The Korg Monologue is a
monophonic
Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction (often shortened to mono) is sound intended to be heard as if it were emanating from one position. This contrasts with stereophonic sound or ''stereo'', which uses two separate audio channels to reproduc ...
analog synthesizer
An analog (or analogue) synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses analog circuits and analog signals to generate sound electronically.
The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the Trautonium, were built with a variety of ...
from
Korg
, founded as Keio Electronic Laboratories, is a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments, audio processors and guitar pedals, recording equipment, and electronic tuners. Under the Vox brand name, they ...
. Engineered in collaboration with electronic music artist Richard D. James (
Aphex Twin
Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known as Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born British musician, composer and DJ. He is known for his idiosyncratic work in electronic music, electronic styles such as techno, ambient music, ambient, and jun ...
), it was released in January 2017
and has two
VCOs, 25 keys, and a sequencer.
The Monologue was designed by Korg's then Chief Engineer of Analog Synthesizers,
Tatsuya Takahashi Tatsuya Takahashi may refer to:
* Tatsuya Takahashi (saxophonist) (19312008), Japanese jazz saxophonist
* Tatsuya Takahashi (engineer) (born 1983 or 1984), Japanese music engineer
{{hndis, Takahashi, Tatsuya ...
, his last design before switching to another position within the company.
It is a trimmed-down, single-voice version of the
Korg Minilogue with various characteristics of its own,
such as the addition of microtuning,
a more aggressive sound due to an added drive knob, fuller low-end frequencies due to a Korg35 MS-20 style filter chip, and an E-E keyboard to make transposition easier for guitarists and bassists.
Development
The Korg Monologue was the last Korg synthesizer that Tatsuya Takahashi worked on directly. He later went on to be an advisor for Korg and currently holds a full-time position at
Yadastar GmbH.
According to Richard D. James (
Aphex Twin
Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known as Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born British musician, composer and DJ. He is known for his idiosyncratic work in electronic music, electronic styles such as techno, ambient music, ambient, and jun ...
), the Korg Monologue is as of 2017 the only synthesizer on the market to have full microtuning editing. In his interview of Tatsuya Takahashi for Warp Records, Takahashi commented:
"It was completely because of you that we included microtuning. If you hadn't insisted on it, I definitely wouldn't have discovered how powerful it was."
Takahashi originally felt that microtuning was a "really niche thing" that would not be needed in a mass market synth, but was soon convinced. "If you try shifting the tuning while running a sequence (in a monophonic synthesizer), you can hear that it gives it another dimension even if it's subtle. To me, it feels like casting light on a rough surface and seeing different patterns as you move the light."
To make Monologue more accessible, the keyboard was built to cover the E–E range of notes, like a guitar or bass.
Details
*Single voice - does not play chords
*25 keys, E-E range
– slim keys
*Two
VCOs
*Fully programmable
*16-step
sequencer
Sequencer may refer to:
Technology
* Drum sequencer (controller), an electromechanical system for controlling a sequence of events automatically
* DNA sequencer, a machine used to automatically produce a sequence readout from a biological DNA sam ...
*
LFO controls
*100 programs (80 Presets / 20 Users)
*Microtuning – allows creation of own tuning outside of
standard scales
*
OLED
An organic light-emitting diode (OLED or organic LED), also known as organic electroluminescent (organic EL) diode, is a light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound that emits light i ...
Oscilloscope
An oscilloscope (informally a scope) is a type of electronic test instrument that graphically displays varying electrical voltages as a two-dimensional plot of one or more signals as a function of time. The main purposes are to display repetiti ...
– for visualising sounds, filter, modulation and drive
*
Battery powered and
mains powered – no
mains power adapter supplied
*
MIDI
MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...
,
USB
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad ...
MIDI, and clock I/O and sync – no
CV/gate
CV/gate (an abbreviation of ''control voltage/gate'') is an analog method of controlling synthesizers, drum machines, and similar equipment with external sequencers. The control voltage typically controls pitch and the gate signal controls not ...
connectivity
Korg worked with Richard D. James as an artist advisor to collaborate on the instrument's presets, sounds and scales.
See also
*
Roland TB-303
The Roland TB-303 Bass Line (also known as the 303) is a bass synthesizer released by Roland Corporation in 1981. Designed to simulate bass guitars, it was a commercial failure and was discontinued in 1984. However, cheap second-hand units were ...
*
Roland SH-101
The Roland SH-101 is an analog synthesizer manufactured by the Roland Corporation between 1982 and 1986. Though it was something of a commercial failure during the time of its manufacture, it later became a staple of electronic music in the 1990 ...
References
External links
*
Korg synthesizers
Monophonic synthesizers
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