3 ms·

The Monotron may be first, but it's not nearly as popular and influential as the Pocket Operators or the Volcas.

anigbrowl 7y ago
Disagree, people went nuts over the Monotron because up to that point all the established synth companies had been saying 'analog is too expensive, be happy with digital' and boutique manufacturers couldn't compete due to economies of scale and relatively high setup costs. With the Monotrons, Korg made a risky reputational bet on the idea that Pick-and-place assembly technology and tiny modern components could deliver the low costs and satisfying sound that synth nerds expected, selling the same functionality for $60 something that people were used to paying $300 to get. Any toy manufacturer could have done this of course, but Korg recreated the widely-loved MS-20 filter, making it irresistible to analog fetishists - at a price low enough for consumers to take a risk on it not sounding 'as good as the original'. Except that...it did. So then they repeated the stunt with two other Monotrons. Then they built a larger one for double the price that had a more fully featured monosynth in it, and around the same time started dropping schematics publicly and encouraging people to modify them. By the time the Volcas hit the market the bleep squad was fully in love with Korg after a 30 year cool spell, and they had shifted the entire bottom end of the synth market. Several years on, Even Roland is making analog again and there is an absolute renaissance in terms of both classic synth clones and wild new innovations. Teenage Engineering in contrast went the Apple route of very high quality industrial design, super-accessible user interface, and a high price - and they did very well with their OP-1 synth, which offers a unique combination of synthesis, sequencing/recording, and portability. The Pocket Operators are fine little synths that have opened up a bridge to the lower end of the market and allowed them to introduce several other products in the middle that don't cannibalize sales of their flagship OP-1, but I don't think it's accurate to say they're 'influential'; they answer the question of 'could you implement a decent synth plugin in hardware for cheap' (yes) and come from a company that's small enough to remind people of the DIY/kit synth designers while being established enough to design and ship a product that's complete without doing any actual work or waiting for software stability from a lone programmer. They also sell semi-modular analog synths whose enclosure is built out of cardboard, Ikea-style, but don't require anything like soldering or component selection - in short, delivering the DIY feel without the possibility of messing it up. They're cool little synths, and TE is an influential company at the top end of its range, but you're the only person I've ever heard suggesting the operators' have had any impact on the market other than slightly expanding the range of stocking stuffer options during gifting season.
- jdietrich 7y ago
  >With the Monotrons, Korg made a risky reputational bet on the idea that Pick-and-place assembly technology and tiny modern components could deliver the low costs and satisfying sound that synth nerds expected >Several years on, Even Roland is making analog again and there is an absolute renaissance in terms of both classic synth clones and wild new innovations. So much of the contemporary synth market can be traced directly back to that gamble by Korg - the Volcas obviously, the Arturia Brute series, Yamaha's Reface series, Roland and Behringer's desktop modules, the IK Uno, most of Modal's products, perhaps even the modular renaissance. Korg proved to everyone else that the market was crying out for instruments that harked back to the heritage of classic synths but at an affordable price and in a portable package. They reinvented the hardware synth for the VST generation - customers who didn't want a full-size keyboard and a tour-worthy chassis but did want a tactile experience and authentic sounds, customers who were used to buying instruments in affordable bite-size chunks. The Monotron doesn't look like much, but it started a revolution in the synth business.

Disagree, people went nuts over the Monotron because up to that point all the established synth companies had been saying 'analog is too expensive, be happy with digital' and boutique manufacturers couldn't compete due to economies of scale and relatively high setup costs. With the Monotrons, Korg made a risky reputational bet on the idea that Pick-and-place assembly technology and tiny modern components could deliver the low costs and satisfying sound that synth nerds expected, selling the same functionality for $60 something that people were used to paying $300 to get. Any toy manufacturer could have done this of course, but Korg recreated the widely-loved MS-20 filter, making it irresistible to analog fetishists - at a price low enough for consumers to take a risk on it not sounding 'as good as the original'. Except that...it did. So then they repeated the stunt with two other Monotrons. Then they built a larger one for double the price that had a more fully featured monosynth in it, and around the same time started dropping schematics publicly and encouraging people to modify them. By the time the Volcas hit the market the bleep squad was fully in love with Korg after a 30 year cool spell, and they had shifted the entire bottom end of the synth market. Several years on, Even Roland is making analog again and there is an absolute renaissance in terms of both classic synth clones and wild new innovations. Teenage Engineering in contrast went the Apple route of very high quality industrial design, super-accessible user interface, and a high price - and they did very well with their OP-1 synth, which offers a unique combination of synthesis, sequencing/recording, and portability. The Pocket Operators are fine little synths that have opened up a bridge to the lower end of the market and allowed them to introduce several other products in the middle that don't cannibalize sales of their flagship OP-1, but I don't think it's accurate to say they're 'influential'; they answer the question of 'could you implement a decent synth plugin in hardware for cheap' (yes) and come from a company that's small enough to remind people of the DIY/kit synth designers while being established enough to design and ship a product that's complete without doing any actual work or waiting for software stability from a lone programmer. They also sell semi-modular analog synths whose enclosure is built out of cardboard, Ikea-style, but don't require anything like soldering or component selection - in short, delivering the DIY feel without the possibility of messing it up. They're cool little synths, and TE is an influential company at the top end of its range, but you're the only person I've ever heard suggesting the operators' have had any impact on the market other than slightly expanding the range of stocking stuffer options during gifting season.

jdietrich 7y ago
>With the Monotrons, Korg made a risky reputational bet on the idea that Pick-and-place assembly technology and tiny modern components could deliver the low costs and satisfying sound that synth nerds expected >Several years on, Even Roland is making analog again and there is an absolute renaissance in terms of both classic synth clones and wild new innovations. So much of the contemporary synth market can be traced directly back to that gamble by Korg - the Volcas obviously, the Arturia Brute series, Yamaha's Reface series, Roland and Behringer's desktop modules, the IK Uno, most of Modal's products, perhaps even the modular renaissance. Korg proved to everyone else that the market was crying out for instruments that harked back to the heritage of classic synths but at an affordable price and in a portable package. They reinvented the hardware synth for the VST generation - customers who didn't want a full-size keyboard and a tour-worthy chassis but did want a tactile experience and authentic sounds, customers who were used to buying instruments in affordable bite-size chunks. The Monotron doesn't look like much, but it started a revolution in the synth business.