Forget about that synth for a moment. Nick - so many people love the unusual skill, care and modesty that define your reviews (just as the obvious artistic sensitivity of your closing demos). I think your videos are just as much about your particular attitude as they are about the synths. You are doing a great job. Thank you so much for your work!
Everyone says that the oscilloscope is gimmicky but like legitimately, I stare at that litttle screen more than any other screen on any of my equipment. It is super super super useful and it really helps to understand the shape of the sounds that are being made. You can both visually see and hear what is going on and that feature is priceless
agreed! i bought the minilogue in late 2018 as my first synth, and the amount of instinctive knowledge I gained just from looking at the oscilloscope is insane. I actually had to turn it off at one point to focus more on the playing itself than the patch sound.
The motion sequencing on this thing is mind-blowing. I just got mine yesterday and I haven't slept yet. The motion sequencing on this thing is mind-bowling. I just got mine yesterday and I didn't sleep so far................ Coffee.
Sonicstate consistently delivering the best gear reviews out there. And the icing on the cake is always Nick's immensely classy noodlings at the end of every review. Awesome stuff.
if you think about it, here's a guy that can put together a better, more in depth review on his own than any of the company reps who usually present the products. Its one thing to know your way around a synth, a whole other thing to teach it like this in a way that makes sense. Not trying to blow smoke up his ass, but he's the best reviewer i've seen
The genius of this synth is how much fun it is to play/program. You just start exploring the sound, and the controls are all right there. I find it amusing when weirdos watch a demo video and claim that it's 'boring' or whatever, but when it's in front of you, and you are tweaking the knobs, it's just so very interesting and inspiring.
Wingo Shackleford please refrain from enjoying yourself. Using synths is a very serious hobby which requires a total lack of self expression, except that which comes through speakers connected to a synth. Eg Kraftwerk.
no one does a better review than Mr Nick, they are perfect. no time wasted, all features explained and demonstrated, always a few trick examples that show how well he understands the beasties and what some lateral thinking can achieve, topped off with some lovely, tasteful music. fan-ferkin-tastic
I appreciate this guy he almost demo all keyboards, Synths and keyboards . Please raise his salary.. some keyboards i bought os because of his depth demo..
great review as usual Nick. I was wondering if I was crazy. I couldn't find a latch anywhere, thanks for clearing that up also You can play pong when it boots by turning the VCO 1 in mixer.
Korg must have listened to this review for the monologue. They implemented sequence transpose, extra drive, and per-step parameter motion recording. If only he told them to produce better manuals.
Nick, I just recently bought a Minilogue. In this video you mentioned that there is no Latch function to the Arpeggiator. I have discovered that if you hold down the ARP button for a second, the corresponding red light will start flashing. In this mode, you can create your arpeggio and release. The unit will then play your arpeggio automatically.
Thanks Nick, been waiting for your take on it. What an amazing synth for the price! I have been looking for my first analogue polly and price wise I thought I was in for over a bag of sand for something like the Electron Keys, but this gets me in the game for an amazing price!
excellent. re-fueled my fire and desire to buy this synth...Nick, Really incredible piece at the end, I should add. Your demo musics are always very nice, but this particular example takes the cake...incredibly beautiful patch design...!
I dig that you acknowledge +AutomaticGainsay, because he and you are my two favorite synth reviewers. Totally different experiences. I would never watch one over the other. They both require watching.
You guys should check out the markusfuller teardown video. Looks like some high quality components there for the knobs and switches, that control surface will last through a lot of abuse.
Your videos are my go-to whenever I get serious about buying any piece of gear. Thank you so much for these intelligent, nuanced, objective in-depth reviews. They help a ton!
I watch almost every your review that directly or indirectly connected to the synth world, and I always have a big pleasure of watching it, because no one could do it better than you! Thank you for your work!
Great review! I think I've watched every damn video about this thing that exists on the Internet, and yet you managed to cover some aspects of it that every single one of them managed to miss. Good job on that, especially for addressing "Clickgate" seriously, especially setting the portamento to "0" to address envelope retriggering. I'm more convinced to try and get this machine some time this year.
+inthefade Also, I'm shocked that the arpeggiator can only handle 4 notes at a time. That seems like a really silly oversight that should get fixed in a firmware update! I'm also very surprised that no one else has noticed that yet.
Nice work as always, and another gorgeous closing jam! I've also been enjoying the 2pole over the 4. Seems to have a bit more character. The Minilogue has a ton of potential. I'm not holding my breath for brilliant firmware updates, but I predict that the next iteration (Minilogue 2, or whatever) will open up many more possibilities. I hope so anyway. Love mine as is, but I'm excited to see where Korg goes next.
Nick your reviews are always thoughtful and informative, as well as just fun. I was fortunate to acquire one of these the week of launch and it has been such an easy go-to synth. So immediate. So smart. Definitely makes up for the fact I never did get a DX7 back in the 80s.
I know it's a while since this review but anyone watching it needs to know that Korg addressed the Latch issue on the Arp! The Minilogue does have Latch mode! Nice one Korg! Fair Play!
Excellent breakdown of the features that hit on some of the points I was curious about (latch, retriggers). Also, nice outro performance there, want to hear more!
Full marks for sorting the envelope issue, Sonicstate, though I wasn't quite sure if it still retriggered between keys separately being triggered. PS - surely it should be pronounced Minilowg - to rhyme with Minogue, vogue, and Moog.
Have loved Korg gear since the late 70's, unique sound character and more importantly they've always kept it new, fresh and fun. I only wish that this new offering output in stereo especially as it has the delay feature. So many new anaolgue synths are mono output only yet incorporate built in fx so the lack of stereo output seems a bit of a missed opportunity, especially for poly synths. I know they're working to a price point but I'd glady pay a little extra for some stereo spread
Dig the tune at the end. After owning one for some time I've realized it sounds nothing like anything else I own. Despite its flaws I'm more then happy with it.
I found one at a pawnshop for 220$ and bought it on site…possibly the best synth gear deal I’ve made other than the time I found a Realistic MOOG at another pawnshop for 250$ about 20 years ago.
This synth sounds pretty good for its price. I was looking for a good dedicated analog bass synth though and decided to buy a Novation Bass Station 2 this week. Maybe when the Minilogue is actually in-stock and a firmware update or two has been released (crossing my fingers for arp latch & sequence transpose) then I'll definitely get one. It sounds great though. As always, excellent outro and review Nick.
+giggs102 I've had it less than a week but it's pretty damn good. It's hard to find many faults with it and I enjoy all the features. I didn't realize how awesome saving presets would be until I experienced it because the BS2 can be subtle or completely wild. It's nice and buzzy and has loads of modulation and filter options. The arp is actually fun to play. Aftertouch is loads of fun. I wish the Distortion effect added a bit more high gain crunch to it but it does "thicken" the sound. The Osc Filter Mod knob can add quite a bit to the sound as well especially with some overdrive and resonance. I've been searching for a dedicated analog bass synth for over a year now and with the Bass Station 2 I think my journey is over...for now. Sure a Sub phatty might sound "better" but I've never heard a Sub Phatty make these type of sounds. For the price, it does its job well and if you're looking for analog bass it's a very good option. You might check Reverb or ebay for some good deals.
Thanks Nick! As others have said, been waiting for your take. Really seems like no reason not to if your after these sounds (it could save my ill and aging 106 from the rigours of live use). GREAT tip about setting Porto to 0 too! Thanks!
Hi Nick. Great review as always! I'm a bit confused about the dual midi ports. And since google doesn't provide any answers (nor does the manual) I just have to ask here... Does this mean the Minilogue also acts as a midi interface?
good review, thanks! The Minilogue offers really a lot for that price, sounds very good. The two things I had wished for are separate LFO routing for each oscillator (for instance: modulation of wave shape of one osc, while the other remains static) and the option to overdrive the filter
Hello Nick. As always, incredibly detailed review by Sonicstate. It has surprised me however, as a 4-voice poly synth, just has a mono output... Thats very surprising to me, besides the headphone output doesn't give me so much confidence. This kind of "sloppy" things, unfortunately, are very usual in the KORG's low-cost lately products (Volca KEYS / BEATS / SAMPLE). I find it quite annoying that they won't give a dedicated stereo-output as it should be, in this case especially. Anyway, thank you for the great review!
There is no reason to put stereo out on a synth that doesn't have any kind of stereo panning or sound. It's all in mono. If you want stereo, just run the ML through a stereo chorus/reverb or other effect.
You're not understanding. The ML doesn't have any stereo panning, or any stereo effects, so there is no point in having a stereo out. If it did have panning and/or stereo effects, then a standard stereo out would be useful and needed. The audio is strictly mono in the ML, so it only needs the mono out. The reason the headphone out is stereo is so that the mono sound is in each ear.
Some synths do have a clicking attack on purpose, its called a percussive attack and if also found on some organs and even string machines. The Waldorf STVC even sets its synth section into a the range of percussive attack.
+Matt Greer , unfortunately, I saw yesterday that Arturia was referring to its new KeyStep as having "slim keys", and as far as I can see they're no different than those on the MiniLab, which they market as "minikeys" (or the mininova, microkorg, etc.). Once again, Marketing departments ruin it for everyone ;) But the keys on the Minilogue are really so much more playable than the standard "mini keys"
Got my Minilogue OG as my first synth because I liked its all analog without any ADC DAC conversions, has oscilloscope to see the sound, isn't too muffled or fuzzy (like synths from Sequential...) and looks pretty cool and is quite small. Also I didn't see anyone complaining about keybed. Clicking is imho feature and not flaw of this synth. Some manufacturers (eg. from what I saw Sequential...) do not allow real zero attack/decay, probably to avoid rants from uneducated users and or those who are used to such non-zero attack/decay designs. My complaints would be too severe volume drop with resonance - something which I fixed with bunch of resistors and imho makes this synth sound better. Also I was disappointed with line input implementation which is only useful with mono mode and to add some static sound to voices eg. external source of noise. That said it was my ignorance regarding how the synth actually worked - it would need to have single filter to work like I imagined it would... for mono mode however its pretty useful and any kind of external synth can be added with its own set of oscillators and all coming through Minilogue's filter and shaped by its envelope. I have yet to utilize this feature but I think it will come in handy. Anyways, second hand Minilogues can be quite cheap and synth has pretty good build quality so its not an issue to get second hand Minilogue and in this case bang for the buck is insane.
for as long as korg has been doing motion sequencing, i'm really surprised they haven't expanded upon that to include a parameter lock type function to motion sequencing. not the end of the world it's still fun cheap gear but it would be pretty useful
I bought one of these for my 8-year-old daughter and it seems perfect as an introduction to analog synthesis, with its classic, pure and intuitive knobby control panel. I didn't want her to have the frustration of monophony but I also didn't want to go bankrupt for one item, and this is the answer.
I've done alot of looking around, searching the internet and suggestions from synth maniacs and there really isnt much of a competition when it comes to the minilogue.
in my opinion if Korg made a 8 voices polyphony minilougue with 4 standard octaves and some other minor improvements (a bigger screen?) for under 1000$ (a midilougue?) they would completely kill the market. I am sure it would be perfectly possible, I wonder why they don't do it...
propoetide I know, but I am not completely convinced about the Deepmind...The minilougue sounds better in my opinion: the pads have something magic and ethereal, in other words it has his own unique voice. The deepmind is interesting but it sounds a bit too plastic to me...maybe it's only the first impression or maybe the presets are not well programmed, I don't know.
GreenHoleSun The Minilogue VCO's sure sound great, and I'm not blown away by the DM12's DCO's and filter myself, at least in the demos. Overall it sounds quite polite to me, in a sort of Roland-y way (minus a great chorus). Still, it does sound good and having 12 voices with plenty of front-panel control and a ton of modulation options for a thousand bucks is just amazing, and I expect it to sell like hot-cakes. If it does, the chances of an 8-voice Minilogue with full sized keys near the same price point would grow and other brands shouldn't be too far behind. Great days! :-)
I love the flaws of synths coz they add to personality. And they create new styles of music and song writing. One of Smashing Pumpkins best songs Mayonnaise was written because they had cheap guitars that gave feedback so they wrote the feedback note into the song. And it's part of why its good.
@calabiyou For those looking for the song on their streaming service, e.g. Spotify, note that SP intentionally misspelled it as 'Mayonaise'. The correct spelling, 'Mayonnaise', will not find it. You can guess how I know this . . .
Let's not forget the breakout mini-game you can play by moving the pitch slider or a knob while it's tuning. I've never won in time in my 4 years of owning it, lol.
Hello, great review, I always look specifically for yours when new gear comes out. Do you know if the filter is analog? I thought I might have heard stepping when you cranked up the resonance. Also I noticed you didn't pump the resonance past half way! Would be cool to hear it at its full extent. Thanks in advance.
Great work Nick! I have a Sub 37 and an old Yamaha Cp-35 that is great but too cumbersome to take anywhere, any suggestions on a poly synth to fill the Cp-35 spot. I almost exclusively play it with the two oscillators detuned and the 5th harmonic on for that OB-6 warp records ninja tune lushness. I keep looking at the Minilogue for its simplicity and ability to play chords. Advice? Thanks mate!
concerning sequencer, i would add that the play state should be saved with the patch: right now if you push play and then change the patch, it will continue to play while i don't want necessarily it to play the a sequence with the new patch. Great video, thanx.
Lovely performance at the end. I'd love to hear much more of his playing, especially with simple set ups like this. It would be amazing if Mr. Batt would do a series of little performances like this (nothing crazy, just something short and cool) and then after have a brief chat that breaks down how and why he hooked up his setup the way he did. Maybe a bit on settings. Real casual. It would be an amazing creative and educational resource, especially since affordability has brought in new blood from the synth world for which a lot of the tech and industry talk is neat but maybe not nearly as helpful or as apparently connected to creation, which is really brought many of us to synths.
My point was, that alot synths have the noise anyway. You wouldnt need to record any noise additionally(imo.). It would benefit you not having to use any further noise reduction. I just think in this day in age it could be a standard feature. Ok it wont be by far the main selling point but would be nice to see these little details taken care of aswell.
I love your reviews I am totally new to synths. I have a question, since I can only afford one would this Korg be the one to get or would the novation bass station 2 be the better bet? They are close to the same price. I am wanting to use them for EDM style music. Which one is more versatile? I also want to use it for bass lines and classic piano sounds too. Thank you!
basslines, I would say Bass Sation 2, though you wont get piano sounds out of either of them as they are both analog synthesizers, no samples. The Minilogue is polyphionic thiough which means you can play chords of up to 4 notes. But its more bass your after, as I say I think the BS2 is the one
sonicstate I also am going to be using Ableton live with my PC thought I would add that too. Thank you for the fast reply! I am looking for like a nine inch nails sound. I am actually a bass player but am living EDM stuff. Love your videos man so informative!
Excellent Nick, if you don't mind, how exactly did you create that dark dreamy sound in the end, were you triggering the sub 37 for the top end klang? I wouldn't mind making a donation for more of that piece please.
+Joe Agrelo I dont recall fully, but mono mode, using the mode envelope to affect the rate of the LFO which in turn was shaping the wave of the oscillators
Excellent review. Been enjoying mine for a month now, and there's just not much to fault. Personally i don't subscribe to the pervading idea that a low price gives it exempt status from critique, but even with some faults, it is indeed a no-brainer for the price. And the clicking issue has been blown out of proportion imho. There are however a few shortcomings in the firmware that's potentially cause for minor concern, as in this day and age you can't be sure they bother to address it. And there's a few controls/features that should've made it to the front panel. Haven't tested it myself yet, but there's also some chatter about the filter resonance going haywire when sending external signals through the input, would've loved to hear your take on that.
Hey Nick. Thanks for the video. How do the knobs / pots feel? First video I've seen where they actually looked loose. Did they feel loose / very free? I.e. easy to nudge out of the current setting. Also, more of a cosmetic thing, at least the filter knob looked a little uncentered. Is that so - or a trick of the light in the video so to speak?
+MusicInclusive Mine are perfectly rigid and feel very strong/positive to the touch, with just the right amount of resistance. For my fingers they are a tad too close together though, and will occationally get knocked when tweaking adjacent knobs, at which point they can lose the setting by a little. I'd recommend setting the knobs to the scaling setting, so you don't risk big jumps across presets if/when that happens.
Interesting voice modes. Is that "delay" mode that imitates a delay with retriggered envelopes actually sending MIDI notes in the same fashion??? That would be useful.
Very nice synth from Korg, very informative reveiew my only gripe would be as with other modern synth is to why they install balanced outputs as a option as well as the standard
+inthefade No many other synths dont have them but it would benefit to give you a less noisy output which is very inherit with analogue and even some dsp synths. Thou sometimes the noise adds to the charcater of the sound if thats what you want.
Adamski Ajull I'm fully aware of the purpose of balanced outputs. But if you want line noise on your synth, just record a noise source as a separate track ;)
Great review! Question: I want to use this as a master and my RC-505 loop station as a slave. Will this work as a master? Do you think I will get any drift?
Nic i would like to ask you something. I have the Minilogue and the only thing i am not completely in love with is the filter. Especially on pads. Do you think with an external filter it would "creamytize" it a bit? Something of the likes of Vermona Filter Lancet, Dreadbox Epsilon, Moogerfooger Mf 101. ? Am asking cause i don`t know it the Envelope followers on these filters won`t interfere with the pads of the Minilogue? Or do you think they will play together nicely? I love the Moogerfooger filter but don`t see Attack-Release settings for the Env follower ....? Would greatly appreciate any opinion of yours
It doesn't sound or look too good for its price, especially given Korg's manufacturing quality reputation. But Nick! You've already covered the scope quite extensively :) That wood probably came from Fukushima forests. Clicks are quite popular these days, just listen to Alva Noto, so not a problem at all.
Is there anything you can't do sir? Your video's have got me back into thinking about music production using hardware after a long break. I'm quite used to software synths but always dreamed of having my own h/w especially ever since I used a real Juno 106 at college. The video is extremely descriptive and makes we want to order one right away however I'm not sure what to go for as I'm interested in the Gaia SH01, JD-Xi, MS-20 Mini, Minilogue and UltraNova to name just a few. Is there anything that would be like an 'All-in-One' Trance style kit that is out there or something that would be best in this area? Any suggestions welcome, thanks.
low3freq Pretty much every synth is for a different use. There is no all in one package sadly, apart from a pc with vst's. You want analog, digital, polyphonic, mono, multitimbral ? All synths you mentioned are suitable for trance. Since I also like trance, I may suggest the novation synths, I have a mininova and a circuit and I am very happy with both, but I would be interested in Minilogue, monologue, Blofeld and possibly the Jd xi as a general "workhorse"
Got one & I love it, i just like to use another keyboard via MIDI to play it. Not digging the small keys. Hope Korg makes a full sized analog synth soon!
So it's a mono output synth only, but it has a stereo headphone out? Great review btw, I'll be saving up for my first analog synth then. If they implement some of your ideas into fw updates this could become a such a beast.
Korg ought to be congratulated for producing this instrument at the given price. Roland take note. I am a big fan of korg. However, having watched hours of videos, I feel this synth lacks depth & character. Yes it is good, but not so special in my view. Moog's Mother 32 for example has more character. My DSI Pro 2 ( different price point ) has more character and depth. I wanted to love this and buy one, but it doesn't hit the spot for me. It just sounds so flat. The AL-1 engine on my Kronos is capable of more. Very informative input from Nick as always and I love the compositions at the end of these videos. Thank you.
This synth has tons of character and can also do sounds usually only achievable digitally. This demo isn't that great.most are shit actually. The only videos I've seen that are remotely useful for showing this synth off are by automatic gainsy.
Forget about that synth for a moment. Nick - so many people love the unusual skill, care and modesty that define your reviews (just as the obvious artistic sensitivity of your closing demos). I think your videos are just as much about your particular attitude as they are about the synths. You are doing a great job. Thank you so much for your work!
I agree. Come for the synths, but stay for Nick Batt
The best!
Everyone says that the oscilloscope is gimmicky but like legitimately, I stare at that litttle screen more than any other screen on any of my equipment. It is super super super useful and it really helps to understand the shape of the sounds that are being made. You can both visually see and hear what is going on and that feature is priceless
agreed! i bought the minilogue in late 2018 as my first synth, and the amount of instinctive knowledge I gained just from looking at the oscilloscope is insane. I actually had to turn it off at one point to focus more on the playing itself than the patch sound.
I got one and love it, also the display makes this Synth special, you see the sound ! 👍👍
The motion sequencing on this thing is mind-blowing. I just got mine yesterday and I haven't slept yet. The motion sequencing on this thing is mind-bowling. I just got mine yesterday and I didn't sleep so far................
Coffee.
Adam Borseti please disengage your repeat function by reducing the pulse harmoniser which is on the left of your secondary LFO.
Darryld1 LOL
Have you got some sleep yet? tsk tsk
Some say he still got his yesterday, to this very day.
People say he hasn't slept to this day
Sonicstate consistently delivering the best gear reviews out there. And the icing on the cake is always Nick's immensely classy noodlings at the end of every review. Awesome stuff.
if you think about it, here's a guy that can put together a better, more in depth review on his own than any of the company reps who usually present the products. Its one thing to know your way around a synth, a whole other thing to teach it like this in a way that makes sense. Not trying to blow smoke up his ass, but he's the best reviewer i've seen
The genius of this synth is how much fun it is to play/program. You just start exploring the sound, and the controls are all right there. I find it amusing when weirdos watch a demo video and claim that it's 'boring' or whatever, but when it's in front of you, and you are tweaking the knobs, it's just so very interesting and inspiring.
+Mike 'Wingo' Rathjen well said very true
+Mike 'Wingo' Rathjen I couldn't agree more. I'm enjoying the hell out of it. It's a classic.
Looking forward for that. Man that device...
Wingo Shackleford please refrain from enjoying yourself. Using synths is a very serious hobby which requires a total lack of self expression, except that which comes through speakers connected to a synth. Eg Kraftwerk.
I can definitely hear the 12th octave... give me 5 years though, I'll be on your... *ahem*... wavelength.
no one does a better review than Mr Nick, they are perfect. no time wasted, all features explained and demonstrated, always a few trick examples that show how well he understands the beasties and what some lateral thinking can achieve, topped off with some lovely, tasteful music. fan-ferkin-tastic
cool fridge
I would hope so.
Get some sleep first 😂. Im thinking of buying it but im afraid i cant sleep 😂
"Which you may or may not find useful" Nick can be so British!
Never in all my thirty years of making music have I ever craved a synth like this one! I never shop for synths, never! But this idk, I really want it!
I appreciate this guy he almost demo all keyboards, Synths and keyboards . Please raise his salary.. some keyboards i bought os because of his depth demo..
great review as usual Nick. I was wondering if I was crazy. I couldn't find a latch anywhere, thanks for clearing that up also You can play pong when it boots by turning the VCO 1 in mixer.
Korg must have listened to this review for the monologue. They implemented sequence transpose, extra drive, and per-step parameter motion recording. If only he told them to produce better manuals.
John Doe this didnt even have a manual. how tf do i use it ima noob lol
Marc Doty's youtube videos are THE manual. His channel is called AutomaticGainsay :)
Nick, I just recently bought a Minilogue. In this video you mentioned that there is no Latch function to the Arpeggiator. I have discovered that if you hold down the ARP button for a second, the corresponding red light will start flashing. In this mode, you can create your arpeggio and release. The unit will then play your arpeggio automatically.
Will it play notes changing like d ...c,...f,,... on a.r,p. Auto
Thanks Nick, been waiting for your take on it. What an amazing synth for the price! I have been looking for my first analogue polly and price wise I thought I was in for over a bag of sand for something like the Electron Keys, but this gets me in the game for an amazing price!
excellent. re-fueled my fire and desire to buy this synth...Nick, Really incredible piece at the end, I should add. Your demo musics are always very nice, but this particular example takes the cake...incredibly beautiful patch design...!
I come for the awesome gear reviews, but I stay for the outro music.
I dig that you acknowledge +AutomaticGainsay, because he and you are my two favorite synth reviewers. Totally different experiences. I would never watch one over the other. They both require watching.
^this
+rzeka ¿
Ogere Sherk same
Agreed.
You guys should check out the markusfuller teardown video. Looks like some high quality components there for the knobs and switches, that control surface will last through a lot of abuse.
LemonSlice please refrain from abusing your synths as contamination by bodily fluids will void the warranty and could lead to electrocution.
Your videos are my go-to whenever I get serious about buying any piece of gear. Thank you so much for these intelligent, nuanced, objective in-depth reviews. They help a ton!
I watch almost every your review that directly or indirectly connected to the synth world, and I always have a big pleasure of watching it, because no one could do it better than you! Thank you for your work!
Great review! I think I've watched every damn video about this thing that exists on the Internet, and yet you managed to cover some aspects of it that every single one of them managed to miss. Good job on that, especially for addressing "Clickgate" seriously, especially setting the portamento to "0" to address envelope retriggering.
I'm more convinced to try and get this machine some time this year.
+inthefade Also, I'm shocked that the arpeggiator can only handle 4 notes at a time. That seems like a really silly oversight that should get fixed in a firmware update! I'm also very surprised that no one else has noticed that yet.
inthefade it's a 4 voices analogue polisynth...no surprise that it can handle no more than 4 voices at a time!
GreenHoleSun
Yet a monophonic synth can arpeggiate dozens of notes?
It's called note stealing.
Well...a monophonic instrument (whatever it is) can arpeggiate millions of notes...but only one at a time, otherways it's not monophonic, you know
GreenHoleSun Yes, but apparently this synthesizer cannot arpeggiate more than a four note scale.
Nice work as always, and another gorgeous closing jam! I've also been enjoying the 2pole over the 4. Seems to have a bit more character. The Minilogue has a ton of potential. I'm not holding my breath for brilliant firmware updates, but I predict that the next iteration (Minilogue 2, or whatever) will open up many more possibilities. I hope so anyway. Love mine as is, but I'm excited to see where Korg goes next.
Nick your reviews are always thoughtful and informative, as well as just fun. I was fortunate to acquire one of these the week of launch and it has been such an easy go-to synth. So immediate. So smart. Definitely makes up for the fact I never did get a DX7 back in the 80s.
I know it's a while since this review but anyone watching it needs to know that Korg addressed the Latch issue on the Arp! The Minilogue does have Latch mode! Nice one Korg! Fair Play!
Excellent breakdown of the features that hit on some of the points I was curious about (latch, retriggers). Also, nice outro performance there, want to hear more!
Fun fact: when the Minilogue is turned on and it's self tuning, if you twist some of the knobs it starts up a game of Breakout on the oscilloscope!
Full marks for sorting the envelope issue, Sonicstate, though I wasn't quite sure if it still retriggered between keys separately being triggered.
PS - surely it should be pronounced Minilowg - to rhyme with Minogue, vogue, and Moog.
Have loved Korg gear since the late 70's, unique sound character and more importantly they've always kept it new, fresh and fun.
I only wish that this new offering output in stereo especially as it has the delay feature.
So many new anaolgue synths are mono output only yet incorporate built in fx so the lack of stereo output seems a bit of a missed opportunity, especially for poly synths.
I know they're working to a price point but I'd glady pay a little extra for some stereo spread
Kez Stone true, but it's harder in a mix with big pads with lots of delay.
just get a stereo widening plugin and turn it all the way up.
Dig the tune at the end. After owning one for some time I've realized it sounds nothing like anything else I own. Despite its flaws I'm more then happy with it.
Nick should make a compilation of all his outro's
I get butterflies just looking at this thing, I saw one at the music store and it really was a blast to play
I found one at a pawnshop for 220$ and bought it on site…possibly the best synth gear deal I’ve made other than the time I found a Realistic MOOG at another pawnshop for 250$ about 20 years ago.
This synth sounds pretty good for its price. I was looking for a good dedicated analog bass synth though and decided to buy a Novation Bass Station 2 this week. Maybe when the Minilogue is actually in-stock and a firmware update or two has been released (crossing my fingers for arp latch & sequence transpose) then I'll definitely get one. It sounds great though. As always, excellent outro and review Nick.
+John Doe (enjoi2point0) how do you like the novation bass station? I'm looking to buy a good analog bass synth as well
+giggs102 I've had it less than a week but it's pretty damn good. It's hard to find many faults with it and I enjoy all the features. I didn't realize how awesome saving presets would be until I experienced it because the BS2 can be subtle or completely wild. It's nice and buzzy and has loads of modulation and filter options. The arp is actually fun to play. Aftertouch is loads of fun. I wish the Distortion effect added a bit more high gain crunch to it but it does "thicken" the sound. The Osc Filter Mod knob can add quite a bit to the sound as well especially with some overdrive and resonance.
I've been searching for a dedicated analog bass synth for over a year now and with the Bass Station 2 I think my journey is over...for now. Sure a Sub phatty might sound "better" but I've never heard a Sub Phatty make these type of sounds. For the price, it does its job well and if you're looking for analog bass it's a very good option. You might check Reverb or ebay for some good deals.
The Best, Most in depth review of the Minilogue that I've seen. Can't wait to check out all the features..... Once mine ACTUALLY Arrives.
Thanks Nick! As others have said, been waiting for your take. Really seems like no reason not to if your after these sounds (it could save my ill and aging 106 from the rigours of live use). GREAT tip about setting Porto to 0 too! Thanks!
Hi Nick. Great review as always!
I'm a bit confused about the dual midi ports. And since google doesn't provide any answers (nor does the manual) I just have to ask here... Does this mean the Minilogue also acts as a midi interface?
That's great that it has both ways of triggering the envelopes in mono, I love to be able to choose.
Great review!
Thank you very much for addressing my questions on the previous video (I believe all were answered).
Cheers.
Nick, the song you play in the outro is f-ing great -- must have come back to the listen to at 10 times
Awesome review! I just bought this synthesizer after trying out a bunch and not wanting to spend 3-10x on a Moog right now.
good review, thanks! The Minilogue offers really a lot for that price, sounds very good. The two things I had wished for are separate LFO routing for each oscillator (for instance: modulation of wave shape of one osc, while the other remains static) and the option to overdrive the filter
Even as a newbie i am starting to understand the complexity of Synthesis. Thanks Nick. Great vid again. Just got mine last week. Wicked sounds!
What a fabulous synth. My first synth was a 700s so I have a soft spot for korg. A terrific outfit.
Hello Nick. As always, incredibly detailed review by Sonicstate. It has surprised me however, as a 4-voice poly synth, just has a mono output... Thats very surprising to me, besides the headphone output doesn't give me so much confidence. This kind of "sloppy" things, unfortunately, are very usual in the KORG's low-cost lately products (Volca KEYS / BEATS / SAMPLE). I find it quite annoying that they won't give a dedicated stereo-output as it should be, in this case especially. Anyway, thank you for the great review!
There is no reason to put stereo out on a synth that doesn't have any kind of stereo panning or sound. It's all in mono. If you want stereo, just run the ML through a stereo chorus/reverb or other effect.
wrong, it could pan the separate voices for a much richer/wider sound.
You're not understanding. The ML doesn't have any stereo panning, or any stereo effects, so there is no point in having a stereo out. If it did have panning and/or stereo effects, then a standard stereo out would be useful and needed. The audio is strictly mono in the ML, so it only needs the mono out. The reason the headphone out is stereo is so that the mono sound is in each ear.
pros use mono only
+lownrgy yeah, surely not in 2016 ;)
Some synths do have a clicking attack on purpose, its called a percussive attack and if also found on some organs and even string machines. The Waldorf STVC even sets its synth section into a the range of percussive attack.
this thing looks and sounds techno. I want one
FWIW, they are "slim keys" (aka 80% the width of normal keys). Mini-keys are something different like on the mininova, microkorg, microbrute, etc.
+Matt Greer , unfortunately, I saw yesterday that Arturia was referring to its new KeyStep as having "slim keys", and as far as I can see they're no different than those on the MiniLab, which they market as "minikeys" (or the mininova, microkorg, etc.). Once again, Marketing departments ruin it for everyone ;) But the keys on the Minilogue are really so much more playable than the standard "mini keys"
Got my Minilogue OG as my first synth because I liked its all analog without any ADC DAC conversions, has oscilloscope to see the sound, isn't too muffled or fuzzy (like synths from Sequential...) and looks pretty cool and is quite small. Also I didn't see anyone complaining about keybed. Clicking is imho feature and not flaw of this synth. Some manufacturers (eg. from what I saw Sequential...) do not allow real zero attack/decay, probably to avoid rants from uneducated users and or those who are used to such non-zero attack/decay designs. My complaints would be too severe volume drop with resonance - something which I fixed with bunch of resistors and imho makes this synth sound better. Also I was disappointed with line input implementation which is only useful with mono mode and to add some static sound to voices eg. external source of noise. That said it was my ignorance regarding how the synth actually worked - it would need to have single filter to work like I imagined it would... for mono mode however its pretty useful and any kind of external synth can be added with its own set of oscillators and all coming through Minilogue's filter and shaped by its envelope. I have yet to utilize this feature but I think it will come in handy. Anyways, second hand Minilogues can be quite cheap and synth has pretty good build quality so its not an issue to get second hand Minilogue and in this case bang for the buck is insane.
latch added in recent firmware.
What version do you have?
for as long as korg has been doing motion sequencing, i'm really surprised they haven't expanded upon that to include a parameter lock type function to motion sequencing. not the end of the world it's still fun cheap gear but it would be pretty useful
I bought one of these for my 8-year-old daughter and it seems perfect as an introduction to analog synthesis, with its classic, pure and intuitive knobby control panel. I didn't want her to have the frustration of monophony but I also didn't want to go bankrupt for one item, and this is the answer.
I've done alot of looking around, searching the internet and suggestions from synth maniacs and there really isnt much of a competition when it comes to the minilogue.
17:48 reminded me of some of Oneohtrix Point Never's earlier works with the Juno-60
in my opinion if Korg made a 8 voices polyphony minilougue with 4 standard octaves and some other minor improvements (a bigger screen?) for under 1000$ (a midilougue?) they would completely kill the market.
I am sure it would be perfectly possible, I wonder why they don't do it...
They have! It's called the Behringer DeepMind 12 and has 12 voices! ;-)
propoetide I know, but I am not completely convinced about the Deepmind...The minilougue sounds better in my opinion: the pads have something magic and ethereal, in other words it has his own unique voice. The deepmind is interesting but it sounds a bit too plastic to me...maybe it's only the first impression or maybe the presets are not well programmed, I don't know.
GreenHoleSun The Minilogue VCO's sure sound great, and I'm not blown away by the DM12's DCO's and filter myself, at least in the demos. Overall it sounds quite polite to me, in a sort of Roland-y way (minus a great chorus). Still, it does sound good and having 12 voices with plenty of front-panel control and a ton of modulation options for a thousand bucks is just amazing, and I expect it to sell like hot-cakes. If it does, the chances of an 8-voice Minilogue with full sized keys near the same price point would grow and other brands shouldn't be too far behind. Great days! :-)
Now they have and it is called korg prologue 😂
Except the 16 voice is prologue $1,999 USD
"What's it like for bass sounds? It's bassicaly" love it xD
The XD is a different Korg synth ;)
I love the flaws of synths coz they add to personality. And they create new styles of music and song writing. One of Smashing Pumpkins best songs Mayonnaise was written because they had cheap guitars that gave feedback so they wrote the feedback note into the song. And it's part of why its good.
@calabiyou
For those looking for the song on their streaming service, e.g. Spotify, note that SP intentionally misspelled it as 'Mayonaise'. The correct spelling, 'Mayonnaise', will not find it.
You can guess how I know this . . .
Let's not forget the breakout mini-game you can play by moving the pitch slider or a knob while it's tuning. I've never won in time in my 4 years of owning it, lol.
Hello, great review, I always look specifically for yours when new gear comes out.
Do you know if the filter is analog? I thought I might have heard stepping when you cranked up the resonance. Also I noticed you didn't pump the resonance past half way! Would be cool to hear it at its full extent. Thanks in advance.
Great work Nick! I have a Sub 37 and an old Yamaha Cp-35 that is great but too cumbersome to take anywhere, any suggestions on a poly synth to fill the Cp-35 spot. I almost exclusively play it with the two oscillators detuned and the 5th harmonic on for that OB-6 warp records ninja tune lushness. I keep looking at the Minilogue for its simplicity and ability to play chords. Advice? Thanks mate!
concerning sequencer, i would add that the play state should be saved with the patch: right now if you push play and then change the patch, it will continue to play while i don't want necessarily it to play the a sequence with the new patch. Great video, thanx.
Lovely performance at the end. I'd love to hear much more of his playing, especially with simple set ups like this. It would be amazing if Mr. Batt would do a series of little performances like this (nothing crazy, just something short and cool) and then after have a brief chat that breaks down how and why he hooked up his setup the way he did. Maybe a bit on settings. Real casual. It would be an amazing creative and educational resource, especially since affordability has brought in new blood from the synth world for which a lot of the tech and industry talk is neat but maybe not nearly as helpful or as apparently connected to creation, which is really brought many of us to synths.
Another great review! Will you look at the DSI OB-6?
My point was, that alot synths have the noise anyway. You wouldnt need to record any noise additionally(imo.). It would benefit you not having to use any further noise reduction. I just think in this day in age it could be a standard feature. Ok it wont be by far the main selling point but would be nice to see these little details taken care of aswell.
Excellent tune at the end :-)
Did you play for longer and do you have a record of that improv?
I love your reviews I am totally new to synths. I have a question, since I can only afford one would this Korg be the one to get or would the novation bass station 2 be the better bet? They are close to the same price. I am wanting to use them for EDM style music. Which one is more versatile? I also want to use it for bass lines and classic piano sounds too. Thank you!
basslines, I would say Bass Sation 2, though you wont get piano sounds out of either of them as they are both analog synthesizers, no samples. The Minilogue is polyphionic thiough which means you can play chords of up to 4 notes. But its more bass your after, as I say I think the BS2 is the one
sonicstate I also am going to be using Ableton live with my PC thought I would add that too. Thank you for the fast reply! I am looking for like a nine inch nails sound. I am actually a bass player but am living EDM stuff. Love your videos man so informative!
Excellent Nick, if you don't mind, how exactly did you create that dark dreamy sound in the end, were you triggering the sub 37 for the top end klang? I wouldn't mind making a donation for more of that piece please.
+Joe Agrelo I dont recall fully, but mono mode, using the mode envelope to affect the rate of the LFO which in turn was shaping the wave of the oscillators
Love the ending!
The best reviews. Hands down!
16:40 So that's how they did the weird wobbly sound in _Vex'd - Angels._ Nice!
It almost depresses me that I still want the Odyssey over this. Alas, KORG has done enough for me, and I shall diversify!
My God there is so much EG! I only have 2 eg knobs on my workstation this synth has 8! 🤤
Excellent review. Been enjoying mine for a month now, and there's just not much to fault. Personally i don't subscribe to the pervading idea that a low price gives it exempt status from critique, but even with some faults, it is indeed a no-brainer for the price. And the clicking issue has been blown out of proportion imho.
There are however a few shortcomings in the firmware that's potentially cause for minor concern, as in this day and age you can't be sure they bother to address it. And there's a few controls/features that should've made it to the front panel.
Haven't tested it myself yet, but there's also some chatter about the filter resonance going haywire when sending external signals through the input, would've loved to hear your take on that.
Hey Nick. Thanks for the video. How do the knobs / pots feel? First video I've seen where they actually looked loose. Did they feel loose / very free? I.e. easy to nudge out of the current setting. Also, more of a cosmetic thing, at least the filter knob looked a little uncentered. Is that so - or a trick of the light in the video so to speak?
+MusicInclusive Mine are perfectly rigid and feel very strong/positive to the touch, with just the right amount of resistance. For my fingers they are a tad too close together though, and will occationally get knocked when tweaking adjacent knobs, at which point they can lose the setting by a little.
I'd recommend setting the knobs to the scaling setting, so you don't risk big jumps across presets if/when that happens.
+Marc the Darc Thanks Marc.
Interesting voice modes. Is that "delay" mode that imitates a delay with retriggered envelopes actually sending MIDI notes in the same fashion??? That would be useful.
well done nick, i admire your ability to do very musical demos.
Very nice synth from Korg, very informative reveiew my only gripe would be as with other modern synth is to why they install balanced outputs as a option as well as the standard
+Adamski Ajull That is an oddly specific request, but it makes sense to have, I guess. Are there any examples of synths that have balanced TRS?
+inthefade No many other synths dont have them but it would benefit to give you a less noisy output which is very inherit with analogue and even some dsp synths. Thou sometimes the noise adds to the charcater of the sound if thats what you want.
Adamski Ajull
I'm fully aware of the purpose of balanced outputs.
But if you want line noise on your synth, just record a noise source as a separate track ;)
Great review! Question: I want to use this as a master and my RC-505 loop station as a slave. Will this work as a master? Do you think I will get any drift?
aaah that Klang top line sound from sub 37, just love it.
Great overview Nick. Going to get one of these this year sometime!
no sustain pedal socket ...drat..however good to see korg return to using midi DIN sockets on their keyboards and not some weird adapter.
Nic i would like to ask you something. I have the Minilogue and the only thing i am not completely in love with is the filter. Especially on pads. Do you think with an external filter it would "creamytize" it a bit? Something of the likes of Vermona Filter Lancet, Dreadbox Epsilon, Moogerfooger Mf 101. ? Am asking cause i don`t know it the Envelope followers on these filters won`t interfere with the pads of the Minilogue? Or do you think they will play together nicely? I love the Moogerfooger filter but don`t see Attack-Release settings for the Env follower ....? Would greatly appreciate any opinion of yours
It doesn't sound or look too good for its price, especially given Korg's manufacturing quality reputation. But Nick! You've already covered the scope quite extensively :) That wood probably came from Fukushima forests. Clicks are quite popular these days, just listen to Alva Noto, so not a problem at all.
Thanks for the review! :) Always high quality. The Minilogue looks fun. ^^
Is there anything you can't do sir? Your video's have got me back into thinking about music production using hardware after a long break. I'm quite used to software synths but always dreamed of having my own h/w especially ever since I used a real Juno 106 at college.
The video is extremely descriptive and makes we want to order one right away however I'm not sure what to go for as I'm interested in the Gaia SH01, JD-Xi, MS-20 Mini, Minilogue and UltraNova to name just a few. Is there anything that would be like an 'All-in-One' Trance style kit that is out there or something that would be best in this area? Any suggestions welcome, thanks.
low3freq Pretty much every synth is for a different use. There is no all in one package sadly, apart from a pc with vst's. You want analog, digital, polyphonic, mono, multitimbral ? All synths you mentioned are suitable for trance. Since I also like trance, I may suggest the novation synths, I have a mininova and a circuit and I am very happy with both, but I would be interested in Minilogue, monologue, Blofeld and possibly the Jd xi as a general "workhorse"
I'm still waiting on my order that I placed in January!
Same here. It's Painful isn't it.
+Landon Balk we can make it through this winter Landon, don't worry
KORG stands for ultra quality product...always...and for decades now.
Got one & I love it, i just like to use another keyboard via MIDI to play it. Not digging the small keys. Hope Korg makes a full sized analog synth soon!
At last! Thanks for your good reviews. :)
Great review, awesome synth, got mine a couple of days ago! So happy!
Amazing synth. We have been so spoiled with synths this year.
Fantastic sound coming from this lil beauty. I ♥ it ~!!
Thanks so much for the review. Now I just need to find it and buy it.
"Hello and welcome to..." my dopamine levels increase
Nick, love that end tune. plz make a record with all these small tunes, put it up on soundcloud. :-)
yes sounds great
nice moody lighting at the end! great review as always, thanks!
So it's a mono output synth only, but it has a stereo headphone out? Great review btw, I'll be saving up for my first analog synth then. If they implement some of your ideas into fw updates this could become a such a beast.
BitwigCraft prophet-5 had a mono out.
Thanks for a great review! What's the price for kidneys these days? I need this synth.
Can't wait for the Monologue review. There are some on ebay for £260 and that's just bonkers!
don't forget to play the little game using the pitch stick while it warms up!
Sweet workaround for the key triggering Nick!
Korg ought to be congratulated for producing this instrument at the given price. Roland take note. I am a big fan of korg. However, having watched hours of videos, I feel this synth lacks depth & character. Yes it is good, but not so special in my view. Moog's Mother 32 for example has more character. My DSI Pro 2 ( different price point ) has more character and depth. I wanted to love this and buy one, but it doesn't hit the spot for me. It just sounds so flat. The AL-1 engine on my Kronos is capable of more. Very informative input from Nick as always and I love the compositions at the end of these videos. Thank you.
This synth has tons of character and can also do sounds usually only achievable digitally. This demo isn't that great.most are shit actually. The only videos I've seen that are remotely useful for showing this synth off are by automatic gainsy.