Tag Archives: Korg

KORG device not recognized by MIDI driver?

Is your KORG device like NTS-1 or Monologue not recognized by the KORG MID driver and you cannot perform updates or update firmware? You can try the following:

With the MIDI driver you also get utilities to add and remove devices. With a default installation (Windows based systems) you can find them in the start menu under [KORG/KORG USB-MIDI Driver Tools]. Run the [Uninstall KORG USB-MIDI Device] utility. Click Next on the first dialog page and you will get a list of all MIDI devices found on your system. Make sure that under options (click <Option …> button) the checkbox [Delete KORG MIDI device only] is checked. It prevents you from accidentally removing any other MIDI device.

Now check the list of KORG devices. If the same device is listet more than once, it can cause problems if a new device is to be added. It can happen when you have used a device with on different ports I guess. It is best to remove all occurrences of that device if you do not know which corresponds to the currently active usage. Or maybe it´s a legacy device you do not use anymore anyways. You can always reinstall that device at a later time. Simply use the corresponding [Install KORG USB-MIDI Device] utility under [KORG/KORG USB-MIDI Driver Tools].

Once your MIDI device driver usage list is in order, you should have no problems adding a new device. At least it helped me to get my NTS-1 recognized after I removed multiple usages of my nanoKontrol.

monotron Delay CV-Gate mod

The monotrons are sweet little analog toys to fiddle around with. And if you own one you have at least once thought about hacking it, right? Well, so did I and aimed at the monotron Delay. For the standard monotron a couple of resources for modders are available, and especially dinSync´s mod seems to work well for it. But the Delay version appears to handle things a little different…
The main issue is that the gate affects pitch and vice versae.
But only if you look at it from the input side, where you apply external signals to the respective testpoints. From an internal point of view the gate signal is simply derived from the same source as the pitch. So if you apply a +5V gate you are already exceeding the maximum frequency of the oscillator. This results in only a short

Poly-61 repair

Ressurection of a Poly-61

Like some other 80´s polysynths with memory, many of today´s Poly-61s suffer from battery leakage. The problem for most owners without knowledge of the technicalities is that the symptoms come on slowly and do not neccessarily hint at memory. While leaking, the battery may still provide enough power to retain memory while starting to damage the PCB area around it. The device starts acting weird up to doing nothing at all soundwise. The symptoms depend a little on how the synth has been stored and therefore how the acid flowes across the board. If you see a Poly-61 on the used market described as ‘functional’ but ‘holding a steady tone’ it´s most likely a battery dammage.

I purchaised such a unit with the risk of not knowing the exact amount of dammage it had taken. But I was determined to make it fully operable again. After all I thought it couldn´t be worse than the Opera-6 fix.
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KORG M1 realtime control

I never thought I´d ever own a KORG M1. But when I recently found a used one at a very reasonable price I couldn´t resist. Now I am not really interested in its famous piano or organ sounds, or the internal sequencer for that matter. I rather want to explore its capabilities to produce drone like soundscapes. And for that, at least a little amount of realtime controllability would be apreciated.
Fortunately all relevant parameters are editable via SysEx. And as I found out the M1 reacts fluently to parameter changes. The only oddity is that the parameter numbers in the SysEx message depend on the structure of the program, and so double oscillator programs have a different parameterset than single programs. I therefore settled for a control set for double oscillator programs as polyphony is not an issue for me. The fact that the display of the M1 also jumps to the currently modified parameter is a nice touch as well…