Korg MS-20 mini love

is the improvement on the module then, along with the mults and so on - probably what i confused would be snuck in, but thinking now it’s not a layout to mess with on the MS chassis - it’s clearly the proper synth and robust etc, but it’ll cost you - still not a fan of those chunky patch cables but it’d be a nice problem to have

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I don’t personally have any experience with the full-size version, but from what I’ve gleamed from comparison videos the mini has the sound right.

I’ve also loved the idea of using one after seeing many example videos of MS-20s doing their thing. Living in Japan makes space a premium, so I’m down for smaller versions.
Anyway, when I got mine I was beaming!

As for the jacks, I forgot about the plastic bits on the patchbay right away. I’m happy just trying stuff out and I’m already finding a few surprising things without too much tutorial watching.

The knobs on mine don’t feel too wobbly in general but there are some of the smaller size ones that do wiggle more than others.
On my unit, the PW, the modulation generator waveform and frequency, the envelope generator 2 sustain level, as well as the ESP signal level knobs have some wiggle but function just fine.

The knobs do have a lot of variance in resistance but it is a used one. A few are almost crunchy! I need to hit it with some contact cleaner.
Mine definitely already feels like some piece of vintage gear.

One issue I’ve noticed, however, is that the midi seems to be laggy at times. I don’t really mind too much but if I’m sequencing it with my Syntakt, it seems to fall behind on a few notes maybe 10% of the time.
When I control it with Syntakt’s keyboard mode or play the Launchpad through the Syntakt, there is no problem. It’s just been sequenced notes that have timing issues.

Anybody else notice any problems with midi?

IIRC, the keyboard and MIDI notes DON’t retrigger the envelope, so if you have any overlap at all, you miss the attack phase, and play through the rest. It’s quite easy to have notes get lost in the previous one’s sustain, especially if it’s low. The Hold control makes this more quirky still.

Pretty sure I got into the habit of making my note lengths shorter than seemed necessary, so as to ensure the whole cycle finished in time.

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Aaaah you’re probably right!
I didn’t take into account the note length. I’ll check the pattern I remember having the issue and I’ll try short notes on the steps where I notice it.

Added later: @Octagonist that was it. Thanks!

Note priority is also funky on all the MS20s if you are not tidy with your playing and used to last note ptiority

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Yep.

But on the other hand, leaving the envelope open allows for wild demon solos :smiling_imp:

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Yeah you’re right, it favors the higher note. That is taking a little practice to get used to, but I’m liking that in a way.

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you’re a better player than i’ll ever be then, even as a guitarist, where i suppose it’s implicitly high note priority !

but i agree that it’s quirks are what make the MS experience truly wonderful - i love all that is different, it takes you away from habits, even down to its unusual EG2 behaviour - it’s the best single synth voice for me of them all

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