The legendary KORG M1 "Organ 2" preset
One synthesizer released in the mid 80s made almost all of the most sampled dance riffs.
It’s been a while since I’ve done a music post. Last weekend I went to Somewhere Out There festival in Singapore, and it was the best electronic music experience I’ve had in years. Probably since seeing Dixon in 2023. I came away so inspired that I got my DJ stuff out of the closet, reinstalled Traktor and spent part of Sunday just mixing together some tunes from my old library (I DJ’ed very actively from 2016 to 2019).
As part of that, I also listened to some of my old recorded mixes that are floating around on Soundcloud and Mixcloud. One signature element in my style was always that I’d play huge classic 90s tunes in the middle of otherwise modern techno sets. Basically the idea is that you push people a bit until they’re just about to get bored by being hammered with techno, and then you hit them with something so well known and melodic that everyone loses their minds. When I was listening on Mixcloud to “Monkey Mix #7” I came across a really good example of that: Listen from 34:21 onwards.
The one I used in the mix above is a later remix1, but Push the feeling on by the Nightcrawlers was originally released in 1992. Like many early dance hits of the 90s, it has an organ bass line. The first and most famous of the 90s organ bass lines is one that is still constantly sampled and reused today, Robin S - Show me Love (1990). That in turn made me remember that those organ bass lines all came from one particular preset shipped with a late 80s digital synthesizer; the Korg M1:
The preset is called “Organ 2”. There is also an “Organ 1” but it isn’t as punchy. I can’t stress enough that you can literally plug in a Korg M1, load the factory “Organ 2” preset, and play the Show me love riff, and it will be THAT EXACT SOUND!
Someone on Spotify has gone through the effort of compiling a playlist with 291 songs that have “Organ 2” bass lines (just search M1 Organ). It’s actually a pretty good vibe to work with. But here are some of my favorite “Organ 2” bangers:
This one is prob my all-time fave when it comes to organ riff (starts at 0:08):
The OG:
Another absolute classic:
Lastly, a deeper and bit underrated cut. Harmonically the most interesting with a beautiful chord progression progression. Organ starts at 0:32:
Chords: Bb — Bb/G (or Gm7) — Absus2 — Cm7add9 (I love add9 chords!)
Here is just the organ part clean, recreated in Garageband2, although sadly I don’t have a Korg M1 at home3.
But wait, it gets better. Apart from “Organ 2”, the Korg M1 also gave us the “M1 Piano” preset [Correction: it is “Piano 16” EVEN BETTER!]4. A piano that sounds kinda fake by today’s standards but was the state-of-the-art back then. But it’s fake overly punchy sound was perfect for dance music, giving it the power to cut through the heavy bass lines and effects:
A bit hidden because of the guitar, but clearly the M1’s “Piano 16”:
Piano starts at 2:00 underneath the chorus:
Vogue doesn’t have enough M1 Piano in my opinion, and luckily someone agreed and made this version that has an absolutely EPIC new piano riff under the chorus. Skip to 1:50 and wait for it:
So that’s the Korg M1, just one of a list of 10 or so legendary synthesizers that shaped electronic music early on. It’s kind of shocking to me on the one hand that “Show me love” still get so much play and I can’t help but frown when I hear yet another TikTok star sing over the sample. But on the other hand, it’s also kind of cool. Imagine having worked at Korg in the mid 80s and having created “Organ 2”. Whoever that anonymous programmer was, he or she has left a legacy on par with Leo Fender’s first Telecaster!
The 90s originals are a little tricky to mix because (a) they’re usually radio edits that launch straight into the hook and abruptly end, and (b) music used to be mastered with much less compression and loudness back then, and even if you crank them up to level them out with modern tunes, they can still sound a little flat.
If anyone wants the garageband file, hit me up!
I did however, have a Korg N1 at home in the 90s which is a direct descendent. Pretty sure the N1 would have had “Piano 16” and “Organ 2” included as well.
Based on what I’ve been able to find, “Piano 16” is preset i01, which could very well mean that if you plug in a Korg M1 and switch it on, it will load up on this preset first. So, at some point, someone did that, heard that punchy brightness of “Piano 16” and banged out the hook for “Ride on Time”. Epic!