Your videos are REALLY impressive ... most importantly, they're easy to understand for just about anybody, and incredibly informative too ... but I also love how you don't muck about with any "faff" ... you're to the point, concise and honest. You're probably doing more for the music industry than you any of us realise, and I thank you ... sincerely.
I've bought this used for like 40€ thinking of buying a toy, but instead i've been surprised by the quality reserved for such a cheap piece of equipment. loving it much more than i expected to!
Omg I'm now seriously considering getting this and the Korg Volca Sample 2, and making a custom metal chassis to rehouse them into a single unit. You could send the headphone output from the Sample into the audio input of the NTS-1, and process your drums on it. Plus they both have midi sync. Then send the audio to speakers or a guitar amp. That would be such a crazy dawless minimalist setup, and for so cheap too. In the 70s, this would've cost a million dollars and all of your internal organs. Subbed, thank for making this!!!
What a cool review. I like the industrial design of the synth, even if it's not what I'd call ideal for my needs. Still, I like that Korg is pushing the bounds of what we'd traditionally call a synthesizer. It's reminiscent of those tiny little electric keyboards you could buy in the 80s, with terribly digital piezo speakers and rubber keys. It's like the 2010's version of one of those, meaning cheap and portable, but WAY more advanced. Thanks for the upload, Loopop.
Just ordered one. I have a very generic keyboard MIDI controller from around 2009. It is worth nothing and it's lack of even basic functions essentially made it little more than a prop - until I got an NTS-1. With the addition of the NTS-1, that otherwise useless controller is now a monophonic 49 key KORG synthesizer. This thing is great.
Here's a quick method for Eurorack mounting: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gJTBsC1AAsI.html orchardelica.com/wp/?p=804 You can also get more compact with some DIY designs: www.modulargrid.net/e/other-unknown-nts-1-eurorack-conversion
I love your channel for many reasons. The in depth overview of the features, the scope/spectrum analyzer, and of course your calming, reassuring and soothing voice! Keep em coming :) my favourite channel for this type of content.
Legendary Loopop as always! One thing that I must say about the NTS-1 is, it is a bit challenging to use it live due to the fact that the knobs work, not saying it is a bad thing but is good to note. Say you have set the OSC , then you switch to EG, you may need to remember the knob settings for the last parameter modified for OSC before playing with the EG settings because once you hit OSC again and start turning , it 'jumps' to the value of the knobs right away , which was set for the EG settings .. Carefully planning and setting them one by one ( like OSC shape alt, then FILTER, then EG, etc) usually helps
I'd say that with 25+ years of professional sound design and synth design (Yamaha R&D etc) experience, your (and Starsky Carr/Bad Gear)'s videos are really superb. They cover so much. and are an excellent watch
Excellent review. In-depth and lots of useful information that is hard to find in the NTS-1 "manual" which is more a cheat-sheet. The NTS-1 is a really interesting device but without some in-depth knowledge and experimentation it is just a squeak box. I liked his suggestion to use the NTS-1 as a delay-reverb module in an audio chain.
What an impressive piece of kit and a really good review, so many thanks. As an effects processor this really stands out with its flexibility and customisation with other imported oscillators. I also like that you have to build it yourself! Very 1970s "Tandy" electronic style ...
Well damn. That's pretty cool. As the owner of an OG Minilogue, I've lusted over the new one with the user osc input. Yeah this is monophonic, but it might scratch the itch. My kid would have fun building it with me. Thanks for the review.
However you don't learn anything about the underlying electronics by just putting a preassembled board into a kit case. School music classes could learn the same about synthesis by using any simple analog synth, e. g. a Volca Bass.
@@thamessinclair2010 I was referring more to the satisfaction gained by each student from building their own and even possibly keeping it for themselves to use. They could then use it in subsequent lessons with their teachers.
@@thamessinclair2010 I wish when i went to school, that there would be a class about building my own synth from components. Luckily there are RU-vid videos on the subject ("Look Mum No Computer" is good inspiration) - and even repair/service manuals that you can download and see what components they used; and how to make your own copy of it. Would be really cool to make lots of small boxes like in this video, so i could expand a modular synth rack with extra oscillators or modifiers or whatever, to put up on a big rack at home, and could just pick out the essential modules i wanted to bring with me if i was going over to a friend or on a vacation or something
This is a must have just as an effects processor. Why buy a guitar pedal(s) at this point when you have a really nice effects range out the door, and the fact that custom plugins are going to meet or exceed the $350 reverb/delay boxes. Good lord this is amazing. This is also small enough to be in-line for ALL my external gear. I'll buy a dozen of them.
Agreed. As far as guitars I'm guessing it's a solid maybe. It probably needs to be a line level signal which means you probably need some kind of a preamp as well as the adapter down to an eighth inch input and then an adapter back out from the output if you wanted to run it on a pedal board.
Superb video showing what this can do.. I was confused when I got this little box thinking it was a bit of a toy until I started to understand and explore what it can do . Utterly amazing device.. I just wish it could store presets.
This little thing is sooo underrated! As you said; the FX-part makes it worth it alone. The synth is in many ways even more powerful than the Volca Bass, for example. (And the Bass is no toy at all when it comes to sound and versability!)
Thanks again. Your videos are the absolutely the best quality, well presented and visually informative instruction videos on the synths and music boxes I own which often far surpass the provided manuals. But the thing I appreciate the most is how efficient and easy to listen to your commentary is. I often get frustrated with other presenters trying to be 'fun' or 'authoritative' meanwhile waffling on with very little structure. This can be so frustrating when I am in the middle of a session and just need 1 bit of information to let me understand where I've gotten stuck. For the amount of times I've been helped out of an annoying impasse or discovered a brilliant new thing from your videos, I feel it's only fair to sign up to your patreon for a while and support your extremely professional service. I know how much work will have gone into each one of these videos. Look forward to checking out some of your tips and tricks. :)
I decided to purchase one on the strength of your review. I absolutely love it. Thank you for your always clear and concise analysis; it is very much appreciated.
Wow, just found out about this maybe a day or two ago and also found out about Hydrasynth today. Just so happens you have in-depth reviews on both of them. Great job!
this device is totally worth buying for the reverbs alone. they really are showstoppers. i remember watching nick batt's review a few years back and feeling the exact same way. it surprised me here again!... they were impossible to find at the moment.... they sold out pretty quickly. your videos are superlative. thank you.!
This thing sounds/looks fantastic! Thank you for this useful review. I would love Korg to put four or so of these in a small box with a better (yet simple) user interface along with an USB connector for a full GUI via iOS, or PC based programmer. Your vids are great - now supporting through patreon.
this is sooo cool !! I have a monologue ( as "my" mono synth ) so I'll wait for the polyphonic version of this !! the fact that it supports MIDI is really super!!!
Another excellent review. This would be good, space-friendly, low-cost way to introduce digital synth sounds into my analog, semi-modular rig. I've have heard similar Eurorack digital modules that cost over 3X the price that don't sound as good as this. The Nutekt would be worth the price of admission just for its nice effects section. Thanks for your through review.
I think it would be useful to go through the connections set up between the keystep and the nts-1. It may be obvious to many but not to all and it would really help.
Ordered this little fellow today to mostly act as programmable effect processor for Minilogue OG. That said it being full fledged programmable digital synth with its own (tiny and limited but still very useful) keyboard makes this device pretty amazing programmable effect processor :)
*LOOPOP* What was the most difficult piece of equipment you’ve had to learn for a demo? I’m wondering how long it takes to learn your average demo? You seem to be a master in all of these and this must take up a stretch of your time to learn! Just to say, I appreciate your videos so much! Your efforts become so interesting, fun and in-depth and they’re quite enjoyable and educational. Thank you! 🎉 Sarah
Thanks! I wouldn't say difficult, but it's certainly more time-consuming to learn instruments with more features (Maschine, Ableton Live, the Zencore engine, Octatrack...). Making a video takes anywhere between 5-14 days on average
Ordered mine in October, only just now received it! Wow...is this thing fun! And like you said...it's worth the price just for the effects! I plugged in my Think Geek BlipTronic 5000 and had a blast! Then I grabbed my Korg Kaossilator and ran that through the effects processor and it makes the Kaossilator a completely different animal!
It took several months for mine to turn up too. I've just put mine together and have been using it with my OP-1. I love the 'ensemble' effect - very Boards of Canada. I like what the waveshaper does to the sawtooth wave too.
@@metascrawlmusic Agree. Now All I wish for is some kind of online group that I can get tips and hints from. I am having a bear of a time getting this thing to talk midi. I purchased a USB Midi keyboard and a USB-5DIN host converter and nothing....very frustrating!
@@ekummel That I can help with. It will be because the keyboard doesn't act as a MIDI host, it just sends out data for a host to interpret - I've run into exactly the same thing with my OP-1. You need to have something inbetween that will interpret USB MIDI signals into standard MIDI. That can be your computer, with the MIDI in & out channels set up in your DAW, which is what I do. The alternative is the USB MIDI host that Kenton makes - it does the same hosting job of a computer + DAW but it's just a small box. Only problem is that it's pretty expensive, which is the only reason I haven't bought one so far. It is annoying - I think every piece of MIDI gear should natively host, but most USB-only devices don't. EDIT: Sorry, you did say you had a host, I misread. Are you sure it's a host and not just a USB to MIDI adapter? The latter are inexpensive but still rely on a computer to do the actual hosting. What is the make/model of the one you have?
@@metascrawlmusic I picked up a MidiPlus Midi Host. It has 5 pin din in and out, and a USB with an LED. The LED's supposed to be red when there's no USB signal, and green when there is a USB signal. I discovered that the TRS to MIDI on the NTS-1 is not standard. My existing TRS adapters wouldn't work. Looking at the Midi spec document on Korg's site, it says that it must be a TRS Type-A. So I purchased one of those, verified the pin-outs with my multimeter and hooked everything up again. Nothing. I know that the USB midi keyboard works. I downloaded the Midi Keyboard App on my Windows laptop and plugged the keyboard into my laptop and I can play all day long. But I cannot get the NTS-1 to talk with the USB keyboard. I'm suspecting that there's something wrong with the USB to Midi host in that the LED won't turn green like the manual says. Thanks for any help you can give me.
@@ekummel I've not heard of that host before, but I looked it up and it does seem like it should work for what you're trying to do. What I would do in your position is plug the USB host into my PC and see if it's recognised by my DAW. If you don't have one installed on your laptop, you could install LMMS, which is free - or maybe even the MIDI keyboard app you have could do it? If the host shows up as a MIDI device, you could try sending it some notes from the DAW/app and see if that light goes green. If you can get it to work that way, at least you can rule out that the host is faulty, as you've already done with the keyboard. Apologies if you've tried this, or if it's no help - the fact that you even own a multimeter makes me suspect you're more knowledgeable than I am!
In reality, another small synth I’d buy..play with for a brief time...then send to the paperweight repository. Learnt my lesson too many times with the Electribes, Volcas etc etc.
ya... it's a hundred bux and sounds pretty fucking awesome for something that costs as much as a guitar pedal. (don't really think it sounds digital or harsh... maybe a tad)
Thanks this was helpful! The paper that comes with it seemed like an Ikea instruction booklet. I missed the part about snapping those corners off the bottom board, so maybe that's why I had a hard time getting it seated right. And you showed how to use all the features very well too1
hoohoo2you2 Hi, I use MOscilloscope and MAnalyzer by a company called Melda - they’re free with some limitations in the MFreeFXBundle. Occasionaly I’ll use scopes by VCV
This little box looks to me a lot like a cheap way of adding a decent extra oscillator to another synth... :-) Loopop, I notice the number of views and subscribers has recently skyrocketed. That’s great. You’re an A-list you-tuber now! :-)
I would like to se a small oled display instead of the led one. You can fit much more information on it, and you don't have to remember all those shortcuts . I think it's worth the extra 10or so $.
If anyone can share with me a way of getting visuals without using VST i'd be really grateful. I'm working completely DAWless and to my knowledge can't use the VSTs :(
i like that they get you to make it yourself. that’s a great gift for a teen, get them into music or making or both. that’s the only think i like. hidden features and menu diving make me tired
Oops...forgot my main question/scenario: IF you used the MONO OUT on NYMPHES, to the little Audio Input of NTS, processed said audio with NTS [stereo] effects, then once routed to DAW, you would hear the stereo spread from the KORG effects, true? Naturally, as you can tell, I'm looking for a MAGIC box, into which to run NYMPHES.
I've been keeping an eye on this, but i can't find any info for a release date or price. I thought your review meant it was out! My wallet has blue balls now :(
If you're handy you can use an Arduino Nano as a CV to Midi converter. Can be powered by 5 volts, just like this device (if you take a chinese knockoff of the revision 3 model). You can probably fit the Arduino in this NTS-1. Or just attach it on the back. You'd still have to find a way to mount it, get ports in the front, make a way to power it with a normal Eurorack power supply, but it all seems doable.
👍💯👍 Thanks Loopop. Great review as usual! Maybe it's an interesting addon for a Monologue or a Minilogue OG but... does it have a patch memory (accessible via ProgramChange)? 🤔
Your wonderful, practical review made me realise I needed this. Got one and couldn't be happier (unless a vaccine is found). I love the three Monotrons, but this sucker makes its younger sisters sing. Thank you.
incredible what has been packed in there and even i can understand the simple menu structure BUT ive just bought the deepmind 12 for 500 quid second hand so spending nearly a 100 on this seems a bit mad.... yet stilll..........
Hi there, thanks for this video.. I do have a question: *Audio in* means that I can use the NTS-1 as a "pedal effect" ?? thanks OK, question was answered in the PRO section :D.. I think this worth the price.
