Review: Korg Monotron DUO and DELAY

Just in time for Christmas, Korg bring on two new Monotrons - are you tempted?
Full article here: www.sonicstate.com/news/2011/1...
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[@sonicstate]

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[@zwerty007]

I am getting so sick of people saying things like "people who use these TOYS are not REAL musicians". You're a real musician no matter how you make music, even if you write a full album on a stylophone. Often the most creative people are the ones that are most limited

[@User31662]

I agree

[@sullycliftona]

Hes to young to know about Ralph (!)

[@ncapone87]

Kraftwerk wrote a fairly popular song with a Mattel Bee Gees Rhythm machine on the melody, anyone who says that doesn't know anything

[@kadiummusic]

Well said, you can't get anything more toy like than any percussive instrument and yet 99.99% of records contain them! 😎

[@sheepkillindog]

Both units are awesome to sample. I have the Delay in my locker at work. I use the Xynthesizr app and play sequences into the delay. Add the filter and it’s easy to get lost for a few minutes on a break. Everything can be music. Change your expectations

[@noelreason9136]

Weird little devices. They are addictive, but man they are fucking annoying if you are not the one using them.

[@javiceres]

Lol xD

[@rottenfist220]

Like drum solos lol

[@theothertonydutch]

Definitely. When you are bound and chained you are forced to be creative. This is why a true artist can make anything. With anything.

[@parasiteunit]

They are a really great source for tone making... Percussion, basses... Solos (assuming you have small fingers or a stylus!)... Case in point: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aoPGlHWNf6-Sb9k

[@ChannelZero1031]

You can arrest the body but never the mind. Well, that's if you don't allow it.

[@slurpee4203]

@@ChannelZero1031 ohhh you ate that up

[@ChannelZero1031]

@@slurpee4203 Like at Seven eleven, honey.

[@slurpee4203]

@@ChannelZero1031 lolll😭

[@user-lq5ev8hg9q]

This was an excellent review, and I really appreciate the internal shots of the circuit boards. Thanks always for your good work.

[@SkalvarProductions]

Ironically enough, it's almost Christmas time again and I just discovered this thing. This sounds like it'd be perfect for Drone and Noise music, which I occasionally do for fun.

[@joelonsdale]

Great instructional piece. Just got a Monotron Delay and could figure out the LFO Waveform Trim Knob - but you explained and demonstrated that perfectly. What a great little sound toy - it's going to be all over my productions until I get bored and buy something else!

[@VioletDeliriums]

Love your demos and descriptions of these little noisy thingamabobs. Thank you!

[@pablow26]

Been using the Delay as a dub siren for years now. Works perfectly!!

[@JjohnCcannon]

Roots Pablow looking to buy one for this reason! Would you recommend?

[@edwardferry8247]

11 years later Korg still flogging them for £40 … must have been a goldmine for them.

[@hpl138]

Excellent review, I was quite happy with the original monotron and trying to decide on adding the duo or delay, now I know what I need. Thanks!

[@mattcrowell5875]

I love that you don’t even have to use it for music if you know what you’re doing and that it’s so compatible and flexible, as well as portable.

[@brandonmacdonald7802]

LMFAO's Sexy and I know it uses the TB-303 which was essentially the 80's version of a mini analog synth like this. So you can't really say you cant make hits with a small synth...

[@ODSTALCAPWNED]

"you cant make talented music with these!" -the talentless

[@aggirl774]

Penelope Scott babbbbyyyyy

[@kylekeller7577]

“Hold my beer”

[@MayhemJack]

Classic "outside looking in" fallacy.

[@KitsuneCentral]

The wave looks like a square wave passing through an All-Pass Filter.

[@powers_media]

thank you! i appreciate the speed and completeness of this review!

[@craigbrowning9448]

I have one of the original Monotrons Guitar Center had thel as a $50 Loss Leader at the time. I built an power adapter out of a piece of 9VDC Wall Wart, Short piect of Insulated Rod and a couple of clothing snaps (Glued on to the Rod and Soldered on to the Wall Wart leads) so I was able to run it off of Wall AC for more reliable Pitch, and I had a Plastic Bracket (Tap Plastics, Custom) made for it that conforms to the panel of a Nord NE-2, so it would stay in place with that unis. I tuned the ends of the Ribbon to a Minor Tenth (tuned Bb-C#) and that kept the pitch reference reasonably close. Still awkward to play and used more as a Noise maker, Recently I got a Volca Bass mostly using it as a Lead instrument.

[@robbiewabisabi]

Fantastic! Thanks for posting, as always!

[@rg7120]

If you can only get one, buy the Duo. It's the most useful Monotron for musical sounds. The original Monotron is also great for learning how to use a synth because of the LFO. Both are very limited, but those limitations force you to use what's there and discover new sounds. I've had an original Monotron for a few months and still find new sounds. If you can solder there are a lot of easy mods for them. You could make a really nice synth by combining a Duo and original and modding them.

[@sonofjak1971]

Ive just bought these,love the reviews,cant wait to play around.

[@crowejohn20]

Wasent expecting much from the delay but with the AUX in it's looking like a great little pocket filter. Fantastic. Just the right size for my Christmas stocking as well. :D

[@mouthbreather1]

The Delay looks pretty great. I'm tempted to get one to complement (or replace) the Monotron currently velcro'd on my guitar.

[@jonathangillis4926]

I want both. These look amazing for their price

[@my4trackmachine]

If they made a monotron with a multi mode filter... done!!!! i would be in love and monotron would go down as one of the coolest product series ever.

[@MrKeys57]

You make very good reviews of Korg product´s! thank´s! - Levi

[@mCKENIC]

Well done Nick! Cant wait to pick these up!

[@moxie96]

really liking the duo, it'd be like playing my favorite settings on my microkorg without having to get it hooked up to the amp all the time.

[@hugh009]

Thank you for this video! Actually Korg sent it to me. However as a 75 year youngster who loves music I would love to know of a NEWBIE book to learn more about what my Delay unit is doing. I think I might purchase the other one too as you showed them plugged into each other.

[@TheRealTakumaji]

I already have a standard Monotron and will defo buy the Duo and Delay variants. Korg did a great job with the Mono-family, would be nice if they'd keep on releasing new variants. For example, I'd love to have a Monotron with the three drums (tuneable) of the Monotribe and a simple 8-step sequencer... the Monodrum! :) Anyway, I like our reviews, Nick, keep up the good work.

[@HotRodTypewriter]

I thought going into these two new monotrons I would prefer the duo over the delay,but I'm actually finding the delay more my speed,perhaps it's the LFO fun!

[@SynthgodXXX]

I Love my KORG MONOTRON DELAY.... I can trip out for hours just making a new 50's SCI-FI soundtrack-- IN MY HANDS! Perfect EFX sounds, PERFECT FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@DopestDope111]

Great review! Thanks

[@rg7120]

In the 50s and early 60s, electronic music was made with oscillators controlled by a pitch knob (no synthesizers with keyboards yet), manipulated with tape. There's no reason you can't make music with a dual oscillator synth with a quantized ribbon.

[@umpygoodness2369]

i make ORGANIZED music using SOLELY THE 1/4 JACK!! (I take that "bzzt!" and alter the "pitch" using delay rate, and loop little bits. Everyone is stunned when they hear the techno music etc I make... to find out it's ALL just a "bzzt!" -- even all the "drum" sounds!

[@dikmugget]

Great review. Thanks

[@hydorah]

What a thoroughly excellent review, great idea showing what's inside too. VCC is Voltage cathode/collector usually positive and 3 volts in this case presumably:-D

[@parasiteunit]

love these little wee beasts... still need to get the 'classic' then I have the whole set. All of them are muscially useful, the duo being the most versatile of the two I currently have... but the delay OWNS when it comes to making organic sounding drones/beat synth tones... and you can ges resonance, but only if you're ready to invaldiate to warranty and take a soldering iron to it...

[@alvar0pere7]

Great review. I own both of these. They are absolutely great for what they are actually for and that's fucking around with sound.

[@server642]

Just ordered my Monotron Duo a couple hours ago. Should arrive by the 22nd of March 2013 :) I can't wait!

[@Longuncattr]

@DJSkeeterson The reason the LFO trimpot is where it is is that these new Monotrons are made with the same case molds as the first one. The first Monotron has a trimpot in the same place for adjusting the ribbon's pitch range. This is also why the new features come at the expense of other features.

[@jtanafreq]

just for kicks have you tried plugging the duo ouput into the aux in of the delay then outputting the delay back into the VCF of the duo? could be pretty gnarly feedback noise... or it could sound god-awful... only one way to find out...

[@MrScarabey]

then how would you record this? from the speakers? nah

[@darklightprojector2688]

May be possible with a splitter. I doubt it, but I’ve also never tried it haha

[@analogsynthplayer]

DarkLightProjector I plugged in my car cassette player adapter and play it while i drive

[@leepicciotto695]

For people with questions about handling the excessive noise, run it through a gate within your daw. I tend to use sonnox dynamics and it works a treat. Though I'm curious as to what cable he is using himself because I have never heard any of these units captured with such a low amount of noise without additional processing and everyone I've used goes through my apogee symphony

[@planetweed]

Monotron pwm is long overdue!

[@templemu]

wish they would make a noise version of the due; with pink, brown blue and white and continuous mod between noise source

[@Danimally]

Thanks for showing :)

[@AnalogX64]

Great video :) I randomly found these on Amazon in the year 2024 😁

[@jik7864]

Art is pleasure, it's not a social deal. You musn't come to art, it must make you vibrate without you have to change your habits.

[@geoffmobile]

cool video, I have a Korg ms-2000b and a roland gaia but I like the idea to make a really mini synth like this to add effects!

[@radiorob7543]

Thank You. Well explained.

[@leepicciotto695]

Also why are posters so angry? There's a way to voice your opinion without making yourself seem like you've forgotten to take your meds

[@lgr6124]

Bunch of haters here angry at these lil things.

[@leoneljm]

The entire internet need to read this. Daily.

[@charliesheenalien]

Ya gotta keep the damn synth still. The camera never has time to focus so it just looks like 480p the whole time when it’s actually 720p. Made me dizzy. Besides that- helpful review. Very interesting synth. I really like what Korg is doing for the portable market.

[@heggy_69]

I wonder if you could use some stylus for the keyboard, kinda like the stylophone

[@martinofenzi858]

oh com'on Nick, why did you said "not the cleanest square wave l've ever eard"? l noted this kind of "snobbing" only on low-priced products. if the same wave were emitted by a fucking moog, l'me sure you're been talking about "lot of weight in that square...defenitively subby"

[@JssstMusic]

Nice toys 4 the boys;-) Already ordered one:-) Nice stuff!

[@1.2.3.4..5]

Euy nederland

[@JensMadsenBassMusic]

It doesn't seem like you're getting as much white noise as i am from mine - does anyone have any ideas as to why this could be? Did i simply pick up a bad one, or could it be the quality of my mini-jack cables?

[@Varue]

So, the duo does in fact have an LFO, except it only works when you have the second oscillator turned off?

[@Synthematix]

on the monotron duo regarding the line input, can all the knobs tweak the inputted sound?

[@nickmastro6870]

Around 4:50 detuned sound is reminding me of some of the synth bass on Anymore by Goldfrapp

[@therealquade]

is there a way to change the delay to have less noise? would inturrupting the line-in by adding a switch clean that up, or is that static coming from something else? (I noticed if you turn feedback all the way up and just turn it on it instantly has feedback and gets the sound of the switch clicking, so I don't know where the noise actually comes from)

[@epicon6]

I’m glad these birthed the Volca line and Monologue and Minilogue

[@st0rmchild]

And the NTS-1 brings it back around to the same form factor with the good old ribbon keyboard again. Digital, but it supports third-party oscillators and effects using the same SDK as Minilogue XD and Prologue. Thought it was a silly thing but ended up buying one and it's actually pretty cool. Korg is definitely the most adventurous of all the big synth companies!

[@salvadory1103]

@mattsynth great for background weirdness and filtering and - i used one on a track that made it onto a skateboard video soundtrack as well as a cheap stylophone- through efx processors they sound trippy as hell- for 60 bucks its hard to go wrong and in a few months im sure youll get it for 45 which is great for a usable analog sound

[@ArcadeFL]

Is it for playing with the sound like this or can you apply the effects to another keyoard you have? Or what else you can use it for other then just messing around.

[@umpygoodness2369]

well, keep in mind that ALL MUSICIANS ARE DOING IT WRONG and always have been. (NOTHING about the history of music has been that intelligent. Lazy, lazy, lazy.) (EX: Musicians Touring is the DUMBEST and most inefficient thing ever.) (EX: carrying a LOT of gear to do gigs is LITERALLY DUMB.) (for instance, I've played art-metal guitar across the globe... yet I NEVER use an amp! I go direct into the PA and every guitarist calls it blasphemy... until I begin playing. THEN, they say "why did i waste $$ and time on an amp!!") (i've toured the world as a drummer -- touring's a lot of FUN for me, but not efficient -- and my ENTIRE drumkit fits in my shoulderbag (!). Takes me 30 seconds to set up, 3 seconds to break down! I'm 99% more efficient than most drummers, because I eschewed tradition and use a Roland SPD6 [think thick laptop with 6 rubber pads, which i play with only 2 drumsticks and no feet]! Yes, i sacrifice a few things, but GAIN 99% more than regular drummers of either acoustic or electronic kits! It's incredibly superior to regular drums, in almost every way. DRUMS are the dumbest instrument ever.) (EX: I can play with a band IN A TINY BEDROOM (!!), and at ANY VOLUME. I can record full drums at ANY volume in any situation!! WOWZA!!) People need to realize "TRADITION" means ANT-thinking.

[@lgr6124]

@@umpygoodness2369you still did not answer his question lol

[@david__428]

Yes you can

[@david__428]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/oKGof6RslM2Ci8k

[@teatime2595]

So I wonder if you really need those time ticker things to keep the beat or can you just play acid jazz break beats! ?

[@telecomboring]

@ZwamTek Eh? It would stil be analog with a midi port. Midi has been around long before digital synthesis.

[@verve92]

@sonicstate-You say the filter is the MS20 and MS10 "modeled." Is it the same component as in the Korg MS20. Is the delay on the second unit you reviewed (analogue BBD chip) or DSP? Great review once again.

[@savagesanity]

These are really neat looking. I was considering just a normal Monotron, but I might get one of these instead now. One question though: what is the MIDI stuff everyone is talking about? What would that do for the Monotron if a MIDI input was added? Thanks!

[@lanceeriksen]

i plug my monotron into my amp all the time, it has a standard output, you just need a converter of sorts to go from quarter inch, to headphone jack...

[@zincsimon]

Can I connect it with a nord electro 2 (for example) to edit the sounds of it and to have better keys ;) ?

[@centurionmcjk4391]

Vcc is battery voltage so maybe it is to power something else?

[@ThoriumHeavyIndustries]

Thx much for your work!

[@user-zi5rs1by7b]

I guess that's why I have so much fun with this thing because I don't really know or care what the shape of the wave is... it fits in muh pocket.

[@HitmanJenkins1]

Exactly, I would love a few of these just to make weird and interesting noises with them.

[@KeiNaarr]

Can I use one of these devices as external FXs for the samples on my MPC? Like using he Monotron's filter and / or dealy to tweak an MPC sample & then re-inject the tweaked sample into the MPC? Is this feasible ? I've thought of that because the MPC's FX and filters are quite weak. Please guys respond, thx.

[@btehiphop15]

could i hook this up to my Mpc 2500 and record some synths? i wanted to get a big Korg keyboard but if i can do that with the monotron duo than i wont need to get the big keyboard

[@Abon666]

Would one of these, or the original Monotron be good for someone who want to learn how to use a synth without paying a lot of money?

[@djSpinege]

Cool Stuff, Korg.

[@numba1netsfan]

Yes Oh god yes. You will learn so much more, and may even be able to start modyfing it.

[@ExcessiveSpareTime]

A question to anyone who has a Monotron Delay (i'd look it up myself, but YT keeps refusing to load videos, including this one) Does the delay behave like an analogue delay? That is, will it self-oscillate if I turn the feedback knob far enough, and does turning the time knob mid-delay change the pitch of the signal going through it?

[@robertmonaghan6263]

The blue does not have lfo but has more sound pitch

[@Martzoerst]

I think they'd do great with the original monotron and the monotribe, I want them!

[@bluebeemovies]

really good video thanks

[@JohanBrodd]

I got the original Monotron, and I must get the delay version as well.

[@callumrocker1]

I know nothing about these things but I want one, how much extra stuff do I need to actually listen to it without headphones? Eg through an amplifier? or would I need some speakers and sound desk? Anything like that?

[@SecretOrganisation74]

Hello, I probably missed it. But I didn't hear you talking about the noise those synths (specially the Duo) were making. So do the Duo makes as much noise as the original Monotron, or much less, like on the Monotribe for example ? Thanks for your answer. After listening a second time, the duo or the delay alone seem okay, but when you process one into the other, it becomes pretty aweful in term of noise, that's a shame....

[@PlateauEast]

it's too bad there's no hold button like on the Mopho. or an usb midi option?

[@sindrecarolin]

Yeah! New synth every day

[@vaspers]

One of the best tutorial reviews I have ever seen on KZbin. Fantastic job sir. I play these things along with my Microkorg. They provide terrific "lead synth" and noise generator mayhem to other sounds in your mix.

[@zwerty007]

I think the Monotrons and MS-20 have some of the best filters I've heard.

[@DakDario]

Does this unit the same effects as well the smaller monotron?

[@angeloroncaly8836]

can i use the monotron delay as an external delay device for other synths like the korg volca keys?

[@postnoise]

yes, if you like some weird sounds along with your delay (i do and i 'm fine with it)

[@BillDerBerg]

They couldn't put a larger membrane keyboard like the old EHX MiniSynth?

[@KeiNaarr]

Thanks for this valuable great piece of information :) will defintiely buy the whole set, they're so cheap.

[@artslife3876]

I'm wondering can all three Monotrons be connected through the auxiliary inputs?

[@uppochner]

I'm getting at least one of each of these!!!

[@HotRodTypewriter]

Since I don't own the original,I think I'd go for the delay first to play with the LFO,then add the Duo when I'm ready to combine efforts.

[@Goth108]

@Goth108 I stand corrected after mailing to Korg.. the monotron delay really is a analog BBD delay.. so probably really the best you can get for this price.

[@pedrofalcaion]

Great video

[@VariousArtists2007]

Any news on when these are released in the UK yet?

[@FreeThink1984]

I actually really like the Delay version, I feel like it has a lot of possibilities. Too bad it doesn't have 1/4 jacks.

[@neildmonte8786]

These two are really useful :)

[@ri000ck]

Nice thanks for this video going to buy my first Synthesizer

[@MrJumboshrimp7]

finally some one doing some thing with the new monotron