The Korg Minilogue is a 4 voice polyphonic synthesizer. It has 37 synth keys, a sequencer, a delay, memory for presets, and an oscilloscope. It’s an amazing package overall, especially at the price point.
It has 2 oscillators per voice and a single LFO (with a selection of saw, triangle, and square waves for each). It includes the usual suite of MIDI (in and out), CV (in and out), monophonic 1/4″ out, 1/4″headphones, and USB. It also includes audio in for running sound through the filter.
Build Quality
The Korg Minilogue is built nicely. It feels extremely heavy duty and looks great. The knobs are tight and accurate, and the keys are solid. The physical build is great. There isn’t a single thing I’d change with the physical quality.
As for the sound, it makes great pads and leads. Bass is doable, but there are many other synths on the market which beat it. It’s a solid polyphonic synth overall in terms of build and sound. The price is amazing for a truly analog, polyphonic synth.
Caveats
There are a few caveats to beware of. One of the biggest is the “Minilogue Click”. Certain patches will have a noticeable, very audible click on each note. This can usually be fixed by a minor tweak on the attack (even in the range of several milliseconds), but it can be frustrating to work around.
The polyphony does not use any paraphony, so you get voice stealing with the Minilogue. If you press 4 keys, let go with a long enough sustain or release, then press another key, you will lose a voice. It is usually the first note pressed, but if they are pushed down together, it can be random. This isn’t specifically a flaw, but jazzier chords with long decays can be harder unless you plan around it. The Minilogue is right in between a monophonic synth where this is expected, and polyphonic synths where this is not an issue.
MIDI is pretty hit or miss with many other sequencers. The Digitakt for instance can sequence it and set a patch, but you have to overwrite factory patches for it to work reliably. This is a small issue, but can be a deal breaker for some people.
There is also only one LFO. This isn’t a big deal to me, but it’s a huge limitation in the Minilogue’s potential to some people. The sequencer is also barely better than useless if you want anything trivially complex.
Features
It includes several voice options which can make it more flexible. There is a mode for voices, and settings for polyphonic, monophonic, dual voice, and unison voice options depending on what you want. There are even preset packs which contain all sorts of genres and features for better usage of the Minilogue.
It has a good number of slots for patches and a way to back them up. The Minilogue feels like a new instrument since it was first released with the newer upgrades.
Changes Since Launch
I was pretty close to an early adopter for the Minilogue. The initial firmware had multiple bugs, many of which have been resolved, many of which are also now considered “features”. The Minilogue has grown and pushed the hardware overall though.
Korg used to be pretty awful about firmware updates, so a lot of older reviews are heavily biased against certain aspects of the Minilogue. Korg has been working to keep it updated so a lot of the annoying bugs get fixed with each version of the firmware. Weigh the negatives in a review against a newer review if possible.
A lot has changed, and it feels like the Minilogue still has life in it yet. I expect to see it pushed a bit further before becoming abandoned.
Is It Worth It?
If you want a great polyphonic synth to learn on, or a cheap, basic polyphonic synth, the Minilogue is your best bet. The 4 voices are sequenceable by most MIDI sequencers, and the voices work well for many functions. If you’re looking for bass or something to fill in for an e-piano, you’re barking up the wrong tree. It can fill in for bass in a pinch, but there are cheaper, more efficient mono-synths for bass on the market (like the Behringer Model D.
The Minilogue shines with the features for the cost, but can hit a wall quickly. I love it and don’t really see the limitations as much for the roles I use it for, but it isn’t a synth for every single use case. You can grow out of it being a good, primary synth quickly, but it is good enough to still keep a place on your roster.
At present, I can’t see making a song without the Minilogue (and my June 60) without a good amount of fun money to blow on something substantially more expensive. There are better tools for more, but for the price, it absolutely dominates the market.
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