Yeah, this has got to be the most exciting NAMM for analog enthusiasts since the late 90s. Although, in the same breath, I'm betting Moog's Sub-Phatty going to be hurt by the absurdly inexpensive MS-20. I kind of had my eyes on a Minibrute, and when the Sub-Phatty images started coming out, I thought, mayyybe I'll save up a grand and get one of those -- but the MS-20 mini announcement has me forgetting all that. I realize that, while in reality I probably don't need an analog monosynth, the signal processing options that an MS-20 brings to the table are alone worth the cost of admission. Still, I'm not pre-ordering... I'm going to save up my cash and earn it.

It's pretty funny/sad to see the (admittedly minority) reactions on some of the synth forums - there are people moaning that you can't store patches on the MS-20 mini. When I posted about the MS-20 mini on Facebook, one of my friends replied "$600 " You can't please everyone. Nonetheless, I think Korg just knocked this out of the park. As much as I bemoan the ubiquity of Microkorgs, I expect the same thing to happen with MS-20s and that can't be all that bad. It's funny this happens the same year some third-party creates a TB-303 recreation. While Roland typically misses the point when these trends pick up, I think it would be really clever (and a bit sad) if Roland sued Cyclone Analogic for their technology and then re-released the TB-303. A better outcome would be to work with Cyclone Analog in some kind of licensing/cooperation deal, but that doesn't seem especially lawyer-proof at first glance.