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Korg Monologue – Monophonic Analogue Synthesizer

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Re: Korg Monologue – Monophonic Analogue Synthesizer

#11

Post by detaro »

thedjinn wrote: post #4

I own a Microkorg and must say that I'm not really impressed by the sounds the Monologue offers; it seems far too limited and doesn't have that deep punchy bass that the Microkorg offers. And it's a lot more expensive too. It makes me think of the iPhone 5C.

Microkorg is (especially for something so cheap) a really nice piece of kit and has some fancy features, but especially at the edges of the value ranges you clearly hear artifacts, which don't work for all kinds of music.

Given that it has digital memory I fear that live-twisting on the Monologue also will show artifacts, unless they increased the resolution a lot, but at least if you leave the settings alone it should avoid them. Having a sequencer compared to "just" the arpeggiator in the Microkorg is also nice.

But IMHO it's more important to look at the wider market: There have been tons of small-ish analogue synths in the last few years, in all sizes and price-points. On one hand, that shows that market interest is there, on the other it really will depend on how it compares to those to decide if it will be a success or not, since there are tons of alternatives.

Re: Korg Monologue – Monophonic Analogue Synthesizer

#14

Post by shams93 »

thedjinn wrote: post #4

I own a Microkorg and must say that I'm not really impressed by the sounds the Monologue offers; it seems far too limited and doesn't have that deep punchy bass that the Microkorg offers. And it's a lot more expensive too. It makes me think of the iPhone 5C.

Being able to create microtonal scales is the attraction here for me, most synths whether they're digital or analog lock you into standard western scale tuning.

Re: Korg Monologue – Monophonic Analogue Synthesizer

#15

Post by thedjinn »

zinkem wrote: post #10
thedjinn wrote: post #4

I own a Microkorg and must say that I'm not really impressed by the sounds the Monologue offers; it seems far too limited and doesn't have that deep punchy bass that the Microkorg offers. And it's a lot more expensive too. It makes me think of the iPhone 5C.

I'm not sure where you're getting your pricing, but the Monologue is $299 [1] and a new MicroKorg is $399 [2]. The MicroKorg is a great piece of equipment, but it's also prone to aliasing problems at the upper end, which shouldn't be present in the Monologue since it's all analog. The MicroKorg also offers different features: FM Synthesis and a Vocoder. The Monologue has a full 16 step sequencer, wheras the MicroKorg…

Seems the Microkorgs have gone up in price over the years. I paid about $250 for it when I got it a few years ago. I noticed you can still get them for $200 second hand.

The aliasing can be a bit annoying indeed. You can really hear it when slowly bending a high lead. I don't think it uses band-limited waveforms. But for bass lines it is absolutely fantastic!

Re: Korg Monologue – Monophonic Analogue Synthesizer

#16

Post by gravitronic »

Korg essentially disrupted an industry doing exactly the rules outlined in the innovator's dilemma.

Starting with the monotron, then the monotribe, the volca series, now the minilogues. They're the only big 3 (roland, korg, yamaha) who has a competent analog synth division. The other two are stuck continuing to double down on their digital recreations of classic analogs (roland ACB)

Re: Korg Monologue – Monophonic Analogue Synthesizer

#17

Post by thedjinn »

shams93 wrote: post #14
thedjinn wrote: post #4

I own a Microkorg and must say that I'm not really impressed by the sounds the Monologue offers; it seems far too limited and doesn't have that deep punchy bass that the Microkorg offers. And it's a lot more expensive too. It makes me think of the iPhone 5C.

Being able to create microtonal scales is the attraction here for me, most synths whether they're digital or analog lock you into standard western scale tuning.

You can still do that by sending raw midi data. Just a note immediately followed by a pitch bend.

Something I still wonder though is how serious this microtonality thing is. Is it more of a gimmick or it there a serious demand for it?

Re: Korg Monologue – Monophonic Analogue Synthesizer

#18

Post by romaniv »

rplnt wrote: post #3

Who is the target audience for this? Why did they spend quarter of the video on colors? Why does it even matter? It made me feel like the device is probably not that spectacular if color is one of its main features.

The is a rather large market of people who like to tinker with analog music hardware. Portable (battery-powered) synthesizers are also becoming a popular thing to use. There aren't many portable and analog devices out there.

Re: Korg Monologue – Monophonic Analogue Synthesizer

#20

Post by evo_9 »

As a synth guy I'll say what I said on SonicState again here - nifty but at 299.99 I don't know why I would choose this over the more capable Korg Minilogue. Where this is mono and therefor can only play one note at a time the Minilogue is a ploy 4 synth so you can actually play cords on it. Of course there are more distinctions between the two but that's the most obvious comparison point for me.

I love the look of it and it's cool they are pushing more analog gear out the door at reasonable prices. But for me I still don't know why I would choose this over the Minilogue which can be had on the used market for close to $400. The only real practical use I can imagine for this is to use it as a bass synth compatible to the Roland TB-3 or TB-03 Boutique. Or to augment aTB-3 bass synth which is digital, to give it some nice bottom end; I do that with a moog slim phatty currently when needed,which is a pricier approach but I also use the Slim Phatty for some other synth duties, it's quite a versatile bit of kit.

http://www.korg.com/us/products/synthesizers/minilogue/

Edit: type-o on # of voices.

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