New Synth Day - Korg MS2000B - a modern classic?

[VTypeV4]

 

This wonderful thing arrived a few days back - initial impressions are very good! 🥰

 

Over the years, I've owned a number of classic synths including a Roland Juno 60, a JEN SX1000 and my all time favourite, a vintage Korg MS20. I still have the '20. Whilst a much newer machine, I always wanted an example of an MS2000 when they were current although as a 17 year old student, I never had the funds - any spare pennies went on bass strings!

 

In terms of sounds, it's got some pointless and silly noises patched in but it also has some distinctly 'classic' sounds including Roland Juno / Jupiter, Mini-Moog, Sequential Prophet and Korg MS series. Despite it's apparently complex panel with a sea of knobs, buttons, legends and diagrams, the Korg is reasonably straight forward to use but above all else, it sounds great. It has all the usual toys with a 16-step four-layer sequencer, arpeggiator, dual envelopes, dual LFOs plus Fat (Phat?) oscillators, variable spec filters and a simple but useful effects unit seem to make it a classic 'one box' hardware solution. 

 

I'll report back after I've used it a little more..  

[BassTractor]

Aw! An MS-24 !  🥰
No, I've changed my mind. It's a 420G ... *
😀

Lusted after it at the time (probably in its rack version), in part guided by my love for the MS-20 and the fun I'd had with the VC-10 vocoder.
Yes, please report back. Good to read hands-on experience.


*) for those not in the know, a 420G is really a Mark X, Jaguar's very, very expensive model in the sixties.

[VTypeV4]

3 hours ago, BassTractor said:

Aw! An MS-24 !  🥰
No, I've changed my mind. It's a 420G ... *
😀

Lusted after it at the time (probably in its rack version), in part guided by my love for the MS-20 and the fun I'd had with the VC-10 vocoder.
Yes, please report back. Good to read hands-on experience.


*) for those not in the know, a 420G is really a Mark X, Jaguar's very, very expensive model in the sixties.

 

I never had the VC-10 although I did own an MS-10 for a short time - it was lovely.. On the new machine, I need to get to grips with the sequencer section a bit more as it's a little convoluted.

 

Nice Jag reference, I love my X350 V8.. ❤️

[BassTractor]

1 hour ago, VTypeV4 said:

Nice Jag reference, I love my X350 V8.. ❤️

Woh??? Pure coincidence, I promise you.
Nice car!
 

[VTypeV4]

 

The two Korg machines and the little Yamaha.. 🥰

 

13 hours ago, BassTractor said:

Woh??? Pure coincidence, I promise you.
Nice car!
 

 

Ha, no worries - all good. 👍

[BassTractor]

25 minutes ago, VTypeV4 said:

The two Korg machines and the little Yamaha.. 🥰

Nice! Melurves synthporn, me, especially with wooden side panels.
 

I notice what I assume are four output pots on the virtual patch bay, but also two input pots on OSC 1. If correct, does that mean that the machine spawns more "hidden" flexibility necessitating this doubling up?
As you can see, I don't know this synth. Admittedly, I haven't studied the panel in great detail, and not Thought This Through Thoroughly either. 😄

[Hellzero]

Just for the fun record, I owned a Korg MS20 that I sold for peanuts, 1500 Belgian Francs IIRC, way back in 1987 at the end of my studies (alongside an awful Maya EB-2).

 

35 Euros/GBP was a lot of money back then to get drunk... 🤦🤪😂😉

[BassTractor]

23 hours ago, Hellzero said:

Just for the fun record, I owned a Korg MS20 that I sold for peanuts, 1500 Belgian Francs IIRC, way back in 1987 at the end of my studies (alongside an awful Maya EB-2).

 

35 Euros/GBP was a lot of money back then to get drunk... 🤦🤪😂😉

Just for the funds record, I too owned an MS-20 that I sold for peanuts.
There is a fun bit too though, in that its ownership travel, disregarding caveats in the story, may actually have been like this:
Cesar Zuiderwijk (Golden Earring drums) -> yours truly -> Alex Roelofs (The Nits bass) -> Robert Jan Stips (The Nits keys) -> Robert Jan Stips (Golden Earring keys)

So there sits Zuiderwijk: "Demn, demn, demn, demn ..." 😁

 

 

Edited November 3, 2024 by BassTractor

[VTypeV4]

On 02/11/2024 at 12:09, BassTractor said:

Nice! Melurves synthporn, me, especially with wooden side panels.
 

I notice what I assume are four output pots on the virtual patch bay, but also two input pots on OSC 1. If correct, does that mean that the machine spawns more "hidden" flexibility necessitating this doubling up?
As you can see, I don't know this synth. Admittedly, I haven't studied the panel in great detail, and not Thought This Through Thoroughly either. 😄

 

I was thinking I might build some replacement, slightly thicker / darker stain panels to make it a little prettier in time..?

 

The four pots on the patch bay are for each set of routings. At centre position they do nothing but clockwise adds the strength / range and anti-clockwise does the same but inverted which is a nice touch. As for the two inputs, I think it's just to allow the routing of stereo sources via the jack sockets around the rest of the synth. With mine being the 'B' variant, it seems to default the XLR input to input 2. I've not yet found any 'hidden' features although time will tell.. 

[VTypeV4]

After 12 months of ownership, the ol' 2K is still an absolute winner in every sense.. 👍

 

Not longer after purchasing it, I also got a reasonable deal on a Roland JP8000, too - I clearly was having a moment but more on that a little later.

 

So, the everything I said about the Korg after my initial purchase still rings true but obviously, I know the machine quite a bit better now. I regularly take it to gigs when performing with the electronica duo as it's great for ambient parts of the set or those that are in free time. I've programmed any number of pad and lead sounds into it - some with movement and others that are just static but I've rarely struggled to translate a sound in my head into a patch - I find it unusually intuitive although it's also possible that the synth is just that simple to use!? Obvioulsy, within the limitations of the four note polyphony, the single (albeit multi-mode) filter, no dedicated pitch envelope and a few other details I'm struggling to recall at this moment, it's a brilliant synthesizer.

 

The only thing that tripped me up a little was that two layers of sequencer part are reasonably straight forward and auto-assigned but the third needs to be assigned within the menu - all can be patched to different fuctions (such as pitch, filter etc) within the menu system despite initial assignments. A row of 16 knobs control the strength / invert the assigned function per step (again, trigger mode, number of steps and beat sub-division are adjusted within the menu system) which is great for real time tweaks but you have to make sure it's in the sequence edit mode as the knobs usually control other parts of the synth.

 

In addition to the usual synth functions, the MS2000 has two effects units built in - one is a modulation module with chorus / phase / flange and the second, a delay unit. Both are tweaked with two knobs offering depth / speed for the wobble and time / feedback for the delay. Whilst neither are bananas, they're both easy enough to dial in usually adding a degree of size, depth space to most sounds - the delay is beat syncable, too - very handy. There's also a basic EQ but I've never really felt the need for it - a compressor or reverb might have been more useful.  

 

Despite being all digital and the tech being 20+ years old, I find the Korg incredibly 'musical' and a genuinely inspiring bit of kit. I'm not in anyway bored with it and despite occasionally bumping into some of it's limitations, I'm sure I'll continue to find new sounds which will lead to new ideas - superb. 💯

 

So, that JP8000. It's really good and offers a number of features that the Korg simply won't do but I'm just not inspired by it in the same way. The Roland has a bit more a cult following and something of a legendary status - well deserved, too as I've done some lovely recordings with it over the last twelve months but we just don't quite 'get' each other. Despite the JP being the 'better' machine, I'd pick the MS everytime - it's not something I can easily justify with words - there isn't any particular aspect of the Roland I dislike and I'll keep it around for a while yet as it is useful tool, I'll probably keep the Korg indefinitely..