Korg iM1: A Slickness in the Sky

There was a famous slogan in the punk era. "This is a chord. This is another. This is a third. Now form a band."

Let's fast-forward a decade to the late 1980s. How could we update that slogan? "This is a Korg M1. This is a copy of Zero-G's Datafile One. This is a second-hand Akai S950 sampler. Now come up with a band name, but you don't need to actually form a band, just come up with a name. You will be the band. You, and samples."

You might also need an ADAT recorder and an Alesis Quadraverb. And possibly an Atari ST with a cracked copy of Cubase. Maybe a little mixing desk to tie it all up. And some old records, although Datafile One covers that. This being 1989 all of the aforementioned would have cost you several thousand pounds, but it was all you needed to make an actual chart hit. To be an actual, bona fide pop star. To appear on Top of the Pops, standing awkwardly behind a keyboard while dancers did their thing in front of you.

You might also have wanted to hire a really good singer. And a model, who would appear in the video, but not on the record. You would have one, maybe two top ten singles.

Then it would all go wrong. Your first album would reach #14 in the charts on the back of the singles. Your second album would spend a week at number sixty. The record label would void your contract. And now it is 1993, and tastes have changed. You're baffled by the new sounds of trip-hop and jungle and big beat. You can't catch up, but it was fun while it lasted.

iVCS3 running on an iPad Mini

But let's talk about the Korg M1. It was launched in 1988, but it took a few years to become ironic, and then it had a second wind. Now, whatever your opinion of Apple, you have to admit that the company has a wide range of interesting musical apps for the iPad and iPhone. Near the top of the tree is Apesoft's iVCS3 (pictured above). It's a software recreation of the impenetrable-but-fascinating EMS VCS3. There's also Moog's Model D, which recreates the Moog MiniMoog, and Olympia's Patterning, a drum machine with a novel circular interface. And iM1, a modern interpretation of the Korg M1.

Modern-ish, because it was launched in 2015, but Korg continues to update it, and it works fine with modern versions of iOS. As of 2025 it sells for £29.99, but it's occasionally on offer. For that money you get a simulation of most of a Korg M1, with the original presets, plus some more presets from the expanded M1EX, and an in-app option to buy more presets from a bunch of voice cards.

Which isn't a particularly appealing option, because the key to the M1's success was the iconic range of sounds that came with the original keyboard. Extra sounds are nice, but do you really want a batch of b-list sounds from a 1990s digital synth? Neither do I.

What is the Korg M1? It's a sample-based synthesiser with a built-in sequencer and multi-effects. For many years it was the best-selling synthesiser of all time. Why was it so popular? There were essentially two reasons.

Firstly, it was a miniature studio in keyboard form. It had an eight-track sequencer that could play eight separate instruments at once, including drums. The architecture was built on a pool of samples, including guitars, electric basses, pianos etc, which meant that it was one of the first synthesisers that didn't necessarily sound electronic. It could do rock or orchestral arrangements, not just techno.

It also had a built-in multi-effects unit with a mixture of reverbs and delays - standard stuff at the time - but also distortion, EQ, an exciter, a phaser, even a rotary speaker simulator. As a result the M1's presets sounded unusually slick, as if they were part of a finished record. Korg's preset designers didn't just splash the effects onto the sounds arbitrarily, they knew how to make the built-in samples sound good.

The second and most important reason was the M1's range of preset sounds. As a synthesiser - as a means of generating new tones - the M1 was very limited. Nowadays it's often called a ROMPler, because it was really just a sample playback unit with a bunch of waveforms stored in a built-in ROM chip. The synthesis engine had a bank of four megabytes of 16-bit, 44khz samples that could be layered and fed into the multi-effects unit. There was a simple non-resonant digital filter, although it was more of a muffler than a proper filter. As if to compensate for its stiffness the envelopes were unusually complex, partially to enable a simple form of wave sequencing and partially to disguise the lack of real-time control.

But very few people minded the limited synth engine, because the preset sounds were fantastic. For the first time, a relatively affordable keyboard synthesiser had lengthy, professionally-recorded 16-bit sampled presets, instead of compressed little sound snippets. The traditional instruments were impressive enough to use as stand-ins for their real-life cousins, while the sci-fi sounds were perfect for ambient techno. As far as I can tell literally the first sound on The Orb's "Back Side of the Moon" is a Korg M1, specially the Universe preset:

Unfortunately the M1's sounds quickly became overused. I don't know exactly which instruments Livin' Joy used to make "Dreamer", but to my untutored ears the whole track sounds like Korg M1 with some drum samples layered on top:

Beyond the house piano and heavenly choir the M1's other popular preset was a boop-boop, boopy-boopy organ sound. It was bassy, but it also had enough treble that it didn't get buried by the drums. It was used prominently on The Nightcrawlers' "Push the Feeling On", which is another record that seems to have been created entirely with a Korg M1 and drum samples. The M1 also coincided with the Nintendo SNES, which used sample playback for its music, so a lot a SNES games had M1 samples because the composer owned an M1.

Apropos of nothing here's a recording of Japanese ambient radio station St. GIGA, which might not have any M1 on it as far as I can tell, but it reminds me of the era (nb there's a really good track at the 24:30 mark):

On the whole the M1's mixture of clean samples and digital reverb have a slickness that got old quickly. If music was a big circle, the Korg M1 would be on one side, and Johnny Cash's American Recordings would be on the other. Even in the field of dance music it dated badly. But some of the synth strings and pads have a timeless quality, and it has a lot more character than the General MIDI keyboards that followed it.

But what of iM1? It doesn't have the sequencer, presumably taken out because there are better options. I admit I haven't tried sequencing iM1 with my iPad. Instead I used Logic running on a Macintosh. The iPad has terrific integration with a Mac. It acts as both an instrument and a digital audio input, so I don't have to run a cable from the headphone jack to my audio interface. When hooked up in the fashion iM1 essentially operates as a virtual instrument within Logic, but running on an iPad.

As far as I can tell it's 44khz, stereo only, but so was the original M1. What if you don't have Logic, or a Macintosh? That's a good question. Technically it's two questions. Two good questions.

As with the Korg Volca FM there's a certain pointlessness to iM1. Korg also sells a VST version that can run directly in a sequencer, although at $49.99 it's not an impulse buy. For the record I paid £12.99 for the iPad version, which is slightly more awkward to use than the VST version and doesn't save any money if you don't already have an iPad. Compared to an actual M1, however, iM1 has a much nicer interface, and real-time parameter control. It has limited support for automation.

As a proof of concept I recorded the following piece of music using the iM1, plus Nils Schneider's free VST recreation of the Kawai K1. I was going for an early-90s SNES soundtrack / synthesiser demo song feel.

The Kawai K1 was a blend of M1 and Korg Wavestation. Each patch could be created from four samples layered on top of each other, mixed with a joystick in real time. The samples were 8-bit and very muffled, and there was no filter at all, and some things still baffle me. There's an LFO, but seemingly no way to assign it to anything. A complex modulation section, but no way to assign the envelopes to anything except volume, which is a shame because the amplitude modulation feature would have benefited from pitch modulation of the amplitude source. But it's free, so I shouldn't grumble.

While playing with iM1 it struck me that if you didn't grow up in the 1990s its sounds probably don't come across as cheesy and dated. And for an early ROMPler the recording quality of the samples is surprisingly good, so in isolation the M1 doesn't sound all that old-fashioned today. And perhaps you do want to evoke the sounds of Culture Beat or Whigfield.

Anything else? As with the original keyboard iM1 is eight-part multitimbral, but it only supports a single stereo output. This is one thing the original M1 has over iM1, because the original M1 had four separate audio outputs. It has limited support for automation, which is undocumented in the manual, but it will respond to MIDI control codes. The M1 was 16-voice polyphonic with dual-sample single patches, whereas iM1 raises this to 64 voices. On my first-generation iPad Pro it never slowed down, but then again the application is quite old and is at heart only playing back a bunch of samples.

As mentioned up the page Korg sells extra sounds as in-app DLC. The two expansions are £2.99 each. I'm sure there are some gems, but a large part of iM1's appeal is the M1's ironic, original set of preset sounds. The Korg T1 was probably fantastic, but what does it mean in 2025? The M1 has meaning, that counts for a lot.

Resurrecting a MOTU 2408 with ADAT

This is MOTU 2408 MkIII, an audio interface. It's a frustrating thing. It was originally released in 2003, but despite being over twenty years old it's still pretty good. It has eight balanced 1/4" audio inputs, a bunch of ADAT, TDIF, and SPDIF ports, and it records 24-bit audio at 44, 48, 82, and 96khz.

But it's a pain to get working with modern computers. The original MOTU 2408 MkI came out in 1999, slightly before FireWire, at a time when USB was restricted to USB 1.0, so it connected up to contemporary PCs and Macintoshes with a PCI card. What's a PCI card? Ask your parents. They might remember their own parents fiddling around with PCI cards.

The 2408 MkII and MkIII had the same system. To their credit MOTU continued to update the drivers, but as of 2025 the only Apple Macintosh with PCI slots is the Mac Pro, and MOTU's drivers haven't been updated for modern Apple Silicon processors. MOTU's next interface was the 828, but that used Firewire, which is another story entirely.

It would be nice to still use the 2408. And there is hope! Even without a computer connection the 2408 still works as an audio interface. In standalone mode analogue audio that comes in through the 1/4" jacks is routed out to the ADAT, TDIF, and SPDIF ports. SPDIF folds everything down to two-channel stereo, but ADAT and TDIF transmit eight channels of audio at 44 or 48khz, or four channels at 82 and 96khz.

What would be nice is a simple dongle that could pump ADAT to a computer, preferably something cheaper than an entirely new modern audio interface with an ADAT input. There are lots of USB interfaces that output ADAT, but a dearth of interfaces with ADAT inputs.

There is one exception, the MiniDSP MCHStreamer, which is available either as an unclad circuit board or in a little box. I'm not a farmer, so I bought the version that comes in a box. This is what it looks like:

NB I bought it with my own money and have no commercial relationship with MiniDSP. It shipped from Hong Kong and is, as far as I can tell, exempt from UK customs duty, although even if it isn't the price isn't onerous. The boxed version is currently listed at $115, shipping $35, which is about £110. The kit version (which is assembled, it just doesn't have a case) is $10 cheaper. Is it just a Raspberry Pi or something, with special firmware? Could you make one yourself? I have no idea, and possibly, in that order.

The MCHStreamer is essentially a tiny little computer board that converts a bunch of digital audio formats in real time. The boxed version only supports ADAT and SPDIF, although I assume that's only because the internal headers are covered by the case. It's powered by USB, and it's small enough to rest on top of the 2408.

Getting it to work isn't straightforward, although it's still easy. I have a Macintosh. The first step is to download the firmware bundle and plug the MCHStreamer into the computer. At that point you have to upload the correct firmware into the box. In the following screenshot I've picked ADAT:

Step two involves plugging the included optical cable - the package includes two optical cables and a USB cable, which is a nice touch - into the 2408's BANK A optical ADAT output:

Step three involves booting up the 2408 and fiddling with the SELECT and SET buttons. For the SOURCE I picked the audio inputs. Confusingly the LEDs imply that the audio is routed to ADAT BANK C, but no, the audio is output to all three ADAT banks.

For the CLOCK I picked 44khz, internal. Baby steps. I then plugged a radio into input 3, just to see if it worked, and also because I wanted to make sure that it was transmitting on discrete channels and not just 1+2 as a stereo pair.

Then I popped open Audio MIDI Setup and set the MCHStreamer to pick up clock from the 2408's ADAT signal:

Why do you have to do this? If you don't - and I tried it - the signal is crackly. My understanding is that the optical audio protocol isn't like computer networking. It doesn't send packets of data, it just sends a string of bytes, and the receiver has no idea where each byte begins unless it has a clock signal from the source. The result is a kind of audio chaos that sounds awful. Does that sound like a plausible explanation? That's how my mind envisages it. Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me, but deep down there is a brave heart. In my mind.

Synchronising the MCHStreamer to ADAT clock was flaky. At first. I can't tell if it just takes a long time, or if there's a quasi-random factor, but at first it didn't work. After cycling through the 2408's clock options it did eventually hook up, and remained hooked up, although curiously after the first run (pictured above) it only synchronised at 48khz. And yet once it worked, it stayed working. Maybe it's a first-run thing. Perhaps I just didn't have the optical cables plugged in all the way.

After setting all this up I opened Logic, and lo and behold, MCHStreamer ADAT was an input source, with eight channels of audio:

I clicked the input monitoring icon and voila, I could hear a signal coming from the 2408, and I could select each of the eight channels and record audio from them.

As a proof of concept I used it to record the following piece of music, which has a mixture of audio tracks from my modular synthesiser and some virtual instruments:

Sadly one thing missing from this setup is the 2408's original monitoring hardware, which was housed on the PCI card and acted as a mini-mixer.

Still, if you happen to have an ancient MOTU 2408 lying around doing nothing, it can be returned to service as an eight-channel audio interface with a simple ADAT to USB box that powers itself from the USB port. Alternatively, if you want to use the 2408 as a crude mixer you could power the MCHStreamer with a powered USB hub.

In theory you could bypass all of this malarky by plugging the 2408 into the ADAT input of another audio interface. But the cheaper good-quality audio interfaces don't have ADAT ports, and the more expensive interfaces are much more capable than the 2408, so why bother?

If the MCHStreamer was $35 and just a tiny little USB dongle with USB at one end and a pair of optical ports at the other it would be even more superb, although it has to be said that the population of people who have a twenty-year-old MOTU 2408 lurking in a cupboard probably isn't large enough to justify the research and development outlay. If it had a built-in DAC and a 3.5" headphone output it would also be useful for the tiny, tiny population of people who want to use a PlayStation 3 with a computer monitor that doesn't have built-in speakers, but again that's a small constituency. There are dozens of us. Dozens.