Korg Minilogue

[david.beholder]

- Korg DW-8000 (8 voice hybrid synth with real analog Korg filter chips)

Please don't confuse people, DW-8000 had only one filter chip.

Actually it had 8 Korg NJM2069 chips, one for each voice...
Did i mention that it included multiple DIFFERENT filter chips?

Korg Poly-800 only had one of those NJM2069 chips so it was more paraphonic than fully polyphonic.

Besides the VCF that chip also inlcuded a VCA.

Taking it back, you're right. Sorry about that.

[3ee]

Searched all over the internet and didn't find 1 example of filter feedback (using the headphones out -- into the ext input)
Why? Is there a danger melting/blowing up something inside?

Since there isn't any level control for the input... does one need a "volume control" cable or something like that?

[transmetropolitan]

Searched all over the internet and didn't find 1 example of filter feedback (using the headphones out -- into the ext input)
Why? Is there a danger melting/blowing up something inside?

Since there isn't any level control for the input... does one need a "volume control" cable or something like that?

I think the answer is that it isn't the sort of filter that you necessarily want to deliberately overload & showcase as an 'effect' in the same way you would the MS20 filter or Steiner-Parker filter in the Arturia synths.

You can overload the filter, and it can be very nice. But it's more of a gentle thickening up/softening of the sound rather than the more effected distortion in for example the MS20 filter. (Don't get me wrong, I love that type of filter too, this is just a slightly different beast).

Also, you don't just have the Phones to Ext In option for doing this. You've got the Amp Velocity section in the menu behind the 4th button of the Program Edit. So you can use this internally to hit the filter harder.

I've done a very quick example below. The filter is 75% open with resonance at about 35-40% in 4 pole mode. The first example has Amp Velocity at the default setting of 0 and nothing in the Ext In. The second one has Amp Velocity at max 127 and the headphone out plugged into the Ext In. Master Vol is around 70% - I've not experimented as to whether raising this also raises the headphone vol, thus driving the filter more...

So this is 2 extremes. If you're specifically looking for more of a MS20/Steiner-Parker vibe, you possibly want a different synth.

https://soundcloud.com/musculoskeletal/ ... ue/s-zZn62

[3ee]

^ thanks for the example!
seems like this filter design doesn't go too well with feedback, no problem though, still plenty of good stuff with it to keep me interested.

[david.beholder]

By the way I have an idea to loop output thru overdrive pedal so it would actually distort signal before filter.

[transmetropolitan]

^ thanks for the example!
seems like this filter design doesn't go too well with feedback, no problem though, still plenty of good stuff with it to keep me interested.

What it's good for is softening warm pads. The differences are also highlighted more when you sweep/play with filter settings rather than the fixed example I recorded.

Don't get me wrong, it's a useful feature, it just has different applications than for example the Brute factor knob that Arturia uses.

[eXode]

Don't know what you did in your example but keep in mind that outgoing audio is mono, so when you try to play polyphonic sounds you will get a different kind of feedback distortion (all voices simultaneously), compared to i.e. the DSI Tetra or Mopho X4 that has it's feedback internally per voice.

Chances are that if you play the Minilogue in anything than monophonic mode, feedback will sound quite bad most of the time.

[transmetropolitan]

The example was in mono mode, what I meant to do was unison mode....

I will look at it again later.

[3ee]

Ordered mine today!!

[3ee]

...the filter sounds more pleasing in reality VS all the video/audio demos I've heard!
The pots move slow/harder right out of the box... but get smoother with use as I noticed.
In use, it smells a bit like toasty "new" circuits.
It's smaller as it appears, maybe it's the optical illusion of scale caused by the "mini" size keyboard.

The Oscilloscope is pretty detailed and responsive! (it kinda seems to lag with lower pitches but IIRC, I red somewhere that a firmware update fixes some scope bugs)

it's pretty clicky at times (although you can mask it to a fair extent), will give the firmware update a try...
The delay section really should be renamed to "lo-fi crunch" ... I like it as a special effect... but as a delay, I'll most likely use something stereo ITB.

As for the SNR, it's very good, getting about -100 dB of headroom so that's better than I expected. (this is without the delay of course and btw, the delay seems to get more noisy depending on the delay time with feedback )

Enough about the delay! ... it doesn't matter that much if it's noisy or not + I kinda like it like that!

Bottom line is:
Very happy with this synth, glad I finally got it, a pleasure to tweak... especially interesting when getting "wavetable" like timbres, so much fun!

I know that 4-voice analog is very good especially for the price but man... I sure could use a couple of extra voices!

Would have been interesting if instead of the "sidechain" voice mode would have been a "misc" voice mode updated with firmware to have different new ones like 8 voice paraphony maybe?

Getting back to the synth now...

btw, if I understood correctly: can I use some polyphonic modulation ITB and control Minilogue's parameters via USB?

[Mutant]

...the filter sounds more pleasing in reality VS all the video/audio demos I've heard!

OK, ill bite.
What is the signal chain of your reality and what are the signal chains of the audio and video demos you are talking about ?
If you make an audio demo, will it sound less pleasing than "in reality" ?

As for the SNR, it's very good, getting about -100 dB of headroom so that's better than I expected. (this is without the delay of course

That would indeed be fantastic, because if i remember correctly, SNR of a vintage Minimoog is about 60dB and of a fairly modern Prophet 08 about 80dB.

[3ee]

...the filter sounds more pleasing in reality VS all the video/audio demos I've heard!

OK, ill bite.
What is the signal chain of your reality and what are the signal chains of the audio and video demos you are talking about ?
If you make an audio demo, will it sound less pleasing than "in reality" ?

I meant to say the "character" is more pleasing than I thought I knew from watching/listening all these online vids/audio clips. That is a very subjective opinion.

Signal chain: tried 2 options:
- only headphones out using headphone , so no conversion there...
- plugged into audio interface using the "hi-z" (I guess) input.

The "sound quality" of flash or similar player is kinda terrible... especially when trying to check out "raw" sounds so I was trying to bypass that mentally before...

As for the SNR, it's very good, getting about -100 dB of headroom so that's better than I expected. (this is without the delay of course

That would indeed be fantastic, because if i remember correctly, SNR of a vintage Minimoog is about 60dB and of a fairly modern Prophet 08 about 80dB.

checked again, it's around -95

[Mutant]

checked again, it's around -95

Just to make sure, it is -95dB when not playing any notes and touches 0dB when playing a note ?

[3ee]

checked again, it's around -95

Just to make sure, it is -95dB when not playing any notes and touches 0dB when playing a note ?

hitting -6dBFS peak, and about -8.5 RMS when playing a note, one saw wave at full volume, full output master out about half gain on audio interface input.

when not playing any notes, signal drops to about -95 ... if I play one note but turn the osc vol de 0, the signal is at about -85 (one voice) and about -77 all voices

crappy old GTR cable going into M-Audio FireWire Solo FWIW, not grounded power source but surge protected via UPS...

[Mutant]

OK, so it is 95-6=89dB.