Korg recently released the Monotron – a truly analog (yes it is, I’ve checked – nothing but op-amps and capacitors and stuff). A pocket synthesizer with the same filter found on the MS-20 synth.

Here’s a short video showing what I found under the hood – nice touch from Korg providing pre-soldered and labelled test points.

It’s missing an ADSR + VCA, and the VCO only puts out a sawtooth wave, but for $59 it’s a pretty good deal.

Here’s a rather amazing video of what you can do with it, if you have lots of time…

…and some way of keeping it all in sync.

I can probably cannibalize some of an old laser harp to produce the gate + CV signals from a uController (like an Arduino – blog cred +10) – then the sky’s the limit.

More to follow…

HAPPY CHRISTMAS / HOLIDAYS!

UPDATE : Here’s a link I just found with some modding advice and a nice picture of the underside of the PCB http://www.dinsync.info/search?q=monotron