Korg Minilogue

[IncarnateX]

I can't understand how someone would be so emotionally invested in a synth they haven't even played yet to act out the way you do.

Seems to me like you are just not passionated enough for a synth player. Many of you Slutz seem kind of detached, so that makes sense. Too many synths to really focus and too much chat about them instead of using them. I already love my minilogue, it's you who is the amateur here.

Now that is settled, why don't you head back to your friends at GS? If you stay around KVR, you might get hurt. Not everyone is as friendly and understanding as I.

[lalo]

Can we please just drop it and return to the good times, talking about the synth?

wise words!

it seems a very good synth with a good "standard analog architecture" potential for 499$.

facts about some issues...

1. maybe some sort of design quirks for that to strong click (maybe only the first units? )
2. MIDI CC limited to steppish 7 bit (maybe some improve in next firmware upgrades?)

[IncarnateX]

1. maybe some sort of design quirks for that to strong click (maybe only the first units? )
2. MIDI CC limited to steppish 7 bit (maybe some improve in next firmware upgrades?)

3. Delay produces a good amount of white noise, so you have to keep it's level down.

And regarding 1. Notice his general demo (not the clicking vid) posted earlier, where there are no noisy clicks on most patches, so it seems like the design quirk, given it's there, is not significant on all patches. Far from it actually.

[Sendy]

Let's just all post our findings here when we get our units. If mine clicks very badly I'll be sending it back, but I have a fairly high tolerence of artifacts. I also suspect the very first batch of units, given the price point, are likely to have a few teething problems. I can totally understand how the clicking with slow envelopes and low cutoffs would be unacceptable to many people.

Really hoping mine arrives tomorrow.

[D.H. Miltz]

Can we please just drop it and return to the good times, talking about the synth?

wise words!

Indeed.

(As was the advice about a cookie. I'm not especially grumpy just yet, but maybe I'll have a cookie anyway. An ounce of prevention and all that.)

[Daags]

I think the important thing to remember here is not to use your ears. The future of music is viewing spectograms of patches with closed filters. Thankfully we have guys with OCD and the good common sense to compare a $500 synth with approx $22k worth of highend boutique/vintage gear, using a patch no one would ever have had the idea to attempt to make music with. Where would we be without these pioneers ? Still banging sticks on rocks, no doubt. I checked the rest of that guys youtube channel looking for music, and there was none! Just bleepyblooplookwhatIgot stuff. But it figures I guess, because he's way too ahead of the curve to be conceding to bourgeois conventions of music and I'm sure if he makes music with the kind of patch he used to illustrate this unacceptable problem all we would hear is silence. Especially on those lovely synths that don't click with the filter shut all the way down. I guess he's like a much less cool, 21st century neckbearded John Cage.

clicks or no clicks, fixes or no fixes, lets use musical instruments in musical terms. or am i just naive ?

[JCJR]

I don't have ergonomic space for more synths, and don't play the ones I have, often enough to justify getting more synths.

As a window-shopping bystander, that minilogue looks cute as a bug. The mini-keyboard looks almost big enough that an adult could play it. The knobs and switches look big enough and wide-spaced enough that an adult could tweak it without having to use a magnifying glass and tweezers. The mini-oscilloscope display is kewl. The front panel appears nicely rugged. The architecture contains what a fella would want for at least a minimum set of modules and routings to get the job done. Online demos sound good so far as I can tell, only listening on laptop speakers, haven't listened to any of the demo videos on the studio monitors. The built-in delay appears to make it easy to make echoplex effects, adjusting feedback and delay for the flying saucer sounds and such.

For $500 it seems real good bang for the buck. Several desirable, not insanely priced nice synths were released lately. Nowadays seems a good period for some nice new keyboard models. Even those DSI synths which cost thousands, hey they costed thousands even back when a dollar was worth more than a few pennies.

Am not concerned with clicking because I don't intend to buy one anyway. If more than a few bad units click, and if it can happen with a slow attack envelope as one of the wave screen shots posted, then it might not be a foregone conclusion exactly what would be clicking.

If the gadget has an ordinary vca for the amplitude envelope, then it seems doubtful it would be as simple as control voltage feedthru on the vca or DC into or out of the vca. The slow attack would minimize or eliminate any click or thump from DC or control voltage feedthru. Any DC would slowly ramp up along with the envelope, and similarly control voltage leakage would slowly ramp up.

So one could go looking for symptoms related to the VCF and VCF envelope. Or alternately maybe there is some fashion of master mute between the VCA and the mixer, to improve noise performance, that might click when it turns on or off.

Or maybe it is a DCA rather than VCA? Even a DCA could probably honestly be called an "all analog audio path". Its analog going thru a DCA, even if controlled digitally.

Edit: Basically what I was getting at, if it were a DC or feedthru issue and common on many/most models, a fella could tack some trimmer pots on the board and probably fix it. But if its something like a glitchy voice mute switch, maybe not so simple.

[Daags]

more sounds. apologies in advance to the OCD contingent ... these are actual patches that make actual sounds with purpose of - presumably - making actual music, and as if that wasn't bad enough there's no spectograms provided. sorry!

[pdxindy]

more sounds. apologies in advance to the OCD contingent ... these are actual patches that make actual sounds with purpose of - presumably - making actual music, and as if that wasn't bad enough there's no spectograms provided. sorry!

Sounds good to me... pleasing character... some diversity of sounds, polyphony and interesting mix of features.

For that price seems like a winner to me!

[IncarnateX]

1. maybe some sort of design quirks for that to strong click (maybe only the first units? )
2. MIDI CC limited to steppish 7 bit (maybe some improve in next firmware upgrades?)

3. Delay produces a good amount of white noise, so you have to keep it's level down.

4.Arp has no hold/latch function. Have to use the seq instead.

[3ee]

^ well, doesn't the play (with record ) is kind of a latch itself?

[IncarnateX]

^ well, doesn't the play (with record ) is kind of a latch itself?

afaik there is no way to hold a key. You will have to record the arp seq into the sequencer and thus you can't change keys on the fly once recorded but will have to edit, e.g. transpose, the sequence.

[IncarnateX]

https://you.tube/v6GXxJYPp-E

Oh Man. The basses from 1.08 to 2.44. Yummi, yummi, yummi
Can't wait to make my own.

I also really like the moody intro sequence to this video.




The motion sequencer is going to be heaven to explore.

[IncarnateX]

but I have a fairly high tolerence of artifacts.

Me too. I am from a time where you had to make use of the artifacts musically if you couldn't beat them. The Danish electro-musician Anders Trentemøller simply emphasizes the gear noises and clicks in his music instead of masking them. It adds to the special character of his music. Then there is the whole genre of Glitch of course and their "aesthetic of failure".

Knowledge about design and architecture can be indicative, when it is valid that is, but in the end it’s in the eyes (ears) of the beholder.

[olikana]

that's true. some artists will make great use of the extra clicks & thumps.
in terms of features, price and overall sound you can't argue against the minilogue.
I prefer to hold off to see whether the DC offset (is that what it is ?) will be addressed by Korg and possibly fixed in future revisions or is it something they know is there as design or a necessary trade off they had to make to deliver a poly at such price.

it is really the only niggle in an otherwise dream synth. the features are outstanding...the only thing missing Sample&Hold but with the sequencer not difficult to get similar result.