The MS-20 did not make sounds. It made you a sound designer.
The Korg MS-20 was released in 1978 as a semi-modular synthesizer. Unlike fully modular synthesizers, which required patching every signal path using cables, the MS-20 had a fixed architecture with pre-routed connections. But it also had 22 patch points where you could interrupt the internal signal flow and route sounds in non-standard ways. This hybrid design made the MS-20 far more affordable and accessible than fully modular synthesizers while preserving their experimental flexibility.
You could route an oscillator into the filter’s cutoff frequency input, creating a self-modulating filter that would sweep based on the oscillator’s pitch. You could route the envelope generator into the oscillator’s pitch, creating pitch envelopes that could do things the synthesizer was not designed to do. You could create feedback loops, where the output of one module fed back into its own input, creating chaotic, self-generating sounds. The patch points gave you agency. They let you decide what the synthesizer would be.
The MS-20 was discontinued in 1983. For thirty years it survived only on the second-hand market, where prices rose steadily. Korg reissued it in 2013 in two forms: a full-size reissue with updated internals and a smaller version designed to integrate with modern studio setups. The demand was immediate and sustained. An instrument that had been out of production for three decades had maintained enough cultural significance to justify reissue.
The MS-20’s legacy is also its sound. The filter is harsher and more aggressive than the filters on Moog synthesizers. Where Moog filters smooth and warm the sound, the MS-20 filter cuts and distorts. The synthesizer sounds dangerous in a way that most synthesizers do not. This quality made it useful for industrial, techno, and noise music genres that wanted abrasive rather than pleasing sounds.
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