As an avid synthesiser lover, I’ve gotten several of these magical pieces of musical hardware toys throughout the years. It started on my 6th or 7th birthday, when my parents got me the Casio SA 3 (listed below, as I still have it in a functioning state). It took me some time before the next one (the MicroKorg), as I played guitar in high-school and after that. The MicroKorg opened the doors to a new universe for me and synths have turned into a passion for me ever since. I am at around 15 pieces now and still constantly looking at new ones to add to my collection. The next ones I have my eyes on are the Arturia AstroLab 37, the Sequential Fourm, the Roland TR-1000 and Superlative’s SB-01 (Space Bee). More on these underneath the list with my current collection.
Korg MicroKorg – got this in Sofia ca. 2015 when I was upgrading from playing the Casio SA 3 at Jin Monic gigs (I was playing the synth part of Black Keys’ “Lonely Boy”, as we mainly played covers back then). I vividly recall the sales person at the Music Center Ikonomov shop in Sky City Mall switching the synth on, giving me a pair of headphones and letting me play around with it for 10-15 minutes, after which he asked me: “Did you fly away yet, mate?”. Well, I’m still flying as of today.
Korg MicroKorg 2 – being convinced that the MicroKorg is one of the best pieces of music gear ever created, when I heard the 2 was coming out, I pre-ordered immediately. Had to wait almost a year, as the premiere and the delivery got pushed out several times, but it was worth the wait. I love how it evolved and it’s so much fun to play!
Korg KingKorg Neo – got it as part of the MicroKorg 2 order, not sure why I decided to get this one as well. Looks like a mighty one, but haven’t got the chance to play around with it a lot. It still has some of the folio on the little screens, I haven’t removed it yet. It has a nice vocoder so I played it at the 25 years high-school reunion in December 2025 (or, actually, didn’t play it, as the sound guy hasn’t turned it up in the mix at the right time when we played Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky”).
Korg Monologue – when I heard that Aphex Twin has worked with Korg on a new synth, I couldn’t not get it, so here you go. It’s obviously a mono one, which I didn’t entirely realise when I got it, but I am still quite happy with my purchase. Amazing build – feels wonderful with the aluminum housing and the wooden details. I have the silver version, which looks just stunning – especially with the red lights of the sequencer blinking. Another reason I got it was that at that point I experimented with the “software” version of the Moog One and I needed a hardware controller with lots of knobs to be able to control the Moog One app on my iPad via MIDI, so it served this purpose for a while as well. Great piece of equipment!
Korg RK-100S 2 Keytar
Arturia Minilab MkII MIDI controller