KORG MS-20 Analog Synthesizer 1978 | HQ DEMO

(c) 2010 by AnalogAudio1

I played the MS-20 dry, sometimes with a Roland DEP-5 for delay effects and a Lexicon MPX-500 for reverbs. The MS-20 I played here is an early unit (dark grey, not black) with the Korg 35 filter - without the screw in the VCA diagram on the front panel.

The Korg MS-20 from 1978 is an outstanding monophonic synthesizer with a very characteristic sound. It is very flexible thanks to its patching features. Korg planed the MS-20 as a budget synth - and it was the best sold monophonic synth of all time - mainly because its price. Today, it is a real classic, because its hip sound - and because its price :-).

Although a budget synth, it has all the traits of a professional instrument - it's a sophisticated tool. It's also very reliable - it never gets out of tune. Switch it on and play - no warm up required.

In my opinion, it's the first serious monophonic synth from Korg - it also has for the first time conventional terminology (ADSR, Filter cutoff, instead of "Singing level, Traveler" like on previous Korg models).

It is semi modular - like an ARP2600. Indeed, some call it "the poor man's ARP2600". But the sound is completely different from ARP or Moog. The MS-20 sounds more "electronic", "lofi" or "dirty" - these qualities are welcome for some electronica styles.

Like on the Minimoog, the oscillators can overdrive the filter(s) - on values higher than 7 in the VCO mixer. Pay attention to this, if you want "cleaner" sounds.
The MS-20 can give you great leads, basses, loads of great FX, almost everything an analog synth can deliver.
But first, you must learn to program it... It's not that easy to get great sounds out of a MS-20 like on a Minimoog or Roland Juno-60.

The behaviour of the patch connections is not always logic - MS-20 rules!

At Music Messe in Frankfurt I also tried out the KORG LEGACY with the MS-20 controller. I was curious how this compares with the original, which I know very well.
Well, to be honest, it is not comparable soundwise. The most of my tricky patches did not work. I also noticed that the resolution of a parameter like "VCO DETUNE" is very coarse, it does not allow many variations. Also the filters... well, it may be a usable soft synth with some MS-like sounds, but don't expect it to be a replacement for your real MS-20.

Finally I must say, the MS-20 looks very "sexy" and appealing. Once I saw it on a picture, I knew I want it, no matter how it sounds... in the end, the sound was not exactly what I expected back then, but today I love the MS-sound.