Behringer K-2 Korg MS-20 clone shipping soon
The Korg MS-20 was one of Korg’s first huge commercial success stories, now reborn in the new Behringer K-2.
One of the aspects that made the Korg MS-20 such a huge success was its relatively compact size compared to its competitors.
The competitors at the time were huge Arp and Moog modular synthesizers, while they had the upper hand in features and quality – they were way out of the budget of most gigging bands and musicians.
The semi-modular nature of the Korg MS-20 made it a very popular choice for learning synthesis, and to this day around 40 years since it’s conception, it’s still Korg MS-20 a popular recommendation as a first step into learning modular synth principles and signal-flow.
Over the years, we have seen a number of clones, none of which quite capturing the essence of the original design in my opinion. The original Korg MS-20 was a compact synthesizer, and in this day and age, where a synth can almost fit into your pocket, these factors need to be considered.
The new Behringer K-2 delivers a true-to-the original circuit, in a new, much more compact form-factor – suited for modern studios.
Classic sound, modern workflow…
The Behringer K-2 features extensive USB MIDI and traditional MIDI implementation, you can quickly chain multiple instruments together to create polyphonic sounds.
It’s also compatible with the Eurorack modular synth standard and can even be mounted into a 3U size Eurorack case.
Behringer originally teased the new Korg MS-20 clone in April, something that I mentioned back then was that I was hoping that Behringer would design the circuit around 1v/Oct as opposed to Hz/Oct pitch-tracking, this would differ from the original circuit – however make it much more usable in a modern studio.
We’re still waiting on the official specs there, so we will have to wait and see.
So far, they have announced a retail price of EUR €299 (Around R5000 excl. duties) – that’s insanely good.
