Korg MS-20 vs. Korg MS-20

Published on Oct 24, 2012 by repeatle

"OK. This is not a song.
I had my friends MS-20 visiting mine for a brief moment. One of them is missing that legendary screw. You might have heard about this.
There's two different filters in the MS-20. The Korg35 is in every unit which is lacking that screw in the VCA section, in the middle of the synth's panel.
Rumours has it that the Korg35 filter makes the MS-20 sound more harsch.
You be the judge, but I for one can't tell the difference.

Since I only had my friends MS-20 next to mine for a an hour or two, I wanted to take the opportunity to try them side by side.
I was only noodling and tweaking nothing but the filters or the parameters affecting the filters (envelope and LFO).

To make things more complicated, there's MS-20 units with screws but still with the Korg35 filter inside.
I've had my MS-20 for about 18 years but never opened it up to see which filter it has."