Korg MS 20 mini

[suspended childhood]

Mine came in today! WOOT!!!

[Theo Void]

nICE!!! I definitely LOVE the original. How does it compare?

[suspended childhood]

So I unboxed it last night and there was something small loose and banging around inside the synth...sounded like a little screw or nut from something or maybe something was knocked off the circuit board. The box itself was is fine shape and it was packed well inside. NOt sure if it was from manufacturing or shipping, but its knocking around inside.

The box itself was printed with KORG, MS 20 Mini, Synthesizer written all over it, and also some big Japanese writing. I was pretty excited to see it...but good thing it was stored in a secure room in my building. If it was on my door step it would have been stolen for sure. When I took out the synth, it said "Made in China" on the back...so if you buy one, you know where your money is going ahead of time.

Also, the phones jack (I didnt have it hooked up to my normal sound system, just head phones) was significantly louder than the normal output...and there was noise (like in the little monotrons) with every note I pressed. It didnt matter what OSC or waveform I picked, noise was added. I even turned the ADSR all the way down and turned the volumes down on the OSC mixers, and it was still there.

Hope thats not in the main outs. I will hook it up to my sound system and check, but it's still not cool.

[v00d00ppl]

Your headphone jack connection may have been loosened during the shipping process. I had the same issue happen when I took apart my MPC60. One of the harnesses wasn't plugged in correctly and I had noise one every headphone output only.

If your normal outputs for the synth are ok, then it definitely is just a bad connection for your headphone jack.

[CFM]

"something small loose and banging around inside the synth" I would send it back even if it's an easy fix.

You may have to wait for another... I pre-ordered mine in May, first batch in the UK seems to have come and gone and DV24/7 are now telling me July 2013... so that will be August then!

[leisuremuffin]

have you tried the main outs yet? very curious about the noise levels.

i've seen some people say it's all really noisy, and others say that it's only bad in the headphones.
For what it is, i'd expect a little bit of noise.


Hey, also i wouldn't be super worried about the thing floating around in there. If you already powered it up and had it making noise it's probably ok. just unplug it, open that sucker up, and grab whatever the floaty bit is.

a bazillion years ago i remember buying a waldorf pulse brand new and it had something floating around in there. They had a warranty seal on the chassis, so i was scared to open it. I played with it for years with that thing floating around in there. Once i had it for a while i stopped caring about the seal, so i opened it up and it was a little metal screw! Lucky it wasn't able to to get to a spot where it could cause a short.

[freshdrumma]

I used one yesterday at the music Italy show in my town, just used a pair of headphones but had a wrong feeling about it, i used few real ms 20 and anything that came out was WOOOOOOOO!!!! while this one even if sounds good seems to be missing that woooo effect. might be different hooked to a pair of monitors.

The new korg groove boxes are sounding good!

[artpunk]

The first synth I ever owned was an MS-20 back in the 80’s - followed by a Mono/Poly a few months after. Still have the Mono/Poly. Stupidly loaned the MS-20 to a colleague and never saw it again. I don't think I'll be picking up one of these babies, but just looking at them brings back fond memories!

[trevox]

I got one last week and it's amazing. I have used the older MS-20's and it is pretty much exactly the same. The only difference is that a lot of the older ones are in need of service and can sound "dirtier" due to them being...well...old and dirty!

I pre-ordered mine in May, first batch in the UK seems to have come and gone and DV24/7 are now telling me July 2013... so that will be August then!

I normally buy everything online from the UK or Thomann, but couldn't find anyone with them in stock. For the first time in a long time, I decided to check a real store in Dublin and XMusic had 4 in stock. I picked one up within an hour! Not sure where you are based, but might be worth having a look to see if they would deliver to wherever you are if you are impatient like me.

Also, the phones jack (I didnt have it hooked up to my normal sound system, just head phones) was significantly louder than the normal output...and there was noise (like in the little monotrons) with every note I pressed. It didnt matter what OSC or waveform I picked, noise was added. I even turned the ADSR all the way down and turned the volumes down on the OSC mixers, and it was still there.

Hope thats not in the main outs. I will hook it up to my sound system and check, but it's still not cool.

In older analogue synths, some noise is completely expected. In newer analogue synths, there tends to be a lot less noise in my experience. But if you look at say the difference between a prophet 5 and a newer prophet 8, there is a difference in the actual sound. Dont get me wrong, I am not saying the prophet 8 is not good - just that it is not a truly authentic replication of the prophet 5. I think Korg have made every effort to make the MS-20 as close to the original as available parts allow and I believe the noise you are referring to is also part of the original. I will check on my friends MS-20 to verify, but I would say embrace the noise - I mean it's not that bad and adds to the character of the synth.

[vinz89]

Hi guys,

Noise is something normal with analogue synths old or new...
I've got an original Ms-20 which is pretty noisy, like if a white noise signal is mixed with the output of the synth. Fortunately this can only be heard on deep bass sounds with the LPF closed.

First i thought it was a problem due to the age of the components synth, so i and a friend replaced all the electrolytic and chimic capacitors plus the VCA and... well, nothing really happened in relation with the noise/signal ratio. It's just punchier now but still has noise...

The Ms 20 mini was described to have a less noisy vca than the original but i think you can't get rid of the noise with analog synths... if you don't like it, just use vst's or digital synths

[leisuremuffin]

i beg to differ, i have heard a lot of modern analog synths that don't introduce any noise at all. They may not respond perfectly to control and have some unpredictable character but i don't expect noise just because something is analog. I make patches on my modular system that are perfectly clean if i want them to be very easily. so it can certainly be done, however, i'd expect a faithful recreation of an ms 20 to have some noise.

[artpunk]

Regarding this 'noise' issue. I agree with leisuremuffin. My original MS-20 didn't have a noise problem, neither does my Mono/Poly or my more contemporary analogue synths the Voyager & Minitaur.

[trevox]

Regarding this 'noise' issue. I agree with leisuremuffin. My original MS-20 didn't have a noise problem, neither does my Mono/Poly or my more contemporary analogue synths the Voyager & Minitaur.

I don't think the 'noise' issue is a "noise problem". I mean, when you have an oscillator turned up, you can barely hear the noise being referred to - if at all - when you have it plugged into a mixer. As stated, the phones out is quite loud, so the 'noise' is amplified when listening on headphones and it is certainly more noticeable. I can't help but think the original is the same, but I would of course need to verify that.

[artpunk]

Regarding this 'noise' issue. I agree with leisuremuffin. My original MS-20 didn't have a noise problem, neither does my Mono/Poly or my more contemporary analogue synths the Voyager & Minitaur.

I don't think the 'noise' issue is a "noise problem". I mean, when you have an oscillator turned up, you can barely hear the noise being referred to - if at all - when you have it plugged into a mixer. As stated, the phones out is quite loud, so the 'noise' is amplified when listening on headphones and it is certainly more noticeable. I can't help but think the original is the same, but I would of course need to verify that.

To clarify, that reference to a noise problem was simply a turn of phrase - I have no idea whether it is a problem for suspended childhood or not, that is up to him (or her), if it's not a bother, then it's a moot point. I was simply stating that my personal original MS-20 had minimal noise, certainly not enough to bother me - (and I had a legacy MS-20 from new for over 10 years), neither do my Mono/Poly or newer analogue synths have any added noticeable noise either.
My statement was more in response to vinz89 saying that noise is 'something normal for analogue synths old or new'. Noise shouldn't be regarded as 'normal' & shouldn't really be noticeably present, unless of course you are adding noise into the mix from a noise generator!

[vinz89]

Artpunk,
If you read my post, you'll see that i'm not taking the signal/noise ratio as a problem... noise on my MS20 is only noticeable at high volume using headphones and on low pass filtered sounds... it's not a problem at all.
And no, sorry but hiss and noise (a very little amount) are inherent to analogue synths...