Can a $60 Korg Monotron match the sound of a vintage Korg MS-20 analog synthesizer?
Check out these comparisons and let us know what you think!
Above, Korg Montron vs MS-20 (low pitch tone).
Korg Montron vs MS-20 (mid pitch tone)
Korg Montron vs MS-20 (high pitch tone)
Well, there you have it – incontravertible evidence. So, if anyone out there (or their wife) has a dusty old MS-20 cluttering up the place, I will happily exchange it for a brand-new, space-saving Monotron. Housewives – imagine the look of surprise and joy on your husband's face when he comes home to find this compact, portable, twenty-first-century device where his old MS-20 used to be! You CAN'T LOSE!
Hahaha! Yes indeed, ladies and gentlemen who own these overpriced MS20 dinosaurs of analog synthery, please let us take them off your hands. We’ll even pay you!!!!
On another note, I played, or shall I say, used, a Monotron on a European tour this past April. Sure it rippled the floor boards at every venue, and made my SK-1 sound like…well, not an SK-1. But other than that the i/o was unstable, battery life way too short, and mostly…let’s be honest here, the Monotron is more a study in contrasts than comparisons with an MS20.
For me, based on those video demos, its a definite Yes – it can ! The difference, if there is any at all, is negligible.
I posted some Monotron sound demos up on my blog here http://savaranmusic.wordpress.com/2010/08/13/korg…
Have had my Monotron a month today.
Nice to see that I don't need to buy one of those MS-20 thingys.
Lots of time spent exploring audio of all sorts through the filter. Also fun to play with the resonance with a plug in the audio in jack but nothing running into it. It's a drone machine! Yesterday I tried using a splitter and running the audio out back into the Monotron. Instant 2 osc Monotron.! There's nothing it can't do! Every home should have one!
Surely the whole point of a Korg MS20 is
a) it looks very cute
b) it looks exactly what synthesizer should look like
Therefore, comparing its sound to something else is like comparing the heights of one of the Giza pyramids with that of a tall office building. Doubtless quite accurate after its own fashion but… sorta irrelevant? ;p
Actually – synthesizers should have a few more flashing lights, shouldn't they?
i guess it's close-
if all you wanna do
is hold a note and sweep a filter…..
go crazy-
but the MS20 has all
those black and white keys
that seem to change the pitch
more easily–
almost as if to imply
that you could make actual
melodic music with it..
what a concept…..
It is really close, but really boring in the truest musical sense.
The Korg MS-20 sounds like a $70 toy? I already knew that.
In these videos, at high resonance the MS20 has a nastiness that the Monotron just doesn't have. That aside they sound similar.
Does anybody who said that Monotron is better than MS-20, has played just once on a REAL synth? 🙂
Sincerely, I guess not…
Monotron is just a toy. A nice one.
I don't recall anyone suggesting that the Monotron is BETTER than a "real" synth. But you've got to admit, in some (albeit limited) functions it sounds VERY similar.
sorry, my bad [not a very good English]. I just wanted to say that you cannot compare Monotron with MS-20. Although, I would like to test a Monotron, but not to buy it.
As a gift, for fun, yes, it's ok 😀
Cheers!
The video really doesn't prove or disprove anything…
This reminds me of when people do those mic pre "shootouts"
They are really meaningless… The real magic only happens in the mix. The way an instrument layers with itself and other sources is something you can only find out through lots and lots of time and really good ears… The monotron probably sounds very different from an ms20 if you layered it 5 times and threw it in a 24 track mix.. Harmonics and all, you know?
The monotron's literature, mentions that the filter is identical to that of the MS-10 and MS-20, so it is no surprise the Monotron sounds the same as the MS-20, specially the filter.__I can't wait until someone figures out how to bypass the monotron's oscillator and the filter's inputs are isolated so you can use the monotron as a cheap but great analog filter.. __This is something the MS-20 is famous for.. musicians like Aphex Twin, Goldfrapp, etc have been doing it for years.. running voices, synths, etc audio through the MS-20 filter.
Still might sound different.. The amp section is probably different, albeit cheaper… How a signal is driven into a filter can change the sound… The lfo might not have true bypass and could also influence tha sound.. Lastly, the power supply is Very different and has a huge part in the way it would sound… They all tend to add up.
uhh… use the aux input?
It sounds very close with modest settings but it sounds quiet different withe "extreme" values. I wouldn't talk about replacement of course, except if it was a modern analog MS-20…
Well yes, and a level meter and an oscilloscope and some more wood showing. But the Korg makes up for these deficiencies by being called 'Korg'.
That makes up for it? I would argue that they *should* add the wood, the oscilloscope, and some glowing vacuum tubes to make up for being Korgs.
nice.
well I've ran an EA-1 through it, vintage synth patches on my JV though it, my bass guitar through it and its excellent…the filter is brilliant… anyone that cant see the advantage of being able to buy a portable filter of this quality for under $60 totally doesnt get what this is all about and should immediately retire back in their cave with the rest of the Neanderthals 🙂
In a word – No.
Where’s the High Pass filter on the Monotron?
Oh, it doesn’t have one!