new korg monotrons

http://www.korg.com/monotrons

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2011/11/korg-monotron-duo-monotron-delay-bring-fun-back-via-monopoly-ms-circuits-and-pocket-size/

Nice.

and how's about some proper keys instead of that shitty little ribbon keypad + pen crap.

they seem to be building up to greatness with these. it starts off slow and then these devices get more and more complex, until something that everybody wants finally comes.

the new duo and delay do actually look/sound quite cool. i just don't like that ribbon thing, which is a big part of what they are, unfortunately. - "analogue ribbon synthesizers". surely it wouldn't cost toooo much more to just give them some proper (mini) keys?

i reckon they'd sell so many more! if they had keys i think i'd probably buy one, or all 3.

bring back (mini) analog synths! :)

man the monotron is so good. looks like they listened to us.

These make it easy for me to tell family members what I want for Christmas.

I want to rub my nuts all over the delay.

I like some of the stuff that's been made on these things, but until CV/GATE or midi starts coming standard I can't see myself owning one. When it does, though, it will make doing polyphonic patches on the MS-10 so much easier...

  On 11/4/2011 at 12:58 AM, Cryptowen said:

I like some of the stuff that's been made on these things, but until CV/GATE or midi starts coming standard I can't see myself owning one. When it does, though, it will make doing polyphonic patches on the MS-10 so much easier...

that's a pretty good idea. but if you think about it, you can walk around and pull it out and start making crazy sounds and freak people out. there are a lot of possibilities.

They seriously didn't add a midi input?

  On 11/4/2011 at 1:23 AM, Blanket Fort Collapse said:

They seriously didn't add a midi input?

I was going through the specs on the Korg website - they claim these have the mono-poly intensity circuit and the MS-10/20 filters... Sounds tempting, but I really need MIDI, or CV gate at least, to sweeten the pot... I'm sure there are good analogue MS-20 clones out there with MIDI.

Seriously though, not adding MIDI or cv/gate is just stupid, who cares about the cheap ass digital delay they put on it, when you can go out and buy one for 10$.

Just add the cv yourself. Korg made sure it's easy, they even printed the "cv" and "gate" soldering points on the circuit board.

^does anybody know what is the simplest working cv/gate mod? if you just run cables to the pin points you don´t get the low notes at all, and the tracking goes bad. i´d love to mod it, but i don´t want to end up with a midrange-only monotron.

  On 11/4/2011 at 5:30 AM, psn said:

Just add the cv yourself. Korg made sure it's easy, they even printed the "cv" and "gate" soldering points on the circuit board.

That is true, but if you're already making it so easy, then might as well add it no?

  On 11/4/2011 at 1:23 AM, Blanket Fort Collapse said:

They seriously didn't add a midi input?

no. so they obviously don't really take it that seriously as a 'proper' musical instrument, even themselves!

it's just a bit of a gimmicky toy item, that's a bit of fun. like somebody else said, stick it in your pocket, go out,

pull it out and make some 'crazy' funny sounds and have a laugh with friends. that's about the extent of it really.

until it has MIDI and/or some proper keys, and several other more 'pro' features aswell, i don't think i really need

to own one at all. - can understand the 'stocking filler' aspect though, and to mess about with on Xmas day... when you're drunk. :)

stage 2 in a cynical marketing strategy by Korg, by making affordable and subtly breaking down and explaining basic subtractive synthesis that will end up in shifting their incoming new wave of synths to "the kids" who previously would never have considered spending the medium to big bucks on anything other than a fancy guitar/amp combo.

[/poorly structured sentence]

  On 11/4/2011 at 5:35 PM, sirch said:

  On 11/4/2011 at 1:23 AM, Blanket Fort Collapse said:

They seriously didn't add a midi input?

 

no. so they obviously don't really take it that seriously as a 'proper' musical instrument, even themselves!

it's just a bit of a gimmicky toy item, that's a bit of fun. like somebody else said, stick it in your pocket, go out,

pull it out and make some 'crazy' funny sounds and have a laugh with friends. that's about the extent of it really.

until it has MIDI and/or some proper keys, and several other more 'pro' features aswell, i don't think i really need

to own one at all. - can understand the 'stocking filler' aspect though, and to mess about with on Xmas day... when you're drunk. :)

yes, i said this. but you also have to remember that it is analogue sound for really cheap. if you run it into your computer and put some compression/reverb on it, and get some skill on the ribbon keyboard, you can make some really rich sounds. i've used it on several tracks.

or, you could just buy a Yamaha CS-01 for £150, or a CS-5 for £250.

the CS-5 has an ext. in, a nice filter, proper keys, and loads more control, including CV/gate.

the CS-01 is quite basic, no CV/gate, mini keys, but still shits all over the monocon, and is just as easily portable.

i've owned several over the years and used them on tracks.

the monotron is less than £50 and works as a ms10/20 filter box and it's fine for generating ms like-noises, if you can be arsed to you can open it up and do the CV thing. Calling that a con is ridiculous, it's a steal.

  On 11/4/2011 at 9:00 PM, Gocab said:

the monotron is less than £50 and works as a ms10/20 filter box and it's fine for generating ms like-noises, if you can be arsed to you can open it up and do the CV thing. Calling that a con is ridiculous, it's a steal.

I bought this for it's filterbox functionality, not taking into account that it doesn't have an envelope at all. When I tried it, I thought it was pretty underwhelming because of the lack of envelope I guess.

And I'm not calling the lack of CV/gate a con necessarily, I just think it's stupid that while they're making these things, they're probably more than halfway there - by marking those spots on the circuitboard. Why not just add it in the process?

I mean it would make these things two times more useful for people who are not that skilled with a soldering iron. For if you can't do it yourself, you have to get it modded, and that usually costs twice the price of the Monotron itself, so that just sucks.

If it had CV/Gate or MIDI, I would just get two of these things, and I would have a Monotron DUO, if I wanted delay, I'd use my delay I already have.

  On 11/4/2011 at 9:00 PM, Gocab said:

the monotron is less than £50 and works as a ms10/20 filter box and it's fine for generating ms like-noises, if you can be arsed to you can open it up and do the CV thing. Calling that a con is ridiculous, it's a steal.

there's a hundred other things i'd rather spend £50 on. if i bought one it would be a steal, but it would be Korg stealing my money, not me stealing anything that great from Korg, really. but if they please you and you don't mind spending 50 quid on 1 then fine. i'd rather go out for dinner, or buy a load of shopping and/or a load of beer, or some new trainers, or get a BJ. lol

  On 11/4/2011 at 10:10 PM, Berk said:

And I'm not calling the lack of CV/gate a con necessarily, I just think it's stupid that while they're making these things, they're probably more than halfway there - by marking those spots on the circuitboard. Why not just add it in the process?

How many years/dollars have Korg spent convincing "proper" musicians (those who would use CV/Gate or MIDI) that they don't need real analogue because the boring grey boxes at the top of Korg's food chain sound just as good?

They aren't going to just let some upstart young engineer slap midi on a true analogue box and undermine all those years of bullshitting

  On 11/4/2011 at 10:10 PM, Berk said:

If it had CV/Gate or MIDI, I would just get two of these things, and I would have a Monotron DUO

No you wouldnt.

lack of envelope is ok as long as you can create an envelope with the knobs, i think its more fun that way, anyway...

the 1/8" input jack is kinda lame though, also - i'm curious how the filter really sounds.

i have two of the frost wave ms-20 filter clones & they are amazing. you can add the right amount of overdrive with the volume knob, i think this is really where the sweetness of the filter is... they also have cv but unfortunately he doesn't make them anymore.

but really i can't image wanting to patch anything into this battery powered korg unit with a 1/8" cable or using an 1/8" adapter.... i'm sure some kid will end up doing something amazing with it though.