What about if you keep the minilogue in mono/duo mode and view it as such and ignore the poly part then put it up against other mono/duo synths out there?

I view the poly part as a bonus. What other new mono synth compares or beats it (ignoring the filter limitation)

It’s a confusing these arguments re 4 voices only. Want a mono get the monologue, want a step up get the minilogue, want full poly get the 8 voice prologue, want to go to max get the 16 voice prologue no?

neglects different sound quality

Mmm, aren't these mono (1) only? Unless they have some paraphonic mode I'm not aware of.

The only 3 voice-ish synth I can think of is the MatrixBrute.

Lol. You cant be serious. The bow does not make the archer my friend. And false savings to you is another man’s Stradivari. Dont over slut this.

I happen to think the Minilogue (OG) is an excellent synth - and I bought it fully aware of what it was and not because I’m “cheap” or don’t know the “concept of false savings”.

Perhaps you could consider widening that point of view of yours. We’re not all elitists.

As for the comment about the Japanese... Seriously?

And yet, no archer can exceed the capabilities of his bow. As such, logic dictates that a bad bow is indeed the most unmitigatable limiting factor.

This kind of thinking generally indicates that one has no genuine idea what a Stradivarius is, having never encountered one personally.

There is no value in arguing for artificial limitations as a kind of "virtue". I find elitism disturbing and unnecessary, but it's generally* an overreach in pursuit of excellence. The antipode is far too often* simply an attempt to justify mediocrity.

I don't see the point in bashing the choices of others, even if those choices are limited by finances. At the same time, let's not pretend that something is what it is not ... there are exceptions, but you generally* get what you pay for.



*(Please note the use of "generally" and "far too often". Those words mean something, and replies of "... but not everyone can ..." can be evidence of either not paying attention, or really poor reading comprehension)

Do you only drive Ferraris? Why would you buy any other car when you have to deal with the artificial limitations of horsepower/quality/prestige?

Of course everybody is completely free to buy and use whatever they want, and I'm far from critisizing the buying decisions of others. Just use what you want and have as much fun as possible!

I just question how some companies make design decisions from an everyday use perspective. And from that perspective, even a 5 voice synth would be a MUCH better choice than a 4-voice, and that without having to become too expensive. Same for the crippled EG. These design decisions set completely unnecessary everyday use limits to an otherways fine little synth, and make ZERO sense to me, not saving enough money to justify them.

And yes, that's why I'm generally critical about the recent Japanese Bonsai synth culture: a lot of "one day flies", giving you the feeling to snap a bargain, but in fact supplying you with "halfbaked" and "quarterbaked" in many variations of the meaning, producing a lot of short lived plastic garbage for our planet, while these devices are constantly replaced by ever new toy variations. When Moog built the Prodigy many years ago, they produced a budget synth with some compromises, but fully useable for gigging and recording, and with a great sound, and a synth still sought after decades later. I don't know of a single device from the present bonsai synth generation, built comparibly smart, at which I think people will look back remotely in that way after decades.

I am sure they said the same thing about the SH-101.

That's an argument from accident (or serendipity). The SH-101 was a sales failure. So were the TR-808, TR-909, TR-606 & TB-303. They all became popular long after they had ceased production.

If your argument is that you can predict this ... I'm not sure we're talking about the same thing. (FWIW, I did predict the TR-808 would become popular, and why, and bought a bunch of them on closeout ... made a bunch of money for my music store)

I really like Minilogue XD, BTW. It "had me at hello" when I played it at NAMM, in a way that neither the earlier Minilogue nor the Prologue did. I really wish they'd redo the Prologue filter and make it the same as the XD, and expand the Prologue FX section to equal that of the XD ... Prologue XD anyone?

But 4-voice things drive me batty. I just can't deal with that limitation. It's one of a few gaping flaws on the JD-XA ... which would be near perfect but for the lack of 1 or 2 additional analog voices and a couple of other quibbles.

microKORG. Spongy minikeys. 4 voices. I wouldn't say it sounds great. ~17 years on the market. Used in tons of gigs and recordings. Among the best selling synths of all time. Imitated by others.

minilogue will follow suit. Fact is your everyday use ins't everyone's.

While most of the musicians I'm into are more likely to use cheap-ish vintage stuff, I know there are some guys like Tycho and a few others who seem to be using the OG Minilogue pretty extensively. I honestly don't know if I've ever heard, say, a modern DSI instrument on anything, as great as I think his synths are.

I know I'm a little late on this, but 3-voice synthesizer = Volca FM.

just... no.

YouTube

This is more like it!

I can relate to the four note limitation, but don't let that hinder you. The key to the more interesting timbres has more often than not been about layering sounds together, well certainly more so in the past when there weren't so many polyphonic boards available. What a wonderful character this little marvel has.

Jaaaaack and Luke:

We have about six different versions of Stranger Things on the OG. Where's the XD version for comparison?!?

I hope they do that. Yesterday some try on the Prologue again. There is clear hf distortion going on with higher resonance for certain cutoff frequencies, clear design flaw. It was present on Prologue 8 and Prologue 16.

Regarding design descisions: the Mikrokorg is probably the most successfull synth ever sold. 4 voice polyphony, minikeys.

Has it actually done Minimoog or DX7 numbers, or is it just a relative long-term success during the past 20 years of everyone just pirating software?

Here's what I've heard, from Big City Music in 2009:

We were talking to our Korg sales rep. the other day and he mentioned that the 100,000th Korg MicroKorg keyboard just came off the assembly line. Unofficially that makes the MicroKorg the best selling synthesizer of all time. Amazing.

This is way up there, although not DX-7 level (160 000 for the DX is what is said online). However that was a decade ago, so maybe now it's closer to DX-7.

I'm not aware of any analog synth selling in the 6 figures. The original Minimoog seems to be in 12 000 or so. It's from a very different time and place. I'm sure the Boog has already outsold that

Yamaha indicated at one time that the true tally on the original DX7 is closer to 200k units sold. The true king of the hill however, is the Korg M1 ... nearly 300k units before end of production. The DX-7 and M1 were still both strong sellers at the time they pulled the plug and were replaced by what were essentially just upgraded versions, which continued to sell well.

I have an old Microkorg XL+ here as well, with 8 voices. In sharp contrast to many typical bonsai synths of late, it is a nice little, battery powered all-purpose synth with well working vocoder, and it contains useable Rhodes, Wurly, B3, Piano and other bread&butter sounds as well as synth sounds. I must admit I have never even considered buying the original 4-voice version, but else at least this synth is not as much artificially crippled as other bonsai synths are: it has full envelopes, enough presets, a well working librarian/editor etc. I belong to those who get by with mini keys without much trouble, if there's a good reason to use them.

Still, I generally simply don't bother to play anything 4-voice, whenever I want tu use a polyphonic synth. I don't say others can't get by with it, within obvious limits. I just don't care to bother about this kind of (from my view) completely pointless kind of limitation, and leave it to others how they want to deal with it. Anyways the XD still sounds really fine, and whoever doesn't care about the 4-voice limitation and about the crippled envelope, can still have a lot of fun with it.

I think the XD is pretty great. I’ve had it for a week now. Everyone has a dif reason for grabbing a particular synth... On my end, trying to grab a newer live synth that’s easier to drag around to gigs. I’ve got a fair amount of **** to drag to shows and synths are just a part of it. I’m hoping to replace my Nord Lead 4... which I love... but it’s larger and more to carry. the voice count difference and multi-timbral functions of the Lead make them massively different synths of course but I’ve found the XD to be fantastically flexible for sound design and the multi-engine a huge boon.more voices would always be nice but so far i’ve been able to hit most bases. def miss a mod envelope. seems like there are some weirdly arbitrary limitations in places (joystick assignments, envelope behaviors) but if weird arbitrary design choices don’t define korg, i don’t know what does.

I think the XD is pretty great. I’ve had it for a week now. Everyone has a dif reason for grabbing a particular synth... On my end, trying to grab a newer live synth that’s easier to drag around to gigs. I’ve got a fair amount of **** to drag to shows and synths are just a part of it. I’m hoping to replace my Nord Lead 4... which I love... but it’s larger and more to carry. the voice count difference and multi-timbral functions of the Lead make them massively different synths of course but I’ve found the XD to be fantastically flexible for sound design and the multi-engine a huge boon.more voices would always be nice but so far i’ve been able to hit most bases. def miss a mod envelope. seems like there are some weirdly arbitrary limitations in places (joystick assignments, envelope behaviors) but if weird arbitrary design choices don’t define korg, i don’t know what does.

Newbie here: Will this Little bad boy lose value over time? I’m interested in buying synths that if I don’t like I can sell and trade in for other gear.

most do. just how it is. there will be a number of these around so i’d imagine used prices will be competitively low.

There's no way to know (without a working crystal ball or it's an OP1) which devices will become sought-after classics.

You can pretty much assume your keyboard will lose value the minute you drive it off the lot.

why not buy a pair of XD's then?

is there ANY mass-produced cheap gear which doesn't lose value over time?
Just wait a couple of years and buy used, when used prices will have settled and you can buy it cheap and resell it for more or less the same money.

I just did the same with the original Minilogue. With the release of the XD, prices of the original have plummeted and availability skyrocketed, so I got one dirt cheap and will enjoy it for a good while, until I can find an XD for 300 bucks.