Who ordered that? - Korg Drumlogue Review

It’s black…because black.

Back in January 2021, I pre-ordered the Korg Drumlogue as soon as it was announced.  I waited...and waited...and then I kind of just forgot about it.   Then in September 2022, Korg announced it again...and this time it was for real and going to ship any day now!   And I waited...and waited...and I almost forgot about it, when I got order confirmation that it was on the way.  

My reaction to this was not epic excitement.  It was more of a "huh....do I even need it?".  A lot has changed in my studio since 2021, so I'm not sure where exactly it would fit.   But since it's already been paid for, I might as well give it a test run, right?  But as I played with it, my excitement for it slowly grew.  Despite some obvious omissions, I think it has a bright future in my setup.  Lets get into the details. 

The Sounds

The Drumlogue has 4 analog sound slots, 6 sample slots, and one slot that can be VPM, Noise or 'user'.  The analog slots are not bad at all, and I'm happy to say they sound unique rather than just trying to be another 808 clone.  The Kick is very hard and the Snare is very snappy.   Programming the kick is straight forward, but the snare is a little weird.  The 'snappy' parameter on the front panel is actually 'snappy decay',  which sets the decay of the noise source.  You edit the level of the noise source using the 'snappy' parameter in the edit menu.   The Decay only controls the decay of the 'toned' part of the snare sound.  Maybe it's just me, but I find this setup strange. 

The low tom is *very* good, and this is usually a weakness on most analog drum machines.  It's a got a lot of punch to it, and could even be used as a second kick drum.   

Unfortunately, I'm not as sold on the High Tom, which is very high pitched compared to the low tom.   It doesn't have the tuning range I would have hoped for so that it could be drawn down for when I want the missing Mid Tom.  It's ok, I guess...but definitely not my favorite.   I'm also annoyed at how you access it's controls via the SHIFT button.  I keep accidentally pressing SHIFT and hitting the HT button, which erases the entire kit (note: this was addressed in the 1.10 update, released just this last week, that allows you to double click shift to lock it...MUCH better!).

The next six slots are all samples, and they are interchangeable regardless of whats written on the panel. The provided samples are few in number and, for the most part, kinda dull.  I can't see myself using them very much at all once I load in my own samples (which I haven't done yet).  The Open and Closed Hi-Hats are usable, but none are really worth writing home about.   The rest, rim shots, hand claps and cymbals are all just OK.  A few of the MISC category sounds may be usable with some editing.  This was a disappointing part of the machine.  I plan to load in the samples from the Korg EMX-1 to address this.  I don't know why Korg didn't consider doing that as part of the ROM. 

The last sound is a digital sound source that can be set to VPM, Noise or 'user'.  This is where you can load in user created models like on the Minilogue and Prologue.   To be honest, I wish they dropped a few of the sample slots and gave us more than one of these slots.   The VPM is really fun, and I'm getting a lot of cool stuff out of it.   With motion sequencing, this is the most interesting part of the machine.  I look forward to being able to load some user created programs, once some are made available.  It will be cool to see what people come up with.

The Delay and reverb are OK.  About what you expect on a box at this price range.   I wish  there were real time controls for these like on the TR8s.  As it is, they are buried in a menu and that's not at all ideal.

Overall, I like the sounds and the editing.  I like that every sound has it's own filter, though I am very disappointed that there is no envelope or velocity setting for that filter.  It would be far more useful with even a simple AD or AR envelope.   I also feel like there could be more editing in general, particular with the analog parts.  Despite having very wide parameter values, the differences in sound between the minimum value and maximum are often not as wide as you'd expect.   The high resolution is nice, but it's kind of wasted on a very narrow range.   This should certainly be looked at in a future update, if possible. 

The Sequencer

The sequencer is, all in all, pretty good.  Its pretty much your standard x0x style 16 step affair, but with a few nice tricks.   Each instrument part can have it's own step length and quantization, and it supports the now standard features of ratchets and probabilities.   It doesn't have anything as cool as the ratchet probability of the TR-8s,  but what it has works really well.  I particularly like the way motion control (Korgs version of Parameter Locks) are displayed.    My only real gripe is that the display is a bit small.  A lot of the editing is done with the 4 knobs under the display, which don't line up with the parameters your editing, which often leads to me twisting the wrong one.

One odd choice is that what should be called 'patterns' on the front panel is called programs.   I was initially confused by this, since they have the buttons for selecting programs and kits and in my mind these are the same things.   Programs, in the Drumlogue nomenclature, means a pattern with it's embedded kit.  I guess it wouldn't be a Korg without a little weirdness.

That said one thing I do like is that you can either immediately change programs, or you can queue them by pressing shift-select.  Also unique is that you can queue a kit change as well, so that the kit will not change until pattern finishes.  This can be very useful in live performance, and I do quite like it.

Also handy: Mute states are stored with the pattern, so you can have an initial state with some tracks muted, and unmute them as the pattern plays.  Less handy, mutes don't carry over from one pattern to the other, so if you change patterns the mutes will change to what is stored in that pattern. 

I was going to complain about no SOLO option, but that was addressed in the 1.10 update.  Thank you Korg!

The Hardware

This is where I have a lot to say.   While I really like the size of the Drumlogue, I feel like they specified the box without thinking about the synth engine inside it.   Many functions, including those you need to do often, require using a shift function.  This is definitely not a one-knob-per-function device, as every single knob and button has at least two functions (some more, depending on the editing mode).  Being of a generation that is used to synthesizers with deep menu systems and shift functions, this doesn't bother me too much, but kids today (i.e. most of the market for the device) will be having none of this. 

What makes this worse is the color scheme chosen for the unit.  The unit has a beautiful shiny black panel that becomes impossible to read if the lighting happens to be reflecting off of its surface.   Oh, and remember all those shift functions?  Who at Korg decided that they should be printed in dark gray on a black panel should be beaten with a UX textbook until they learn it by osmosis.  Granted, I don't have the best eyes, but this is just poor usability choices.  Over time, you start to remember them, but it sure doesn't make that initial idiot testing easy.

The knobs feel nice, mostly.  The mixer knobs along the top seem to have been some kind of afterthought, though.   All the knobs are very tight, making fast changes difficult.  I am sure they will loosen with time.   If I keep mine, Ill consider figuring out how to put some knob caps on the level pots.   As are just awful as they are.

Oh, and that shiny metal is a finger print magnet.  This is a personal pet peeve, so you may or may not care.

The Verdict

Overall, I like it and the more I use it, the more I like it.  Unfortunately, I also don't feel like it's doing anything really special within the market place.  It's price point is very nice compared to an instrument like the Elektron Syntakt, but the Syntakt also runs circles around it for sound design, external MIDI control and computer interfacing (overbridge).  The Syntakt can't load samples, but just about everything can do that now, and the Syntakt can send MIDI to your sample player of choice. 

A better comparison would be the TR8s or TR6s, of which I've only used the former.  The Roland costs a bit more than the Korg, and is not true analog, but it's ACB synthesis is really, really good at faking it.  Every channel can be any type (ACB, Sample or FM) and it's got ratcheting probability and a lot of other nice features.  It also, unfortunately, has a 1 bar per pattern limit that sort of ruins it, but it's got the most performance friendly front panel of any drum machine I've ever used.  I'll let you decide which fits your workflow best.

If I'd written this last paragraph a week ago, I probably would have been dismissive of the Drumlogue.  Sure, it has it's flaws...but it's also kind of compelling.  The sound of it is growing on me and the workflow has turned out to be very quick to pick up.  It's already found it's way into one composition, which bodes very well for it's future.  I guess It's true you just can't have too many drum machines.