The Dream Luxury Toy: Monophonic Synthesizer KORG MS-20

My son.
In the Showa era, there truly existed a creature known as the "synth boy."

They were a bit different from what you'd call a DTM kid today.
There were no computers or software synthesizers back then. If you wanted to make music, you had to play an instrument.

However, a machine appeared that turned that common sense upside down.

The synthesizer is.

When you pressed a key, it produced an electronic sound you'd never heard before—not a piano, not an organ.

The boys of that time were struck by that sound as if hit by lightning.

And the machine that became the symbol of that era was the
KORG MS-20, which debuted in 1978.

The first time I saw the MS-20

It was sitting inside a display case at a music store.

A black panel.
Countless knobs.
And on the right side, a row of holes.

It looked just like a machine from a sci-fi movie.

"Is this even an instrument?"

That was the first question that came to mind.

With a normal synthesizer, you press a key and a sound comes out.
But the MS-20 was different.

Before you could make a sound, you first had to create the sound.

You turn a knob.
You plug in a cable.
The sound changes.

It gets lower, it trembles, or it suddenly turns into noise.

In other words, it was less of an instrument and more of a
sound laboratory.

The synth boys of the Showa era were obsessed with it.
Though I was already a young man by then ^^

Nights spent searching for sounds

My son.
The MS-20 has none of the convenient features found in today's equipment.

There is no memory.
There are no presets.

The sounds you work so hard to create disappear the moment you turn off the power.

That is why the boy keeps turning the knobs.

He tries making a bass sound.
He tries making a sound like a spaceship.
It can even produce noise like sound effects.

And then he realizes.

"A synthesizer is not an instrument for performing."

It is a machine for inventing sound.That is what it is.

He tweaks the knobs until late at night.
He swaps out the cables.

Even when he intends to use the same settings, the sound is subtly different.

Because it is an analog circuit.
The sound changes due to individual component variations and temperature.

In other words, the exact same sound will never be produced twice.

That coincidence is what makes it interesting.

The synth boys of the Showa era,
kept searching for sounds just like researchers.

A laboratory on the desk

Before long, the desks of those hooked on synths started to look increasingly strange.

Next to the MS-20,
a sequencer is placed.

Furthermore,
expansion modules are added.

Cables are strung about like a spider's web.

It is no longer an instrument.

It's a complete laboratory.

But you see, the sound born from that laboratory was completely different from the rock and pop of that time.
It was the sound of the future.

It was the sound of the future.

A sound that is still alive today.

My son.
Decades have passed since then.

Nowadays, you can create any sound with just one computer.
There are also tons of synth software.

Even so,
the sound of the MS-20 is still used today.

Do you know why?

The reason is simple.

Analog synths
cannot be completely controlled.

They act up a little.
They distort a little.
They produce slightly unexpected sounds.

But that imperfection
gives life to the sound.

The synth boys of the Showa era
were chasing that without even knowing it.

They just turned knobs in a frenzy,
swapped cables,
and kept searching for sounds.

That little machine on the desk—
KORG MS-20.

That wasn't just an electronic instrument.

For the boys of the Showa era,
it was the future itself.

So, to continue.

Since I was a working adult, I also bought an expansion unit called the MS-50.

The ultimate tag team of the MS-20 and MS-50.
It's like Hansen and Brody.
Especially since it seems very few people owned this MS-50.
Unfortunately, I got rid of both of them 30 years ago.
Back then, there were no auctions, so I sold them to a musical instrument buyer.
And they sold for a surprising price.
Surprising, you say?

Well, which one is it?

They sold for an incredibly high price.

And the person who was happiest about that was...
The one who thought these were just annoying pieces of scrap metal taking up space.
That's right, your mom. ^^