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$10+

DRONE User Oscillator for Korg NTS-1, Minilogue XD and Prologue

DRONE is a User Oscillator for uploading to a Korg NTS-1, Minilogue XD or Prologue synthesiser. It supports a maximum of four notes played paraphonically, with wave-folding capabilities and optional random repeatable overtones.

This digital download product includes the user oscillator plus installation instructions. 
For an overview of DRONE please see this video:
 
https://youtu.be/OFuwWZVlnSw

Pre-requisites for installing this User Oscillator are (i) the Korg MIDI USB driver for your computer, and (ii) the Korg Sound Librarian for your synthesiser. You will need a compatible Mac or PC to connect to your synth. Please refer to the "Librarian and Contents" section for your synth on the Korg website for more details and download links.


IMPORTANT: There are some limitations in the use of this oscillator as follows.

1. Modulation Effects on NTS-1:
DRONE does not play well with the modulation effects on the NTS-1. Introducing a modulation effect causes a very harsh effect to be heard. This is not the case on the Minilogue XD where modulation effects work as expected. It is also possible that third-party effects may not sound as desired when using the NTS-1 but I have no way to test this.

At this time I have no idea what the problem on the NTS-1 is, there should be no problem with modulation effects which should in theory be totally isolated from the digital oscillator. My suspicion is that there is not the same complete isolation between the digital oscillator and effects sections of the NTS-1 as there are on the Prologue and Minilogue XD. At this point in time I am not actively looking for a fix and am considering that use of modulation effects with DRONE on NTS-1 should be avoided unless the harsh sounding results are what you are looking for.

2. Using DRONE with Minilogue XD and Prologue:
DRONE was not designed to work with these polyphonic synths. The fact that DRONE can remember notes that have been played is, in my opinion, a consequence of the simplistic monophonic implementation of the NTS-1 and the result of a loophole of the digital oscillator design which was never intended to be there when the digital oscillator architecture was first developed for the Prologue and then the Minilogue XD.

You can achieve note memory with DRONE on the Minilogue XD and Prologue by switching the synth to UNISON mode. However the exact behaviour of DRONE in this mode is still not 100% predictable. Please therefore consider the use of DRONE on both the Minilogue XD and Prologue to be purely experimental, you can get some fascinating results with DRONE both in Unison and Latched ARP modes, but the results are unpredictable.