Using a Korg Microkorg with Ableton
Back in the 80s I moved from Punk into Electronic music. Inspired by bands like Human League (early stuff), Vince Clarke and John Foxx I started investing in synths. I started with a Korg MS10 and used it in a band context. Once i left the band and decided to write on my own I needed to invest in a Kawai Q80 Sequencer and Kawai K1r Synth Module. That meant I had to learn MIDI and I had to learn it fast. I still don’t know how I produced the tracks that I did on that tiny little 2″ screen, but I did.
Anyway, I gave it all up in the 90s and sold all that lovely equipment for peanuts (just noticed original MS10 is selling on Ebay for £530 – OMG). Around the end of the 90s I discovered Fruityloops 2 and that changed my life. I got back into writing and soon discovered the wonderful world of VST Synths. It’s not the same though and anyone that has used hardware knows that. It may almost sound the same but there isn’t the same joy that you get from hooking all that equipment together and sitting back listening to it all playing by itself.
http://cmt.art.officelive.com/Documents/MicroKorgAuditioner.rar
.This inspired me to go onto Ebay and purchase a 2nd hand Korg Microkorg. It arrived, I plugged headphones in and listened to all those lush sounds and then realised that I had no way of recording it or using it as a MIDI keyboard. Hands to the ceiling – wail of dismay.
I rummaged around in my box of IT cables and managed to find a small cable that would go into the micrphone socket of my laptop and a 1/4″ adaptor to go into the headphone socket of the Korg. Now I can hear and record into Ableton using the ‘Audio From – Ext.In’ in the ‘Mixer Settings’ and setting Monitor to IN. After I have recorded I need to move the audio to another audio channel that has Monitor set to AUTO. I only use that channel for recording the Korgs audio.
That wasn’t enough though. There was no easy way for me to change that audio. I had to record it live each time and I will have forgotten which preset I was using. I needed to get MIDI working again. On Ebay and I managed to find some ‘USB to MIDI’ converters for about £4. I bought a couple of different model just to be sure but they both worked fine in Windows 7. Now the Korg is visible to Ableton as a midi instrument (make sure that you have it plugged in and turned on before starting Ableton). In ‘Preferences – MIDI’ I now have an Input and Output for ‘USB MIDI’. Make sure that at least TRACK is highlighted.
To get that control from inside Ableton you now need to add a midi track. in the ‘Mixer Settings’ set ‘MIDI From’ to USB MIDI and CH1, Monitor should be set to AUTO. Set MIDI To to USB MIDI and CH1. Now midi clips will play the Korg and key presses from Korg will be recorded in the midi clip (once record is selected). Its working both ways – sorted. Depending on how you connect the midi from your Synth to Ableton then the names might change but the method is still the same. If you have two synths you will need to set them up on different channels so that the channel number may not be the default one of 1. However, unless you had changed that then it will still be 1.
The big problem I discovered was that the next day when I started the song the preset wasn’t remembered by the midi track. The next step was working out how to make the Korg select the preset that I wanted it to be. In the MIDI track create a blank midi clip. Now look at the properties for that clip and you will see in the NOTES section that there is a Bank/Sub-bank/Program section. If I set that to None/None/1 and play that clip then the Korg will change preset to A11, which is the first of the 128 presets in the synth. If I change it to None/None/65 then it will be B11, which is the first of the Bank B block from the Trance setting.
I have created a template song that you can load into Ableton that will set it all up for you. In it there is a clip for all 128 presets in the Microkorg so that you can press each one and it will change the program for you. Its handy for auditioning as all you need to do is put a midi clip in the ‘ M.Korg Midi Track’ then start it playing and then click on each program clip as you want.
http://cmt.art.officelive.com/Documents/MicroKorgAuditioner.rar
This works especially well for me as I also have a Novation launchpad. That means that all 64 programs in the Bank A are shown on the first page and I can select them all with a touch of a button. If I move the focus down I get all the Bank B programs
You will notice that I have colour coordinated them so that you can tell at a glance if its an Arp, Bass, Synth Lead etc.
I have also created one that doesn’t have all the program names in it so it may work for other hardware synths. If you create one based on this template then please post it back up so that everyone else can get the benefit. Some synths will use the Bank and Sub-bank and the best way to find out how your own synth works with Ableton is to record a clip and make a program change in it. Then check the clip and and see how the numbers relate to Ableton. Then do one for each bank and see how it changes. If you are lucky the one I created will just work and you can rename the labels to match your Synths program names.
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