Hardware Reviews Part 5

Korg MS2000 - $350-500 used (8.75/10)

I recently purchased on of these used on craigslist and so far I've been digging it. It is the grandfather of the more recent Microkorg. As far as I can tell, the Microkorg is capable of producing the same sounds as the older, larger MS2000, but on the Microkorg you end up having to program everything with a few knobs and a tiny LCD screen. I prefer the ease of use the MS2000 offers as well as its larger keyboard. I'll probably have a more detailed comparison of the two later.

The Korg MS2000 has a surprisingly aggressive tone that works very well for my style of music. Rather than using patch cables like traditional analog synthesizers, it offers a versatile 'Virtual Patch' system. The distortion is nice, but there aren't a lot of options, so I've got mine going through a guitar distortion pedal to further mutilate its sound. The MS2000 has the ability to act as a vocoder, which it does well, but I haven't really messed with it much. It's no longer in production, so if you plan on obtaining one of your own, I wish you the best of luck in finding a used one in good condition at a reasonable price.

Successes
-Tasty virtual analog synthesis
-An abundance waveforms to choose from.
-Sexy body with lots of metal and wood.
-Powerful step sequencer

Failures
-Only 4-note polyphony
-Not true analog synthesis