtractive synthesis or Additive synthesis. Subtractive synthesis is a method of subtracting Harmonic content from a sound via Sound synthesis, characterised by the application of an Audio filter Polyphony is the property of an Electronic musical instrument which describes how many notes it can sound at one time Oscillation is the repetitive variation typically in Time, of some measure about a central value (often a point of Equilibrium) or between two or more different states A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a Musical instrument, particularly the piano Year 1988 ( MCMLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar) Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) A music workstation is piece of electronic musical equipment providing the facilities of a Sound module, a Music sequencer Its onboard MIDI sequencer and palette of sounds allowed musicians to produce complete professional arrangements. A music sequencer (also MIDI sequencer or just sequencer) is software or hardware designed to create and manage computer-generated music Outselling the Yamaha DX7 and Roland D-50, the M1 became the best-selling digital keyboard of all time, which it remains today. The Yamaha DX7 was a Synthesizer manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1986, based on FM synthesis developed by Roland D50 is a polyphonic 61-key Synthesizer by Roland. It was released in 1987 to compete with the Yamaha DX7 [1]
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Overview
In many ways, the Korg M1 was a breakthrough. In its six-year production period, more than 250,000 units were sold, making it Korg's most successful synthesizer. And though it wasn't the first workstation,it was among the first in its class and set new standards for other manufacturers. It even enabled Korg to regain total economic control of the company. The M1's unprecedented sales allowed Korg executives to buy Yamaha's share of the company, a deal which had originated in the mid-1980s.
Even for the late 1980s, the M1's synth engine was somewhat simplistic,comprising one or two digital oscillators per patch. A total of 16 oscillators were offered,leading to a maximum 16-note polyphony (using only single-oscillator patches)This reduced to 8 Note when using double oscillator programs. In Music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent Melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice ( Monophony The basic sample sound was then processed by a simple digital low pass filter, and then fed into the digital amplifier. A low-pass filter is a filter that passes low- Frequency signals but Attenuates (reduces the Amplitude of signals with frequencies Generally an amplifier or simply amp, is any device that changes usually increases the amplitude of a signal. Envelopes and LFOs, along with keyboard tracking, were the main controllers for those blocks. Because no interaction between the oscillators was provided (unlike Roland's 'structures,' for example), dual-oscillator patches essentially ran the two oscillators in parallel.
The filter didn't offer resonance, but at the time this wasn't considered a major handicap; the need for a dramatic filter was diminished by the onboard sample library's wide variety of acoustic, synth, and exotic sounds. Acoustic music refers to music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means as opposed to Electronic means The M1's internal 4 MB waveform ROM contained famous sounds which are in use even today, especially the compressed acoustic piano (used on countless records of the time and later adopted by the dance crowd), pick and synth basses, strings, realistic vocal samples, brasses, and acceptable drum kits. For the first time, ethnic and exotic sounds from world locales (particularly Asian) were offered as standard, which when combined with the synth sounds, offered a workstation that "blew people's minds. "
The M1 offered the ability to combine up to eight programs (patches) to play simultaneously on various key and velocity zones. This arrangement is called a 'Combi,' and allowed more complex sounds to be assembled and played via keyboard or MIDI.
The integrated MIDI sequencer allowed up to eight polyphonic tracks to play internal or MIDI sounds simultaneously. MIDI ( Musical Instrument Digital Interface, ˈmɪdi is an industry-standard protocol that enables Electronic musical instruments Computers The sequencer memory could be shared with the user sound area, allowing 100 user "Program" sounds and 100 user "Combination" sounds with 4,400 sequencer notes or a reduced 50 Program and 50 Combination user sounds with 7700 notes. The sequencer's pattern structure permitted memory saving by using patterns for repetitive regions. Though paltry by current standards, the M1's sequencer offered full track editing and quantization, making it possible to produce high-quality songs entirely on the machine. The combination of the patches with the sequencer functionality led to the M1's ubiquitous presence in 1988.
Another major advancement was in the area of onboard effects. The M1 offered 2 independent effects engines featuring reverb, flanger, chorus, delay, etc. Previously, most synthesizers offered fixed-function effects blocks, such as chorus or delay, and rarely reverb. Somewhat less spectactularly, when using multiple patches at the same time (in Combi or Sequencer modes), all patches share the same effects blocks. This problem also affected workstations from nearly all manufacturers until Korg implemented a massive effects engine on their mid-90's Trinity workstations.
The user interface featured a 40x2 character LCD and softkeys, along with data slider and data entry buttons. The workstation featured minimalist physical controls, employing only a joystick that combined two modulation sources (Left/Right on the joystick adjusts pitchbend down and up, respectively. Pushing up on the joystick emits MIDI controller 1 messages and pushing down emits MIDI controller 2 messages) and the pitch bend; aftertouch; and the data slider. A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling No arpeggiator was offered (a common omission until mid-90's) and the synth enforced patch-based cumbersome programming instead of performance controls. No disk drive was integrated, so along with MIDI SysEx dumps, memory cards provided the only method to save sequences and programs outside the keyboard.
All M1 models include 2 slots for expansion - one for sample ROMs and the other for patch/combi ROMs or RAM cards for saving sounds or sequences. Korg offered the MCR-02 128k card and the MCR-03 256k card for around $80-$150 list, as well as the monster 4 bank MCR-04 MegaRam. These cards and the M1's internal memory all use 3V lithium cells like the CR2032 which lasts ~5 years without needing to be replaced. If the battery dies, your sounds and sequences will be lost.
Because of the success of the M1's sales, an entire market grew around supporting this synth. This included the production of 3rd party manuals, new sounds, training videos, and hardware modifications. One such modification was the Frontal Lobe, which added more memory for sequencing and a floppy disk drive. Another one was the M1 PlusOne, which added an additional 4mb of onboard sample memory.
Series
Rackmount versions of the M1 were available. The M1R was a 2U rack with the same ROM and patches and combis as the M1. The M1EX keyboard and M1R-EX (rack version) included an additional 4MB block of waveforms in ROM. The M3R was a cut-down model in 1U form factor that had similar sounds and its own line of ROM cards.
The M1's synth engine remained nearly unchanged until the Korg Trinity's breakthrough in 1995, with minor improvements concerning polyphony, more control sources, and more effects algorithms. Korg Trinity is a commercially successful Synthesizer Music workstation released by Korg The T series (1989: T1/T2/T3) built upon the M1's success, offering more keyboard alternatives (88, 76 and 61-key versions), a disk drive and more ROM samples, more sequencer capacity, and a better screen. However, the polyphony stalled at 16 notes and the effects blocks were untouched. A 1 MB sample RAM option allowed users to load a handful of samples for use with the synth sections. The T1 series is able to read memory cards (RAM and ROM) that work in the M1, and can also load M1 patches and Combi's from SysEx files.
The O series (1990: O1/W,O1/WFD,O1/W Pro,O1/W ProX) maintained the improvements of the T series (despite losing the sample RAM) but doubled the polyphony and offered several refinements over the previous machines, mainly effects and audio outputs routing. The Pro version had 76 keys and the ProX used the 88 weighted keys of the T1 and SG88 sampled grand piano. A non-linear waveshaping technology was also integrated in the synth section, but it didn't seem to cause a major impact. The O1/WFD, the 61-key version with disk drive, was also a bestseller, but did not surpass sales of the M1. Rackmount versions of the O series included the O1R/W which featured a sequencer, a rare feature not found on most such models. Also Korg produced the O3R/W (1U) and O5R/W (1/2 U) which had similar architectures but could not use the same sounds. The name for this line came from a Korg executive who showed his boss a paper upside-down -- it had been intended to be called the M10 in order to build from the success of the M1. As a result, sometimes these models are mistakenly referred to with a 0 (zero) instead of the letter "O".
The X series (1993: X2/X3, 1995: X5,X5D) was a cost-effective derivative of the O series, adding General MIDI compatibility and more samples to the internal ROM. However, the graphic LCD was replaced by a cheaper, smaller character-based one, the keyboard feel was downgraded, and the waveshaping removed. A welcome addition was the disk drive, now compatible with MS-DOS machines.
Throughout the series from T to X, the M1's digital filter remained unchanged, limiting the synthesis possibilities due to its non-resonant architecture, especially when attempting to recreate analog-style sounds such as sweeps. This shortcoming was shared by other manufacturers at the time such as Alesis and Ensoniq. Alesis is a manufacturer of Electronic musical instruments owned by Numark and based in Cumberland, Rhode Island. Ensoniq Corp was an American Electronics manufacturer best known throughout the mid 1980s and 1990s for its Musical instruments principally Resonant digital filters were offered by Roland and Yamaha on most of their machines from early the 90's through today.
The M1 helped pioneer the baseline features that other music workstations eventually offered, such as: good synth and acoustic sounds, drum samples, sequencer and effects processing. Following the M1's release, many manufacturers sought to offer competing products. Workstations like the M1 soon became widley available.
In 2006 Korg released the Legacy Collection Digital Edition, which includes software versions of the Korg Wavestation and Korg M1. The Korg Wavestation is a Vector synthesis synthesizer first produced in the early 1990s and later re-released as a software synthesizer in 2004 The M1 software runs as a VST or AU plugin and includes all of the original Korg-manufactured ROM sounds. Additionally, this software can import System Exclusive files (. SYX) exported from the original hardware-based M1. This functionality permits 3rd party ROMs to work with the software version. Korg has added a resonant filter to the software version, adding functionality that the original model did not have.
References
External links
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic