KORG Prologue

[Walter Ego]

We called it, people. And Korg have finally done it. One LFO seems an odd choice. But...16 voice VCO polysynth! It is what people have been begging for. I think it compares nicely with the announced Waldorf machine and comes in at 2/3 the price and twice the polyphony (for the 16 voice).



http://www.musicradar.com/news/namm-201 ... ogue-synth

[HideawayStudio]

Holy cow its expensive though!.. expecially considering how inexpensive the reissues of the CEM VCOs are in volume.

[HalloweenJack]

Mmmmhhh I have to say that I'm quite disappointed: ok a 16 analog poly with two real VCOs that can be mixed with the third digital oscillator looks interesting, but it has only a 12db filter (no 24db, no high pass filter), there is no aftertouch, only 1 lfo, well it's bi-timbral so if you layer the lfos are two, but in this case purchasing the 16 voices it's very important, I think that these are serious omissions and it's too expensive...

[megamanx]

offer different colors like the monologue, then we talk.

[alan partridge]

Love the sound of this thing. A lot of character, and a ton of low end.

[Broadwave]

Releasing an SDK to create your own Oscillators and FX is a stroke of genius... exactly what Roland should have done with the System 8 to make your own Plug-outs.

[HalloweenJack]

Great video, they cover quite well all the functions:

[Walter Ego]

Mmmmhhh I have to say that I'm quite disappointed: ok a 16 analog poly with two real VCOs that can be mixed with the third digital oscillator looks interesting, but it has only a 12db filter (no 24db, no high pass filter), there is no aftertouch, only 1 lfo, well it's bi-timbral so if you layer the lfos are two, but in this case purchasing the 16 voices it's very important, I think that these are serious omissions and it's too expensive...

It is true that it doesn't have a couple features that one would hope for on an otherwise fully spec'd instrument. However, in true Korg fashion, it offers a lot of bang for the buck, albeit with some notable flaws. There always seems to be something missing from a Korg machine, but that's been their MO for some time. I'm willing to forgive it pretty readily since they have been a leader in the analog renaissance and have truly listened to what their fans/musicians/users are asking for.

Holy cow its expensive though!.. especially considering how inexpensive the reissues of the CEM VCOs are in volume.

I guess it's relative. I don't have inside information when it comes to parts and components, so I'm willing to trust what you say. However, even the $2K price for the 61 key/16 voice version seems pretty reasonable to me. This is more in competition with the Waldorf Quantum in my view than with the Behringer DM. It might be tight competition between the DSI Rev 2 and the Prologue, though.

[thestreets]

No more step sequencer? That was my favorite feature of the other 'logues! Am I greedy for still wanting it even with all the other s**t they've added?

[Walter Ego]

No more step sequencer? That was my favorite feature of the other 'logues! Am I greedy for still wanting it even with all the other s**t they've added?

However, it has a nicely featured arp with several modes. And it has layers and splits. Reminds me a lot of Jupiter 6 features. Have a bass arp going on one side and unison lead on the other...hours of jamming right there.

[HalloweenJack]

Mmmmhhh I have to say that I'm quite disappointed: ok a 16 analog poly with two real VCOs that can be mixed with the third digital oscillator looks interesting, but it has only a 12db filter (no 24db, no high pass filter), there is no aftertouch, only 1 lfo, well it's bi-timbral so if you layer the lfos are two, but in this case purchasing the 16 voices it's very important, I think that these are serious omissions and it's too expensive...

It is true that it doesn't have a couple features that one would hope for on an otherwise fully spec'd instrument. However, in true Korg fashion, it offers a lot of bang for the buck, albeit with some notable flaws. There always seems to be something missing from a Korg machine, but that's been their MO for some time. I'm willing to forgive it pretty readily since they have been a leader in the analog renaissance and have truly listened to what their fans/musicians/users are asking for.

I understand your point of view, but when I hear the words used by Korg with the Prologue, "our new flagship symthesizer", I immediately thought at a full featured synth, with multimode filters, 3-4 LFOs, aftertouch, extensive modulation matrix, because for me a flagship synth is a full featured machine.

Korg made another choice instead, they made a "limited" flagship synth , and that's fine with me because I really like limitations, I think that limitations are incredible creative "forces", I obtained things with my Monotrons and Sigma that I never thought were possibile, so for me the Prologue is more a kind of specialized synth with some very interesting features, there's not on the market a 16 analog poly with VCOs that can be mixed with a digital oscillator.

Maybe at the end what really matters is how it sounds and if we like the way it sounds, and from the YouTube videos the Prologue sounds really nice, obviously I want to try it in the real life...I've been thinking about purchasing an analog poly for some time, I tested the OB6, the Prophet 6, the Rev2, also the Peak which is an hybrid, and for different reasons I found that all of them were missing something, I'm saying that I have to accept the fact that the perfect synth does not exist and all the synths have their strenghts and their own limitations

[philip]

Love the sound of this thing. A lot of character, and a ton of low end.

a joke?Have you heard anything like this?

[alan partridge]

Love the sound of this thing. A lot of character, and a ton of low end.

a joke?Have you heard anything like this?

Not comparing like with like there - none of it's competitors sound like that either tbh. Plus I reckon it actually has more* of the bass end than the trident, with modern features, even if it's only got one part of its flavour. Sounds like a cross- recipe between one half a trident, two slices some sort of oberheim , a dw-8000 dressing and a modern synth topping to me, like others have mentioned on synthtopia, gs etc. Plus that clip has got analog effects all over the shop almost like with a stringer, which some people reckon the trident is- only ever owned a polysix, so dunno if they come with the trident etc.

[vin14]

I'm liking it. Sure it's missing a few things, but that's fine with me. I enjoy simpler synths. The youtube videos sound great to me. Funny the Trident has been brought up here, as the analogue side of it reminds of one, only clean. The Trident, even without the flanger is pretty noisy, at least mine is. I could probably push myself to afford the 8 voice version. I have had my eye on similarly priced the system 8, but now I'm not sure.

[clubbedtodeath]

It might be tight competition between the DSI Rev 2 and the Prologue, though.

IMHO it's not even close. The Rev2 has sub oscillators, 4 LFOs that can be routed to almost anything (including other LFOs), 8 separate modulation routings, and waveshaping for each waveform. It's about £100 more, but the modulation options give it depth and subtlety. I'd take it over most vco polysynths more than twice its price.