Korg MS-20
More info
- Creator
- Korg (Fumio Mieda)
- Released
- 1978
- Type
- Semi-modular analogue synthesizer
Korg's 1978 semi-modular monosynth, with a patch panel down the right-hand side and a filter that screams once you turn up the resonance.
The MS-20 makes sound without a single cable, but the patch panel lets you reroute the signal path and bring in external audio. It has two oscillators and two resonant filters in series, a high-pass and a low-pass, and that aggressive filter is the reason it is still around. The built-in external signal processor can track the pitch and envelope of an incoming signal, so a guitar or a voice can play the synth.
A trap for anyone wiring it to other gear: its control voltage follows Hz/V rather than the more common volt-per-octave, so a Moog sequencer plays it out of tune. Korg released a software version in 2004 and a scaled-down reissue, the MS-20 mini, in 2013.