Korg Prologue Review & Tutorial: The Most Underrated Synth?
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 3. 03. 2020
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Hadn't seen this been done before on CZcams so I thought I'd give it a review. Let me know what you guys think!
Superb review! Ordered mine yesterday, cannot wait for it to arrive!
Thank you ! You are gonna absolutely love it :)
I posted a detailed comparison with the Summit where I go over classic sounds if you are interested too!
Really appreciate this tutorial. When I watched your Studio Tour 2020 video earlier you made a comment about knowing the Prologue like the back of your hand and that is when I was hoping I could find a Prologue tutorial video on your channel. I did. Great video. Thanks...
Thanks for watching Mac! I've got good news : I'm actually working on a 1 hr long Korg Prologue Masterclass Sound Design video for this channel - will drop next month!
@@MilesAwayOfficial Excellent news. Thanks for all your hard work and time. Really looking forward to this one.
Really nice demo and overview!
Thank you!
Holy shit this sounds amazing. Great review :)
Thanks! Lots more reviews on the channel, check out my comparison of this vs the Summit.
Great review and tutorial. I've had my Prologue for almost two years and contrary to what some say about it being limited I'm still finding things that it can do. I'm looking forward to your Summit review. Subbed
Awesome thanks for watching! Summit review is live now by the way :)
Limitation doesn't stand long before creativity. Remembering the 80's, the specs of so many things obviously inferior and equally, improvements sought after - yet they were used regardless and made an iconic era. How much do specs truly matter? On paper yes. Then you put a sub-optimum operator with limited imagination in front of the highest spec synth and get a sweet bunch of nothing.
Its more complicated than that but in the interests of keeping it short and reasonable; lets just look left and right at those demanding a Kronos successor; when there are those stages still centered around a Triton EX all these decades later and still sounding amazing.
Relevance is purely down to your ability to express yourself and you should only ever upgrade, when you alone find a feature you miss. Don't compete with specs. Its an engineers game; that can be left for that theatre. In making music, only the music matters.
@@ErraticFaith Beautifully put. I agree 100%. Actually I think those who complain about features don't realize that they are basically saying that they are incompetent without them. They are proud of their incompetence so leave them be. Those who work with what they have and make it work are the positive creative people who get things done. Still you need the incompetent so that the competent can stand out :-)
@@ErraticFaith Great response! Totally agree.
Awesome tutorial Devin đŻ
Thanks Phillip! appreciate it my dude!
Yeah the Prologue needs more love! I love my 16.
Great buy! Instant synthwave machine.
Nice review, well done. I don't use the chord mode often, but I think it is a useful way to get a 5th above the main voice without sacrificing a VCO. So in organ terminology using chord mode you could have VCO1 at 8' (with chord mode adding 5 1/3') and VCO2 at 4' (with chord mode adding 2 2/3'). If you want to get more complex then you can use the VPM as your fundamental tone and tune VCO1 and VCO2 differently, each note playing with a 5th above it. Then of course you can layer patches . This lets you get some complex additive/organ style voicings with only 3 voices. The organ user oscillator you played briefly sounded excellent.
That's a great suggestion! I honestly never thought of it. And yea ORGANism is an amazing oscillator :)
@@MilesAwayOfficial The limitation is that Chord Mode is monophonic.
Really appreciated this review. Considering. Heard the cons... but loved your showcasing the pros. Bravo. I will give a listen to your soundset as well... should I pull the trigger on this.
Thanks so much Mark! What synth did you end up buying !
Nice review Devin!
Thanks Tim! appreciate it man
Great video thank you I am getting one
awesome ! enjoy!
Great overview/tutorial! I own a Prologue too, but I didn`t see the Suboszillator Function in Mono Mode...until now... ;)) Thank You!
Sub Osc is a beast! Glad i could help :)
Man this sounds so good. I really do think over time this synth will be really sought after.
Its still so underrated. I have OB-X8. 3rd Wave, Moogs - and the Prologue can hang with all of them. Never selling it
@@MilesAwayOfficial bought one cause of your video :) awesome to see you saying that! You definitely have good taste and tons of synths to back it up!
Im dying to get my hands on one!
Ya they are so money dude
great vid, ive had mine 2 days and it truly is the best synth Ive ever had, because it's so hands on and its limitations and of course that filter can make some demonic sounds.... one issue though... I can't seem to find the @OK@ button. I go to init program in the menu but i cant seem to get any button to ok it.
It's so awesome! And to be honest, that's how I init as well. I don't think there's a button. I just posted a comparison of Prologue vs Summit if you are interested by the way!
This synth has completely changed the way i approach my tracks now.
also if anyone is considering getting the 8 over the 16, if you can get the 16
the LF compressor changes the sounds so much and unison with all 16 voices sounds incredible
The sounds it produces are simply amazing.
Love it.
Fully agreed! Stoked you love the synth as much as I do and welcome to the channel :) tons more synth content here!
Thanks. I'm new to synths, and I wasn't sure if I just liked the 16 because its bigger or it really offerend something better than the 8
I'm still getting the 8 for only synth leads and synth bass that's literally about it
Can you please add the links to the free user effects? Also, Iâd love a video on prologue sound design, especially for percussion sounds.
Hey! Noted about the tutorial, happy to do that. I love it especially for 808s. And all my free and paid effects finds are here. Highly recommend paying for the filters, having a second filter is a game changer.
www.reddit.com/r/synthesizers/comments/atlppn/heres_a_list_of_available_korg_sdk_user/
Is the amp and filter envelope unique to each timbre when doing either a split or stacked layer? e.g. can you setup one timbre with a fast attack and delay, and no sustain, then a second timbre with slow attack and sustain, layer them, so that the first timbre is heard and the second timbre fades in behind it?
Based on reading Korg's materials, it seems this is true. Given that, this synth seems like quite a bargain for all of what you get. The only really missing feature that I'd want would be polyphonic aftertouch on the keyboard. I see with the latest firmware it supports MIDI aftertouch, but having that on the keyboard would have been nice. For the price though, I get why they didn't include that.
Yep absolutely! Everything on the synth except the FX can be applied uniquely twice. With the FX you just have the option to use on A, B or Both.
Great Video!
I did not get the part with the organ at 4:30. What exactly did you do there?
Thank you.
It's a user made digital oscillator, I'm bringing up different "bands" of organ harmonics like a classic organ !
Thanks! thanks! thanks!
Believe me! I have bought five KP16, all my Trance music is made with five KP16, Moog Subsequent 37 and NAVA Extra 9. The sound of the VCOs are the best in the world for Trance music!
I agree! Most of my releases from 2020 are only Korg Prologue, the VCOs are fantastic for dance music
@@MilesAwayOfficial
You are the best.
Have you ever had a chance to compare Prologue 16 to Nord Lead A1? I'm mainly talking about the effects, reverbs specifically. I'm considering buying one or another and I'm looking for some opinions :)
I've never used the Nord synths so I couldn't tell you, but Nord is virtual analog and this is analog. So they will be similar most likely but different in their character! I've heard the keys on Nords are great though.
Excellent review! I want to personally ask for your opinion on this but would this be a synth that could be compared to Claviaâs Nord Leads? Iâm getting a Korg, and looking to replace the Nord with something else with a different sound. I hope my question makes sense
I've never owned a Nord sorry! But I feel like those are more for players than analog synth heads, they are VA and sample based right? Any analog synth is gonna be a very different experience, better in some ways worse in others. Prologue is great, but its a vibey character synth, not a jack of all trades/ Maybe look into a Prophet 6 for something more versatile than the Prologue.
I like the Prologue but I'm still not sold on it even though it's priced right.That said, I have a Korg Monologue, a Deepmind 12, a DSI Rev.2-16, plus a Moog Grandmother so my analog bases are covered. For digital, I bought the Korg Wavestate and I'm blown away with its amazing range of sounds. However, I wish it had a 5 octave keyboard. I'd buy another. if Korg were to listen to the critics and upgrade the Prologue like they did the Minilogue XD then I might be interested. People are correct though, Prologue doesn't get the love it deserves. I rarely see any recent videos on YT showcasing its wonderful capabilities.
Thanks for watching and that's a sick collection! I'd love to try the Wavestate, however they seem a bit rare here in Canada on the used market. Which is your fave synth you have?
Just buy it, itâs amazing, I was iffy too, but once o pulled it out and turned it on I fell in love immediately
It has limitations regarding modulation but it has that macro oscillator which I think kind of offsets any limitations you might have. Don't need elaborate modulation matrix if you can start with a complex oscillator. I don't know any other synth that can impersonate a Roland JP8000 in the same stride it does analogue stuff, things like VPM, FM, and whatever else you can think up for the macro oscillator section. I ended up buying this by the way after sitting on the fence for a long time (in no small part thanks to your videos). 16 analogue voices for $1444 (got an offer on a new one on Reverb). How can you beat that? And the synth is just one giant sweet spot no matter what you do. Definitely a nice surprise. Best black friday week yet.
Exactly ! That's my thoughts as well. It really got a lot of unfortunate hate and is now so underrated. Thanks for watching and enjoy your prologue, I made 100 custom patches for it if you are looking for new sounds :)
I've been considering the Prologue 8 & 16, the Hyrdasynth and the Sequential Pro 3. I like the Prologue sounds but wondering if the bugs are fixed. The tuning issues etc? Would be great if it had a sequencer too. I would like a synth with not a lot of menu diving.
Prologue tuning issues are all fixed! Not sure what other bugs you are talking about. Thereâs only menu diving for the deeper stuff. All 3 of those choices rock! If you donât already have a poly synth Iâd get the Prologue, but if you do, the Pro3-Pro2 are so special. Hydra never appealed to me that much since i already have Serum the plug-in and they sound very similar.
@@MilesAwayOfficial Thanks for your reply. I have the Roland Gaia. Maybe the Pro 3 next? ;)
@@IRIDEHARLEYS itâs amazing! Either prologue or pro3 you canât go wrong, it just depends if you value modulation or polyphony. Both sounds sick. I really am Hoping to be able to get my hands on a pro three for a review and to see how it compares to my pro 2
Hi, thx for the video. I have a few questions for a synth+ master keyboard use case :
- Can the Prologue be used as a master keyboard to control VSTs or other hardware synth ?
- In this mode, can I split/stack between two external (vst/hardware parts or mix external with internal parts ?
- Can I assign a specific MIDI channel to send notes on a per part basis when in split or stack mode ?
I'd like to see if this could save me the home studio real estate and expense of a master keyboard. This type of keybed with split, stack and arpeggio being just enough for me.
Would you want this as a master keyboard without aftertouch, though?
@@kwaping That's what I indeed realised a bit after. Quite strange they didn't include aftertouch in a synth with so much expressive potential.
@@alexandrosroussos It can be used as a midi controller but personally I use my summit because of the aftertouch. If you don't need aftertouch, it's a great controller.
Miles Away Thank you for your answer. Iâm also eying the Summit as possible main keyboard.
Can you tell me if you can use the keyboard in split mode and control another synth on one zone and the summit on the other.
If not, can you at least have the Summit active and controlled by a sequencer while you are using its keyboard for another synth ?
The idea is it to act in the setup as both controller and synth.
Currently using an SL 49 mkiii but would like to simplify the setup as much as possible.
kwaping I realized that. So now checking if the Summit, Access Virus or Rev2 can do this external control while active mode.
This synth is insanely under-rated. I have had a prologue 16, rev2, and a summit. Great synths, but the prologue has a certain charm that the others don't. I find the panel to be really user-friendly with a great workflow. It just sounds huge and very dialed in
Spot on man! Fully agree with this assessment. Itâs just so characterful and creates an immediate vibe.
I had this synth for a while so now I can safely say that lack of modulation is bs. You can move and modulate sounds in so many different ways on this synth. Granted it doesnt have classic approaches with tons of lfos but i have other synths for that. All that aside, it has so much character and sits good in the mix.
Agreed! What are your fave ways to modulate the sound?
What other ways?
can you elaborate more on "different ways"?
Even though the workflow is not the best, you can double the number of LFOâs(1) and envelopes if you use it âbi-timbrallyâ. Some digital oscillators also have envelopes and LFOâs (although they can only affect the digital oscillator).
That sound at 17:06 is beautiful, that a patch you've made or a default for the Prologue?
That is the best stock patch ever with just a bit of tweaking (and the only stock patch I show here): Cinematica (think that's how you spell)
'devin here from miles away' gets me every time XD
Lots of new folks tuning these days, in so gotta give em the warm canadian welcome! :D
I love my prologue and what it does, it does really well, but to me my biggest gripe is that the oscillators donât have the weight that a mini Moog or Juno have. Itâs more buzzy, which is cool, just not as fun lol. Really makes it easier to mix though I guess.
I take it that you have an 8 voice one without the compressor? That's the only reason I can think of why it doesn't have the weight. I've got a 16 voice and it rivals the Moog Sub37 for bass and that's really saying something.
Luke Kage correct. I have the 8 voice. And yeah the LF Comp adds some beef, but it still doesnât have that weight from the oscillators. Not a big deal really, sounds pretty good through my Strymon Deco.
@@marcuswilespage I see mine as a Swiss Army Knife of a synth. It can cover practically all the bases (pardon the pun) I need for making music. It's not a Moog but the bass on it can rumble. Split and layer are great on it too and I love the internal effects so much that most of the time that's what I record instead of post production effects or external effects. That said I'm sure it sounds even better through your Strymon :-)
The super6 is really intriguing with its Binaural mode. The dual architecture random movement with heaphones is ridiculous. Can the P16 do that? Can... anything?
Hey mark! Missed your comments. Sorry about that! Super6 Binaural mode is incredible! Prologue can't do this, but the closest would be to make a bitimbral patch on the summit and make it one set of outputs go to the L and one set to the R. Then, adjust one side different to the other!
Awesome synth, cheaper than the REV2 yet more advanced for sound design. This thing is really alive and needs a couple tunings during warm up. Sounds great with the compressor. I am not a fan of the light (but fast) keyboard with no aftertouch, and I never liked lever-switches in synths, but itâs a matter of personal taste. An integrated sequencer would have been nice to have. The digital fx are top notch. For the price, you canât go wrong.
Agreed! Prologue for sound, complex oscillators and filter, Rev 2 for modulation options and keyboard quality.
Do you own the Rev 2 as well?
I wish ;-) But no, I just tried both and then decided to go with the Prologue 16.
@@dans.8198 Good choice! It's an amazing synth. I went with the Novation Summit to pair with mine this year.
@@dans.8198 That's the same choice that I made. I don't regret it one bit as it sounds fantastic
Rev2 has far more advanced sound design, but you gotta coax good sounds from it, prologue sounds good very quickly. Have both.
How are the voices allocated in the Prologue? If you continuously strike the same key and have a long release, does the same voice get re-triggered or does it use next available voice? I'm asking this, because if it uses the next available voice, then the two voices overlap and you get this phasing sound, and if the same voice gets re-triggered this doesn't happen, because the release part of the envelope gets cut off. I prefer the re-triggering, because it sounds cleaner and also spares voices. I hope Prologue re-triggers.
Thanks.
Great question! It does not cut off the next available voice, it keeps ringing out with each press.
However I know that sound you were talking about where it phases and sounds really messy, In my opinion the prologue is OK because of the VCOs: You get this lovely washy sound instead of that awful digital sounding phasing of the same exact oscs on top of each other.
@@MilesAwayOfficial right. It's terribly in DCO synth. Prophet 5 uses per-voice allocation, so it retriggers the same voice when one note is being repeatedly played. This is great for sounds with a fast attack, but not so great for ones with slow attack. Of course, if the different voices are calibrated well, then it's not a problem, but when they sound drastically different, then every new key press sounds quite different. This is sometimes desirable, sometimes not.
The middle position between sync and ring mods is actually not the mixture between the two, but modulation off.
Fascinating! Didn't know that, thank you!
Is the XD exactly the same but less voices and a smaller keyboard or are there more differences?
XD loses bitimbrality (big loss imo) but gains a really good step sequencer that the prologue doesn't have.
Sound wise afaik they are the same minus the Low Frequency Compressor
Personally I don't use sequencers so I prefer the bitimbrality for complex sound design and the LF compressor of the prologue but they are both great. XD is insane value.
Not the same the XD, they donât sound the same. I have had both.
would you suggest me to get prologue 16 or nord lead a1 ?
To me the Prologue sounds better, it's 'more alive'. But the A1 is an awesome synth too and has way mroe modulation capabilities. Pick whichever one inspires you more from online demos :)
Is the 16 worth the upgrade? Or is the 8 just as great?
Both are great synths, I think the 16 is 100% worth it because when you make complicated bitimbral patches you split the voices in half, and 4 voices per layer goes fast. Also the analog LF comp is awesome sounding and not just a gimmic!
Iâve had my prologue 16 since they were first released and for the life of me cannot understand why they arenât loved more than they are. I had a hydrasynth, Moog 37, prophet 6, Roland JDXA and system 8. Now I have only the prologue and iridium and have lost all gear lust. The prologue is always on and adding iridium gives me complete sonic palette. And sampling prologue into iridium is truly a blast. You can pick up a prologue 16 for WAY less than prophets and I prefer the sound of the prologue at the base level. I donât care how many modulation options you get in a synth, if the oscillators and filters are lacking, your just polishing turds. I will never part with my prologue. Or iridium
I totally agree! Also your comment made me really want an iridium haha.
Best quick, nevertheless complete review of the Prologue 16 I've seen so far. There are only a few features I find missing in this otherwise amazing synth. One, a separate effects section for each timbre. This is so obvious! I don't want the same effects for my lead than for my bass when in split mode. Or when in layer mode for that matter. Two, a random sample & hold setting for the LFO. Can't believe it was not included. I need it so bad for the filter cutoff! Downloaded a user effect that emulates one but it's not the same and it's on the effect's section (see point one above). Three, the low frequency compressor setting is not selectable for each timbre and it cannot be stored as part of a patch. Additionaly, many of the setting only reachable through the menu could be placed on board with small switches, dials or levels to keep the cost low but to make the sound editing process much more dynamic. All that aside, it has a great sound!
Thank you for watching Ricardo! And yea , pretty much spot on agree with your analysis! A few more onboard switches would do great things.
Pliz teach me sound designing!
I teach private zoom lessons, email teammilesaway @ gmail. com
@@MilesAwayOfficial i have email u check it!
Its more 'sad' than ob6?
Both can cover really similar ground in terms of that 'sad' or 'vintage' sound because they are VCOs. The filters are very different though; OB6 has a SEM filter vs Prologue's classic 12DB. Both amazing!
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thanks for the comment
I may go along with the claim that âlimitation breeds creativityâ , but I wish limited features would result in a limited price, too.
Haha I can agree with that!
Isn't the price "limited" already? It costs about half of a Sequential synth with similar specs. And has more voices too.
@@robertszordykowski4919 Sooo⊠the Sequential is the one thatâs overpriced?
Anyway, thanks for pointing out the similarity, I didnât know that.
Nice review ! Recent years Korg stuff is better. Better than Behringer. Still not Prophet or Moog build quality. Those flapper switches etc, a little concerning. I guess time will tell if they hold up idk. Sounding pretty interesting and a little different so that's good. I like the FX too. Prologue seems most compelling synth in many years from Korg. Even more compelling to me that other recent ones.
Switches have held up great for almost 2 years now! Time will tell for sure :) thanks for watching.
:)
Hope you learned something interesting Jac!
While it sounds great one LFO no thanks! Im glad i chose the Novation Summit!
Fair! I am releasing a sound set for the Summit soon so stay tuned on the channel! Enjoy your synth!
@@MilesAwayOfficial Will do! Cheers
Is their any problem... Why are u not replying?
Whatâs up?
I want to learn sound designing, u sent me your email id to contact u
But u are not replying!
@@sayantanroy6111 let me check! It might have gotten sent into spam, I never saw one!
@@MilesAwayOfficial i have massage u on instagram aslo
The single LFO is tragic though :(
Agreed, it's certainly a limitation, but a lot of classic poly synths only had 1!
What I actually think is the Prologue's biggest limitation is that there are only 3 LFO destinations and you can only route to 1 at a time - pitch, shape and cutoff. I want to be able to modulate 4-5 things simultaneously with that 1 LFO!
@@MilesAwayOfficial When you started showing off the user-created custom FX, it made me realize just how powerful it is in overcoming the flaws of the Prologue. Want to modulate volume + pitch with just one LFO? Use the tremolo FX for volume and use the LFO for pitch. Want a different filter from the lowpass? Use the highpass FX. This thing seems infinitely more customizable than most other analog-only synths, and like you said, retains the analog circuitry that you won't find in digital-only/"virtual analog" synths like the Hydrasynth (something I've been cross-shopping against the Prologue). It's really a perfect recipe.
@@Megaphonix Exactly! Check out the developers Sinevibes, Tim Shoebridge and DirtBoxSynth and you will be blown away by how deep this thing can go. Some user oscs can make sounds not even Peak/Hydra can do, and they come out so warm because of the Analog LF compressor and filter.
The guys at Korg RnD always have a reason. I have learned over time never to doubt them or undestimate them. They love the equipment, often more than they do their paycheck in Japan. After so many happy years of Triton, being told it was redundant (and likewise with the Kronos as the desktop era moved in) the best policy is LEARNING. Not moaning or avoiding limitations. You are one of few western reviewers I've noted Miles who puts this forward properly. Limitations aren't just a negative, they are a creative necessity a lot of the time. Which is ofcourse why the Jupiter 8 will long be remembered fondly, long after others have faded.
it is a good synth but it is expensive.
For 16 Voices of VCOs it's actually the cheapest on the market currently! But yes indeed it's pricy.
mostly underrated. lfos overrated. F#tuning problem is history. i love my pro 16. the future and way of analog. well done, korg.
Agreed so underrated!!
You need to cut them fingernails bro.
Nice vid though.
OCD much?
@@FemcelFurio Just a little.
HA just saw this. Guitar player problems :P
@ghost mall Ok, white knight. What ever you say.
Underrated? I would say alost overpriced. It sounds nice and all but i think its not underrated but "not that widelly accepted"
Nice video nonetheless
For me I really valued VCOs over DCOs or Digital, and multitimbrality with lots of voices over lots of modulation options, but I can definitely see how it might feel overpriced to some! Thanks for tuning in, I'm going to be posting a review of my Novation Summit next so stick around Saar :)