In his latest teardown video, Markus Fuller takes a look inside the new Korg Minilogue analog polyphonic synthesizer.
The Korg Minilogue Polyphonic Analogue Synthesizer is a $500, fully-programmable four-voice polyphonic analog synthesizer, complete with a 16-step polyphonic note and motion sequencer, arpeggiator, and delay.
For more info on the the new synth, see our Korg Minilogue review or the Korg site.
No Markus! Not the Minilogue! NOOOOOOoooooooo!
Thanks for doing that! Very good to see such quality on a very affordable instrument.
Magnetic Fields… 😀
I wasn’t expect that. I was expecting this… https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/00/The_Magnetic_Fields_-_69_Love_Songs.jpg
Nice pots on this.
The bender stick with the mechanical ‘rattle’ caused by that spring wire hoop would irritate me, because there is some loose play at the centre position.
I’m hoping Korg had scaled that controller so it would zero at center even with that little extra play there.
At least we know there is a work-around if someone was as brave as to tear-down and put that heat shrink on there. I think I’d need to REALLY be bothered by it to go through that. Perhaps Korg will address it down the road.
It was interesting to see the 4 different circuit sections for each voice– and to see the 6 different microprocessors for the different sections. Also interesting the notes about some caps that were “missing” as some late-in-the-process changes might have been made.
It was reassuring to see the “wear items” be made of sturdy components.
I think this is the first of MF’s tear-down vids I’ve seen. What a valuable resource!!!
Does anyone heard about that “popping” EG’s issue? On long attacks the Minilogue produces a popping sound. Very unneeded for pads. 🙁
I’ve watched two of those videos. It was interesting, but he left out some details about where the settings were for each of the amplitude and cutoff envelopes. Here are a couple theories:
1. Perhaps what we were hearing was indeed a slow envelope on the filter cutoff, but a fast (zero) attack/release on the amp env. The filter cutoff could not go low enough to eliminate the slight DC impulse that came from the oscillator starting/stopping on a partial (non-zero-cross) phase cycle. This might indicate that the minilogue as true zero attack & release times.
2. It is possible we might be hearing some DC that is introduced somewhere else in the circuit– thus it is not an “envelope clicking” issue, but rather some other note-on/off noise. This seems less likely since it would affect all sounds and not just some. I’m guessing it would have been caught in beta test.
I’ve been playing/programming it for a couple of weeks – pads, leads, basses, just about everything. Haven’t noticed the ‘issue’ at all. Seems like a very specific set of envelope settings that some have discovered, but I have not actively tried to re-create it. But in the course of making patches I have not encountered anything.
This dude knows his electronics!
I enjoy the videos, but really the guy just rattles off part numbers, not obvious details regarding the synth voice or digital control etc.
But aren’t obvious details already…..obvious?
This Guy may just have sold me to the Minilogue, hmmm…
Nice to see that he makes those videos! Otherwise I’d have to open up everything myself just for curiosity!
Cannot bear synth splatter, I’m too weak 🙁
Did he just void the warranty?
Maybe while he has it apart he can replace some components and make it sound better. This has to be one of the most bland sounding analogs ever made.
What does “bland” mean? Do you think you could use more specific terms? Something that could actually be observed by another person?
I.e., do you think the oscillators don’t have enough high end? Are you wishing you could plug it into a distortion pedal, add bit crushing? Are you wishing there was more effects? Seems pretty obvious that effects will have to come from outboard units.
I think there are plenty of legitimate criticisms folks can make about the sound (even without getting their hands on one to edit it). Perhaps the envelopes don’t have a very good range of super-fast or super-slow attacks– that’s one pretty legit complaint I’ve seen. Maybe the resonant filters don’t drive enough for you?
I wonder if a much larger display could be substituted…
thank you Markus this is awsome as always.
in a couple of years when one voice goes down i just wonder how its going to be fixed with all that surface mount components and custom chips. I doubt it could be fixed at all. A tickle of concern in the back of my mind.