SINE LANGUAGE / ANALOG CONVERSION
THE CONVERSION / WHAT CHANGED
Eight analog oscillators. The harmonic relationships of Sine Language. A different way to build a sound, under your fingers.
01 / HARMONIC COMPONENTS
The Minilogue’s eight analog oscillators become individual components of a sound. Assign their harmonic relationships, then shape how they come together.
The harmonic series gives the sound its structure. The oscillators, filters and analog signal path give it the Minilogue’s character.
02 / CUSTOM FIRMWARE
Sine Language adds harmonic assignments, shared Motion and new performance behavior to the Minilogue. Its physical controls give you a direct way into those relationships. Harmonic levels and selections stay visible on its display as you work.
The original oscillator waves, filters and much of the Minilogue’s familiar behavior remain available. Classic subtractive sounds remain close at hand; harmonic assignments open up a different way to play.
03 / THE PRESET LIBRARY
Sounds from my Sine Language library, adapted for the Minilogue’s analog architecture. A collection to play, pull apart and make your own.
Each conversion is configured and checked as a complete instrument, including tuning, preset recall and control response.
SINE LANGUAGE / FROM THE STUDIO
A recording from my studio.
01 / BEFORE FLIGHTWORKS
The kind of instrument you lose an afternoon to.
PARROTT + MICROKORG / 2017–2019Ten years ago this Christmas, Lauren bought me a microKORG. It was our first Christmas together—we’d only just started dating. We’re still together today, ten years later. I absolutely fell in love with that synth. All those beeps and boops changed the way I approached making music.
A while later, after I opened for one of my musical idols, he suggested I look into a Minilogue. My microKORG sounded too digital.
That was honestly kind of devastating. I thought I was making the coolest sounds in the world.
02 / THE SEARCH FOR ANALOG WARMTH
I traded my Ensoniq TS-10 on Facebook Marketplace for a Minilogue, determined to find this mysterious analog warmth everybody talked about.
It was a beautiful instrument. But I wasn’t blown away. It never gave me quite the same feeling of exploration that the microKORG had. I played it less and less. Eventually, it ended up in a closet.
03 / A DIFFERENT WAY INTO SOUND
Meanwhile, I was getting frustrated with my own sound-design workflow. Serum, Vital, Pigments: incredible synthesizers. They just weren’t clicking for me.
I kept coming back to the harmonic series. The idea that complicated, expressive sounds could emerge from simple relationships between sine waves.
I started building my own instrument in Max for Live.
I called it Sine Language.
SINE LANGUAGE / MAX FOR LIVE
It started in
Max for Live.
04 / THE MINILOGUE EXPERIMENT
I pulled the Minilogue out of the closet to see if I could turn it into a physical version of Sine Language. That grew into harmonic control, a new interface and a library of sounds built around its analog oscillators.
FROM THE CAMERA ROLL / 2019
A Minilogue.
A hammer.
A tangle of cords.
An empty cup of tea.
BACK TO THAT FIRST FEELING
The results caught me completely off guard. Rich, organic, almost vocal. Little textures and granularities that made it feel alive. You turn a knob and it does what you expect, but somehow it still surprises you.
I shared what I’d been making. The clip took off, and people wanted to know if their Minilogue could become Sine Language too.
Howdy ho. Apparently,
we started a conversion company.
That’s Flightworks. I’ve been refining the firmware, fixing bugs, and tuning the oscillators ever since.
I didn’t commission Korg to build me a synth. But in a weird way, I finally made the instrument I would have asked them to build.Parrott
PLAY SINE LANGUAGE
Choose a preset. Play the keys. Shape the sound.
Check your media volume and audio output. On iPhone, try turning off Silent Mode.
SYNTHESIZER
A browser study of the Minilogue concept. Analog tone, effects and Motion curves differ.
05 / LIMITED CONVERSIONS
Every Minilogue is individually configured, calibrated and played through by hand. I check its tuning, presets and controls before it leaves the bench.
ON THE BENCH / WITH PARROTT
Sine Language and the original preset library.
Tuning and response, checked instrument by instrument.
Preset recall, physical controls and real playing.
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