Korg Monologue – Monophonic Analogue Synthesizer
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Re: Korg Monologue – Monophonic Analogue Synthesizer
#2Fancy seeing this here - cool for sure. One of the music journalists I follow, Peter Kirn, has a piece regarding this release:
http://cdm.link/2016/11/gallery-korgs-synth-line-gets-refres...
Re: Korg Monologue – Monophonic Analogue Synthesizer
#3Who 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.
Re: Korg Monologue – Monophonic Analogue Synthesizer
#4I 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.
Re: Korg Monologue – Monophonic Analogue Synthesizer
#5Who 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.
Aesthetics absolutely matter. It seems silly, but certain styles/feels appeal to me and motivate me to use the product more. I have a dingy synth (novation bass station II) and it's a beast, but it feels so plasticky and cheap and I haven't used it in months.
Re: Korg Monologue – Monophonic Analogue Synthesizer
#6Who 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.
Musicianship is as much showmanship as it is technical capability. This synth comes in five colors for the same reason electric guitars come in 1,000 different designs.
Re: Korg Monologue – Monophonic Analogue Synthesizer
#7Who 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.
100% of the video was spent playing sounds. That's all that producers care about. You have to put something on the screen.
Re: Korg Monologue – Monophonic Analogue Synthesizer
#8Who 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.
I read that it's E-to-E so it's essentially a replacement for a bass player. One you can program or play live. $300 to never have to deal with a bassist again is, in some circles, quite a bargain. I've seen several MiniNovas and other small frame synths in the wild, from dive bar acts to openers for larger venue groups like Run The Jewels.
Re: Color. If there is an aesthetic theme for one's act, then having a matching color is simply a nice-to-have. Personally I have a bad habit of tearing apart things, painting them, and trying to get them to work again so they're not just the average off the shelf piece of kit, and I can identify my own stuff easier.
Re: Korg Monologue – Monophonic Analogue Synthesizer
#9Korg has to be my favorite synthesizer company atm. They really hit the sweet spot of great aesthetics and usability. The sound is, of course, a matter of taste. The monologue is more mid-rangy than you'd expect from an analogue synth but I guess it has its place and, more importantly, it gives the synth a unique character. Personally I think the market is over-saturated with emulations of classics.
Someone else mentioned that the Monologue seems too limited and I think that's the wrong way to look at it. What counts, imo, is that a synth has a certain something that makes you want to be creative with it. The monologue/minilogue does that for me. While there is a place for complex synths, too many knobs can turn you from intuitive playing to abstract thinking which is not necessarily what you want as a musician. An extreme example: There are more people who made a career out of tweaking a 303 or a Moog than there are people who did so by (actually) programming a dx7 or a modular system.
Re: Korg Monologue – Monophonic Analogue Synthesizer
#10I 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 has only an arpeggiator.
For this price point I think a lot of mucisians are going to find the Monologue is a good value. It isn't far off the MiniBrute which came out at $400 and has less features.