Korg M1

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Korg M1
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W × H × D (mm) 1408 × 142 × 415
Weight 26 kg
Type AI digital synthesizer music workstation keyboard
Keyboard 61 keys
Manufacturer Korg
Release date 1988
Parts 8
Max polyphony 16
Normal presets 100 Programs
100 Combinations
Expansion PCM DATA Slot
MSC PCM Card
PROG/SEQ DATA Slot
MPC ROM Card
MCR RAM Card
All above information taken from the Korg M1 Owner Manual, page 298.

The Korg M1 is a 61-key digital synthesizer music workstation released in 1988. It's the first one utilizing Korg's AI (Advanced Integrated) synthesis technology. It features 16 voice polyphony and is 8 part multitimbral, with an 8-track sequencer to boot.

The Korg M1 is one of the most successful and famous keyboards in history, with many of its sounds being hard to avoid in music in the late 80's and well into the 90's. Some famous sounds include Programs like Piano 16' or Organ 2 being very popular in the techno and house scene of the day.

Sound Generation

The Korg M1 introduces the Programs (PROG) and Combinations (COMBI), which are a sound organization system on many subsequent KORG synthesizers.

Programs are what make up the main preset sounds on Korg M1, being made of up to 2 multisound (waveform) oscillators, to which a combination is made up of multiple programs, which both can be processed over the dual stereo effects unit on the M1.

Programs have 3 oscillator modes:

  • SINGLE - Single Oscillator
  • DUAL - Dual Oscillator (brings down the maximum voice counts to 8)
  • DRUM - allows for arranging multisounds across the keyboard as a drum kit.

Combinations have 4 types:

  • Single - a single program as a combination.
  • Layer - Layers 2 programs over each other.
  • Velocity Switch - Allows for velocity to trigger 2 different programs.
  • Multi - Effectively allows for full 8-part MIDI multitimbrality without the sequencer, letting any program to be assigned to any part and to any MIDI channel with adjustments being able to be made over MIDI. Most indepth COMBI mode of the 4.