Korg MS-20 "Mini" Synth Re-Issue

Dr. Vegetable

Dr. Vegetable

New member
Have any of you analog synthesis fans notice that Korg has re-issued the MS-20 mono synth? It claims to be a very faithful reproduction of the original analog circuitry, as overseen by the original designers. The manual patching section looks cool. And it has a frequency-to-CV converter that should make this into a killer guitar synth as well.

USA_MS_namm_20mini_1000_MAIN.png


http://www.korg.com/ms20mini
 
Re: Korg MS-20 "Mini" Synth Re-Issue

Wow, this thing is a stroke of genius. The patch bay is insanely versatile, and also helps document the signal path in the synth. This is some great old school mojo right here. I am stunned that Korg can produce this for a $600 street price. They are going to create an op-amp shortage with this product.

I just spent 2 hours with a guitar running through this - with mixed results. The triggering is (as expected) a little dicey, but I was running the guitar right into the front panel without using an external pre-amp of any kind. Triggering and envelope detection worked well enough, but pitch-to-frequency was not happening for me. Still, I was able to get some nice auto-wah effects and some whacky techno out of this all triggered from the guitar. I'll probably have better results if I put a Micro Amp in front of it.

I'm already thinking about modifying this thing. There are some easy/inexpensive mods to add PWM and oscillator sync. I'm also considering hacking an Arduino into this thing to see if I can get it to do MIDI-to-CV conversion and maybe a few other tricks.

I am so happy to see another major manufacturer getting serious about making all-analog synths again. Who's next? Yamaha? Roland?
 
Re: Korg MS-20 "Mini" Synth Re-Issue

Everything I've read about this suggests it's a very nice piece of kit. The only real criticism is that they're not full-size keys on there.
 
Re: Korg MS-20 "Mini" Synth Re-Issue

Yes, the keys are kind of "Casio" but it is solid enough for my purposes. I'm more worried about snapping off an 1/8" plug in the patch bay.
 
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