iPretended to understand iMS-20

Korg iMS-20/MS-20 help for the (almost) utter newbie?

So I bought Korg iMS-20 on sale thinking that my experience with the DS-10 four years ago would translate and ha ha ha fat chance. I don't remember anything, and I knew very, very little to begin with.

There's a lot of MS-20/iMS-20 stuff out there, but most of it presupposes knowledge I can't claim to have. I made some interesting, if really basic, tracks on the DS-10, but that's the entirety of experience I have. Anyone have any particularly good guides/videos/etc.?

posted by griphus (5 comments total)

Ooo, this is on sale? I'll have to try it. Of course, I have no idea how it works. This online manual seems pretty good, though.
posted by koeselitz at 9:56 AM on December 5, 2012

Yeah, all (I think) of Korg's apps are half-off until 12/31. The manual is great, yeah, but I was hoping for more of a teaching-reference.
posted by griphus at 10:06 AM on December 5, 2012

but most of it presupposes knowledge I can't claim to have

Are you looking for explanations of how to use the iMS 20 specifically, or general synthesis techniques?

Here's an introductory video on the MS-20 - really basic, shows where things are located.

Sound on Sound has a 12-part series on the fundamentals of synthesis - really useful for understanding the basics of how subtractive synthesis works.
posted by dubold at 1:20 AM on December 6, 2012

It's a beast. I struggled with it for a while a while ago. While it is cool in that you sort of have a whole a bunch of MS-20's at your disposal, the overall architecture is just so bizarre. Patch cords for some functions, switches for others with no rhyme or reason that I could detect. Once upon a time I might have been motivated to understand this thing but at the moment the time investment doesn't seem worthwhile to me. I have found Korg's vintage emulations to sound amazingly accurate and generally amazing but they also retain Korg's UI which I have always found consistently unintuitive. Thus I look forward to and dread an implementation of the Wavesation for the iPad.
I'm sorry I couldn't answer your question.
If you decide to pursue this quest, I offer sincere wishes of success. May the synthgods shine their munificence upon you.
posted by Jode at 3:20 PM on December 13, 2012

I should add that I am currently trying to understand Audulus which is loads of fun and worth checking out. (That could be just the shape of my "brain" and you might in fact have more fun with the MS-20.)
posted by Jode at 3:57 PM on December 13, 2012