About those Korg synths - MS-20 Gurus Input Appreciated

Since I did the dumb thing and started purchasing them individually, I at least took the time to demo them before. 

At first I honestly thought I'd have no real use for something like the M1 - but I'm liking it a lot.

Ironically, the one which should have won me over in a wink - considering how much I dig Arturia's MiniMoog and Steinberg's Retrologue- was the MS-20 -  and so far, I'm just not feeling the love.

First thing I've tried obviously was to browse through the included presets - as well as the extra content from Korg's web site - and I was a little underwhelmed. For odd sounds and fx, not bad, but in terms of usable sounds, there's very little in there.

So I went ahead and tried to see what I could come up w/ on my own. Though I am far from being a synth expert, I can usually put together a relatively satisfying patch from scratch using the above-mentioned MiniMoog, and something even better w/ Steinberg's Retrologue or Korg's own Polysix (which I'm loving to bits!).

Again, no love. I am guessing that I'm approaching it from the wrong angle - the filters in particular really don't seem to work for me. All I can come up w/ either sounds thin and buzzy or lacks definition. Even the oscillators themselves also seem to sound a bit blank.

I've also downloaded the old manuals and dialed in the various settings showed in there, and yet again, nothing to write home about.

Is it me, or is it meant to sound thinner or simply that different or maybe you could point me to a resource? So far, it's totally eluding me like few if any synth ever has and I just can't grasp the hype or even figure out why Korg would even go through the trouble of modeling it. :s 

But I want to like it!

The MS-20, hardware or software, does have a somewhat limited palette. I think that's the reason you'll find them with so many modifications...

I like mine (I have both, just updated to the new software version), and I do find them quite useful, but it isn't a one-size-fits-all.

I use it a lot for monophonic, very animated synth sounds. And I still tend to use the hardware because I can grab a knob and change the sound more easily than I can with the software (I need to invest in a better control surface!)

Lead sounds and basses and effects seem to be it's strength...

Thanks guys. That's re-assuring.

Nigel - That's an option I might try - hopefully I can run the Legacy Cell using the demo version of MS-20. 

An impression I have from all the reading I've done about the Legacy collection - I seem to remember reading mostly about the Legacy Cell being somewhat less stable. 

How is it working for you guys, if I may ask?

Ok. I'll give it a try and see how it works here. Thanks. 

The MS20 is a bit more raw and basic in it's design and therefore requires more work to make it sound like the very finished sounds you can get out of things like the Wavestation.

One thing that many have not thought of is using the MS20 in conjunction with say a sampler. I have made very complex single voice sounds using an MS20 (with an MS50 expansion unit as well though) and sampled that into a nice sounding sampler. Then polyphony is possible with effects processing so what starts out from an MS20 can end up as a lush wide polyphonic pad but you have to do a lot of work to take it to that point.

It is good for bases and leads and sequenced riff sounds as it stands though. I found extending it with the MS50 made a lot of difference though. That really enables some complex sounds to be made. (the MS50 has a whole lot of extra synth modules but they are not hard wired in anyway. You have to interconnect everything on the MS50 yourself into an MS20 or MS10 for example) I also had the step sequencer (SQ10) and the Vocoder as well. All those things can be incorporated into an MS20 patch and then it can really start to sound very interesting and complex. Sampling sounds like that can take the sounds further into the stratosphere. 

But yes Rain it may not be one of your go to synths for every day functions. You may find yourself using other things like the M1 instead and it is good at that too.