Despite Wine bug #17608, you really can use Korg’s editor to adjust the deepest levels of your Microkorg XL on-the-fly, with instant playback results! Seems I’m not the only one to do this, in fact.

I did run into one problem: the MIDI ports on my AudioFire2 don’t show up on the ALSA MIDI tab, so the editor can’t see them. Wine seems to rely on ALSA MIDI devices, which means we need to provide a bridge between the native FireWire MIDI interface, on the MIDI tab, and the ALSA MIDI tab.

The solution: a2jmidid. This is, of course, only necessary if you’re using physical MIDI cables; a USB-MIDI device should show up on the right part of the Connections manager in QJackCtl. You may even be able to avoid these steps entirely if you can get the plain ol’ USB port right on the MK XL working; I haven’t tried that yet. I wanted to try out the AudioFire2′s MIDI dongle, which meant experimenting with JACK and ALSA.

But first, let’s get the Korg Sound Editor installed.

1. Download the latest version of the editor from Korg.
2. Unzip it, and run the installer in Wine:

$ unzip MkXL_Editor_100E.zip
$ wine microKORG\ XL\ Sound\ Editor/Setup_E.exe

3. Start your JACK server using QJackCtl.
4. Install a2jmidid, then launch it:

$ a2jmidid --export-hw

5. Open the Connections manager in QJackCtl, then switch to the MIDI tab. Connect the Midi through (capture) virtual device on the left side to the firewire_pcm device on the right side. Now connect the left side’s firewire_pcm to the Midi through (playback) device on the right side. This will let the Sound Editor communicate with your MK XL via Wine’s MIDI transport layer.
6. Now you can launch the Korg Sound Editor from your Program Menu:
Wine -> Programs -> KORG -> microKORG XL -> microKORG XL Sound Editor
7. In Sound Editor’s main window, go to options -> Preferences. Change both of the MIDI_IN/OUT dropdown boxes to Midi through Port-0. You’ll get a few warnings and popup dialogs about missing (and unnecessary) Windows-only USB-MIDI drivers, but as long as you have your cables physically plugged in correctly, you should now have working two-way communication with your MK and your computer. make sure you have the Knob Function Select dial on “Full Edit” if you want to be able to reprogram your synth or save presets to it.
8. To test your connection, double-click one of the patches on the “Program” Sound Editor screen. Once its window loads, click “Edit Synth” on TIMBRE 1. In the new window, click “Randomize” on the top left. Play a few notes. Click “Randomize” again, wait for the settings to be transmitted, then play s’more. Yay for realtime parameter changes!

I still have to delve into my Microkorg XL. Don’t know how to use it or synthesize new and awesome sounds, but at least I’ve got it working with Linux.