Given the numerical character of its name, a successor to Korgs NTS-1 build-it-yourself synth always felt it could be on the cards. So the NTS-2 is not a complete surprise, but its design – along with the fact that it comes with a supplementary book – comes a little outside the left field.
This is mainly because the core of the hardware is not a synth motor but a 4-channel oscilloscope. This offers two stereo inputs that allow you to study, compare and overlap up to four signals at once. There are several color display modes and an interface that can be navigated with menu buttons and a clickable encoder.
There is also a FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) mode with a real-time spectrum analyzer along with a dual-waveform generator. Each of the two oscillators can create sine, square, triangle, sawtooth, pulse and noise waveforms.
In addition to being used as sound, these sounds can also be used as control voltage sources and set to cycle continuously or act as one-shot pulses. This means you can turn them into LFOs, envelopes, triggers and control voltage generators, making the NTS-2 a potentially useful partner for any patchable synth.
The NTS-2’s slightly unusual feature set is topped by a tuner that offers multiple display modes. The end result is what Korg calls a studio Swiss Army Knife for musicians.
Shipping with the hardware is Patch & Tweak with Korg, the latest in a series of books from Bjooks. This focuses on semi-modular synthesis, and its tutorials, tips, and tricks rely heavily on Korg’s MS-20 Mini, Volca Modular, and Arp 2600 M synths along with the SQ sequences.
The book covers everything from synth basics to advanced sound design and includes more than 25 new exclusive interviews with the likes of Pete Townshend, Jean-Michel Jarre and Richard Devine.
You will need to build the NTS-2 yourself, but based on our experience with the NTS-1, this will be quick and easy.
We’re still waiting for a price for the NTS-2, and it’s only available in early summer, but you can find out more at Basket website.