- When it was originally released in 1978, the MS-20 was a huge advance in synth engineering that took the previously hulking analog modular synthesizer and shrunk it down to a portable design. It enjoyed a good run of success, but as with all true analog synths, it was eventually edged out of the market by the digital revolution of the early '80s. Within five years production was halted. In recent years, however, the well-engineered design and huge analog sound of the MS-20 has inflated its value to the point that it routinely demands prices of $1200-$1800 on the secondhand market. In 2004, Korg cashed in on the early stages of this resurgence when they released the Legacy Collection—a software bundle that included a miniature MS-20 replica called the MS-20ic that could control its virtual counterpart. Jumping forward to 2011 finds the MS-20ic discontinued much like the original, but now Korg has embraced the touch revolution by releasing the iMS-20—a full-featured version of the MS-20 for Apple's iPad.
The iMS-20 is actually Korg's second foray into the world of iOS development: The first offering was a successful recreation of one of the Electribe series samplers. The iMS-20 was a logical next step, and many thought that it would achieve success with nothing more than a simple recreation of the MS-20 functionality. Korg have, however, exceeded expectations with iMS-20, adding a melodic sequencer, a six-part drum sequencer, a seven-channel mixer with insert effects and a master effect. They also added two X-Y pads that can be used to adjust parameters and even play melodies like on their Kaossilator hardware unit.
The main synth patch editing screen is a spot-on recreation of an MS-20, with the control panel on the left, the patch panel on the right and the 37-note keyboard below. One essential feature that's not immediately obvious is the ability to zoom in on either panel by double-tapping either the large diagram on the control panel or the Korg logo on the patch panel. Outside of that trick, there is not much to say here—and that's a good thing. All the functionality of the real-life counterpart is retained, all the way down to the tricks (like filter feedback distortion) that can be pulled with the patch panel. If the mere sight of all the patch panel's jacks and diagrams makes you dizzy, there are some useful videos on YouTube like this one that can help show you what's possible.
Pulling down on the main synth screen reveals the first of the "extras" that Korg included in the iMS-20, an analog sequencer that is based closely on the mighty Korg SQ-10. Essentially what an analog sequencer gives you are knobs to control the sound over 16 steps. The iMS-20 sequencer lets you choose which steps trigger sound and for how long (gate), what notes are played (pitch and octave), the volume and pan of each note, and other assignable controls. It would be easy to spend way too much time going over the possibilities that the sequencer opens up, but with the ability to send patch cables from the sequencer to any of the patch panel jacks, it's hard not to be blown away by how much can be done there.
Even if Korg had stopped there, the iMS-20 would be worthy of a recommendation—but they took it a few steps further by giving you another six MS-20s that can be used in what Korg calls "drum mode." There are a few limitations with the drum synths: you lose a few knobs (EG 1/2 release and MG key sync) and the set of parameters controllable by the associated sequencer is reduced. Curiously, editing the patch of one of these 6 drum parts causes the iMS-20 to solo that sound, looping a quarter note over and over for you to hear what you're changing. It would be nice to be able to change this in the configuration options so that you can edit parameters in a live set without interrupting your sequence.
Once you have your sounds programmed and are ready to arrange some patterns together into a song, you can do so using the pattern sequencer, which lets you string up to 256 patterns together in any order to make a song. After that, you can either record a performance in real-time, or export songs and patterns individually to an audio file. The resulting audio file can then be copied via iTunes, or if you're feeling social it can be uploaded directly to SoundCloud from within iMS-20.
Korg showed their willingness to continue to add functionality to the iMS-20 by releasing the 1.1 update, which provides support for CoreMIDI devices connected via the Apple Camera Connection Kit (including native support for the Legacy Collection controller). Almost every knob can be controlled via MIDI CC (full list here), and both the synth and each of the six drum parts can be triggered via notes on separate MIDI channels. This upgrade plus the fact that iMS-20 already supported certain audio interfaces via Core Audio gives the app a huge boost when it comes to studio integration. With devices like the Alesis StudioDock on the way things are getting really interesting for powerful iOS audio apps like the iMS-20.
It's probably obvious at this point that the iMS-20 gets a firm "buy" recommendation here, especially at the current 50% introductory price—$15.99—which expires January 31. As with anything, there are a few small things that could be improved: the drum patch editing quirk discussed earlier and the fact that MIDI clock is not supported are small blemishes on a pretty astonishing amount of functionality for the money. While it may not win a toe-to-toe sonic comparison to the real thing, the iMS-20 gets as close as possible and adds enough extra features to make it a useful tool for any musician with an iPad.
Ratings /
Cost: 5/5
Versatility: 5/5
Sound: 4.5/5
Ease of use: 4.5/5