Bad Gear - MS-20 Mini
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- čas přidán 15. 06. 2024
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Welcome to Bad Gear, the show about the world's most hated audio tools. Today we are going to talk about the Korg MS-20 Mini analog synthesizer. Is this official clone of the legendary Korg MS-20 mono synth worthy of its legacy in spite of the reduced size, atrocious build quality and questionable circuit design? Should I get the Korg MS-20 FS??? Is it yet another excuse to get great-sounding instruments into this meme video? AudioPilz!!! Not Again!!!
Thanks to Klangfarbe for lending me one of their MS-20 Mini floor models:
/ @klangfarbechannel
/ klangfarbewien
Bad Gear - MS-20 Mini
Chapters:
00:00 Intro tune
00:56 Overview Korg MS-20 Mini
01:53 Oscillators
02:16 Filters
02:36 Filter Type used (Korg35 Filter vs. later Models)
02:58 High Pass/Low Pass Architecture
03:14 Envelopes, LFO, Differences to the Original
03:45 Patches
04:02 Patch Panel, Additional Features
04:25 External Processing, Guitar Synth
04:36 Hz/V vs. V/Oct, S-Trig vs. V-Trig
04:52 Rear Panel, Midi, USB
05:01 Limitations, Noise Issue, Build Quality
05:30 Pricing, Thanks!!!
05:35 Hate
05:59 Jam 1 (Techno)
06:51 Jam 2 (Synth Rock)
07:39 Finale (Wub House)
08:09 Verdict
09:12 Teenage Engineering Choir Shoutout for Patreon - Hudba
At first glance the MS20 Mini is ticking 86% of all the boxes
Best line ever on your show
Thanks!!!
tight
@@AudioPilz you are genuinely just so funny dude
@@AudioPilz you've been sitting on that for how many episodes.?
Yet the lunatics on some synth forums can't measure the amount of humour and banter!
That demo track at the end made me über proud to own an MS-20 mini. It still sounds freaking killer.
Thank you!!!
You need to own a Florian Pilz as well, but I heard they don't come cheap.
@@phpn99see if Klangfabre will loan you one
I swear if you bring the sound of that thing near me you are liable for injury.
@@Frikoppieinsane. The ms20 is one of the most brutal mono synths ever created. It’s very inspiring. You can tame it easily with talent.
Got the MS20M (module) and it'll never leave my place! Also, PWM. :) The only true classic synth tone that I needed to own. No Moog or Buchla or Sequential for me! Korg is the punkish brat with attitude that I need. :)
Agreed!!!
Same
I wanted an MS20 since I was a kiddie in the 80's, but wasn't keen on the teeny one. The module had some extra features from memory? I ended up with one of the FS re-issues (in army-green, they ran out of black) and love it (apart from the freaky envelope behaviours)
Honestly, Korg is garbage. I am not even being sarcastic here.
Or relevant...@@Frikoppie
Best mono-synth there is IMO. I like the fact that it does not sound clean - makes it sound more alive.
👍👍👍
You're vids are amazing on many levels. Helpful/informative, funny af, and the music you make with this gear is top notch.
Thank you so much!!!
The first thing I noticed when I got mine was that cheap pressed wood panel board on the back. Like an old TV or radio from the 70's.
Oh, I thought it was plastic;)
@@synthetic24 pressed-sawdust "wood" is still wood
@@synthetic24 so is the back cardboard or what?
That's hilarious
@@AudioPilz Pretty sure you thought right.
I own the Ms-20 Mini and the Ms-20 FS and i absolutely love them. Sure, there are lots of alternatives out there, but i always loved the sound of the MS-20 and the originals are sometimes expensive. And i don´t have any problems with wobbling knobs. And i use especially the MS-20 Mini a lot.
Nice!!!
Is the FS much better quality in terms of knobs, build, noise and keys or the same, just bigger?
I have to agree I love mine and no wobbling of knobs either 👍
Totally.@@MadelnMachines
How dare you!!! 😂 I’ve bought and sold so many synths over the years but my MS-20 mini has never been for sale.
Nothing personal;)
I dislike mini-keys so I got me the “Kit” version back in 2014. In a nutshell: way too expensive, full size, pretty good build, both filters available (one noisy and one not), assemble-it-yourself. It sounds awesome and I love it.
I want one too!!!
Cleverly done on the vocoder shout-outs.! Nick B should be rolling in meme royalties by now. Loved the Back2thefuture one.
Good ear!!!
Audiopilz: *slaps roof of YT channel*
Full Tracks, Extended Jams, Sample Packs: www.patreon.com/audiopilz
Follow me on Instagram: instagram.com/audio.pilz/
Always come out with great sounding tunes, no matter what gear you're using.
Thank you so much!!!
This is true
Kind of proving the point that it’s not really the gear but the musician. Get whatever you can afford then practice and make the best music you can with it. A shaved monkey with the best flagship synth will still always sound like a shaved monkey trying to play a flagship synth.
I was thinking the same thing! You bring out the best even in bad gear!
genuinely love you're compositional techniques@@AudioPilz
The music you were making on the MS20 sounded bloody awesome!!! Loved it!
Thank you so much!!!
@@AudioPilz I wish mine sounded ike that :(
For all the valid caveats there are to this synth, this only makes me want to learn to use my further! All of those jams were straight up bangers. Genuinely curious, how did you use your Beatstep to modulate it? I didn't even know it could modulate things other than pitch via Midi? Great video as ever, and oh boy, the Lossy meme is so real, yikes. 😅
Thank you!!! Just set the BSP to the right CV standard and connect pitch or velocity to the modulation target of choice
When i bought my MS20 my downstairs neighbor rang my door asking what all the obscure rumble was, all windows were violently shaking.
😂😂😂
Great as always! Nice idea with the TE choir guy. That was actually pretty cool!
The MS-20 Mini has definitely appealed to me over the years, but I never picked one up. Not that I have the money now anyway, heh. I didn't know about some of those issues, either. Guess it makes more sense why it made it onto the show!
Thank you so much!!!
killer like usual, but the end part with the synth voice shout outs, is legend. those sounded amazing. As far as the MS-20, I have the K-2, but still want the OG version.
Thank you!!!
hi! i find the k2 incredibly capable and faithful reproduction!!!!!!! + the ESP is imo more useful for design application (perhaps one of the places it loses its 1:1). whats making you want a korg original ?
The slim keys are okay for a mono synthesizer. This instruments is not meant for playing Beethoven piano concerto's
The size is just one of the dealbreakers. They're really crappy too;)
@@AudioPilz Crappy? Not for me...
Waited already for the EP-133 K.O. II video but it probably doesn't tick all the boxes ;) Great video as usual :)
Hey Tom, do you already have one?;)
You timed this perfectly because I’ve had a mini for a while and I recently decided to figure out how it works
Nice!!!
LOVED the finale track! I use my terribly hacked Monotribe all the time and absolutely love it, but always wanted one of these (or the MS20M!)
Thanks!!! Maybe go for the Kit version
Monotribe is hugely underrated. Especially the kick drum which spanks on a sound system
the fact that people reviewed the ms-20 mini bad enough that it got onto this show, shows that reviews are almost never accurate
There is some valid criticism tho
@@AudioPilz yeah wobbly knobs do kinda suck
I absolutely love this synth, whether OG or reissue, full-size or mini. The sound, the look, the filter. So grimy. The K2 sounds as good, but the form factor of the 20 (full-size or mini) is just rad. For some bizarre reason I have the 20ic as well which I've never used.
Nice collection!!!
I have both the MS-20 mini and the K-2, which provides additional filter options as the latter isn't as noisy and have a 1/4" output. That being said, some patches just sound better on the noisier MS-20 mini, so the combo allows it to tick the missing 14% of those boxes 😂
Definitely get both;)
Fixed the noise issue by using a filter used by audiophiles to clean the ac power. Forget the brand I used but it worked on my friends ms 20m when it first came out.
Great idea! Thanks for the heads up!!!
That's great to know!
No regrets selling this one, brought it when it came out and yea nah I can't get it to work in my music.. It sounds cool in other peoples stuff but I prefer my original 700s over the gnarly MS-20 mini. Build quality is shocking, if Behringer did this the internet would be on fire. Interesting points are this was supposed to ship with both filters but last minute they decided against it. If you look at the circuit board the space is there for the second filter type. I think I am the second person in the world who did this tho theirs as I modified my mini to have both filters. The other issue is a massive DC thump on the K35 when pressing a key from not matching the transistors that's not a issue on the original and I could go on
That sums it up nicely!!!
Hahaha brilliant! I'm surprised it took so long to get on here. Yeah, I'd have loved having an original or the full-size reissue, but I can't justify the price. I'll more than happily make do with my mini despite the wobbly knobs because I love the sound.
Thanks!!! One piece of gear at a time;)
I wanted to applause your vocoder shouts - they were awesome! Also now kinda want one of these now. Damnit.
See Hainbach's ep. on them.
Thank you!!!
Bless you mate for another fantastic episode. A friend of mine bought one of these, I was truly shocked at the build quality, kind of reminiscent of a interactive kids toy at a Future Museum which had been mashed up by 1,000 coach loads of special children. 😂
Thanks!!! Nice analogy!!!
😂😂😂
Yes, Friday after work and new bad gear episode! Happy weekend!
Have a nice weekend!!!
Absolutely loving the jams here. Bravo.
Thank you so much!!!
Have one standing next to me from 2013, the knobs and keys are as tight as when I bought it. And yes it got lots of use over the years. Great video btw, nice inspiration for some new patching ideas 😀
Thank you so much!!!
Well done Florian, but I think it's long past time for you to see if you can manage to pull your intro theme out of the wild and wacky Hydrasynth line. No easy task, I assure you! 😎
Thanks!!! Agreed!!!
If you could do a scathing review of the Korg/Arp 2600-M next and make the price crash on the second hand market, I would be very grateful. It's been on my wishlist for years now. The MS-20 mini is a beast, I love mine.
Great idea;)
When it comes to the keybed. I've got an old MS-10 here. I can't imagine a worse keybed. But ... the filter let me forget the build quality. And it looks nice.
I owned one in the 1980s. Awesome for bass, and hard kick drums. Great for spaced out sonic drones, too. Especially with a tape echo.
Yeah, these are not exactly Steinways;)
*klok* *kloklok* *klok* - luckily there's a CV and a gate input.
Man, this just reminded me of 2008 when I wanted to get a Nintendo DS to mess around with Korg DS-10
That one is actually really fun!!!
Wow, this building quality makes the Volcas look like Roland Botiques
Lol
No problem with wobbly pots on mine. Some of the jack nuts can work a bit loose but a quick finger tighten soon sorts that out.
👍👍👍
My first synthesizer, purchased in 1980 by mail. I had never played an MS-20, and completely depended upon the Korg name and the fact that Joe and Gino Vannelli mentioned them in Keyboard magazine to inform my decision. I never found it a very good lead synth and mostly used it for bass. When we bought a home just a few blocks away from the local AM radio station tower I discovered I could “play” the radio on my MS-20, as it would pickup up the RF and when I triggered the VCA and VCF the radio signal would pass to the output. That was a good bit of luck to discover alternate sound sources for electronic music.
Nice!!!
Whoa!!! Nice!! Yeah i often hear stories of people who lived near by an AM transmitter site and how easily they could hear the AM stations from objects like kitchenware (pans and pots). But i never heard of a synthesizer's circuits being affected by AM broadcasts. But it makes sense :D
Your last jam is my favorite yet!
Lol I was just talking about getting an MS20. Maybe I’ll just save for the FS!
Thank you!!!
I have this one and a k2.
The ms20mini sounds awesome, the k2 is almost there, but both of them at the same time are awesome...
Funny thing is that the k2 has better build quality lol
Yeah, Uli has really upped his game!!!
Lost it at Cronenberg and differently social, but I expect to a few times per Bad Gear. Was not expecting the deep (and wet) nostalgic tone of the Wub House demo-DAMN that bangs.
Thank you!!!
I loved it so much I bought mine off the showroom floor years back! Mojo for days and kills at lead and bass, but eventually the loud VCA really got in the way of using it in the more esoteric ways I wanted to. So I got a eurorack version of the filter with even more options so I could sell my MS-20 mini. But it’s still the meanest, punk, and pissed off sounding synth I have encountered. I still have my mini and I think it is the main synth my GF would be mad if I got rid of 😂. My knobs are pretty sturdy and probably had been gorilla groped by many before crossing my path lol. Maybe a kit or FS will grab me the same way someday.
Thanks for the vid! Surprised, yet not to see it on here but I would have thought you would have gone nuts for the MS-20. It’s like an alien Predator technology that some punk from the future witnessed, but was sent back in time naked to the 60s, the Soviet army tried to extract what they could of their memory to recreate it, however due to incompatibility of the specimen the project was discarded, they escaped to Japan but died in some Akira type vibes, and the deciphered alien technology and spirit of this punk became the MS-20. I think that’s what my manual says, but I may be misremembering?
Thanks for watching!!!
Awesome intro! Happy Friday Florian!
Have a nice weekend!!!
I love my MS-20 mini. A trick I saw on CZcams and implemented immediately, it has 2 outs, main and headphones. Use the headphones out as your main and use the main out as a patch in the ext. in for feedback.
Did you think it sounded fat before? Tweak the signal level and it goes insane.
Love it for Moogs too!!!
When it launched it really looked like a miracle - a fully featured reissue of an old analog synth from one of the Japanese giants that for a decade or two were acting like "Analog synths? Oh, you mean virtual analog?". I wonder if today the MS-20 Mini or the Behringer K-2 is of better quality?
Let's put it this way: build quality of the Mini is comparable of what Uli did in the 90s...
My B* K2 feels comparable to my KARP 2600m. Both are much more solid than the wobbly SE-02.
Been going through the Bad Gear Episodes, and I seem to have missed this one. And that filter-magic at 2:25, woowee!
Thank you!!!
Finally! All that's missing is the Boss RC-505 loopstation review and I can finally close the playlist of my setup reviewed by Bad Gear
Great suggestion;)
Hurts per volt. That final jam is evil, nice work Captain. 🫡
Thank you!!!
I can see you're following the times with the "knockout" vocoder finish :D
;)
That “vocoder” shoutout at the end is so extra. Definitely worth sticking around for.
Thank you!!!
if you ever do a top tier intro list, this one is way up there, sounds really gnarly and punchy, i love it. damn it gas hitting hard.
Agreed, it's in my top5 too!!!
Tested it and rather have chosen a lot better made Behringer with both filters. Anyways, still really glad that Korg are doing those and are not Rolanding.
All the best! ;-)
Agreed!!! Same to you!!!
The noisy VCA was present on the original ms20…
Normal noise is one thing but did the original really come with that amount of actual leakage?
Wie immer, gut gemacht! I picked up an MS-20 FS last year, and I had similar complaints about the keys and the build quality. Couldn't believe the MS-20 cost more than twice the Uno Synth Pro (FS) I also picked up, but the build quality was half of the Uno Synth Pro. Now, if I could somehow mate the MS-20 and the Uno Synth Pro, THEN I'd have a babysynth that was seriously playable, tweakable, and monster sounding all in one piece of gear.
Should also add, despite the lacking build quality of the MS-20, I think it sounds ball-busting great.
Thank you!!!
Agree with all of the problems listed and yet I still love the sound of it. Mine has been collecting dust but I think its time I brought it back out.
Definitely give it another shot!!!
The noise on mine is so loud that any soft sound automatically becomes a flute sound, lol
Lol indeed
I have zero noise. Maybe you are unlucky
@@synthetic24 The issue is not the noise, but how korg handled the situation. No units were considered faulty, even though it's clear that many had this fault. Buying an instrument should not be a lottery
@@LWmusik That is correct, I agree.
"Interesting sound that wouldn't work in a track" you say?
Well that's the kind of thing I take as a challenge. :)
That was more of a provocation as most more elaborate patches on the MS-20 sound like this;)
It's my ringtone 😄
yessss another one of my favourite jams, an on a synth I own (the only one haha) thank you for your review and presentation, but I personally haven't had the same grievances, I bought mine in 2014 on a whim of starting into the synthesizer/production world. lol I went into debt but now its forever mine!!
although I have used it for a handful of tracks as a featured instrument, I've mostly just ended up using it for accents and to fill the soundscapes on dance remixes as I built up more of my repertoire with VST emulators eventually... but this is an inspiration!!
Sometimes you have to make irrational decisions;)
Picking up my korg ms-2000r from my former home this weekend!
Nice one!!!
Korgs instruments definitely have a unique timbre to them that I i have come to love.
You warming up for the XD?
Great suggestion, thank you!!!
I have come to hate the XD even though mine is in perfect condition!
Once you lay hands on the Take 5 you realize the XD is out of date.
@@htechdance But the Take 5 is double the price.
that was my dream synth ten years ago. i got it this year on third hand market.... before watching i thought the hate would be towards the size and the filters... but i was surprised to see build quality in there! but fair enough.
i like that it isn't as heavy as the original so i can carry it around easier.
Yeah, super compact!!!
Was hoping for the bassline to Operating Tracks by Front 242 :/
Great video!
Thanks!!!
that final wub house is awesome !! we need it in a full song release :DD
Thank you!!! Shameless plug: there's a full version on Patreon;)
If Korg made an MS-20 filter module it might tempt me into modular! I think I'm happy to leave the rest of it behind. I feel extra lucky to have caught Arturia's giveaway of their MS-20 filter plugin--it was free for a few weeks when it first came out.
An actual Eurorack module would be awesome!!!
There's plenty of affordable modules and synth pedals and everything that can bring the MS20 sound to your place without this awkward little thing.
Little do you know - you soon will see the amount of MS20 filter varieties and will fall into the rabbit hole - evil voice ends
You mean the Behringer K-2 or one of the MANY MS-20 filter clone modules (many better than the original)?
Yep there's a ton of MS-20 clone filters and more advanced filters with an MS-20 core. I have like 3 😂. I love the MS-20 filter.
Speaking of guitar synths, have you ever thought about featuring one on the show? The fact that Roland has produced quite a few over the years should make one ideal for the show.😄
GUITAR SYNTH?!?! HOW ABOUT A SOFTWARE EMU ONE THAT IS REALLY TERRIBLE AND BECAUSE WHORING IS WHORING IT'S LISTED AT $200 "regular" price BUT $30 on "special" (it's not worth that either, btw), coz you know whores are super special and just for you, right? THANKS PLUGIN ALLIANCE FOR PROVIDING ME LITERALLY SOME OF THE SHITTIEST VALUE I'VE EVER SEEN IN A PRODUCT! YOUR MANUAL THAT HAS NO INDICATION OF HOW TO MAKE IT NOT SOUND LIKE GARBAGE IS SUPER USEFUL TOO.
Which means I will also never buy or consider another plugin on Plugin Alliance (blame their policies). Those delusional bastards think the Wedge Force Hydro is worth more than $5. Everything on plugin alliance is overpriced and overrated, obsolete. Shit, AIR still sells more useful stuff.
I'm quitting life.
Great idea, thanks!!!
@@AudioPilz Isn't it great how Korg is associated with the phrase "Fuk u ok a". Luckily their subsidiary in American't uses chinese slave labor. I wonder why the chinese don't use korgs.
Bloody funny! Recently bought a green FS. Great fun. Having both filter versions is great.
Thank you!!!
Excellent work! 👏👏👏 It reminds me of the Malevolent.
Thank you!!!
1:06 Sold! Who couldn't love that tone? ❤
Classic!!!
Ms20 might be my favourite synth of all time. I have the original as well as the mini. The noise thump on the mini is indeed annoying but it has one huge advantage over the original. And that is the portamento circuit is after the midi in whereby with the original it is before the trig so there is no glide when sequencing :-(
👍👍👍
Almost forgot today was Friday. Thanks for the reminder 👍
Have a nice weekend!!!
This video explains every problem i have with korg for the most part...the moment the screen said
'no thats not clipping it sounds that way out the box'
You might wanna call it signature sound;)
@@AudioPilz nah i cant even tho, the lil yellow kaossilator didnt have this issue as much
That thing so cheaply made it makes B look like a premium brand. But it sounds so gnarly that make it a no-brainer for certain genres
Agreed!!!
does the release of the new Teenage Engineering KOII mean we will see an appearance from the original TE KO on BadGear soon? maybe accompanied by the wooden TE nutcracker choir
Great idea, thanks!!!
There are a lot more options now (from Moog, Arturia and others), but at the time it might have been the only in-production analogue synth with a substantial patch bay. That not only made for more creative patching, but allowed for interesting integration with Eurorack (as long as you had a Hz/V adapter). The noise floor took me aback when I first heard it direct from the headphone out, but I never really noticed it in a mix. I’ve had a lot of fun with mine, but I’m not sure I’d go for it now given the alternatives.
True that!!!
Just want to give a quick shoutout for all the awesome animation clips you use in the jams in these videos. There's some really cool deep cuts among them - how do you find them all for videos every week?
Thank you!!! I google the hell out of that internet thing;)
Love how Korg provides you so much material!
Korg and Roland are the best!!!
Korg do produce a lot of legitimately bad gear
Not even a close second to Roland though! 😂
@@AudioPilz Bad dealers!
I bought this in the early 80’s for 500.00 and loved it. It was the first analog synth I bought and didn’t own another one until the Moog Modular’s came out a few years ago (I own three of them). At the time this came out there were no true affordable analog synths with patching like it. Not sure why they came out with again, but for the time I owned it I got a lot out of it.
Nice!!!
Yeeeeee! I believe half my gear is "Bad Gear" now, thanks to this addition.
Bad Gear Bingo!!!
@@AudioPilz The center is always free.
I've worked with the '20 as far back as 1980, had a couple of those, and I've now got a pair of the 20 minis because, tbh, when they use the old Sallen-Key circuit, they sound NASTY. How nasty, you ask? Well, Aphex Twin nasty!
Here's a main reason why the MS20 and its incarnations (that are actual synths, mind you) endure:
Take a Roland 606 or any other "colorful" drum machine, and plug it into the external input. Direct out to VCFs input. Post bandpass to VCFs input works too. P-V to VCF control input. Envelope follower to VCA control. And trig out to a suitable trigger in. Now, let the twiddling begin!
You're going to notice very quickly that this sounds a bit familiar, particularly if you've heard a lot of Aphex Twin. Go ahead...futz around with it some more. It sounds like RDJ because this is one of HIS main uses for the MS20, and daaaaaaamn, does it ever uncork the ACIEEED!!!
Most people who get one of these ignore that somewhat cryptic part of the synth...and that's a BIG mistake. While you can use it as a pitch-tracking synth, it's at its finest when you let it misbehave. And boy, can it ever misbehave!!!
Honestly, Korg should bring back certain other parts of this lines. The SQ1 is a middling substitute for the original SQ10, and the MS50 is even more rare and sought-after than that other "old synth" they'd "reissued" a few years ago that Uli ate their lunch over. But it's Korg, so we'll have to wait for them to figure out their more recent screwups before that'll happen (ie: never).
That sums it up nicely!!!
I LOVE my Korg Volca LFO ! Never selling...
😂😂😂
Had a shot of the (VST) plugin for this and was pretty surprised by the quality . No wobbly knobs - Pardon the expression .
I'm looking forward to see the new Behringer clone of the old UB-Xa. as the original is VERY Expensive
Oh . Quality content .. Thanks
Thank you!!! Yeah, virtual wobbliness is still in its infancy stage
Reminded me of Wolfgang Palm Phonem at the end, I miss that
😀😀😀
The Richard Devine spilled coffee on OP-1 photo made it onto Bad Gear in record time.
That one broke the internet;)
Another great episode ! I am glad having saved money by getting the volca bass instead 😊
Obviously for an upcoming episode we definitely need that (not so) "pocket" operator new ko 33 "field" !
Thanks!!! I really need one of these!!!
I thought "field" signified their overpriced line... but if so, it should've been "field choir" and "field clothing".
TE made it cheap because they knew that people would buy the outfit.
The tracks were killer - honestly, I've never lusted for one of these. I'm just here for the cool music made with it. That said, I have nothing against it - they are cool.
Thank you!!!
I got the korg legacy collection when it came out and have the ms20 controller that came with it. I would never give it up. I had wanted to get the ms20 mini but never did. Looks like i didnt miss much. Im very happy with the software and controller. I feel the build quality is better on the controller. Also through the software it can be made polyphonic which is an advantage over the hardware. I know some people feel that the software is dated, and also arguably not the same since its digital, however ive done some great things with it and im completely satisfied with it.
I used it a lot back in the day, never got the controller tho
Pure gold, as it always is ❤
Thank you!!!
One of these days I'll learn not to watch Bad Gear this close to pay day. Today is obviously not that day.
Definitely don't get the Mini;)
Man if anyone can’t get this thing to sound good, they’re the problem. My only gripes about this thing are how noisy mine is and the key bed, other than that the thing sounds fantastic
Agreed!!! That one comes with so many classic tones!!!
I agree with you regarding the sound but the build "quality" is a definite concern. The patch points in particular don't exactly give reason to be confident in their longevity.
@MisAnnThorpe I bought mine in 2014 and it's still holding strong
@@MisAnnThorpe It was my first synth in 2016, when I was a fairly careless 17 year old. I didn’t take great care of it, but it still works fine. No chipped keys, no scratchy knobs, no bad inputs. The only real “damage” it’s sustained is that the ring around the signal out fell off a couple times, but I just put it back on. Compare that to the $1,300 Novation Peak that had knobs falling off after one year of sitting on my desk, barely being used.
Yes again!!
Another great Bad Gear Episode!
Thank you!!!
Haha, Nice job with the "Choir"
Thank you!!!
I nearly got one, but bagged an MS20-FS last year instead, which only comes with 10% of the noise issues. While build quality is better, the keyboard is still nothing to write home about full size but it plays nice and fast. You need any amount of external devices to vaguely modernise it. It's paired with a Minibrute 2S which seems to be the cheapest standalone thing that can do Hz/V, but I still have to jury-rig S-Trigs using Softube Modular, a bunch of logic circuits and a DC-coupled audio interface. Seriously, what would it cost them to add PWM, sync, velocity and/or aftertouch and a V/Oct/Normal Trig switch? Oh, and in the release year of our lord 2022 you could still have any MIDI channel you like as long as it was 1. All for nine-hundred and fifteen of your British pounds. There's my only-slightly-not-as-Bad Gear review. Can't get that sound anywhere else though (but nice try Arturia-Korg)
Super interested in the FS!!!
@@AudioPilz it's good because you get both filters (the remaining noise is only from the MkI filter), but honestly I'd rather have the MS20-M (though I do like mine in blue). And Cascadia has redefined the MIDI/CV-in-one-semi-modular state of the art for me. I know the MS-20 is *supposed* to be primitive but *some* cheap QOL improvements would be nice...
i would never regret buyin this synth...own it and love it😍
😀😀😀
I’ve had a few MS-20s over the years including the mini. The noise issue on the mini meant it was gone in a month. It’s undoubtedly a great mono but I never really clicked with them, but I love my MS-10.
Yeah, that one can be a deal breaker
that music at 7:39 is so sick, is it yours or did you get it from somewhre else? I'd listen to that all day long. Thanks for an amazing video
Thank you!!! That's an original Bad Gear track❤️❤️❤️
@@AudioPilz really mind blowing. Where can I listen to it, is there a full uninterrupted version? I'm a synth enthusiast myself, I'm now learning the arturia mini freak to combine it with a handpan and produce some amateur handpan techno/electrònic chillout music
We have definitely too many mono synths... I have a strange feeling that this one is not so much different than other in the same price range category. Interesting review. Cheers!
Thanks!!!
I certainly agree that there are a lot of monos out there, but for myself, having owned far too many monos and sold most of them, the MS-20 is the only one that I really look back with fondness, and sometimes think about grabbing again. There's something about this incredibly noisy and leaky circuit, accessible and sometimes odd patch bay, fake duophony, and general "vibe" that really makes this one stick out to me. Definitely get a chance to try one out for yourself sometime. There's a reason why there is a mild cult following around this one. For extra fun, check out the other ones in this series, like the MS-10 which will lead you to die hards who believe that's the true MS series king. Ultimately, you are correct in that it's "just a mono", but sometimes the whole is more than the parts! I would say that AudioPilz is excellent at riffing on synths, but they do tend to skew more conservative in the palletes they share, while the MS-20 really shines and standouts when you start pushing it into weirder territory! For example, they mentioned struggling with the noise floor, whereas in my opinion, that's one of the charms and draws of it! Good luck!
@@matthewvwise Thanks for sharing your experience. Personally I have only a few Craves (also semimodular and these work nice in triplet) and my beloved desktop Uno Synth Pro with extremally easy use and powerfull tripple morphing oscillators, double filter and expensive modmatrix. I don't feel I need more analog monosynth than these two models. ;)
@@matthewvwiseyes, this synth gives you a visceral feel like no other unique to itself. I thought the demos were a little tame. Where is the Wonky Royksopp melody, meets crazy Goldfrapp vocal, but reran through the esp for extra dirt, over a sequenced EBM bassline that would have lead to a dance party under a bridge that you really actually want to be at?
or do we...?
I wish Roland made an ms20 clone… would be a hell of an episode!
Lol, great idea!!!
i wish behringer would clone and roland clone of an ms20 :D
@@acidbat4441 Don't give them ideas.
@@acidbat4441 waiting for it at the synth memes!!!!
An ACB clone of the MS20? I'd like to see that for the hell of it.
The MS-20 is awesome, I got the FS version in white. I never tried the mini version. Nice job on the tracks.
Thanks!!!
es war ja nur eine Frage der Zeit....🙂 Tolle Show !
Vielen Dank!!!