Developer Tim Shoebridge shared this sneak preview of his latest user oscillator for the Korg Minilogue XD, Prologue and NTS-1.
The user oscillator brings Vector Synthesis, inspired by the classic Sequential Prophet VS, to Korg’s Multi-Engine synths.
The new user oscillator lets you blend between four digital waveforms mapped to an X/Y grid. You can modulate these via the Shape knob, using an external pad, joystick or other MIDI controller, or by using internal modulation.
The new Vector Synthesis user oscillator is expected to be released by Oct 17, 2020. Details are still to come at Shoebridge’s site.
This is quite cool and will be worth getting. But it’s pretty far from the VS due to the limitations of the XD user oscillators which only allow for a limited number of control parameters.
The VS has 2-D vector envelopes. So each voice is following its own path independently. The XD version is more like a paraphonic version of VS where all voices have a shared x-y position at every moment. The VS also had full independent high resolution x-y position control. You could send 14 bit MIDI control messages for X and Y position independently to each of the 8 voices, one channel per voice. Same as what is now called MPE, and back then was called “guitar mode”. The VS also has full independent control of pan position for each voice, some other parameters as well. Waaaay ahead of its time, as was everything else Smith did back then.
Yes, bang on with your description. Tim’s custom osc has its limitations as a VS synth, but that’s down to the Korg hardware. But you do have the 2 analogue oscillators as well on the XD and the Prologue. It’s a cheap way to get a ‘digital sounding’ synth if you don’t own one. I was thinking, on the NTS1, if you select 3 of the same waveforms, pitch 2 of ’em up a bit, you could get digital chord pads out of a £100 kit synth and with top quality effects! You’re right though, it isn’t a Prophet VS, but another string to the bow of the XD and Prologue.