hello, ujiie here again. the korg micro arranger. this is really... when you play it, how can i say this... this keyboard is loaded with arrangements that will spark your imagination. one of the strongpoints of the micro arranger is the mini-keys. it's got a five-octave mini-keyboard.
it's very easy to play. piano, for instance. it's got 61 keys, being 5 octave... but it's really light, compact, and it's got speakers. very nice! grand piano sound, right? ok, take a look here, the mode section, can you zoom in? mode. this is where you control it all.
let's take a look. first, style play. what's that? well, what i was playing at the start sort of like a song already, i'll explain in detail later. song play. you can store up to 16 songs, and choose and play them via song play. backing sequence.
and song and program modes. right now it's in program mode, so you can play various sounds directly with the 61-key keyboard, it's set to grand piano at the moment. now, the way to select the sound while in program mode, is via this section here. the program/performance section,
can you see it here? this led is lit up so that means if you press the piano button, like so, the screen will change. see it? and from here, we can select from various piano sounds. and, by using the buttons on either side of the screen, see here? you can choose the sound you want.
so, that's how to select sounds. having a panel like this, as large as it is, means you can work very efficiently. for example, push e. piano (electric piano) button, and a list of various electric piano sounds pops right up. and it sounds good! the quality is such that it would really be no problem to use this, as is, on stage.
the touch response is excellent too. ok, next, let's try accordion type sounds. take the harmonica sound, for example, which really surprised me! how's that? the wah-wah-wah? modulation? this is really well done. very nice! how about organ next? lots of different organ sounds. korg does organ sounds very well. give the modulation joystick a nudge and...
you've got your leslie speaker emulation. the switch between slow and fast is spot on. here's a bx type sound. this is really good. there are pipe organ sounds as well. the reverb on that one is really nice. the guitar sounds are also great. some very high quality samples here. the jazz guitar sound is quite good.
strings! the strings are great too, for example... ensemble type strings. right? or let's try the analog synth strings... since this is a mini-keyboard, it's possible to go from c to the next octave e with one hand. or f. that's a strongpoint of the mini-keyboard, being able to play super-extended chords like that.
the trumpet sounds are great too, this one is wow trumpet. another very well done sample. very nice. next: brass. orchestra hits too, of course. tenor sax. the noise element is really nice. that they've included breath noise is really nice.
synth sounds. just what you'd expect from korg. the synth sounds are very wide, and very deep. sounds nice doesn't it? this kind of sound... i wanna use it right away. very good. the drum kits are also good. the usual sounds are all there.
as you can see, various sounds are included. as you'd expect, korg's pcm synthesis engine is very well done. i think it's great. they call it the hi synthesis system. so far, i've been showing you program mode. even if you only looked at program mode, i think you easily see how many high-quality
sounds are included from the start. but! it is the micro arranger after all, so how do the arranger features measure up? with this release, they've really put effort into the various mode functions, accessed here. particularly style play. let's look at that. ok on the right side here we can control the sound.
but over on this side are the controls for style. ok? and there are a variety of styles to choose from. for example... soft beat. can you tell what i'm playing here? now what's actually happening, as you can tell from the name micro arranger, is that there are various kinds of accompaniment,
almost an innumerable amount actually. and, the way to control the accompaniment, well, for people who can play chords, it's just as simple as playing a chord, say, c, and there are variations of the c chord, c-e-g, for example. g-c-e as well. e-g-c too. the unit automatically distinguishes between them,
and plays them accordingly. ok then, c minor. the e will be e flat. there it is, c minor, right? all right, how about c sixth? add an a to get a c sixth. change the a to a b for a major seventh do you get it? play a c seventh,
b flat for the seventh. c minor seventh. you following me? c seventh sus. you can create different moods via the chords. c add ninth... or seventh ninth. or sixth ninth... so, chords can be played,
for those of you who know them already, but there's also the 'one-finger' option. yep, just one finger. you can get all the variations, major, minor, seventh and so on and so forth. for me, it's easy just to play the chords. this area here, the lower half, is where the keyboard senses the chords. play the melody on the upper half.
that's one way you can play this, but for highly skilled players, there's another mode, which puts the entire keyboard into upper mode. you get the full keyboard. in this mode, the unit senses what's being played by both hands, and automatically plays accompanying chords.
let's play some complex chords. in this mode, the unit automatically creates accompaniment and follows along with what you play, and very accurately too. that's that. impressive, isn't it? let's try out some different genres. there are almost too many to choose from! right now it's on eight beat.
how about eight beat analog? just one way of using this kind of analog sound. what else do we have in here? ballroom. what do you suppose that's like? like big band maybe? you can change it by using variation. the band joined in. you can put fills in too.
two big points are the intro and ending. it took care of the ending for me. this thing's just great! dance! let's go with dance next. let's start out with techno. it's already selected a suitable sound here. it took care of the ending again. what's next...
let's go with something i like, soul/funk. soul/funk... acid jazz! yep, that feels like acid jazz. next, world music. now, this genre is pretty interesting. for example, party polka!
polka reminds me of germany for some reason. quite lively. as you see, there are loads of genres, ah! what about latin? i like latin. when you say latin... it's gotta be salsa! let's start out using an intro. let's use the synchro start too. with synchro start, it'll start as soon as you play something. sounds good!
really nice. that's salsa. that's how style play works. next, let's take a look at something interesting over here. this section here is labelled performance mode, and if you look at it you'll see well, the whole setup, like style, and sound, all inclusive,
can be controlled through performance mode. ok, so let's select a sound. pat guitar. what do you think that will sound like? what happens if we choose that sound? here it shows the groove as bossa nova. so... let's see what happens. ah, that's stylish.
now, these buttons under the display, allow you to choose four pre-programmed sounds, which suit the style, although you can change them around as you see fit. let's go with this sound. now, in the mode section, if you press backing sequence, you can record your own original backing sequence on the fly. let's try it out.
ok, backing sequence button pressed... all that's left to do is press the record button, which is located here, can you see it? give it a press... hmm? ah, here, the display says realtime recording, or chord recording? so you can choose to do realtime, or you can input chords for each bar, kind of like step recording.
let's give realtime recording a go. it's all set and ready to go. here we go. let's play it back. it's in sequencer 1. no problem. sound changes got recorded properly too. so we see how that works out. now, i did that all in realtime, but there's
also the chord or step mode. the chord/accompaniment step mode. let's check out how this mode works. i wonder if you can make out the display here. the top line shows the bar (location), let's start off with an a minor, then put in a g, and an f on the third bar, then e minor, or e major,
nah how about e seventh, ok so i've put in chords bar by bar, which is how this mode works. this is really a well-done piece of gear. going further, if we go in song mode, we can record 16 more tracks on top of the backing sequence we just recorded. of course, layering different sounds and doing overdubbing and so on and so forth.
it's possible to save all of this onto sd memory cards as well. i'd like you to take a close look at this section here. what i just recorded a moment ago, is active in sequencer 1, but over here on the right side is sequencer 2. it's possible to play both at the same time, and cross fade between them, dj-style. you can do that.
very versatile! and there's even a pad section here, which you use for, uh, you can put whatever sounds you want in there. there are also controls for transpose and octave over here. i think you get the idea. if you use a micro arranger, you'll be able to make tons of music. it's useful not only for expert players,
but also as a composing and arranging tool. or as a tool to expand your ideas, what have you. but it's especially useful for beginning players, a very powerful weapon! seriously, it's like having your own band, all here. i highly, highly recommend you try one out. the korg micro arranger! translation + captions by: swcreative japan.
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