Review: King Korg Neo

It’s a bit more subtle but thankfully retained: the King Korg Empire State ‘i’ in the logo. When the original King Korg arrived back in 2012/13 it was one of the elements (along with the ‘glowing’ tube behind its front panel grille) that made something clear: this isn’t a synth nerd’s instrument. Rather, it’s a fun and versatile hands-on performer. Don’t get hung up on true analogue or unnecessarily expensive modelled vanity synths (from the likes of Nord or Access at the time), King Korg is all you need. That message was warmly received and the synth became a hit.

The King Korg reboot, the Neo, retains much of what made the original so friendly and fun but in the now-familiar Korg 37-note chassis. Don’t expect teak end cheeks or knurled knobs machined from solid blocks of unobtanium, King Korg Neo is built for mass market appeal – in fact, it’s good value at around A$1500.

BIG KNOBS, MORE SCREENS

One look at the front panel of King Korg Neo is all you need to understand this synth’s proposition. It remains mostly true to the original King Korg: big knobs for big stuff, smaller knobs for parameter changes etc. The new layout retains the two additional OLED screens for the oscillator and filter sections which are most welcome. The way the encoders are set, you can reach out and tweak settings while ensuring smooth transition from the patch preset – it’s forgiving and responsive at the same time.

Three oscillators, three FX engines, two LFOs… the front panel is spacious and easy to navigate. Most of the time, the main screen is really there to show you the preset name. Speaking of which, the 200 presets are all neatly catalogued according to type, with buttons under the main display providing a shortcut. This is such a simple idea and, again, very welcome. For live work, you can save your favourites to those buttons as well. There are 100 user presets, and they can also be categorised.

How could I forget? The King Korg Neo ships with a gooseneck mic that plugs into the XLR socket of the vocoder section. Korg has provided some vocoder-friendly patches but any patch will respond – just activate the vocoder button and wail into the mic.

The mod/pitch joystick is understated but I had no complaints.

ARP’ING ON

With such an emphasis on playability and ease of use, inevitably there are some sacrifices made. For me, it’s the arpeggiator section. There’s what’s effectively the on/off button for the arp but the other settings are so deep in the menu that you might get the bends coming back up for air. The arp patch presets are tasty and will be sufficient for many, but I do wonder if Korg um’ed and ah’ed about offering more hands-on arp control… or indeed adding its customary motion sequencing to the new King Korg package.

So I’m not going to say the lack of arp control is a universal deal breaker, it’s simply a King Korg Neo design choice – it’s up to you if it’s a deal breaker. In fact, any settings that require you to go menu diving is Korg’s way of saying, ‘hey, don’t sweat it too much, stick to the front panel’.

Synth aficionados will also blanche at the constrained modulation possibilities. To clarify, Neo does provide some virtual patching under the bonnet (six sets, in fact, for modulation) but again, it takes a deep dive into the menu.

One of King Korg Neo’s competitors is the MiniFreak from Arturia, and interestingly that hybrid synth has gone the opposite direction with a heavy emphasis on the arpeggiator and a mod matrix. No sweat – choice is a good thing and it’s a buyer’s market out there, what with Modal’s Cobalt being another competitor worth auditioning.