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Gary Ruben edited this page May 26, 2020 · 12 revisions

loguetools documentation

loguetools are for manipulating Korg 'logue'-series synthesizer patches and patch libraries (what Korg calls programs and preset packs).

They perform a few tasks:

  • Translation of patches from the (original) minilogue to the minilogue xd. (minilogue xd) See the translation section for a description and limitations.
  • Bulk saving of all patches in libraries to separate files. (minilogue, minilogue xd, prologue)
  • Readable display of patch contents. (minilogue, minilogue xd)

There are two versions:

  1. A gui-based version
  2. A set of commandline tools written in Python (3.7 or later)

Installing

GUI

Just download and run the latest version from Releases.
The files are single-click executables; no need to install. There are Windows (.exe) and macOS (.app.zip) versions.

Commandline tools

These require Python 3.7 or later. Install with pip

pip install loguetools

Using

GUI

Commandline tools

pip will install the script entry points. All tools are self-documenting; --help will show simple examples.

dump (minilogue, minilogue xd)
Display the contents of a program or preset pack. -m generates md5 checksums for patches.

explode (minilogue, minilogue xd and prologue)
Bulk extraction of individual patches from libraries.

translate (minilogue xd)
Translate (original) minilogue patches to the minilogue xd.

Reporting Bugs or making suggestions

If you notice a problem and want to report it, please let me know using the Issues section! Comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome, especially from anyone with an og minilogue with suggestions on improving the translation.

Translation of patches from minilogue to minilogue xd

Why doesn't it sound the same? I don't own an original minilogue so I can't test the translation accuracy. I found Jeff Kistler's minilogue editor very helpful for checking some of the parameter translations and how values map to knob position where Korg's documentation has errors or omissions. The hardware and routing possibilities for the og and xd differ in some significant ways so they will never sound the same where those differences are involved. The translate tool tries to make sensible choices about setting the xd's EG and LFO hardware to match the original patch intent but the options are limited.

Even where they both implement some common hardware capability, knowing that the knob position is the same on the xd as on the og doesn't mean that part will sound the same. For example, even if the og's filter is set to 12dB/octave, the cutoff frequency is probably different for a given cutoff parameter setting. The same thing goes for filter envelope stage timing and levels, LFO frequency and 1-shot timing and many other things. However, if someone with a minilogue og was bored and wanted to record some impulse responses or response to white noise for a few different FILTER cutoff, EG AMP, EG, and LFO knob positions each, the translation could probably be improved.

So why even bother? Because we should be able to get close, and we get to use the minilogue og patches as starting points on the xd.

Todo

  • No note or automation sequence translation yet
  • No prologue patch translation yet
  • No translation of the joystick y-parameter yet
  • Smarter use of the xd multi-engine to switch between noise and sub oscillator
  • Improve code unit tests

Known problems

  • BPM tempo is obviously wrong. I'm not sure why.
  • I haven't created minilogue patch packs that can be distributed. Thus most of the unit tests will fail. This may improve in future.

Design decisions

  • Programs named "Init Program" are deliberately skipped.

Development notes

Suggestions and bug reports are welcome. Pull requests will probably be welcome.

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