Korg Monologue BK

There's a lot to like about the Monologue - it's packed with features (preset memory and a sequencer are great on a synth at this price but custom tuning in particular is amazing), the interface is well thought out and fun to use and, although it's cheap, the construction feels solid enough. It has a pretty wide range between smooth and driven and will handle bass, lead and acid-like sequences very well. The only let down for me is the sound. There's a sort of heavyness about it, not in the sense of "fat", but in the sense that makes it difficult to fit in a mix without having to cut with EQ a fair bit. For a fair comparison, the Korg Monotribe sounds absolutely fantastic and if they'd just reproduced that circuitry with the advanced features of the Monologue (second oscillator, better sequencer, MIDI, microtuning etc) I think they'd have made an absolute classic. If you can stretch a bit further you might want to look into the Minilogue xd which sounds pretty different to this (much nicer filter especially) and is absolutely brilliant for both poly and mono timbres. If you look through the other reviews you'll see plenty of Monologue users who are happy with the sound so my experience is by no means universal, but if you've tried other Korgs like the MS-20 or Monotribe, bear in mind this has quite a different character.