** USB is MIDI only NOT Audio ** my mistake ************************************************ Here is a look inside the Korg minilogue analog synthesizer 8 High res images are on my Google page plus.google.co... / markusfuller
Thank you for this resource, it helped me re-solder a loose power jack in my minilogue. One tip - right after you take off the front panel, set aside the clear plastic light guides near the octave switches and voice mode buttons (you can briefly see them @4:49). They are not glued in and could be very hard to find if you drop them accidentally.
I knew I wanted this synth the first time I saw it. And I was really hoping you'd get to tear into one Markus. Your video did away with all doubts. I must have a minilouge! I'm really happy for you, thanks for the video! =D
+brickscratch Fondeling these black n white old fashioned machines is how I fell in love with music making 30 years ago. Granted, u have everything I need in my pad...well..almost everything. ;)
Nice tear down demo Markus. Thanks. I'm glad to see more and more manufacturers using solid type electrolytic capacitors in their designs. That means that 40 years from now, those should all be as good as today, and not need replacing like in many classic analog synths from 40 years ago... I just wish that Korg could be coming out with The Logue (full 8 voices version of the Minilogue) in the near future...
If we lived close I would certainly send my items over to you for better demo's but then I would need to take your gear apart and that would keep me busy for years LOL :-)
ha ha..me too..i remember when i was 12 years old and taking my dad's philips reel/reel recorder apart.. out of pure curiosity, then put it in a box back on top of his wardrobe :-) i love seeing how stuff works..
The direct sunlight warning was probably because you can't see which buttons are lit up in bright sunlight. Saw a video where a guy was struggling because of that during his show, lol. Great video. I love seeing the inner workings of synthesizers and electronics.
Really great video. I'm impressed by the build quality. Especially after the MS20 Mini, which was of horrifying bad buildquality. I sure hope this will be the future quality by Korg after a period with wobbly knobs, lousy outputs, and build in speakers, etc. Best wishes and thumbs up. Soundrookie.
This gentleman impressed me very highly. I bought this model yesterday, so it's so nice to know that I've purchased something of such excellent quality. Had it not been for him I could only have guessed at such a thing and would have to have gone on KORG'S reputation alone. Outstanding! So it's a thumbs up, and one new subscriber. Thank you sir.
Thank You Scott. I hope you get lots of good use from it, it really is quite an amazing synth for its price point. and as you may know I get no sponsorship from any of the keyboard manufacturers so I do not have to thumbs up any of them for personal gain. anyways have fun.
Exceptional teardown this time, thanks.... Makes the Minilogue even more of a no brainer. Also nice to see that the plank comes off the back without leaving a gaping hole. An added bonus for those who aren't really fans of the decorative wooden bits.
+reverse:pool Thank You. I think it would make a nice letter box on a door. sorry thats just my bad humour. overall I think it is a great little synth and sounds very good.
Another wonderful video Markus! As an old electronics engineer from the 80's I just find your videos so great. They inspired me to take a punt on an old Korg DW-8000 from 85 on ebay that was not working and sold for parts/repair. Long story short found a dead back battery, a s/c on the main board, cleaned it up, fixed the broken keybed and its back up and running so ... thanks for the inspiration mate. Look forward to more of the same... cheers
+TheReynoldsTV Brilliant. Im so pleased you got the DW-8000 working. Its amazing to see the difference in electronics from the 80s to today and its forever evolving im sure one day you will just be able to print out a whole circuit from a printer that has carbons metals and semiconducting materials instead of plain ink. Maybe this will be invented in our lifetimes ?. who knows.
I own one of these and they are a fantastic synth. Normally when I mess with synths it takes me a while to put together a sound I like but with this little guy great sounds just keep popping out.
Thanx for the teardown! It´s like what we gonna be seeing in new synths...rather low end uCs, but many of them, as they are cheaper than a single and obviously more powerful design. On top of that, it´s modular for the manufacturer. If they want to do an 8-voice device they just need to copy&and paste the layout 8 times, or put one voice on a board and cone that board...
Love those pots and switches. This synth... Along with that Arturia mono monster are really moving the game along. Moog are looking outdone at their own game by Arturia... And it won't be long before Korg are nipping at DSIs heels but probably with something fully analogue! I look forward to you doing a tear down of the new Arturia synth! I know you like that machine! Greta stuff as always Markus
+hydorah That Arturia looks amazing but I have to buy everything myself ( manufacturers wont loan me one to strip down) . If I can get the money I would be interested in the Arturia.
When you think about it, it is really amazing that Korg can produce the Minilogue and sell it for under $500.00. I mean, so many parts involved. I look forward to the day, if that day comes, that Korg produces a six or eight voice Prologue or Maxilogue that has 61 full sized keys :)
Very informative! One thing that seems quite ironic though is that despite this being an analog synth, it has so many processors that it must be more powerful than old supercomputers :p
The monologue is one of the few if not the only quality polyphonic all analog synth that is in a great price range. I love mine. The few bugaboos are no re routing capabilities so no mod matrix besides a slider for cutoff and such. And the slider it self is a silly thing to make cheap on this board but I did the same mode and it seems more stable but def a good buy. Also someone mentioned no sub octave but it does have one in mono mode your same knobby to change the arp patterns and detune becomes your level for your sub octave wave (I believe it's actually a sub of Osc. 1 but could be wrong) so. Also the first one my buddy had when the came out had very snappy envelopes that clicked in a bad way. The updated the firmware and fixed it nicely. But I received mine a month ago and it is def been removed from the newer shipments or just has the latest update. Awesome synth!
Fantastic work as always Markus! I was looking forward to this...Very happy to see that it's quite good quality under the hood! And I liked the Magnetic Fields joke...
Just installed a piece of heat shrink around the spring post on my Minilogue! Great idea! Also lubed the spring before re- installing it. TBH, I was just looking for an excuse to void the warranty. It was worth it
Very nice video. Just bought one and it's great to see such a nice piece of engineering. One tip: put some additional heatshrink on the spring levers and you'd get rid of the clicking sound completely.
so you put the heatshrink the way Markus did in this video and you additionally "covered" the two sides of the spring in heatshrink? DId you make any pictures that i can see somehow? Is it enough to remove the Aluminum lid or do i have to go deeper (like removing more than the Aluminum plate) ?
Great channel. My new favourite! I have a couple of vintage Urei units that need some servicing and watching your videos is great guidance for troubleshooting.
Glad to see they for the most part seem to have avoided the mechanical rotary encoders here. I've had plenty of problems with those on other gear, getting noisy over time. The mechanical ones are really cheap, and while they may be gold plated, the plating apparently wears and/or it oxidizes to the point where the connection goes bad in record time. The Korg Electribes and the Electron gear have a lot of flakiness problems with them. There are actually some inexpensive optical rotary encoders available, but they require power for the LED, and it seems all to often the designers don't use them.
Great video and very informative. This is the first video that has excised me of that inherent fear all users have as to the internal nature of these beautiful tools. Thank you.
+Taren McCallan-Moore Thank You very much. I am completely independent and receive nothing to say things are good. most items are what I have purchased myself and if they do look well made that is my unbiased true opinion. I was looking forward to opening this up and truly thought there would be cost saving going on inside especially for the price of this synth but was real pleased to see that Korg had genuinely made a good value product in the minilogue. This is a synth I will keep for life now I am getting to play around with it, it does sound really good.
Thank you for your reply Markus, your insight is very useful and your enthusiasm an inspiring pleasure. I wonder if I might tap your knowledge if I may? I've just purchased a Roland CR-5000 and the question that I have is regards the fact that it's ac100v. Can I use a standard 13amp 250v adapter or do I need some kind of transformer? I would appreciate any thoughts you have about this. One final question, regards your repair service, how might I find you for future reference? I'm in the south of England, Kent. All the best.
Hello Taren, normally You must purchase a step down transformer. if you use a plug adaptor you will still get 250volts to your CR-5000. I am not 100% sure but if you know someone who will open it up the power supply is steel cased top right and there may be a way to change the Taps on the transformer to allow it to work with 250volts. that would mean unsoldering certain wires from the transformer and attaching the correct ones for 250volt operation. if this option is not on the transformer then you need to purchase a step down transformer that you plug your 250volts into and get 100volts out. they can be bought from places like Maplins electronics or off Amazon etc. Good luck :-)
Awesome Markus u was waiting for this tear down, the built quality of the interface very good, above this price point, nice to see the pots and switches can take abuse and can get replaced if needed
This is the first takedown you've done, for a product I was already intending to purchase, and what you found reassured me, like the metal pot posts, for example. Really nice video (I didn't seem to have any problems with resolution, btw.)
The "direct sunlight" warning is because the aluminum absorbs and transfers heat very well, and fully analogue synthesizers can be detuned if their temperature changes too much. Oddly, though, most of the complaints I've seen about the minilogue detuning have been because of excessive cold.
btw the chords u played while it was fast forwarding while u were putting it back together were v nice! I like the little DIY fix to the pitch bend too! gr8 vid as usual!
+CYPRN Hello I thinkk they were the opening chords to David Bowies space oddity Fmaj7 then Em. I already have people asking if I will to the pitch bend fix for them. but the video shows them how to do it themselves and I guess Korg will implement that in future production hopefully.
Thank you Markus, great tear down again. I believe that Dave Smith opted for opto-isolators( see how I played with words there! ) to eliminate mains loop hum. My brother has a mains loop hum on his set up, so I will tell him to disconnect his usb stuff 1st to isolate the cause.
You make it look so easy with your FWD teardown....:-) In real life i tried it and really it felt longer than in the video....:-) Btw about the rattle switch. I did what you shown and took it further. I put some heat shrink tubing on the springs on both sides and also the same principle i did on the little white slider-knob that the spring is keeping in place. I made a thin little cylinder formed ring made of fabric tape that i secured with a drop of glue and covered the surface of the white slider plastic knob-slider where the two spring arms touch the white plastic . Not it sounds like an expensive synth :-) Btw out of 1000+ Thumbs up, 9 Thumbs down on a teardown video that is for free.... That shows us that at least 0,9% of the population will never be happy. It`s genetics baby
That wobbly slider really is an issue... on my Minilogue, it doesn't always come back to 0... stops at 2% sometimes and I have to manually zero it. But thanks to this video, I know how to fix it. Just need to get my hands on some heat shrink in the right size...
Thank you very much for that very interesting tear down! Great to hear that you are impressed by the generell build quality & that you get lots of synth for the money. When I compare my 80ies Juno60 or 70ies Elka X705 with the Minilogue, the electronic is now real mini, although analog. Looks like It does not matter if 1 or 4 voices, probably 8 voices would have also fitted in the case. When it is possible to produce a real 4 voice polyphonic analog synth with aluminium, real wood and radio controllers, many knobs, slimkeys & oscilloscope at that price, I wonder where the other competitors in this price-range are ???
+VolcaRock I agree I dont know how Korg are making these things and making any money from them. theres shipping taxes and shop percentage to come out of that end price. still i like the idea of an 8 voice version
Unlike Roland who needed Malekko & other 3rd party, Korg has a developer team with massive experience. They started with Monotron-gadgets followed by Monotribe, MS20mini, Volca-Series, Odyssey and now ML.They make profit on the mass market. I ask myself what price is 1 voice on the board (just hardware)? about 20$? Price is 500$ for 4 voice Minilogue would be 440$ for a 1 voice Minilogue (still good price, but not a no brainer) But what if they would make an 8 voice? I am sure we will see a Maxilogue with 8 or even 12 voices on the next NAMM for attractive price.
+VolcaRock I think the competition will be coming thick, soon. Before, or at, NAMM 2017 i think several competitors will announce a counter-move of sorts. Looking back over the last several years, each year 1 company have had _the_ gamechanger of the year, leaving very obvious traces in the market and the competition in the following year. Ofc it's a circular series of reactions, but a few stand out. And this year i think it will be the Minilogue. Imho in 2012 it was the Arturia MiniBrute, kickstarting the analogue renaissance, and a subsequent lashings of cheap analogue mono synths, from companies they hadn't touched that market segment for years. In 2013 i'd argue they took it again with the MicroBrute, pushing the boundaries for cheap analogue, the response to which brought the Volcas among other. The CV-ports also helped bring eurorack into the minds of people that would previously steer clear, and have had a hand in its resurgence. In 2014 i think it's the Roland System-1, not only did it revitalise hardware VA as a whole, by bringing it closer to the analogue competition. But it reintroduced the notion of polyphony in the lower pricebracket, at that point utterly dominated by analogue monosynths. It _may_ not even be a stretch to think it has something to do with the Minilogue being 4-voice poly. And the ACB technology will yet do more good. 2015 is harder to gauge a single entry pulling more weight than the rest. There's many good contenders from the Prophet-6, over the Roland JD-X's, Boutiques, Yamaha Reface series and ofc the KARP Odyssey. But i think my choice would be the Reface DX, as i think it will be the harbinger of several FM synths to come, perhaps for the 1st time in a long time, even challenge the monopoly of the subtractive synth. Volca FM any1? Now if people actually read this novel, they're probably thinking something like "what about the MS-20 mini?". The list isn't based off sales numbers, where the MS-20 mini did very well no doubt, probably better than all but perhaps the MicroBrute. However it didn't really bring anything new, and it didn't really change anything, which would be the main requirement for being a gamechanger. Now with the Minilogue more than likely being this years gamechanger, i predict the following: Novation finally bringing the PolyStation. Roland have 2 potentially promising venues of retaliation, both the ACB-VA and the analogue from the hybrid JD-X's. Timing wise it's most likely to be a development on the ACB (System-8/10?), but perhaps they'll make a Aira hybrid with both ACB and real analogue? Or take the analogue voiceboard from the JD-XA and put in a smaller knob-ladden keyboard. Yamaha will no doubt run with a bigger stronger FM synth, probably somewhere between the original DX7 and the Reface DX in terms of size and features, expanding on the interface-improvements with more hands on features to compete with the nice interface of the Minilogue. Essentially each playing into their own strengths to challenge it on feel, interface and playing-experience, rather than trying to level the playingfield.
Korg was Kickstarter of the analog renaissance for the cheap mass market with Monotron in 2010 followed by Monotribe in 2011! And then 2 years later in 2012 Arturia made the Microbrute And the MS20mini was something new, because before its release nobody believed that a global player would make a 70ies remake of an analog synth especially at that price! That was more unbelievable than the ARP Odyssey because it was the first. There have always been amazing VA synths since at least 10 years , so I would not pay too much attention on them (when talking about anlog) even when the technique is now better. Analog is a market which survived (like vinyl and tube amps) and the Minilogue is the gamechanger for budget analog poly. Musicians who spend 2000$ or more on a synth will do that anyway with or without Minilogue so Prophet06, OB6 are out of competition. A big sucess on the mono market is Mother 32, I do not know any other facebook group which growed so fast! But it’s mono and Rolands Hybrid has a minimal analog section only . Reface and Volca FM, is fine, but other technique. I am interested what will happen in the budget analog polymarket. Akai was awfully bashed and even with a AX60 remake it will be hard for them. Yes, maybe Novation with Polystation, but Roland will not produce budget analog poly. I guess THE ONLY real competitor who is actually able to produce at the same cheap price &same quality as Korg will be Behringer/Midas with their 6 voice analog poly with Rolandfilter clone. Coming soon!.
VolcaRock How many products have you seen with any relation or competitive value to the Monotron or Monotribe? The answer is none. Ergo they didn't start the analogue renaissance. Also it doesn't take 2-3 years in a market as competitive as this for the competition to react. Firmly reflected in my list that showed the emergence of several analogue monosynths within 1 year of the MiniBrutes, and subsequent circles of reaction. Never taking anywhere near 2-3 years. True the MS-20 mini was the 1st cheap copy of a 70's/80's classic, with no real alterations or improvements. How many have taken that up and followed or copied? Again the answer is none. There's been several nods at the past, but Korg is still the only to make a largely unaltered copy. Neither this, nor the KARP, are hardly unbelieveable. But the KARP atleast brought a different set of waves, it had a bunch of improvements that helped shape the MS-20M and the Minilogue. And the cooperation elements may have had a hand in the Sequential/Oberheim cooperation resulting in the OB-6. But as i said, there were less of an obvious winner in 2015, the Reface DX being the closest to a gamechanger imo. Roland is indeed unlikely to do a cheap dedicated analogue, but never the less did their ACB tech influence the market overall. And while it'll never outdo or replace proper analogue on its own battleground, digital has its own number of strengths that become increasingly appealing, the closer it comes to analogue in sound and feeling. So to assume it won't influence or change the market simply because it's not true analogue, is a big mistake, and quite frankly a bit narrowminded. Like i said before, it's not a stretch of imagination to think the Minilogue is Korgs response to the System-1, effectively saying "we can do 4 voice poly too, but we've outdone you with it being a proper analogue". The high end market, more often than not, stroll at its own pace, doing its own thing, and only slightly influenced by competition. The customers go for a particular sound and feeling, geared towards high end _instruments_. While some innovations and ideas filter down to the cheaper market, it's often a slow evolution over several generations, compared to the fastpaced changes and experiments going on in the cheaper mass market. Again it's narrowminded to think just because the competitions reaction to the Minilogue won't necessarily be analogue, that it won't affect the market and pose a credible threat to the Minilogues sales (i still think it'll be 1 of the all time best selling synths). There are afterall people, particularly the growing number bored with all the analogue monosynths, that will see Rolands VA/Hybrids as a viable alternative, or going for the difference in FM synthesis, we're likely to see more of from Yamaha. Plenty of people around that don't care whether a synth is analogue or digital. And to discount that any company could bring out a similarly cheap analogue poly, would also be a mistake. Just see how surprising it was this time around. But there's nothing to stop a number of big players doing the same out of the blue. Except if you look at the likes of the DSI Tetra, it won't necessarily be out of the blue.
Excellent video as usual Mark! The only mistake I could find was that you said the USB port carries Audio. It only carries MIDI. Must have been a force of habit from the Roland synths!
As a complete newbie to modern electronics (I last built a terrible oscillator circuit on a breadboard in the 80s), do the oscillators, envelopes, filters, and amps happen in the small ICs you couldn't identify? Given that you mainly identified what I assume are digital micro controllers, I am wondering where the analog bits are in the design. Are the micro controllers there to send voltages to the analog circuits from memory or from the signals from the pots and switches above? Great videos.
If it's anything like a MS-20 mini, the tape is there to keep it from falling apart... Nah, this actually looks like they've tried to do it right and proper this time around. Good video, i feel even better about having ordered 1.
+Marc the Darc Thanks Marc. last time I saw tape being used like that it was holding a piece of polystyrene. I just thought it looked a bit strange or a waste of time.
I really like the Minilogue, and now we know it's put together nicely. The only thing it's missing, in my opinion, is a sub oscillator. Would reallly like a sub on this to fill it out as a complete analog synth.
Of course they're complete analog synths. The obvious reasons why have nothing to do with not having a sub oscillator.. the OB8 had 8 voice, the prophet-5 had 5 voices, the minimoog had 3. Granted, they were 2 grand more money for those extra voices, but I'm not asking for another complete voice, just a sub osc.. which aren't that expensive or involved to add on. I'd pay another 100 bucks if the Minilogue had a sub to go with the 2 VCOs.
Fabulous. One small point on the paper. It is the transporting of paper that damages the environment. Not the paper itself. Paper is made from soft wood which is grown responsibly in sustainable forests specifically for paper manufacture. A growing softwood tree digests more carbon dioxide than a mature one.
+Howard Forton Hi Howard Its just my joking manner that I use in my video's I already know how paper is made. Don't take me too seriously I just try to add a little bit of humour to the video's.
+markusfuller sorry. And embarrassed. Lots of people don't know about paper. Should've guessed you would know though. 😬I love your humour. And videos. Thankyou.
I definitely feel the same way about the construction of the slider when I got mine :( I'd much rather have a classic mod wheel. You don't get nearly as much control and you have to hold it down so you can't play with both hands if you want full modulation on the fly. All in all though, fantastic synth for the price. I love mine.
Ever since I heard that korg was making a 4 voice analog poly I wanted to see what a modern day analog poly looks like, thanks for showing us this fine synth. What got me excited from korg though is the volca FM, now that I want
It is digital unlike the rest of the volca series excluding the sample but would still be very interesting to see what chips they are using.mi love the fact that you can load up your old sysex patches from the dx7
+joeboygsxr Hi I have no volca's I like them and am intersted in them very much but just have not yet got around to buying one yet. I will do one day as I think they are brilliant devices.
Amazing! It's my next synth and I was afraid about the pots, a point that took me some problems in anothers synths like the Microkorg (that if any pot was fail, all the functions on the synth came on aleatory value changes and a pot replace were involve a real problem because it's not a simple welder-and-ready work). After your video, I'm more calm! :) Greetings from Argentina
What I find interesting about this even though I know nothing about electronics, is the old analog synths used to be massive heavy boxes of components and wires. And then microchips came along and all of this could be emulated on a small circuit board with a CPU. And now these new analog synths are built with a tiny circuit board that looks more like a computer.
+Mark B Hi Mark thats one good thing about technology. I always think about my phone. internet browser. GPS. quiality camera. video recorder. Playback device. music player. can you imagine carrying all that around a few years ago. now it fits in your pocket. Nice. but the downside is it makes it difficult to repair.
Yep, i loved that one the instant i saw it, a few weeks ago .... I thoughed of that aswel some times ago ..... To use microcontrollers as analog vco or dco. But it roland did have this in the 80's.
I think, korg could have shaved some more cost and use only 1 xtal or oscillator and route the pulse from the first micro processor using the OSCO pin and have all micro processor clocked ..... Unoes they stilll do.
Love the video. I always want to know what the insides of my electronics look like, but don't want to risk disassembling them just for curiosity's sake.
My guess on the tape is that at the factory during assembly, they put those static pieces of tape on before they even have the top metal housing cover screwed down to the rest of the unit.
Well constructed, well designed, especially those voice modes... but, they forgot one more possible mode, the Juno 6 mode... they could've used those 2 oscillators linked as one and turn this synth into a 8 voice poly synth and used that delay unit as a chorus fx, or maybe it wasn't possible due to voice's circuit topology, who knows?... nice teardown... I was doubting about its construction quality. Cheers from Argentina!
+TheMetalMusicMachine I was actually amazed at how well it was built for the price, I was expecting a few cheap innards but it all looks Good to me. Hello to Argentina :-)
+markusfuller The OB-6 definitely kills the Minilogue, as far as sound design. Stereo synths always win, in my books. But who can afford the damn thing?! But the Minilogue is wonderful, as long as you can get over the now infamous EG clicks. I hope I can pick one up some time this year.
Putting Magnetic Fields near any audio stuff is probably a bad move. lol. It's odd they clocked each voice section individually, rather than having a master clock. Does this thing use an external power supply? Maybe it was originally designed for a low freq. onboard PSU, which would need much smoothing in all areas...hence missing electrolytics. Just a thought. Great work Marcus, I love your matter of fact easy style.
Sadly my Minilogue came with one somewhat unresponsive key in the keyboard.. seems like the build quality there isn't up to the rest of the instrument. I'll exchange it for another one today. Good tip on that heatshrink btw!
8:49 Someone told me the reason PCB's have empty spaces is because some of the components may go out of production, and they leave space on the board for alternatives.
If you ever get your hands on an Andromeda A6, I'd love to see the tear down of it compared with this. It'd be interesting to see the difference in a very expensive analog poly and this one.
Excellent video as always Markus! Thank you very much, you really are doing a service to the synth community. Quick question! While you were on that main panel board, did you notice what size the LEDs are? I want to do a color mod to mine and I'm assuming they're 0805, but i can't tell from any pics (or find a schematic). Thanks in advance for the reply!
Great video Markus, I've had my Minilogue for a week now Its been a lot of fun. I think Korg could of charged more and still sold a lot. They must be doing well financially, in order to offer such a bargain.
+friendofCHAKA Hello. Yes I am very impressed with value for money on this minilogue. and I am purely neutral on my channel and get no sponsoring from any manufacturers so if I say it looks good I personally mean it. as you already know.
excellent yet again Markus :-) love these vids. retrosounds are cool too..would love to see in an emulator II.. take your screwdriver when he invites you around for tea ;-)
+muzikman2008 nobody in the right mind would leave me alone for 5 minutes with their gear and a screwdriver in my hand. Its like having a big red button saying do not press, I would have to press it.
Got one of these, tried it and sent is straight back. Apart from the cramped keyboard, there is a click that comes through every time a key is pressed, most noticeable when the envelope attack is slow. Seems that a lot of people are having the same problem.
Hello Yes I too have heard that some people are getting the click sounds more than others. I am not sure exactly why this is but I hope Korg makes a fix download as the synth is quite good for the cost. but with that continuing problem it could be better if it was resolved.
