MS20 Rocks!

[Vitaly]

I borrowed Korg MS20 from my friend, recently, just to play around. Originally, I was very sceptical about this synth. What is so amazing I can expect from it, I thought. After all, I have bunch of soft synths - Reaktor, z3eta, Atmosphere, Absynth etc. So, to get to know MS20 I challenged myself to create a song using just this synth. And in three days it was finished.

Download it here www.vitalymusic.com
It is at the bottom of the page, called MS20_Rocks! I didn't use any Eqs or compressors, only delays and reverb. Recorded/mixed in Cubase4.

If it wasn't me, then I don't probably believe that it was done by one synth. Drums, pad, bass (of course), lead, effects… I'm not trying to say I'm such a good programmer, it is not a point. The track is pretty simple and I know it sounds 'classic'. What surprised me is how interaction with a real thing can push one's creativity up. Perhaps, it was a lack of presets or I just like touching knobs I don't know, but it was such a great fun. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen when I work with VSTi. Something is missing.
The end of story is I started saving money for my first analog synth

Any comments about the track are very welcome.

Cheers,
Vitaly.

[C00kie]

Nice indeed...

[kritikon]

You do indeed work in a different way with hands-on synths with knobs/sliders etc. Of course the MS20 is a good sounding synth, but I always find I make a different type of music when I use my old synths. Not that VSTi are bad at all - I love some of my plugins - just that a mouse isn't that conducive to actually getting properly involved with the flow of the music you're making. At least not for me. I'll still use both s/w and h/w but tweaking a proper synth always gets my juices flowing (and the music) in a way that any amount of messing with a mouse never does.

Have to admit I wouldn't like to make music with only h/w nowadays - I couldn't live without a DAW and all the features you get with digital hosts. And some s/w synths make sounds I never got with analogues. I just know my music flows bettter when I actually play synths. When I play a mouse I can get far better mixes, but not as good flow (if that's the word for it?)


Also having said that...I also wouldn't want to make an entire track with one synth - I've done that in the past. Did it a few times with my MS20. Even did it with an MC202 once (had to sample it loads of times to get diferent notes for chords ). Did it when I got my Wavestation. I even made whole tunes with various different Junos. And they all sounded a bit one dimensional. That's why I've never been happy having just one synth - whether that be analogue or digital.

[Chuck E. Jesus]

sounds great

[Vitaly]

Thanks, guys!

[Sam@Megablastic]

Try getting this quality sound out of the virtual MS-20 he he cant be done

[mao]

A real plus on working with "old" hardware is that they normally comes with few preset or no preset at all. This let you focus on your song and in your sound. Using vst I always find myself browsing the sounds, keeping an inspiring one, creating 2 bar of something... browsing the sounds, keeping an inspiring one, creating 2 bar of something different... repeat ad libitum.
So waked up my hw synths, and started making music only with them + cubase + sw effect. Using Sw effects is a real plus, because you keep your clean recording and mix how much and how many FX you need. I'm not saying I'm not using vst synth at all, there are a lot of interesting vst synth out there... but they're not more my main tools. All the things about you can't save your presets in the song are true, but there are other application like midiquest which "integrates" your hw in your daw.

[Vitaly]

but there are other application like midiquest which "integrates" your hw in your daw.

I had a quick look but I'm not shure if I got it right. Can it store my hw 'presets' as a picture, so I don't have to write them down, or? Do you use it?