4 KORG MS-20s COMPARED
The following is a post Mini made during his side by side comparison of 4 Korg MS20 synthesizers.
hi guys. ive been trying to decide which 2 of my 4 korg ms20s im going to
sell. 3 of them are the ones without the screw through the front panel VCA
graphics, and 1 has the screw. i read that there are different filter
versions but i thought earlier ones were one type and later ones were
another. unless they didnt do their serial numbers sequentially, im a
little confused by what i found and was wondering if anyone could shed some
light on the situation.
serial numbers:
142xxx no screw, dark gray (now for sale here: Vintage Synths For Sale)
146xxx SCREW, black
147xxx no screw, black
148xxx no screw, black
i compared them by auditioning the oscillators and filters side by side with
simple patches for a more controlled experiment. the highpass and lowpass
filters were swept with and without varying degrees of resonance and the
different oscillator waveforms were compared.
i could easily tell the difference between the sound of the screw and non
screw versions because of the difference in filter tone. so, since i only
have 1 ms20 with a screw, that ones not for sale. that was easy! :)
i then compared the 3 non screw versions side by side and they sound 99.8%
identical. i noticed the tiniest variation due to filter, oscillator and
pulse width tuning, but otherwise i didnt hear any significant difference
between the 3 nonscrews. i did notice however that one of the nonscrew
versions is lighter in color, more dark gray than black. has anyone else
seen this? it doesnt seem like the color faded although the gray one is the
oldest.
id love to hear about other ms20-ms20 comparisons.
im also interested in comparisons among the ms10, ms50 and sq10s.
thanks
mini
ok, heres the update:
MS20 142xxx no screw, dark gray color, contains KORG 35 FILTER (FOR SALE)
ive had this ms20 for many years, and used it in my studio along with one of
the others listed above. i decided this is the first one of 2 to go simply
because the other 2 are in their original boxes and are therefore more
"collectors items". this gray one sounds almost identical to the other 2
darker black ones without screws. we opened it up and it turns out this one
has the KORG 35 FILTER modules inside. we refrained from opening other the
ms20s because ive been told that its possible to break the pots when you
remove the front panel / circuit board and i didnt want to take any
unnecessary chances.
MS20 147xxx no screw, black color
MS20 148xxx no screw, black color
i feel the above 2 were IDENTICAL in sound. ill probably end up tossing a
coin to decide which i want to sell when the time comes because there is no
difference to me.
in the 2nd round of comparisons, i decided it would be best to mix all
signals into the korg ms50 3 input mixer, so i also did a very brief
comparison between the ms50 and ms20 low pass filters.
ms50 190xxx
the ms50 filter sounded more distorted / overdriven than the screw ms20 LFP.
at high resonance, i also noticed more distortion and more sizzling high
frequencies from the ms50 filter when compared to ms20 filters. however,
all lowpass korg filters were all similar w low resonance.
back to the MS20s...
with resonance set to high, there seem to be higher frequencies coming
through the low pass filter of the non screw version than screw version and
the screw version had a much fuller sound than the non screw version. the
non screw version self oscillating filter sounds more like filtered noise as
the cutoff frequency is swept and its pitch is heard sweeping against the
fixed frequencies of the internal oscillator/s. the screw version sounds
more like an oscillator under the same conditions. in retrospect, i think
its possible the ms50 filter i compared may be the same LP filter as the one
in the non screw MS20, though id have to compare directly and i dont expect
to do that any time soon.
when summed together using the MS50 mixer, 2 different ms20 type signals
sound like theyre phasing when 1's volume is adjusted.
when 2 of the same type (no screw versions) were mixed togehter and the
volume of 1 was adjusted, the only change is in volume and not in timbre.
while the 3 non screw MS20s sounded almost identical, i did notice the gray
one sounded very slightly different from the other 2.
its self oscillating hpf wasnt quite as intense - though it really was a
minor difference. the lpf was the same on all 3. also, on the black ones,
the maximum high pass cutoff settings on the black ones shaved off all the
audio signal but there was still some sound passing through on gray one.
the gray one also had a slightly lower volume than the black ones. its
possible that some of these slight differences were due to calibration,
maybe korg had different preferences on the grays, which seem to be the
earlier ones, but im not sure. the differences were so subtle that i
wouldnt consider them very significant.
this testing occurred over a 2 day period and it was a bit draining
listening to such basic tones for so long - i did get kind of burned out
after the 1st day! in the end, i came to the conclusion that all 4 of these
ms20s kicks ass, and that the difference between them isnt strong enough for
me to pick one over the other. this is why im keeping one of each type. in
summary, both types sound great, regardless of what filters inside.
in case anyone else goes through the trouble of comparing ms20s, it may not
be obvious, but VCO 1's variable pulse wave is always the input to the ring
modulator. so, if youre going to compare, remember to set the pulse width
on both units to the same amount or the results will sound different. we
compared ring modulators briefly and didnt hear any differences, after i
remembered to set each to the same pulse width. :)
if anyone else has any thoughts on ms20 differences, please share.
if and when i make a firm decision to sell 1 of my 2 ms50s, ill be comparing
them as well and will try to post my thoughts.
mini