Korg ProLogue opinions

[Uncle E]

I'm surprised if Korg stopped making Prologues already...they've not been out for that long?

Our Korg rep said it’s not discontinued.

[RobustAmerican]

Here's a comparison video (Prologue16 vs MinilogueXD) I did a little while back. Thought I posted it here. Just a simple filter sweep with zero resonance, 1/4,1/2,3/4 and full resonance. It gets a little harsh and loud with the higher resonance settings so watch your volume.



Maybe this will help someone.

[Uncle E]

Great video! That's accurate to what I experienced with the XD, both the good and the bad.

[kritikon]

I'm surprised if Korg stopped making Prologues already...they've not been out for that long?

Our Korg rep said it’s not discontinued.

Thanks for confirmation. I thought it was odd if they stopped already. One assumes Korg are having issues with components, the same as everyone else.

[kritikon]

Here's a comparison video (Prologue16 vs MinilogueXD) I did a little while back. Thought I posted it here. Just a simple filter sweep with zero resonance, 1/4,1/2,3/4 and full resonance. It gets a little harsh and loud with the higher resonance settings so watch your volume.



Maybe this will help someone.

Thanks. Have to admit I'm listening on crappy PC speakers, so it's a bit difficult to discern properly, but I thought the XD was possible just a tad brighter than the Prologue? Same character though. I love that raspy throaty thing Korg filters do. I guess it's entirely possible the tuning of the filters is a little different between Prologue and XD. Having just got a MonoPoly, found this very useful vid from Starsky Carr (I'm starting to love his vids) about how the filter's tuned to max 7.1kHz, but you can tune it up to a full 20kHz (possibly even higher) with the tuning screws at the back. So maybe Korg tuned their filters slightly differently deliberately? As an aside, I think it's a beautiful extra that Behringer throw in all the extra calibration stuff on the back panel - it's not that common.

[lfm]

I'm surprised if Korg stopped making Prologues already...they've not been out for that long?

Our Korg rep said it’s not discontinued.

Why did Korg remove it from main listing
https://www.korg.com/se/products/synthesizers/

Since having no flagship analog anymore, all analog moved down to bottom just above software.

It was on top even before Workstations as I recall while in production. Rightfully so really proud of Prologue, really, really nice synth. It's a 3 oscillator synth, 2 VCO's and multi engine. It has mikrotuning features for each preset as well, aftertouch over midi etc. Filter envelope is shared with pitch and you can adjust amount as you please.

I think Prologue was released 2017 or so. They updated firmware with all kinds of features after that now on firmware v2.10.

Bought mine oct 2019 just as fw v2.00 was released.

Just a little reality check....

[kritikon]

It's likely they just don't have the parts to manufacture them, or at east not enough. If that's the case I applaud them for taking it off the list. NZ has every supplier listing stuff that they don't have in stock, haven't had for several months and likely won't have for several months. Which pisses me off - advertise what you've got, not what you used to have. If I see a store advertising stuff I expect to be able to buy it. Not to give them my money and wait until next year hoping they remember they've got my money and can they pretty please honour their purchase (unlike airlines...different rant ).

[pixel85]

Here's a comparison video (Prologue16 vs MinilogueXD) I did a little while back. Thought I posted it here. Just a simple filter sweep with zero resonance, 1/4,1/2,3/4 and full resonance. It gets a little harsh and loud with the higher resonance settings so watch your volume.



Maybe this will help someone.

Thanks. Have to admit I'm listening on crappy PC speakers, so it's a bit difficult to discern properly, but I thought the XD was possible just a tad brighter than the Prologue? Same character though. I love that raspy throaty thing Korg filters do. I guess it's entirely possible the tuning of the filters is a little different between Prologue and XD. Having just got a MonoPoly, found this very useful vid from Starsky Carr (I'm starting to love his vids) about how the filter's tuned to max 7.1kHz, but you can tune it up to a full 20kHz (possibly even higher) with the tuning screws at the back. So maybe Korg tuned their filters slightly differently deliberately? As an aside, I think it's a beautiful extra that Behringer throw in all the extra calibration stuff on the back panel - it's not that common.

For a moment, this video scared me that I can't hear anything above around 12kHz. Then I realized that he's not playing direct signal but it's coming through microphone
I'm also considering xD or maybe MonoPoly. How do you feel about MonoPoly vs xD (not considering 3rd digital osc)? Do you think that both will cover similar ground or not at all?

[RobustAmerican]

The audio in the comparison video I posted was recorded direct from the synths. No camera audio or microphones were used.

For a moment, this video scared me that I can't hear anything above around 12kHz. Then I realized that he's not playing direct signal but it's coming through microphone
I'm also considering xD or maybe MonoPoly. How do you feel about MonoPoly vs xD (not considering 3rd digital osc)? Do you think that both will cover similar ground or not at all?

[kritikon]

For a moment, this video scared me that I can't hear anything above around 12kHz. Then I realized that he's not playing direct signal but it's coming through microphone
I'm also considering xD or maybe MonoPoly. How do you feel about MonoPoly vs xD (not considering 3rd digital osc)? Do you think that both will cover similar ground or not at all?

It's worth putting those clips into an analyser to see if there is anything above 12kHz...as mentioned, the Monopoly filter is calibrated down so it maxes out at 7kHz (which was apparently done to emulate the original Korg filters) but can be up-calibrated by the user. Possibly the XD and/or Prologue filters are also calibrated down to somewhere near 12kHz. I dunno, my hearing isn't good enough to discern that kinda thing.

As for XD vs Monopoly - strange, but I received it 2 days ago and haven't actually fired it up properly yet - will likely get a proper chance on Friday (2 x 12hr morning shifts Wed/Thurs so I won't be staying awake to get into the studio, sadly). TBH they're probably quite different beasts and not that comparable, aside from the voice numbers.
The Monopoly filter is definitely more of a standard filter than XD, which to my ears is similar-ish to the old MS10/20 style filters.
The XD digital osc is definitely a sideways move against anything the Monopoly does.
XD probably has more mod options etc, as the Monopoly is flexible but still a bit limited in some ways, being an emu of an old synth.
Haven't really heard the XD do sync etc properly but the Monpoly screams the place down - part of what I love about it.
And what's special about Monopoly is the voice allocation mode - one of the particulars that made me buy was the way it can cycle through its VCOs when you put it into arp mode. Don't think XD can do that...

I intend to buy both. Not sure I could pick between the two if it had to be one or the other, but definitely different character from what I've heard.

Some of the Monopoly stuff - you instantly recognise some of the sounds occasionally things like Underworld etc. That particular character from the snyc/cross mod and the fatness of the oscillators. Whereas I guess XD is more of a new thing waiting to make new sounds (I particularly like its filters and the way you can mod the width of even the digital osc waves - some very gritty sounds with that - actually reminiscent a little of the AlphaJuno oscillators).

So yeah...buy both. That's what I'll do.

[kritikon]

Addendum to above - if you're looking for the 4-voice features in particular, then I guess the XD wins out. Monopoly plays 4 voice by splitting out the 4 VCOs. Having 4 VCOs can make for monster unison
and interesting arps, but it does mean if you play 4 notes you get one VCO per voice, so it's a bit thin for poly stuff - better for mono, worse for poly. Whereas (AFAIK) the XD is still a 3-osc 4 voice, so you can get 4 proper fat voices. Better for poly, not quite as good for mono. That probably makes the XD quite a bit more flexible than the Monopoly. But the Monopoly does scream like the proverbial bastard.

And...looks like XD has digital LFOs, envs etc whereas Monopoly is all analogue. Digital envs, I have no problem with. However I've played around with some digital LFOs that are pretty crappy if you try and use them for audio rate modulation, whereas analogue does it properly - not sure how high the Monopoly LFOs go though...pretty sure not that high (but not sure XD LFOs go that high either)? Some of those are the things that analogue really stands out with - sync/cross mod/audio rate LFO mod. Digital stuff never does it as well - XD sync etc should be analogue though, and not sure if you can sync the digital oscillator...?

[pixel85]

I did check that video. He's playing that part really quiet. Synth is at -80dB - no wonder I couldn't hear it by listening on low volume.

And...looks like XD has digital LFOs, envs etc whereas Monopoly is all analogue. Digital envs, I have no problem with. However I've played around with some digital LFOs that are pretty crappy if you try and use them for audio rate modulation, whereas analogue does it properly - not sure how high the Monopoly LFOs go though...pretty sure not that high (but not sure XD LFOs go that high either)? Some of those are the things that analogue really stands out with - sync/cross mod/audio rate LFO mod. Digital stuff never does it as well - XD sync etc should be analogue though, and not sure if you can sync the digital oscillator...?

Thanks for your replies. very informative I agree about digital LFO's. I didn't know that xD has them. I definitely prefer analog LFO that can go to audio rate. In digital I'm kinda impressed with Massive X in that matter (at 96kHz). I'll try to find audio examples of xD's LFOs to see if they're fine or if they cause this 'mushy' lofi noisy sound when pushed to fast rates (like many plugins did in the past).

[Constructed Identity]

I was thinking of doing a one (hardware) synth thing with my Prologue but it doesn't matter honestly at this point the ARP 2600 M would probably be a better buy.
Wish I could try that thing out live!

[Tdotzfinest]

Does anyone have a personal polychained XD review?

[CoolColJ]

Picked up a second hand Korg Prologue 16 - so cheap for 16 voices of VCOs!

The 12db filter distorts pretty easily when resonance goes up, shades of MS20
Not really my thing with poly patches.

If you crank the output +6db in the menus you can drop the oscillators down to 25-30% range and get really nice, liquidy wet, non distorted, high resonance sounds, just before self oscillation.

Still saturated, but not obviously distorted sounding like it is normally
I'm happy with this now, whereas before it didn't quite sound like how I wanted.

Reminds me of a Juno 106, syrupy and wet resonance

https://soundcloud.com/coolcolj/korg-pr ... so-arp-jam

Also in general I'd say the Prologue is great for synthwave style sounds, reminds me of a Jupiter 8 workflow wise and it does all those resonant high leads and melodies, and long release poly sounds like the JP8 does so well.
The sounds just sit well in a mix and cut through

For example - those upper tones just don't come from Moogs, Oberheims, and Sequentials that easily