MATRIXSYNTH: Roland MKS-30 | Better or Worse?


Friday, December 11, 2020

Roland MKS-30 | Better or Worse?


Espen Kraft

"The Roland MKS-30 is the module version of the JX-3P, both excellent analog synthesizers from the early 80s.

The MKS-30 responds to velocity, something most stock 3Ps don't have. The MKS-30 can also store its patches on a cartridge and it can use the PG-200 and Midi at the same time.
There are several different manufacturers making mods for either synth and these mods will rectify a lot of things, among them the ability to send and receive sysex data, somethings sorely missing on the originals.
It's a "common" thought that the MKS-30 sounds thinner and weaker than the the 3P. I can certainly testify that they do not sounds the same.

If you want to listen to the two demo songs in a Wav format, and compare, you can download these here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RmOJ..."

1 comment:

  1. I think they come out even and it's just a matter of preference.

    The MKS-30 might have a bit of an edge now with the Hausensteiner upgrade info freely available. There's also the ability to swap out the 80017A chips and replace them with the knarlier sounding Gravitational Slingshot replacements: http://www.analoguerenaissance.com/AR80017A-GS/

    ReplyDelete

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