KVR Audio

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 12:49 pm

I've owned an original BassStation and it was great. I also currently own both the Minilogue and Monologue, the latter having been chosen over the MicroBrute. For me, the Monologue is head and shoulders better than any of them. But you may not find it so if you are really into analogue, because what makes it great is it's combination of analogue and digital, as in actual preset memory so you can store your favourite sounds and use them whenever you like, and the most amazing sequencer ever seen at this price-point. So if you aren't really into making music so much as fart-arsing about with gadgets, then it may be less suitable than the MicroBrute. OTOH, if you just want a great synth, nothing at this price comes close to what the Monologue has to offer.

tehlord · Post by **tehlord** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:20 pm

BONES wrote: OTOH, if you just want a great synth, nothing at this price comes close to what the Monologue has to offer.

Except the Microbrute, which actually sounds good. Whether fart arsing around or not.

Hooj · Post by **Hooj** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 10:26 pm

thecontrolcentre wrote:Speaking of Vermona, this one is on my wish list ... http://www.vermona.com/en/products/synt ... rmer-mkii/

it's on mine too!

do_androids_dream · Post by **do_androids_dream** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 10:42 pm

tehlord wrote:
BONES wrote: OTOH, if you just want a great synth, nothing at this price comes close to what the Monologue has to offer.

Except the Microbrute, which actually sounds good. Whether fart arsing around or not.

I own a monologue.. I want a micro too. Are you saying the mono doesn't sound 'good'? I can understand folks who are not keen on the korg sound.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 3:34 am

Can you? Why? I think Korg have always been the best sounding of the Japanese brands and the Monologue takes it to a whole new level. The DRIVE circuit gives it so much oomph! in the bottom end it's really not fair to other synth manufacturers, and especially not to the Minilogue, which sounds reedy and thin by comparison. I spent the weekend doing comparative listening against the Minilogue, as well as my JU-06 and JP-08 and it wiped the floor with them. Tonight I'll see how it stacks up against the Ultranova. It's not going ot be able to match the Ultranova's incomparably lush strings or it's unbelievably fat unions leads but I reckon it is going to blow it into the weeds in a few other categories.

tehlord wrote:Except the Microbrute, which actually sounds good. Whether fart arsing around or not.

MicroBrute doesn't have a patch memory. That makes it a toy, not a serious musical instrument, so "fart arsing around" is the only thing it is ever going to be good for. It also lacks Hard Sync or Ring Mod, let alone anything to compare to the Monologue's sequencer. It even looks like a toy.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 3:45 am

do_androids_dream wrote:I own a monologue.. I want a micro too. Are you saying the mono doesn't sound 'good'? I can understand folks who are not keen on the korg sound.

The Micrologue definitely doesn't sound as ballsy as the Monologue. The oscillators sound identical but once you start building sounds, the Monologue seems to get fatter and fatter. If you are using any cross-mod, it tends to strip out the bottom end pretty quickly but with the Monologue you can dial it back with DRIVE, which the Minilogue doesn't have. But the Minilogue has unison and other voice modes, so it's not like it's uselss or anything.

Ultimately, I wouldn't say the Minilogue doesn't sound any good, it just sounds different and you'd use it for different things. The two machines actually complement each other pretty well. But for me, the Minilogue doesn't sound as good as my Ultranova, and I'd be using it for the same things, so I am not going to keep it. OTOH, the Minilogue sits in some of our songs really well where the Ultranova struggles so the two work well together.

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 4:04 am

I'd recommend saving up for the Korg MS-20 mini.

transmetropolitan · Post by **transmetropolitan** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 8:17 am

BONES wrote: MicroBrute doesn't have a patch memory. That makes it a toy, not a serious musical instrument

Wormhelmet · Post by **Wormhelmet** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 11:40 am

Good thing no serious music was created with those toys.....

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 11:58 am

It makes a nice throw-away line but I'd suggest a lot of people who made that music would say it was made in spite of those stupid, near-useless things as much as anything.

transmetropolitan wrote:
BONES wrote: MicroBrute doesn't have a patch memory. That makes it a toy, not a serious musical instrument

My point, precisely. Nobody who had to put up with those pieces of garbage in the 1970s kept using them once synths with patch memory became available. I'm assuming you weren't there in those days but I was and, believe me, unless you could afford to spend months at a time in a studio, those things were just a (very expensive) bit of fun to play around with. They were for only the very elite, which is why they sold in such tiny numbers.

transmetropolitan · Post by **transmetropolitan** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 12:24 pm

BONES wrote:It makes a nice throw-away line but I'd suggest a lot of people who made that music would say it was made in spite of those stupid, near-useless things as much as anything.
transmetropolitan wrote:
BONES wrote: MicroBrute doesn't have a patch memory. That makes it a toy, not a serious musical instrument

My point, precisely. Nobody who had to put up with those pieces of garbage in the 1970s kept using them once synths with patch memory became available. I'm assuming you weren't there in those days but I was and, believe me, unless you could afford to spend months at a time in a studio, those things were just a (very expensive) bit of fun to play around with. They were for only the very elite, which is why they sold in such tiny numbers.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Fri Mar 24, 2017 12:12 am

Exactly! Made 20 years later using the latest digital technology to make it viable. At least when The Who did it they were at the cutting edge, not just pretending to be cool. Portashed are awful, hardly a shining light for electronic music, and as for Chemical Brothers, how much of the sound on that album comes from ancient modulars? I'd suggest very little, if any at all. I sure as hell couldn't find a photo of them on stage with any modular gear and photos where they weren't just DJing showed an amount of gear that 99% of us could never afford to use on stage - it would cost tens of thousands just to transport it all and take most of a day to set up. i.e. It sort of makes my point.

What's interesting is to see how popular Chemical Brothers are overseas because they never cracked the Top 20 here in Australia. The only song of theirs I'm aware of is just a rip-off of Frontline Assembly's early 90s sound, circa Caustic Grip (Hey Boy Hey Girl) and it's a boring, repetitive load of tripe.

Wormhelmet · Post by **Wormhelmet** » Fri Mar 24, 2017 12:44 am

So will that be your auto response to any music posted that the artists use modular or analog with no presets? Tripe or you calling bs cuz you never saw a picture? What a load of crap.

Just cuz you gig and like your easy presets and not fiddle farting around onstage or someone doesn't have a hit in Australia doesn't make a synth a toy or your weird opinion valid.

I mean, I understand you are a hard working, gigging musician that plays a lot of shows, but not everyone's method of performance needs to be the same as yours.

There are numerous big artists in various electronic genres that use modulars and gear with no presets like the 2600 or model D or new analogue solutions gear or whatever, but whats the point in naming them if you just blow if off with some lousy excuse?

I don't know if dating yourself to times you used gear before presets were available is so much of an "I know better than you" point as much as your attitude is showing a curmudgeonly biased opinion against analog gear and particularly analog without preset ability. Yikes.

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Fri Mar 24, 2017 1:45 am

Here's a work-around to lack of patch memory.

That and one could take the time to learn how to use a synthesizer as a performance instrument rather than a rompler.

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of Patch recall but i think a synthesist should have a healthy balance.

I can see how it would make sense in a busy live-tour schedule. However I think any serious synthesist has an appreciation for analog synthesizers that lack patch-recall like the Arp2600 or MS-20. If you take the time to learn these things then you don't really need patch recall, you can just dial in the sound you want. If you're playing the exact same sound every tour, I'd imagine it would get boring after a while.

transmetropolitan · Post by **transmetropolitan** » Fri Mar 24, 2017 12:03 pm

Portishead used to use a Minimoog live that Adrian Utley reprogrammed between songs.

But yeah, the broader point here is that not everyone's needs are the same.

When I was touring, having patch memory was a priority. Now I'm not playing live much my needs have changed.

I have a completely different approach to synths that don't have patch memory. I love it, find it really inspiring and a creative boost.

Some of the reasons for that being the case stem from personal preferences and some of it stems from objective common sense.

But arguing that a synth is a toy without patch memory is a pretty laughable argument in the context where Moog can sell $3500 Model D reissues about as fast as they can make them and where Behringer has identified a substantial market for cloning several classic synths without patch memory...

Looking to get into analog synths, any recommendations?