I have been looking through the forums for a specific thread comparing these two, and here I am creating it.
I had a Monologue for a while and I absolutely loved it, and I had to part with it to invest in an Analog Four.
I am still learning what I can do with the A4, but I really miss the hands on and inmediate sound you can get with the Monologue.
Now that I consider buying it again, I am wondering if I shouldn’t go for the Minilogue instead, with the idea that you can potentially get out the same sound from the Mini as you have in the Mono, with polyphony added.
Monologue has a more potent sequencer, Minilogue has more modulation options. Have you tried a side by side comparison of the sounds that are most relevant for you?
Not direct comparison no, I have to admit that I was going straight for the dirty patches on the Mono while I was drawn to beautiful chord pads on the Minilogue. I’ll do an A/B test this week end
Both are very interesting for their price.
Tried none of them, but I’d like to test them.
I would probably go for the minilogue since it’s such a cheap polysynth
Mono is quite a bit more ballsy than the mini but that’s to be expected of a mono vs poly synth. I think the mono can run on batteries too if that matters to you. I only owned the minilogue but I’ve played the mono a little bit and it’s way more aggressive imo. They’re both great synths for the price range, get both!
I have the Minilogue so I will tell you about that.
It is a beautiful synth to play with. I made some really nice slow pads and leads on it. Has pretty cool parameters too. But it’s not without issues. There is infamous envelope ‘clicking’ problem that you should look up before getting it. Not to say that I regret it, it just make some of the piano like patches hard to make.
I have no need for the minilogue or prologue, but use the monologue every day. I enjoy Korg’s approach to features, user interface and subtle deviation from the norm in their designs while still making straightforward ‘traditional’ synths. If you enjoy the sound qualities and creating sounds over having many options to create sounds with, both these synths are great.
These synth models (and many recent korg products) are designed to force a user to be very creative with limitations or experimental with the design choices, such as the lfo ‘fast’ setting. You can do a lifetime of sounds for your music with it, but we don’t want the work, we want shortcuts. It seems rare to find new product designs that survive that trend and become “classic” instruments used in more than one generation’s music. I praise the design choices in the monologue and analog synthesis supported by modern technology, the oled oscilloscope is brilliant. But however you look at it, it is still a small two oscillator synth with plastic keys that goes bzzzz whawhawhawha bzzzzzz bzzzz!
Maybe all these Product X vs Product Z questions are a sign we need something completely new in synth design. Where’s the AR crosslink virtual moddeling speech synthesizer, so I can talk to my cat in space.
Ooh and buy the monologue, if you don’t like it, give it to a a-musical friend, blow their mind.
If it was announced earlier i would have chosen the se02 Roland over the monologue, but i quite love my mono,i don’t like the Sound of the mini, it lacks some personality the A4 have plenty.
From what I know they sound pretty damn different and you already have a poly (A4). The Mono is way more aggressive b/c of the filter and other options (it has some kind of overdrive or distortion yes?)
I like the Monologue because of its sequencer and the one-knob-per function. I don’t like that it is so aggressive-sounding. But I still own it regardless (for now at least).
Every time I go to the music store, I play the Minilogue. I love the sound of it. I also like the voice depth modes and that it has an arp and delay. Of course it’s polyphonic too. It just feels more musical to me than the Monologue, unless I want to go off into glitch/dark/IDM-ish mode, then the Monologue is great for that.
But that Minilogue motion sequencer is a turn-off in comparison. From what I can tell, you can’t manipulate the motion sequencing in real time like you can with the Monologue. So you can’t turn on/off the motion sequencer steps individually or p-lock the steps. Also you can’t transpose the sequencer in the Minilogue like you can with the Monologue via the key trigger mode.
Honestly, I get sounds/rhythms out of the Monologue that I haven’t gotten out of other synths. I just have to decide if I like those sounds enough for the table space it takes up. I’m not sure I do anymore. It is a lot of synth for the money though.
Minilogue sounds quite different. Quite “thin” compared to the monologue. Good for lush pads, etc. And the filter is not as dirty as the monologue filter. I have both. And like the Monologue a lot more!
I use the minilogue alongside the elektron gear and They compliment each other quite well. Very easy and straightforward way of creating sounds and short sequences, and of course the fact that it’s a poly allows you to get those pads quite fast.
The only thing is that it’s going out of tune quite a often… good thing it has a tuning function (shift+rec)
