Korg R3 or new Minilogue ?

alfredokiwi · Post by **alfredokiwi** » Mon Jan 30, 2017 3:50 am

Hi folks,

I`m thinking to sell my Korg R3 and the question is if the new Minilogue surpass the R3 in sound quality. The lack of a vocoder on Minilogue and only 4 voices of polyphony is the main concern meaning that the R3 based on the Radias engine is maybe more convenient in features. But the Minilogue is more analog on its engine design not DSP based as the R3 or Radias.

Should I sell the R3 or keep it ?

DaniH · Post by **DaniH** » Mon Jan 30, 2017 12:48 pm

If you live near a music store see if there is one you can play with for a while. I would not sell my R3 to buy a minilogue. I love the sounds I can get out of it. The vocoder is very useful for me. If the minilogue polyphony and lack of a vocoder is an issue for you than keep the R3. The R3 can get some really nice "analogue" sounds.

alfredokiwi · Post by **alfredokiwi** » Mon Jan 30, 2017 2:50 pm

DaniH wrote:If you live near a music store see if there is one you can play with for a while. I would not sell my R3 to buy a minilogue. I love the sounds I can get out of it. The vocoder is very useful for me. If the minilogue polyphony and lack of a vocoder is an issue for you than keep the R3. The R3 can get some really nice "analogue" sounds.

Yes I will keep my Korg R3. I have done on it a circuit improvement on the DAC output stage adding a 4 poles active reconstruction filter at 12Khz cut off. Factory R3 design use a 1 pole passive filter which affects the sound quality caused by the impedance overload of the DAC output at high frequencies and poor filtering using only 1 pole. I added also post equalization on the op amp feedback following the idea of Fletcher Munson ear response.

I write on 2012 an article about that on my blog Embedded Systems

http://alfredoblogspage.blogspot.com.ar ... ality.html

Below a short demo about the sound quality after DAC circuit improvement

<iframe width="50%" height="150" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=ht ... "></iframe>

Yesterday I played again my R3 and the sound quality is perfect, despite today VSTs a true synth with vocoder feels different.

webas · Post by **webas** » Mon Jan 30, 2017 3:35 pm

Saludos Alfredo...que genial esa modificación a la R3, si te mando mi R3 cuanto me cobrarías por hacerme esa modificación?? o si tienes un tutorial jaja lo hago yo mismo..

gracias

saludos

alfredokiwi · Post by **alfredokiwi** » Fri Feb 10, 2017 2:05 pm

Sold the Korg R3 last week with all the improvements on its DAC and post EQ to compensate the roll off of high frequencies. The reason came because I have now a Pa3XLe. On Pa3XLe the engineering department developed a careful design on the DAC output stage with excellent audio quality, no complaints on that. And the keys on Pa3XLe use true metal springs not a bending plastic. An arranger is the best setup for a "one man band" player another reason to sell the R3.

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Fri Feb 10, 2017 3:00 pm

alfredokiwi, do you think the Radias could have a similar sound defect and potential to mod?
The problem I had with the Radias was it always sounded a little pushed back, it seemed like the top end is rolled off.
I'm sure your soundcloud demo there is much crisper than I could have got out of the Radias. It sounds wonderful.

alfredokiwi · Post by **alfredokiwi** » Sun Feb 12, 2017 4:07 pm

X-Trade wrote:alfredokiwi, do you think the Radias could have a similar sound defect and potential to mod?
The problem I had with the Radias was it always sounded a little pushed back, it seemed like the top end is rolled off.
I'm sure your soundcloud demo there is much crisper than I could have got out of the Radias. It sounds wonderful.

Unfortunately the Radias seems to be affected on DAC audio quality. On the schematics diagrams due the lack of a signal reconstruction LPF stage for each DAC output the audio quality is affected because the inaudible spectrum of the DA conversion is not filtered removed at all. Most DA converters have a flag option to set an internal digital filter to reduce out of band spectrums but is not the same audio quality as a true analog signal reconstruction filtering stage.
Korg Radias use the AK4626AVQ codec a multichannel AD/DA converter. Is not the best codec available there are better options on the market. Summarizing on Radias design the lack/absence of the signal reconstruction filter stage on DAC outputs affects the sound quality.