If you're not much of a musician but you really want to express yourself, the Miniak is for you. If you ARE a musician then all the better - This thing sounds amazing!
Bought one of these 4 weeks ago......£130....its a synth I had never heard of....even though it's been out for years ...belter of a buy....better than my microkorg by miles💥👌🍾🍾
I created some hopefully useful tools (Miniaktools) for the Miniak - available on Sourceforger. Just the Multi used to decode. Benefits from some hardware but lovely synth.
I have had 2 and still own 1. Will keep it around for sure. Very lovely synth. Both units I owned had a sag in the middle of the keyed and the chassis itself. Anyone else have that?
Just dusted mine off today and boy did I grin. I love that new videos are starting to pop up. Got it for 215 euro a bunch of years ago, just after it got discontinued. Joking about the dust, it's still mint as I didn't even unbox it before the case came in. Haven't even removed the sticker on the display, go figure. I'll read the booklet one day, I swear. In the mean time, music!
It was basically a rebranded Alexis micron. Those sold fairly well several years before and most people would just buy the micron used and save a couple hundred bucks.
Recently pulled mine out of storage for some noodling and didn't realise how much of a price hike these things have had.. One day I'll actually figure out how to program the damn thing..
Re-boxed and re-branded Alesis Micron, exact same sound engine, with different presets, an xlr Mic input on the front panel, and two of the controls turned into mod wheels, instead of the Micron's sliders, good sounding synth engine, quite easy to program sounds, and well worth the money, but quite a bit of menu diving when programming things, with shortcuts using key combinations, I still have my Orange Micron, great wee synth, powerful and compact.
@@biggrime Yeah, not easy like a knob per function machine, but far easier than a DX7, once you get used to the short cuts, and use it for a while, it's not to bad, easy to assign functions to controllers, worth picking up for a collection, but if its to be your only synth, I'm not sure.., I have many synths, and don't scrutinize them individually as much as I would if I only had a few, if you get me, but the Miniak/Micron is quite powerful, with fx and percussion etc, as well as the decent sounding synth section, and to be honest, I've never used all of its functions, mainly just the actual synth section, and I feel its a really decent sounding synth, and compact, but not perfect, non are, if you find it frustrating to program, there is a free editor, if you google, as well as the option to tweak the many presets.
I bought one of those some years ago, it's currently in storage. I think that I'll have to go and get it back after hearing what I'm missing!!! I think that it's based on the Alesis micron synth, or has the same ish synth engine. A very underated beast.
@@davidm3569 - I created a free one - but seriously the keyboard shortcuts are super cool. Manual us pretty good resource - that being said I created an Arduino based interface for the thing. And Ctrlr panel is pretty good too.
Hi Gearfacts.Great video.What would you prefer better for modern trance sounds and live performance-Miniak or Mininova,only in terms of sound possibilities?
Wow that's a close race, for sure. I think I'd choose the Miniak if I felt I could rely on it. It has a poor reputation for reliability. If you've got a bit extra to spend, I think the Korg Modwave is an amazing trance machine. But hey, all three are great :)
@@gearfacts Lovely!Just purchased second hand Mininova in good price,and great shape.Waiting for delivery.Its my first machine.Of course I had in the past for a short time synth Casio XW P1 new,but sold long time ago. I think Mininova will offer more than Casio and alot of fun and joy for beginner,as I am😉 Thanks.
LOL! Everyone loses at least one of those little black caps on top of the white control knobs on this machine. I finally glued them on. BTW mine gets hot too (US/AC), and I hear that the adapter will eventually fail, so I purchased a spare.
@@gearfacts Nice demo! Yeah, funny, lost mine as well on the same knob and I really can't recall how it got off and went to, maybe during a move, strange but so I'm not the only one it seems 😀
Great lil' synth beastie! I just bought one locally for US $120. All it needed was a power adapter. But alas, the Middle A key is dead. I opened it up, cleaned all the key contacts, unplugged & replugged the ribbons, then I restored the AKAI factory settings... but that A key is still dead, even with no visible damage or dirt inside. Any tips on fixing this key issue?
Astounding sounds, beats & versatility. I'm also swapping the 5 stock off-white knobs for new black knobs with imbedded red/orange tops. Better colour scheme, and those loose black knob tops seem to fly off once it's out of the box. I'll be exploring all the programs, rhythms & multi settings for the next few months or years. Check the user reviews on Reverb to learn all the amazing things this synth can do...
Akai could have easily put this engine in an MPC like box or in the TomCat form factor and sold it as an 8 voice drum synth too . Honestly they still could .
@@prema9878 And a variation in the Alesis Fusion too , however I was speaking specifically on a smallish form factor dedicated Drum Synth . Good info though for thouse who don't know . Cheers
Maybe... I've heard a couple of times now that there's a strong similarity between the two. This Miniak actually has a fault with the right channel so technically I'm still on the search. As is the way of things with synth lovers... :) #gearfacts
Great demo. Is this synth easy to control or is it a case of the synth controlling the player? How easy is it to create original patches and sequences?
Hi Geoff, these are questions I really need to look into on an upcoming video. Indications are good though - It's all very controllable once you know how all the controllers are targeted for a given patch. Many of the presets do have a 'run on rails' chord progression to them but they are just there to be a guide or a template :) #gearfacts
Quite easy. You may like to pull down patches I modified on Miniaktools site. It's the original set except I modified every preset to have a mod setting of poly afterouch set to 0. Why? Well you cannot add a mod - I can because I hacked the sysex to produce it. This means with those patches any editor can modify all 12 mods on every patch.
It's a case of one-knob-does-all. The data knob scrolls from left to right through nearly 200 parameters of your patch, starting at the beginning of the signal path: VOICE>OSC>AMP>RING MOD>NOISE>EXTinputlevel>NOISEtype>FILTER1>FILTER2>FX1>FX2>ENV1>ENV2>ENV3. Of course there's several parameters for each of those components...all the usual suspects to tune your oscillators, select filter ladders and frequencies, adjust your fx parameters, and set your ADSR. There's also balance controls for specifying what percentage of each FILTER goes to each OSC/RING MOD/NOISE, a cool freerun and looping setting for the envelope shape. After that it's LFO settings and then the MOD matrix with four pairs of Source/Destination connections available... All of it is accessed by scrolling left to right with one knob and a click. Thankfully, you can take a shortcut and jump to each heading by holding a button and pressing one of the labelled white keys, which speeds things up :) If you can get over the excessive knob twiddling, it's really quite easy and full of potential. Plenty of flex for not-much-money.
Yeah it's a fully legit standalone synth, but there's also a VST editor available which turns it into a hardware DAW plugin :) www.hypersynth.com/miniak-editor.html
The Akai Miniak is from 2010, and it's a rebranded Alesis Micron from 2004, which is a stripped down Alesis Ion from 2003. When Akai bought Alesis, they refreshed and re-released some of their better gear with updated styling but the internal engines appear identical to the original. (don't mess with what works) I have both and neither the Miniak or Micron have aftertouch. The Miniak comes with a handy microphone for the vocoder. And the Miniak feels a little more solidly built.
No, this was made by Alesis. It's the Alesis Micron/Ion engine. After Alesis was acquired by Akai, the Akai Miniak was released using the Alesis Micron software engine.
Yeah I agree. There's too much talk about what's PCM, what's FM, what's analog and what's digital. Let's just play music people!! Thanks for your comment :) #gearfacts
Some people are impressed with the fact that you can just press one key and bam, you get most of what a song is (drums and readymade sequences and tones), but honestly... that's the equivalent to playing an mp3 on your phone for me.
Technically, you are more a conductor, deciding when and where you want to bring in a sequence for backing. Much better than just pressing play as it's dynamic.
You could say the same of almost any electronic music artist that uses a sequencer, from Chris Franke onwards. The interactivity is there to create something completely different, which means it's actually nothing like an mp3.
I have sadly skipped buying this little wonder when it used to be offered CHEAP on the net.. You come in and show it off, and sure enough! The price is too high now!! Lol! Funny how that happens. Yeah this is hardware based on the Alesis Micron but without the faulty software that the micron seemed to have been suffering hence the recent cheap prices for the metallic silver little boards. The Akai all PLASTIC model has gone UP in price lately.. Ah well, maybe next time for me!
Well, this one's for sale now if you are up for some international shipping! It's on 'Gearfacts Music Gear Trading' on Facebook if you wanna check it out :) #gearfacts
You got to love the old gear.. it's hard to believe that this little synthesizer is about 10 years old now and still very popular
That sounds like my cup of tea😜
I’ve had mine for so many years, not used it for ages.
Bought one of these 4 weeks ago......£130....its a synth I had never heard of....even though it's been out for years
...belter of a buy....better than my microkorg by miles💥👌🍾🍾
130 quid is a real bargain IMHO :) #gearfacts
I created some hopefully useful tools (Miniaktools) for the Miniak - available on Sourceforger. Just the Multi used to decode. Benefits from some hardware but lovely synth.
Your tools are excellent,Stephen. Any chance of tinkering with the firmware at all?
I have had 2 and still own 1. Will keep it around for sure. Very lovely synth. Both units I owned had a sag in the middle of the keyed and the chassis itself. Anyone else have that?
Interesting defect, good to know. Thanks for watching my video!
Revisiting this. WANT😜
Just dusted mine off today and boy did I grin. I love that new videos are starting to pop up. Got it for 215 euro a bunch of years ago, just after it got discontinued.
Joking about the dust, it's still mint as I didn't even unbox it before the case came in. Haven't even removed the sticker on the display, go figure.
I'll read the booklet one day, I swear. In the mean time, music!
Oh I can relate to that last line!
Great little synthesizer. A miracle it never sold well.
Totally. Hard to find now too.
@@gearfacts hit me up if you're interested
It was basically a rebranded Alexis micron. Those sold fairly well several years before and most people would just buy the micron used and save a couple hundred bucks.
Recently pulled mine out of storage for some noodling and didn't realise how much of a price hike these things have had..
One day I'll actually figure out how to program the damn thing..
Yeah I hear you! It's quirky for sure... :) #gearfacts
Re-boxed and re-branded Alesis Micron, exact same sound engine, with different presets, an xlr Mic input on the front panel, and two of the controls turned into mod wheels, instead of the Micron's sliders, good sounding synth engine, quite easy to program sounds, and well worth the money, but quite a bit of menu diving when programming things, with shortcuts using key combinations, I still have my Orange Micron, great wee synth, powerful and compact.
Yeah I think Alesis do a lot of re-badging. I still have a soft spot for them though.
Programming is not fun at all. I like some of the sounds but jeez. Programming is a bit. Found one for $190. Debating getting it
@@biggrime Yeah, not easy like a knob per function machine, but far easier than a DX7, once you get used to the short cuts, and use it for a while, it's not to bad, easy to assign functions to controllers, worth picking up for a collection, but if its to be your only synth, I'm not sure.., I have many synths, and don't scrutinize them individually as much as I would if I only had a few, if you get me, but the Miniak/Micron is quite powerful, with fx and percussion etc, as well as the decent sounding synth section, and to be honest, I've never used all of its functions, mainly just the actual synth section, and I feel its a really decent sounding synth, and compact, but not perfect, non are, if you find it frustrating to program, there is a free editor, if you google, as well as the option to tweak the many presets.
I bought one of those some years ago, it's currently in storage. I think that I'll have to go and get it back after hearing what I'm missing!!!
I think that it's based on the Alesis micron synth, or has the same ish synth engine. A very underated beast.
Totally get that beast out man!
There were, and maybe still are? patch editors available for the Miniak and Micro synths that enable you to ' get under the hood '.
@David M Yup, same engine. I own both a Micron and a Miniak. I really like the controls layout of the Miniak, but they're both cool in their own way.
@@davidm3569 - I created a free one - but seriously the keyboard shortcuts are super cool. Manual us pretty good resource - that being said I created an Arduino based interface for the thing. And Ctrlr panel is pretty good too.
Just got one for with case, $100! Excited to plug her in!
Definite bargain there :)
@@gearfacts totally thrilled with it so far!
Alesis ION, Akai MINIAK, and .. an Akai MINIAK. Yes.
m.czcams.com/video/227g3VS9LJc/video.html
Hi Gearfacts.Great video.What would you prefer better for modern trance sounds and live performance-Miniak or Mininova,only in terms of sound possibilities?
Wow that's a close race, for sure. I think I'd choose the Miniak if I felt I could rely on it. It has a poor reputation for reliability. If you've got a bit extra to spend, I think the Korg Modwave is an amazing trance machine. But hey, all three are great :)
@@gearfacts Lovely!Just purchased second hand Mininova in good price,and great shape.Waiting for delivery.Its my first machine.Of course I had in the past for a short time synth Casio XW P1 new,but sold long time ago.
I think Mininova will offer more than Casio and alot of fun and joy for beginner,as I am😉
Thanks.
@@kriskris4552 I think you are definitely right!
LOL! Everyone loses at least one of those little black caps on top of the white control knobs on this machine. I finally glued them on. BTW mine gets hot too (US/AC), and I hear that the adapter will eventually fail, so I purchased a spare.
Yes, curse those knobs... Good info there about the heat/power :) #gearfacts
you can share the knob replace type name please?
@@gearfacts Nice demo! Yeah, funny, lost mine as well on the same knob and I really can't recall how it got off and went to, maybe during a move, strange but so I'm not the only one it seems 😀
The preset sounds are soooooooo good lmao
Well they are!
Great lil' synth beastie! I just bought one locally for US $120. All it needed was a power adapter. But alas, the Middle A key is dead. I opened it up, cleaned all the key contacts, unplugged & replugged the ribbons, then I restored the AKAI factory settings... but that A key is still dead, even with no visible damage or dirt inside. Any tips on fixing this key issue?
Astounding sounds, beats & versatility. I'm also swapping the 5 stock off-white knobs for new black knobs with imbedded red/orange tops. Better colour scheme, and those loose black knob tops seem to fly off once it's out of the box. I'll be exploring all the programs, rhythms & multi settings for the next few months or years. Check the user reviews on Reverb to learn all the amazing things this synth can do...
Akai could have easily put this engine in an MPC like box or in the TomCat form factor and sold it as an 8 voice drum synth too . Honestly they still could .
It’s on the mpc 5000
@@prema9878 And a variation in the Alesis Fusion too , however I was speaking specifically on a smallish form factor dedicated Drum Synth . Good info though for thouse who don't know . Cheers
Guess you can end your search for a Micron now since you got your hands on a Miniak :P
Maybe... I've heard a couple of times now that there's a strong similarity between the two. This Miniak actually has a fault with the right channel so technically I'm still on the search. As is the way of things with synth lovers... :) #gearfacts
Pump some of that delicious arpeggiation into an old Yamaha and see what happens!
Good idea - there's my next video right there! :) #gearfacts
Great demo. Is this synth easy to control or is it a case of the synth controlling the player? How easy is it to create original patches and sequences?
Hi Geoff, these are questions I really need to look into on an upcoming video. Indications are good though - It's all very controllable once you know how all the controllers are targeted for a given patch. Many of the presets do have a 'run on rails' chord progression to them but they are just there to be a guide or a template :) #gearfacts
Quite easy. You may like to pull down patches I modified on Miniaktools site. It's the original set except I modified every preset to have a mod setting of poly afterouch set to 0. Why? Well you cannot add a mod - I can because I hacked the sysex to produce it. This means with those patches any editor can modify all 12 mods on every patch.
It's a case of one-knob-does-all. The data knob scrolls from left to right through nearly 200 parameters of your patch, starting at the beginning of the signal path:
VOICE>OSC>AMP>RING MOD>NOISE>EXTinputlevel>NOISEtype>FILTER1>FILTER2>FX1>FX2>ENV1>ENV2>ENV3.
Of course there's several parameters for each of those components...all the usual suspects to tune your oscillators, select filter ladders and frequencies, adjust your fx parameters, and set your ADSR. There's also balance controls for specifying what percentage of each FILTER goes to each OSC/RING MOD/NOISE, a cool freerun and looping setting for the envelope shape. After that it's LFO settings and then the MOD matrix with four pairs of Source/Destination connections available...
All of it is accessed by scrolling left to right with one knob and a click. Thankfully, you can take a shortcut and jump to each heading by holding a button and pressing one of the labelled white keys, which speeds things up :)
If you can get over the excessive knob twiddling, it's really quite easy and full of potential. Plenty of flex for not-much-money.
Would love to get one but very hard to come by unfortunately
Yeah I was lucky to get this one, and it has a couple of faults that I didn't discuss as it wasn't really relevant :) #gearfacts
I know of 2 for sale for next to nothing !
So thats all inboard sound engine, no pc or uploading required? Tbh ive never heard of this one😮
Yep that's all in its own little brain.
Yeah it's a fully legit standalone synth, but there's also a VST editor available which turns it into a hardware DAW plugin :)
www.hypersynth.com/miniak-editor.html
The Akai Miniak is from 2010, and it's a rebranded Alesis Micron from 2004, which is a stripped down Alesis Ion from 2003. When Akai bought Alesis, they refreshed and re-released some of their better gear with updated styling but the internal engines appear identical to the original. (don't mess with what works)
I have both and neither the Miniak or Micron have aftertouch. The Miniak comes with a handy microphone for the vocoder. And the Miniak feels a little more solidly built.
It's basically a rebranded Alesis micron. They can sound great, but they are a pain to program.
Yeah several people have pointed out the similarity. Looking forward to trying a Micron and doing a comparison.
Sadly these are few and far between in Australia, you're lucky you managed to score one!
Yep, rarely seen for sale. It wasn't a keeper for me (chose the M-Audio Venom in the end) but the buyer was very pleased :)
So these guys made the Timbre Wolf, WTF happened!?!?
Good point there :) #gearfacts
Brett Victor (the main designer) went to work for apple, and some of the others went and made the m-audio venom synth.
The timbre wolf is a lot of fun to play with.. it's a totally different synthesizer from this little beast
No, this was made by Alesis. It's the Alesis Micron/Ion engine. After Alesis was acquired by Akai, the Akai Miniak was released using the Alesis Micron software engine.
@@gokugoma3258 It certainly is. Enough said.
Is it true that this is sturdier than the Micron? The Micron is known for failing knobs and the pitch wheel.
Never tried a Micron sorry!
I like it's unashamedly digital approach. The drums don't seem up to the rest of sounds in raw quality. Perhaps a future niche classic or already!
Yeah I agree. There's too much talk about what's PCM, what's FM, what's analog and what's digital. Let's just play music people!! Thanks for your comment :) #gearfacts
i think its great for dungeon synth stuff
Analogue armchair gearslutz snobs: "Sadly, it lacks an analogue filter, so it's game over already for me" 😆🤣
Oh, if only. If only.....
Some people are impressed with the fact that you can just press one key and bam, you get most of what a song is (drums and readymade sequences and tones), but honestly... that's the equivalent to playing an mp3 on your phone for me.
Or it could be viewed as just a time-saving thing. When it comes to workstations with preset beats and accompaniments then yes, I agree :)
Technically, you are more a conductor, deciding when and where you want to bring in a sequence for backing. Much better than just pressing play as it's dynamic.
You could say the same of almost any electronic music artist that uses a sequencer, from Chris Franke onwards.
The interactivity is there to create something completely different, which means it's actually nothing like an mp3.
@@2112jonr to an extent maybe, I prefer to arrange my own sequences though, otherwise it just feels like im not doing much
Uh Kye
does this synthesizer record midi?
I have sadly skipped buying this little wonder when it used to be offered CHEAP on the net.. You come in and show it off, and sure enough! The price is too high now!! Lol! Funny how that happens. Yeah this is hardware based on the Alesis Micron but without the faulty software that the micron seemed to have been suffering hence the recent cheap prices for the metallic silver little boards. The Akai all PLASTIC model has gone UP in price lately.. Ah well, maybe next time for me!
Well, this one's for sale now if you are up for some international shipping! It's on 'Gearfacts Music Gear Trading' on Facebook if you wanna check it out :) #gearfacts
Almost every piece of gear has readjusted to a realistic price to reflect demand. Not just this.
Not my cup of tea honestly...
Ohh 'tis for me. I'll quaff that beverage :) #gearfacts