We recently posted a video about the versatility of modifying a simple Korg Monotron, Korg’s budget range of handheld synths, which have been capturing the imagination of the aspiring synth-nerd. I’d watched a video by the infamous Makezine called Colin’s Lab whereby ‘Colin’ waxes about how Korg designed these simple, entry level ‘toys’ to be easily modified – and not for the first time. Korg are known for a few sneaky hacks in their gear designs, which a quick google search will yield.
Curiously, I had recently aquired a full range of the Monotron family only a week before via a bargain eBay auction.
This now allowed me the luxury of potentially nuking my original Monotron via modification, having secured the full range of models – the Delay being the ace in the hole, featuring the gritty PT2399 at it’s heart. That’s a story for another day.
The modifications were indeed simple. Korg even signpost it for you, and in our video we follow on from the Make video, showing you how to build a break out case to house the slightly bulky mods. The modification circuit is lifted from Make and is simple to follow:
All in all the Monotron now responds to CV signal, in terms of pitch, gate and cutout functions all responding to whatever CV signal you send to it. Instantly this makes the cool Monotron much more playable in a system, and puts at serious risk the integrity of the rest of the Monotron family, as it’s looking like they’re next…
Rusty Sheriff 