Minilogue XD Review, full tutorial and 8 patch ideas

Hi! 

Hybrid digital/analog is cool and all, but Korg’s move to open up their digital oscillators and effects to any developer, without certification, is one of the more interesting developments in synths in my opinion. 

Open platforms aren’t anything new – computers and iPads have been supporting the concept for a while. There are even a few standalone synths or platforms like the Organelle or the more developer oriented Axoloti that support the concept. 

But, and please correct me if I’m wrong, for a mass market synth hardware manufacturer like Korg to allow any developer to run actual unrestricted third party code without pre-approval, is quite rare. The reason it’s a brave move (and I don’t mean the kind of courage Apple showed by removing the headphone jack) is because it opens up a whole potential can of worms where developers do things they're not supposed to, and it doesn’t matter whether that’s intentional or not. 

So, while it doesn’t look like you’ll need an antivirus for the Prologue/Minilogue XD any time soon, currently, some third-party plugins will cause the XD to freeze, requiring a restart, along with some other growing pains I mention in the video. 

That said, the prospect of having a hardware platform than can forever evolve and grow – both on the oscillator and effects engine side, is super interesting and hopefully a trend we’ll see more of. 

As I try to do in the case of synths intended for potential first-time synth buyers, this video has a (hopefully) beginner friendly section in the beginning – so if you’re just interested in the patch ideas and third party plug-ins, you’re free to jump around as you wish.  

As usual any new patch ideas in this video and others this month will all be added to the book in the July update. 

All my best, 

Ziv (courageously installing third party plug-ins on YouTube as “Loopop”...)