I haven't messed with the keyboard quite as much as I wish since I have got it, so I figured I would mess around with it today. First thing in order; record the songbit I have already written. Wrote the first notes of this as soon as I layed my fingers on the Korg, 'tis simple but I like it and that it came so naturally.

So here it is. My Brian Wilson fanboi is showing in this, I think.

http://soundcloud.com/cameron-heck/micr ... ased-organ

Is the distortion intentional or unintentional?

Also, I didn't know you played keys. Cool.

Unintentional. I used a guitar cable to go DI since I haz no MIDI cables. I am thinking that maybe the jacks are dirty/noisy? Unless this is just a case of "Yo, dood.. You're doing it wrong."

I wouldn't really say I play keys, to be honest. The instrument is just so simple to pick up if you have music theory knowledge and a little hand-eye coordination that I can fake it. I've got maybe 3 hours total playing the thing, I get distracted quickly.

I like the timing of the descendy bits innit.

I really need to get some sort of key-possessing MIDIcontrollersortofthing to replace that jobber. I currently have zero keyboards. If i was a bit cleverer i would probably build my own ghetto midi interface on the cheeps. I do miss that microKorg though.

Aslo, you probably have the volume up too high. Keep a close eye on the input meters. Remember that the MicroKorg has (somewhat)pressure sensitive keys, so if you think the level is right with normal playing, it still might be clipping if you hit it harder in spots of a performance. Just leave yourself enough headroom on the input meter, or even shut off the pressure sensitive action if it continues to give you guff.

Aslo aslo, make sure that you are running it into a "line in" so the impedance and level will be closer to correct. I generally did not run into any issues with that output being noisy, but i did have to spend some time to get the signal level right, when fed through a guitar cable into my mixer/interface.

Ah, that must be it. I was working on the levels for a little and got them to a point where I figured they would be alright, which actually did take a little coaxing. At first it seemed to clip even when there was not that much keyboard coming into the phones, I think I just had the mic gain waaaaay too high and the master volume on the Korg way too low at first. Then I flipped that around and it helped, but not quite perfect, I guess.

It shoots both ways- if you can play keys, picking up other things is pretty simple; IMO/experience there's a fair bit of crossover with guitar. And as a composition tool it's pretty impossible to top. Guitar is up there, but working out harmonies on a keyboard just seems so obvious to me.

Agreed. The ability to sound a note with a single finger versus a minimum of two on guitar makes it much more efficient as well as how stupid linear simplelike the layout is. All right there for ya, no fucking with multiple strings. No pick to drop. Chord voicing possibilities are way beyond the options on guitars.