Three New Effects For Korg Multi-Engine Synthesizers

Sinevibes has announced three new effects for Korg Multi-Engine synths, including the Prologue, Minilogue XD and the NTS-1.

Blend is a multi-voice chorus. It’s comprised of three fully independent chorus layers, each modulated by its own parabolically-shaped oscillator. Due to relative modulation phase offsets between the three oscillators, this algorithm can create lush unison and ensemble effects. It’s also capable of producing highly dissonant sounds.

Dispersion is a ‘bouncing ball’ delay. It runs up to 10 delay taps sequentially, with their times spread according to a non-linear formula. This produces a series of sound repetitions much like bounces of a ball that has been dropped onto a surface.

Each round of bounces is calculated to fit within a particular tempo fraction, making this a rhythmically precise and musically rich effect. The algorithm comes in two versions: with natural time spread (+), as well as inverted spread (-).

Finally, Finite is a granular pitch shifter. It uses real-time buffer recording and dual variable playback heads to speed the incoming audio up or slow it down, changing its pitch.

The algorithm features high-quality spline interpolation for smooth pitch adjustment within the range of two octaves. Its built-in feedback line also applies the pitch shift recursively – letting you create ethereal, spacey sounds.

Pricing and Availability

The effects are available now for $19 each from the Sinevibes site.

24 thoughts on “Three New Effects For Korg Multi-Engine Synthesizers”

    1. Hi Harry! We guarantee you that the price you pay for our plugins reflects the innovations and thorough testing we put into them – as well as care and support we provide for our users. Many of our plugins actually include 2 or 3 plugin versions, and each product is guaranteed to give maximum possible performance and stability on each compatible device. If you have any doubts, we will be happy to answer any of your questions – here, or via our website’s contact form. Cheers!

  2. I really love the potential for innovation KORG have created here – really opening up the scene for small developers to be original.

    That said, the API is incredibly limiting, particularly for FX where you can only have 1 or 2 parameters and modulation is difficult, even for the synth parameters.

    Hopefully KORG will build a Prologue v2 with a better API for developers, better parameter definitions, modulations, possibly even allowing for custom filters etc.

    1. +1 for the Prologue v2

      This a fantastic start for the platform that can do with some more exploration.

      For now, it would already be a huge step up to have some menu-accessed parameters for the FX, just like the multi-engine OSC has.

  3. As an NTS-1 user, the problem for me is their pricing.
    One FX costs 20% of the price of the hardware. Think about you want to buy a soundbank for 1500$ Synthesizer of yours and should pay 300$ for it…..
    I will rather donate to hammondeggsmusic.ca for his great works.

    1. Hi! We understand you completely, however, we’d argue that it’s not that our plugins are expensive – but that the NTS-1 is too cheap 🙂 We have a quite surprisingly large amount of NTS-1 customers actually, so we’d argue that our plugins are worth it – at least to them. We try to create the highest end DSP possible for this platform, we also ship great supplementary materials and offer quick support. We’ve also been a sustainable business since 2006, and we think we’ll be in business in 2046 as well, and our customers will be able to re-download their oldest purchases even from many decades ago… Cheers!

  4. Anyone know why Korg stopped making the NTS-1? Was it strictly a boutique item? I haven’t seen it in stock anywhere I can find in the past year (Sweetwater, Detroit, PCA etc) and Amazon only lists a few sellers with a 50% markup.

    1. No they are still making them, it’s that they can’t build them quickly enough, I know that in many countries it really does sell out once in a while. Perhaps more and more people are realizing how powerful this little thing is, especially as more interesting third-party plugins become available.

  5. My Prologue 16 has kept me busy every single day since I bought it 11 months ago. Sinevibes has produced high quality effects and oscillators since day one for me. I write my own software, but I love to see what other folks are doing too, and there has been some great oscillator and effect work done.

    I support (and buy) nearly everyone’s work produced for the logue series, I want them to be around for V2 too – if there is one. But until then, V1 is a fantastic platform for DIY synth work.

    Also, consider the packages. They cost more, but you get some of the best effects for logue for bundled discounts. I bought the latest three effects, the Groove oscillator, and updates for every effect they make.

    I don’t mind spending a little money for what is probably the last synth I’ll ever need to buy!

    1. Thanks so much for your kind words, John! The prologue is a wonderful instrument indeed, and it’s shape-shifting abilities leave it zero chances of becoming boring even many years after you bought it. So happy to hear that Sinevibes plugins are making it a better experience for you!

      1. I just want to give a tip of the hat to Artemy@Sinevibes, because how often is it that people have sincere and candid discussions with developers/representatives who obviously have a personal interest in the matter? I get the sense we’re not dealing with a cog in the machine.

        I own the Prologue 16, and eventually I’ll try some Sinewaves FX. I’ve most always been the guy who just shows up and plays the piano, so it’s gonna take a while before I come looking for extra bells and whistles, but I’ll be glad to support the sort of business that cares enough to respond with real attention; I don’t see some Korg rep on here coming to the defense of the Prologue’s programming limitations…

        Also, if you’ve reached the end of the known aural universe, and the last bastion remaining is an “overpriced” expansion that costs the same price as a couple of movie tickets, maybe cash in some of your royalty checks from your hit records on the NTS-1 and upgrade your hardware…

        Any time I’m ever going to buy a piece of audio technology that people had to use their painstakingly cultivated minds to produce, I will GLADLY subsidize the cost by skipping 4 Starbucks coffees (I don’t buy coffee like that, in principle, but you get my drift…).

  6. Blend as an AU: $30
    Blend as KORG FX: $20

    Put in percentage of price of the unit that will run the FX
    NTS1: 18%
    Minilogue (Keys): 3%
    Prologue (8): 1.8%
    Prologue (16): 1.35%

    If the baseline is a $2500 macbook pro running a $50 AU plugin, that’s 2%

    Sales position on Thomann (in synth cat., total):
    NTS 1: #25, #2615
    Minilogue (Keys): #3, #399
    Minilogue (Module): #23, #3915
    Prologue (8): #110, #26100
    Prologue (16): #36, #3333

    So, with regards to the Prologue the pricing makes sense (if we accept this somewhat dubious comparison). Clearly most sales of this product range are in the lower/average price tier.

    I think a fair price point for these products is $5-10. I own some Sinevibes AUs which are very reasonably priced, including Blend. At the current price point, there isn’t much incentive to use the onboard version rather than the (more flexible, you can always just record the dry signal…) DAW based version.

    1. Well I appreciate your detailed analysis but allow me to explain:
      1. Our Mac plugins have actually always been underpriced. The upcoming generation will be $39 per plugin at least (but it will be more advanced, too).
      2. Each of our KORG plugins comes in three formats, and we made up a comfortable average of the pricing relative to all devices out there. We have no intention to compete with free plugins… And we provide we’re at care for our users, starting with very detailed user manuals and quick e-mail support.
      3. Our KORG plugins need way more testing – each release and update needs to be thoroughly tested on three separate devices. We guarantee great quality and we need to deliver on the promise.
      4. It’s not entirely fair to compare plugin price vs. device price. You can buy a $500 laptop and a $5000 laptop – but Ableton Live Suite will cost you the same. Of course less musicians buying $500 laptops will be getting Live Suite, but that doesn’t mean it’s overpriced.
      5. As a Sinevibes customer you must know you get 20% off any purchase. So if you own our Mac plugin you can actually get any $19 KORG plugin for around $15 😉

      1. Thanks for the response,

        I definitely appreciate that there is more testing because of the platform (though supporting a plethora of DAWs can be a PITA…). Also, you always deliver quality products through Sinevibes and through your collabs. Forgot about the discout tbh, thanks for pointing it out 🙂

        For sure that comparison with the plugin/device price is unfair but I guess the numbers needed some sort of reference.

        I also have Tube which is great even at the slightly higher price. I think the bottom line is that I have a hard time justifying any KORG FX purchase that isn’t dirt cheap when you could always apply the effects in an DAW and you only get one param with the current KORG platform. I don’t mean any disrespect, it’s more a frustration that the platform is a bit limited with regards to the FX section’s control which doesn’t inspire me to use more than what’s in the box.

        1. Thanks for your reply to my reply 🙂 And thanks for your understanding. Of course, whether you need a better-than-stock selection of effects in a synth depends on how often you use it without your DAW. If it’s “almost never” than this almost answers the question by itself. But… Many people (actually like myself) already spend quite a bit of time staring at a screen, so being able to relax your eyes – and still work with an instrument with some seriously deep effects – really is a great thing. Our KORG effects are pretty successful – in fact, more successful than our Mac plugins have ever been… so this confirms that there are lots of people that need them and not just want them. Either way we will be pushing both KORG and Mac plugins hard in the coming years. Cheers and thanks for being our customer!

          1. Yeah that’s a very good point.

            Also, I quite naively did not realise that the different logue platforms would have such varying performance/constraints. Probs for making products without a runtime debug env!

      2. Wrt #3, very true. Folks don’t realize the work developers have to do to make up for no runtime debug environment on logue synths. Not to mention difference performance envelopes for each of the three models are different.

        I write my own software for Prologue, but consider the work saved by sinevibes is a steal.

        1. You are 100% correct on emphasizing this one! Thanks, John. We have to spend a huge amount of time tuning features vs, performance on each device. NTS-1 is the trickiest because it runs everything on one chip. And we need to test dozens of possible plugin and stock algorithm combinations and make sure they don’t cause an overload.

          1. Definitely agree here too. It’s tricky to port/dev algorithms on these platforms and your products are really top notch. Fair prices imho

      3. Thanks for the time and energy you put into these great plug-ins. I have an NTS-1 and have enjoyed the plug-ins I’ve purchased. I’m thoroughly impressed. Keep up the great work!

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