Korg MS-2000

The presets ar just ok, but they give you rough guide for what it can do. I always tweak them before I use them. Overall I think its easy to edit the sound and I like the the modulation matrix which which is deadeasy to program and gives you plenty of ways to manipulate the sounds.

I use it mainly for bass, lead, vocoding and audio in. The more I use it the more I like it. The filters are a bit digital and hard. Thats not a problem though if you like that sound. I recommend you to play different sounds thru the vocoder and play with the knobs.

Fx is alright, mostly use the delay wich is alright.

Polyfony is not great if you compare. Not an issue for me. Would not have bought it if it was. As somebody stated, use it as a monosynth instead.
Midi covers my needs. Works nice in cubase anyway.
Havnt used the seqenser much. next area to discover.
The patchcord system is very easy to use and have given me lots of joy. Could have been more extensive though.

REalistic? I didnt buy this synth to play piano with so I cant comment.
For elctronica of all kinds its very good. Audion in is very nice feat, with vocoder.
FX: moderate.

Very realable, not a single problem in 24 month.
2000r.

Downloaded a patch without a problem

Dont know if I would buy another one, but I would like to get anotherone from the insurancecompany.
8 years producing. Have some softies and a sh-101 and emulator.
Love the vocoder audio in and tweakability.
Bought for the value.
Which it had an oppertunity to use the highpass filters and the lowpass at the same time as ms20.
It helps me to be creative.

Have a nice day.

Turn it on. Twiddle. Achieve enlightenment. Some of the things really require using the manual, but not many, and the manual is very helpful.

Many people have criticized the limited polyphony of this instrument. With respect, these people are missing the point -- rather than finding 4 notes limiting, one might think of this keyboard as a monosynth with three bonus voices. Making this instrument, say, 32-note poly would have destroyed the retro vibe completely. And does anyone complain that a trumpet or a flute is monophonic, or that a violin is no more than two or three-note at a stretch? No, they don't. If you want a polysynth, go away and buy a polysynth. In any case, the MS2000 is dramatically enhanced by the 3-track analog-style sequencer (instant wavestation!), fun arpeggio, distortion switch on the amp, powerful filter and extremely impressive vocoder.

The sounds are wonderful. Of course, the presets tend to cater for a dance audience which is a drag if you play rock and blues, but these things can be edited. Inside the silliness is an ancient minimoog trying to get out. Or at least a Pro-One. And the pad sounds brought tears of joy and recognition to my eyes. This was the crappy string-machine sound I'd always wanted, only without the crap. When I turned it on and played it I felt I hadn't had my hands on such a lovely machine in years. And I am a rather antique player.

Clearly you have to have the right mind-set to appreciate the MS2000 for what it is. Trying to get the sound of a decent monosynth win an easy and reliable package, I bought one of the first Korg Prophecy analog modelling synths in the UK. It sounded OK, but the limited interface was alienating rather than involving. Then I owned an old Sequential Pro-One, which sounded great but of course had no memories, making it difficult to use at a gig. The MS2000 has the advantages of both and the disadvantages of neither. It looks and feels like an old-style monosynth, but with extra polyphony, inbuilt analog sequencer, effects and all kinds of lovely stuff. It doesn't drift out of tune, has lots of memories and is readily tweakable on the fly. Really, what's not to like? And at a reasonable price, too. I bought this on eBay for just slightly more than a third what I paid for a new Prophecy, and somewhat less what I paid for a Pro-One. It also fits into my somewhat old-fashioned live all-Korg rock rig of M1, BX3, SP200, and DS8, none of which are MIDI'd together.

This synth is very easy to learn. If you read the manual from time to time you will master it. Dont judge this synth my the factory presets. Learn it first and you will be suprised of what this blue beast can do!

The features of this synth is limited but there are great features that make it unique. Mod sequencer is one example. The ability to route cutoff and other things through the mod wheel is another. Audio input a must on modeling synths. Use the filters on say a drum track and it gives your music flavor.

This synth has given me years of inspirational sounds. Just when I thought I heard everything this synth can do I create or download a patch that I thought was out of its range. The effects are pretty good. Delay is excelent. Flange is weak. The resonace isnt as good as say a roland Juno 106. The distortion is usable. You get what you put into this synth. If you dont take the time to experiment with it you wont get very good sounds. I repeat dont judge this synth my its factory presets!

This synth is reliable for the most part. I have had keys go out and mysteriously come back over time.

This is my second MS2000. I was on the waiting list before they were released. I scratched the hell out of my MS2000 just by lugging it around without a case. I found one in a pawn shop for dirt cheap so I sold the old one. To tell you how I feel about this synth when i reset the presets to factory I literally chocked up. I had patches that i worked on for years. I backed them up of course and I had another that was brand new waiting to load the patches but still I got emotional. This synth is my right hand in the studio. Dont get discouraged by these reviews that say its cheap sounding. Like I said you get what you put into it and i guarantee that they didnt give it much.

Pretty easy to edit, all the standard features of an analog synth are there. There are dozens of usable presets, the manual is pretty straightforward. The component patching system is fairly good but needs more than just 4 patches to be really powerful.

The polyphony being 4 voice is a bit limiting, especially when taken into consideration with the rather limited quality of sound. Why are there not quite 4 octaves on the keyboard? The onboard sequencer is passable but needs twice as many steps. The built in vocoder is very usable and the presets sound great. There are a lot of waveforms to choose from but none of them sound particularly great. Its response to standard MIDI messages is adequate but there are some quirks around setting the volume by remote.

This is where the thing falls down. For the most part it's difficult to get a clear expressive sound out of it - take all the effects and filters off and listen to a plain saw wave - it sounds more like a whine than a growl. The filters in particular are HORRIBLE - grainy and distorted, and turning up the resonance just makes things worse. I use this mainly for a vocoder and the occasional pad layer. Before calling me an elitist, fans of this keyboard should try playing a REAL analog synth, or a Nord, or a Noah, etc. MS2000 sounds often get lost in a mix because of their lack of clarity. If they had put another $500 of quality components into this synth it might actually be very usable - but it's more glitz than actual quality.

Never had a problem with it, but the dials dont look like they'd take much abuse. Other than that, works reliably for me.

Never need any support, the manual is pretty straightforward.

I was disappointed with this piece of gear, overall. I wish I had spent twice the money and got a real usable keyboard. If it was lost, I'd just try find another unit that could do vocoding.

Most things have knobs or buttons, basic setup for midi etc is done through a lcd paging system thats perfectly fine in my book.

I put an 8 in this category, the polyphony is a bit low, but I use this machine for bass and lead sounds.. I have other gear for pads

This unit has a sound of it's own. I have a load of other gear and the "tonal" quality of this baby is very different from them(for example roland jp-8080). If it's good or bad is up to you really. I tend to get more aggressive sounds out of the MS2000 then from other gear. Also trance leads are really strong in this unit.

The whole Mod/Sequeence feature is really cool, but I hardly use it. I tend to sequence the same type of stuff with Logic Audio anyways, I just prefer to work that way.

The Vocoder is really good compared to the vocoder in Roland JP-8080

had it since they started selling them, I even had a beta os in mine. No problems whatsoever. Funny thing about the beta os is that it couldn't dump sysex. But Korg released upgrades so when I finally installed those everything worked fine.

never delt with korg

I have a love/hate kind of relation with my MS2000, it's such a fine piece of equipment. But musicaly it doesn't do it for me. I purly stick to it for a couple of sounds I can't get from any of my other gear, but I want to get rid of it.

However, I would still recommend the ms2000 to anyone, it's not bad, it just isn't for me

this synth is great

poly is 4 which i dont care becuase im mainley a industrial keyboardist that play on the synths not on computers like most people do and not pushing one button and hold to create a song learn to play piano synths are ment to be played not a gay dj unit with no talent.

the sounds are great ive been playing for ten years and when i first tried this unit out i was impressed you just have to know how to program to get good sound they dont come to you.......

depeche mode and other bands cant be wrong there pros and been doing alot longer than most people buy the way they use this synth if you want a good industrial and electro and are not lazy about programming this beast and thsi is the synth for you ............grave

i m using 1.7 version-seems fine. it is very easy to work with,i am very impressed with it! manual is well written...

i wish it had more polifony koz those strings and pads are awesome! its built in effects are pretty good but they dont give enough bite to sounds( chorus is simple but very nice sounding!).midi thing is ok but sometimes slow(my nordrack 2 is quicker than this)it is flexible and its vocoder is nice

this is not synth for acustic instruments but for creating your own new sounds! for me it is better than nord and the rest and i created some trully mad sounds with it! basses are excellent and pads,strings...dwgs and motion seq gives you wavestation style sounds!!!

no problem

ok

if it were lost or stolen i will maybe buy it koz i would like to have wavestation a/d!

I am still a beginner at analogue synthesis. I find this keyboard ideal for people like me as it's fairly easy to get into even if you're not exactly sure what your doing as you can tweak the knobs and listen to the results with your ears without getting too lost (esp. if you use one of the presets as a starting point).

Bad Points
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The 4-note polyphony and fairly poor keyboard are a minus (the action on my old, very cheap Studiologic SL-161 is better). I have a Roland A-37 in my set up and it picks up the MS200 when I select the midi channel from Cubase so I have another option if I want.

Good Points
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There are plenty of knobs and buttons to tweak/press which is one of the main reasons for buying this keyboard - very hands on which I like. Great step sequencer - can be used to create some interesting results.

The sounds are great and they work really well when I play it on songs using my array of real instruments (accoustic guitar/bass, dulcimer, greek bouzouki etc.). With the lack of polyphony I use the MS2000 to create some inspiring atmospheric sounds (think waves and wind for example). I listen to lots of industrial and electronica and this keyboard works well for the sounds I need.

I've owned mine for over 2 years and it's still going strong. I would gig with it no problems.

The only contact I've had with Korg was to get my Kaoss Pad repaired. I sent it off recorded delivery and was about to phone them a 13 days later to find out what was going on when the postman arrived at my door with a parcel. Korg had repaired it and delivered it back free of charge! I've had no need to contact Korg about my MS200 as it's been behaving itself.

I love the usability of the MS 2000 loads of tweakable knobs, easy to use, not a mindfield as its laid out well and I rarely get lost in amongst buttons, knobs and l.e.d's like I've done on other synths.

It's not an up front keyboard as it works best within a mix and adds a suitable balance of electronic synth to accompany my live accoustic sound.

Would I buy it again? Only if it breaks

The Korg ms2000 setup is great. Virtually every available adjustment is available on the panel as a knob or button. There are a few things you need to use the lcd to access but this are broad settings and are where they are expected.

This synth is amazing to use and the user interface is rather intuitive and provides a nice flow. VERY easy to come up with sounds.. I highly reccomend it - especially for a beginner.

The presets are ok... editing is a breeze and you can pull some great fat basses and leads.

The manual is laid out greatly.. anyone with synth experience will find it easy to use.. likewise the onboard notes on the right side of the panel are great for quick reference.

I don't know of a ynth that is EASIER to use as far as editing goes... which speaks volumes.

The Korg has 2 huge cons in my opinion.. which are offset by the positives:

The worst part about the korg is that it only has 4 voice polyphony. 4 voices just covers leads and basses (and sometimes does not). Despite this weakness.. the strength of the korg is it's easy sound editing... and with that in mind I can live with the weak polyphony.

The second worse part is that there are no strict user banks or initial sounds. This is not a huge deal as you can simply overwrite the presents.... or store your data on the computer via midi dump. Additional memory would be nice.. but again it is a shortcoming I can live with because of the ease of use and easy sound creation capabilities.

The onboard sequencer is quite nice as well and very easy to use.

The onboard fx are so so.. but it is wonderful to have them there on board.

This rating is low because of the polyphony.

The best features are that virtually every parameter is controlled by a knob.. or button directly in front of you.. no hunting through menus.

The instruments are not realistic which is the beauty. Is very capable of fat synth leads and basses. The polyphony leaves pads lacking a bit but they are certainly possible.

It is amazingly easy to create sounds with this... and sounds that are great sounding at that. This is the easiest to use synth I have ever worked with.. Pulling out leads, basses or whatever is in your head is easy AND it sounds great.

I have no problems with the smaller unweighted keyboard - in fact I quite like it.

Works great for ebm, industrial, and electronica of any kind.

I just got this used several days ago and although it is not the sturdiest thing it looks like it will hold together fine, even for gigging.. It is built sturdy enough that if you take good care of it you should have no problems.

I would buy this again if it was lost or stolen... you can find some pretty decent deals on these used - on ebay or craig's list.

THe beauty of the korg ms2000 is its amazing sound capabilities and th best thing of all how easy it is to unleash these great sound capabilities.

I also own an e-mu e synth and Waldorf Q... oh which I love both... and although the q especailly has many more features, and is altogether a much better board.. the korg certainly has it's place... it is amazing easy to use... I never get lost within it's parameters like I am apt to sometimes within the q.

I highly reccomend the ms2000 if you want great sound capabilities that are rather easy to access. For example I have duplicated sounds on skinny puppy records, made morse code and the like within minutes... Granted additional features would be nice.. but I also believe that these additional features would hinder the strength of the ms 2000 - great sound easily editable... and bescause oif this it helps song composition tremendously - if i get a sound in my head I can quickly pull it out of the ms2000.

This would eb THE ideal synth for beginners... if you want to get into syntheis i would highly encourage you to strongly consider this as your first synth.

Only thing that would make this synth tremendously better would be increased polyphony. because i relaly do hate the 4...

My version is the 1.07. If you want to edit the presets, it's easy. If you want to make a sound from scracth it's not so easy. You must be at least an average user to do this. But the manual of course says that, try first to edit the presets. This is normal, analog synthesis(any synthesis) want some time.

Okey, as far as the polyphony i have no problem. It's the kind of music you play that this element becames major or minor. If you are into electronic music, no problem. This kind does not requare big polyphony.If you are into more traditional kinds, you must have .
All the other elements generally is good.

Amazing.This is how the MS is sounding. This is the most powerful analog modeling synth in the market. I play music of Jean Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Tangerine Dream etc, and this is the right synth for that kind of music. nuff said!

I have it almost a month and i have no problem.

I have not dealt yet with the customer support.

Well, i love my MS. The only synth that i think is superior, is the ANDROMEDA but i didn't bought it because of the ridiculus price tag. If you want to have a versatile studio, you must have also a general purpose synth like the MOTIF or the TRITON.
AND YES, IF IT WAS STOLEN, I WILL BOUGHT IT AGAIN!