Korg Minilogue XD Reviews

This synth is just incredible.

Beeing a total hardware head but following the trends of using VST's its hard to surprise me in terms of sound nowadays, but this synth did.

I was hooked, inspired again and forgot about days/nights/mornings/evenings playing with it after unboxing. Great sound, fat, warm, easily fits into a mix, additional effects are exeptional, presets are massive, just tweak some and off you go.

Its my nowadays favorite synthesizer along with small, tiny Arturia microfreak. People, just forget about VST's for some time, get back to tactile feelings of creating music and not just clicking with your mouse on your screens. Vst's are like rubber woman or beer without alcohol:) Peace to all of you.

For it's price is a must

Definitely a very fun synth, that you can use without computer, have fun with it, with tons of useful presets to learn from and to use right away in your mixes.

2 analog oscillators + one digital, almost a knob-per-function, and possibility to program your own instruments for the digit. oscillator - and effects. One of the best all-rounder analog synths on the market.

Sound is also powerful and beautiful for its price range.

Would love a longer sequencer, but well - 16 is good enough.

Its a kind of Jack of All trades, master of most for any synth setup in my oppinon.

Best of the Best

Thank you Korg! Best synth ever!

Modern synthesizer with legendary sounds!

I love it! I have watched quite lot videos with this synthesizer till I decided to buy it and now I can say that it was one of the best decisions I have ever taken! Very good master out sound quality! This small machine has 200 legendary sounds from 70's, 80"s and 90's with other 300 additional user free spaces for saves. Perfect and very easy for modulation. There is a third very interesting digital VCO witch makes the synth hybrid. The Fx's are with very high quality and give you the feeling for massive space. There is a small shiny screen where you can watch the sound wave (That's cool).

I can say this synthesizer is a standard for every studio! The only disadvantage is the small size of the keyboard...

A bit on the 'safe' side, but excellent at what it does

Been jamming on this for a few weeks now. It's great at what it does, really well put together, feels solid, looks great, and sounds nice and clean in the mix. One thing I would say though is that its not ever going to be a wild analogue ride. Not a fault of the synth, it's not trying to be, but worth baring in mind because I was hoping I'd be able to push it into slightly weirder territories than I've found so far. The filter is quite controlled and safe sounding, as are the oscillators and the effects. Of course thats 100% a personal taste thing. Personally I'd watch demo videos to get an idea of the sound of the synth before buying, the presets do give a pretty good idea of what its capable of. What it does, it does really well. Overall I'd say its a very good synth but for me its not quite the perfect synth or a really timeless classic. I guess it just doesn't ever really catch me by surprise... But I do think thats to be expected given the price point and its overall flexibility. I def won't be passing mine on anytime soon and would recommend it to others so i must be pretty happy!

Korg Minilogue XD

Korg Minilogue XD Great Synthesizer

Voice polyphony

37 Velocity-sensitive keys Slim

Two analogue VCOs and digital multi-engine oscillator (Noise, FM, User-Wavetables) per voice

2-pole filter with a drive circuit

1 x VCA, 1 x LFO, 2 envelopes

Oscillator sync and ring modulation

500 Sounds storable (200 presets + 300 users)

Digital effects section with modulation effects, delay, and reverb

4 Voice Modes (Poly, Unison, Chord, Arp / Latch)

Joystick for pitch bend and modulation

Micro tuning with 23 preset and 6 user scales

Polyphonic 16 Step Sequencer with Motion Sequencer

Display of the generated waveform by oscilloscope function in the OLED display

44 Controls for direct access to all parameters

Control panel made of robust aluminum

The rear panel made of real wood

Stereo line output (2x 6.3 mm jack)

Headphone output (6.3 mm jack stereo)

Sustain pedal connector (6.3 mm jack)

Sync In / Out (3.5 mm jack mono)

2 x CV In (3.5 mm jack)

MIDI In / Out

USB B

Includes power supply DC 9V (KA350)

Amazing synth

Absolutely delighted with this powerful poly synth. 2 analog VCOs and digital oscillator leads to endless possibilities. Everything from powerful melodic leads to gritty bass is possible. The arp and sequencer are amazing. Flicking through the presets is a joy to listen to. My first poly synth but would definitely recommend, especially at that price.

I was torn between the Minilogue or Minilogue XD and I’m so happy I chose the latter. You won’t be disappointed.

Pros:

- amazing sound (compliments a Moog Sub 37 so well)

- very easy to use LFO

- hybrid of analog and digital oscillators

- great effects section (multiple reverb and delay types

- arp and sequencer function

Cons

- only 4 voices but it’s perfect for what I needed and for the price.

Great

I can't compare this synth to the original Minilogue because I never owned the first one, but I would recommend this synthesizer to anyone. It has an incredibly intuitive layout, and due to the combination of analogue and digital wavetables, the sonic possibilities are pretty much endless. Especially when you consider you can load up your own custom wavetables.

The build quality feels solid. It's a sturdy unit, the knobs feel heavy. The only thing that stood out to me right away is the small size keys. The keys are also a little bit flimsy, and they make a slight "squishy" noise when pressed. I got used to it now, and it doesn't really take anything away from this machine's ability, so that's why i'm taking only one star away from "handling".

The filter sounds great to my ears, you can turn up the resonance for some nice character. I also love the two "drive" modes in the filter, that really helps fatten up the sound in a big way. You can set it to 50% or 100%. 100% is usually overkill to my taste, but 50% really adds character. The built-in effects are nice to have and sound reasonably good, although I don't end up using them very much. All in all, if you're a beginner or an experienced musician, I think this synthesizer fits right in in any musical environment.

First off the Minilogue XD sounds great. The price is fair with the amount of synth you get. Compared to the original Minilogue which is also great, the additions, especially the digital oscillator make the XD really shine.

The synth is mainly used within a DAW/studio environment directly connected to a mixer/audio interface.

Build quality is of a high standard, with firm knobs, buttons and switches and a really nice front panel which feels robust. Mini keys are… mini keys, hate them or love them these keys are not bad. The screen is always a nice touch, values are shown depending on knob tweaks and of course it becomes an oscilloscope, which sometimes feels satisfying looking at it and sometimes it’s just helpful to “see” the sound. Presets are ok to get to know the synth and there are plenty of slots to make your own patches. The panel is pretty straight forward and all basic functions have a dedicated knob / switch.

The VCOs sound as they supposed to sound, but the digital oscillator adds really something to it. Some of the Korg oscillators sound really, really good plus user wavetables can be added. Still need to exploit more this part of the synth but there are lots of wavetables and effects available (both paid and free). The effects are ok, some of them are great sounding, some of them are just ok. All matter of taste. Again, the option to expand the engine with user effects is promising. Filter sounds nice but the overdrive is a bit limited (0, 50%, 100% overdrive values, nothing in between).

Modulations are also a bit limited but you can get decent results. Especially in accordance with the motion sequencer where you can add motion by recording motion movements. The sequencer is quite deep, intuitive and most of all fun to play with.

One setback, this synth is not able to properly communicate with a windows 7 pc. At least in my case Korg win7 drivers where not working properly, device not recognized no matter what, despite extensive troubleshooting. Fortunately XD works fine with a win10 pc. Just a note to those who use older Windows OS. There are some other issues for those who want to check, that hopefully can be overcome with a bit of help from the forums and YT. Speaking of pc connectivity, the librarian is quite useful to load and save patches, user wavetables and effects.

Despite this, the XD is a no-brainer synthesizer. Easy and fun to make patches, fair value, doesn't take too much space and most importantly great sounding, with the option to expand with more wavetables and effects.

Pros:

+ Great sounding synth

+ Good value

+ Knob per function for basic controls

+ Powerful sequencer

+ Ability to load user wavetables and effects.

Cons:

- Korg drivers can be tricky

Impressed

Honestly, i have been away from production long time, i used to have nord modular synth long time ago and still have bug inside, so i grabbed this little beast. So far im very impressed , sound synthesis isnt new exactly for me, but newer tehnologie is really fun to use and i feel exactly this way with minilogue xd. It sounds very good, although it looks tiny, you have lot of features, and as im starting again , it keeps You flowing and still a good instrument after You growing bigger with your studio.

Best of Price Class

In this price class you can't find a better analog/hybrid synth

Jack of all trades, master of none

Very versatile synthesiser with an intuitive, well-thought layout. Returned mine as I didn't enjoy the sound of the oscillators and prefer external effects anyway. There's nothing wrong with this synthesiser but there is also not much to write home about. Even though it's and improvement over the OG Minilogue (the filter is MUCH better and presets are great, some of them for some people will be enough to justify buying this piece of gear), it loses some of it's inviting appeal with a more menu-diving dependent workflow.

4/5

Nice variety of engines, no variety of filters, which means a lot of sounds which... all have a very similar characteristic. So again, 'you have to like its sound' ;)

A Solid Starter Synth!

I bought this synth after years of lurking on forms, and I'm really glad I made the leap!

I wanted an instrument that would be good for a beginner, but also something that I could grow with and wouldn't become redundant in my setup, and the Minilogue XD does just that!

The instrument is laid out in a really easy to understand way, and has plenty of presets which demonstrate the capability of the machine and the directions in which you could take your own patches!

There are obvious limitations like having only 4 voices, but I really think that what the Minilogue XD delivers at this price point far exceeds its shortcomings!

Beyond expectations

I expected this synth to be awesome. And it IS awesome.

The very first preset after switching the device on is terrific, immediately show the power of the engine under the hood.

Feature-wise it is good, but as the others in the *logue series could have use some more modulation options.

Conclusion: don't overthink it, just go and buy it.