the korg monologue is a monophonic analogue synthesizer with 2 VCOs, 25 keys, 16 step sequencer, motion sequencing, microtuning, there's even an oscilloscope so that you can visualize the waveform while you're making a patch. it's got a lot of features for an analogue synth that will cost you less than £200 second hand.
it was designed by tatsuya takahashi who also created the monotron and volca series for korg https://www.soundonsound.com/people/tatsuya-takahashi-synth-designer
korg collaborated with richard d. james on the monologue and he provided scales, sounds and sequences. he also created a demo track using just korg synthesizers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUT01p-C2xo
richard d. james interviewed tatsuya for warp.net and it's very enjoyable seeing them nerd out about microtuning https://warp.net/editorial/richard-d-james-speaks-to-tatsuya-takahashi
i bought my monologue from ebay a couple of years ago, it turned up in an improvised cardboard box with no manual, a few scratches and a cash convertors sticker on the bottom. this was not a synthesizer that had been lovingly cared for.
i'd accumulated a few bits of gear around the same time so i would play with it but i never really spent a lot of time properly getting to know it. every now and then i would think about selling it but i never quite got round to it, for whatever reason.
a couple of weeks ago i decided to give the monologue another go and whenever i had a spare moment I would switch it on and make a patch or a sequence. as i spent more time working on it i started to realise what a great little synth it is despite some of it's quirks and limitations.
there's been an abundance of affordable synthesizers released in the last few years, the downside of this is that you can end up buying things on a whim and doing exactly what i did to my poor little monologue. anyway, that's all changed and we're good friends now, we should probably record some music together.
notes -
a demo video of the monologue by the wonderfully named justin delay for reverb.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq1obj8w7v4
cash convertors is a chain of pawn shops in the uk