...but as for the M1....well...if I had not sold my old M1 keyboard,I would have preferred to have smashed it with a hammer..because the sounds were as annoying as fingernails on a chalkboard!
Wow... that's harsh
I mean, the M1 is more than 25 years old. In his time, this was a groundbreaking synth. OK, it can't compete with todays sounds... but once... it was a great synth. And after all, the Korg M1 is the most sold synth all times... So please, even if you don't like it, don't hit it with a hammer !
Moon,
You know what a big Korg fan I've been over the years & in fact,most of the hardware I've owned..was from Korg,but in my opinion,the only "groundbreaking" feature of the M1(in my opinion),was the built in sequencer(that is to say,they were one of the few groundbreaking synths)as there was also the Ensoniq ESQ-1.
The advanced sequencer in the M1 was amazing for it's time and this is the
main reason why the M1 was so big in sales,I think.
My old Korg DS8 was a great synth and it was a year older than the M1(I mistakenly sold it to buy the M1).
Korg always made good analogue synths back then and if they had incorporated something like the Poly-6 into the M1,then it would have been a good synth/workstation(& this would have been the only way to make the M1 a good synth,because Korg didn't have the sample quality of Ensoniq.
In retrospect(had I known better at the time),the Ensoniq ESQ-1 would have been the clear choice in workstation synths!Just think about it...the Ensoniq had basically the same sequencer as the M1 and not only that,but the sample quality was exponentially better than Korg's.
Here's another aspect of the Ensoniq to consider,over the Korg....the M1,was a completely digital synth(in terms of not only samples,but in filters as well)...whereas the ESQ-1,had analogue filters!
What's really interesting about the Ensoniq also,is that the retail on it,was $300 cheaper than the Korg and it came about 2 years earlier than the M1(1986)!
All this being said,I'm sure now,you understand why I was being so harsh,with regard to the M1.
Once Korg came out with the Triton series,then things got interesting with regard to workstations,which is why I had stuck with Korg for so many years.
