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The microX is a two-octave synthesiser/controller based on Korg's HI (Hyper Integrated) sound engine.

On firing the device up, the first thing you notice is the bright, brilliant-red screen. This occupies the top of the control panel, which lies to the microX's left, and it crams an extraordinary amount of detail into its slender frame.

Below it - alongside the various Combi and Program buttons that facilitate sound selection - are an editing joystick, a pitch bend/mod wheel and octave up/down buttons. These all flank the microX's 25-note keyboard, which actually features a nice action for an instrument of this size.

Indeed, despite its portability and lack of bulk, the microX is ruggedly built, which will appeal to those who intend to take it on stage.

Round the back, you'll find main stereo outs, an additional pair of independent outs, two assignable footswitch ports, damper, MIDI In and Out and the all-important USB port.

The headphone port is conveniently located on the front, which means your headphone cable won't trail over the keyboard (although somewhat surprisingly, it's a mini-jack sized connection).

Also in the package, you'll find a CD-ROM for installing drivers and the microX's editing software.

The sounds

Korg's HI sound engine, which has been the driving force behind the Triton these past years, packs a punch. It's a joy to discover that Korg haven't watered this down when building the microX, and hearing sounds this size slamming out of such a streamlined unit is a pleasure.

There's genuinely something here for everyone, with the basses punchy, the sequences warm and bubbly and the leads as searing as you could wish for. The twin arpeggiators are worthy of a mention too.

These are completely independent, meaning that each program can have two 'moving' components, which in turn means sequence patterns that bump, pulse and blip, entire drum patterns that play from a single key press, and rich evolving pads that ooze all over the stereo field.

If anything, many of the sounds will need taming slightly if you're looking to incorporate them into existing tracks, but if you can't find inspiration to begin new projects here, you're in the wrong game.

The PCM ROM is substantial enough to offer rich pianos, realistic strings and even some punchy wind and brass samples too, so don't think for one moment that the microX is only good for dance music.

We were expecting to find the two-octave keyboard fiddly when playing some of the more complex 'Combi' sounds, as lower octaves trigger drum loops and basses, typically with a pad or lead sound in the higher octaves.

As it transpires, the proximity of the octave up/down buttons to the left-hand edge of the keyboard means that you're soon building octave jumps into your real-time performances, so it isn't too much of a problem.

Both these buttons feature useful LEDs, too, making it easy to track where you are, transpositionally-speaking.

Inevitably, as the microX whacks such a fully-featured synthesizer into a small box, editing sounds means moving through multiple menus (unless you use the software). Korg have made this as clear as possible, though, with the aforementioned screen working nicely in tandem with the joystick (whose functionality resembles a mobile phone navi-key, complete with a central press-switch).