Korg Nu:Tekt NTS-1 Digital Synth Kit & Hosa Stereo Breakout 3.5 Mm Trs to Dual 3.5 Mm Tsf

It’s 2021, the silicon shortage is still impacting all areas and you can’t buy a graphics card or a car for a sensible price. Not a great year.The Korg NTS-1 has been out for a couple of years now but what’s remarkable is it’s still available for its original retail price. Buy one now before it goes up in price or becomes available. What you get for the price is almost unbelievable.Yes you build it (screw it together, no soldering required) yourself. Yes it’s monophonic. Yes it’s digital. Yes it looks like a toy with its skeletal design and tiny ribbon keyboard.But none of that matters.What you’re buying is an expandable, open-sourced synthesiser with a phenomenal effects unit capable of processing external audio, possibly making it the audio bargain of the decade. Thanks to the open-source design the downloadable librarian software allows you add new third-party oscillators, modulators, delays and reverbs, and if that’s not enough you can create your own.Out of the box and powered up for the first time it sounds like it looks. As basic as a square wave. And then moments later you’re listening to a rich, expansive sound that belies its looks and price. It’s far more fully featured than you’d guess with a comprehensive MIDI implementation allowing external parameter control via CC. It only features a single MIDI-IN via 3.5mm jack but this is sufficient for a sound module at the end of a chain. Sync-in and out ports are present for compatibility with analogue equipment and it’s an obvious choice for any Volca owner.There’s a micro-USB port for power and unlike the Volcas there’s no provision for batteries so you’ll need a USB power bank, USB 5v mains adapter/charger or a computer. The USB port allows uploading/downloading sounds and effects, as mentioned, but it also acts as a USB MIDI interface alongside the 3.5mm input socket. No USB audio I/O but that’s not a problem.As a stand-alone device it’s a capable monophonic synth with great effects which absolutely transform and lift the sound, but it’s big selling point for many will be that effects section. I’ve already mentioned the Korg Volca series a couple of times but the NTS-1 is a no-brainer for any Volca owner, especially the Volca Keys. It works with any audio souce though and there are a range of input attenuation settings available in the global options, just another example of how feature-packed the NTS-1 is.It’s a steal at the price.

On the surface a basic digital Oscillator Mono synth with effects, easy to assemble, forget the awful built in speaker.Using the NTS-1 digital Librarian i put a load of custom user Oscillators and effects into it, quite a lot of free ones on the web, turns it into a bit of a beast.The patch-Space documentary-arp by ChrisLody (find it on youtube) is nice, a Boards of Canada vibe.Currently I am sequencing it with Roland Zenbeats which works OK but doesn't send out midi cc messages but does send out midi clock and has the most amazing drum machine, and Audio evolution which does send out midi cc but can be a little temperamental (Bandlab and Caustic don't send midi out) from my Samsung A52s (you will need a USB OTG adaptor, and the correct USB to midi cable, 3.5 trs type A, I also needed a female to female midi connector, and a stereo 3.5 to 3.5 lead to send the phones audio out into the NTS-1 audio in {and if you want to be really mobile you'll need a USB power bankto power the NTS-1, a decent set of headphones or a Bluetooth speaker with aux in, at which point you may ask yourself can I really be bothered with all this, yeah sit in the park with the sun out making Electro} power up the NTS-1 while holding reverb to access global parameters, I set input route to 4-post master, input trim to 5 and sleep mode to 0, then press arp to save)The advertised free software bundle including reason lite doesn't actually include reason lite, korg got back to me and said-" Unfortunately, since this software title is no longer offered by their developer, there isn't anything that can be done about it.I will advise the people responsible for the copy both on Amazon and our website to amend these details"

Wanted a synth to hook my keytar up to, and so I bought this kit. I love it! Easy to assemble, great fun to play and experiment with. The keyboard provided is a bit awkward to use, so I connected the stereo audio input to the headphone output from my laptop, and hey presto! I can now play my wireless keytar through my NTS-1.This little gem is very versatile, and you get great sounds from something so inexpensive. It's also good for learning how synths produce their myriad sounds. Would recommend to anyone.

I bought the NTS to try and find out what synths are about. It’s easy to assemble and once you’re used to the abbreviations on the LED easy to muddle through, sit, twiddle and work things out!The Korg install software is easy, no problem. I’ve downloaded, a few 3rd party oscillators and modulation effects. They can be difficult to find and load but It’s a learning curve, I’ve got a dozen or so of each now.Most of the oscillators are fantastic but I found the factory default, Waves, a bit quite. However I discovered the Waves Edit mode, it’s not mentioned in the manual, odd. Select Waves hold down osc, and you’re in Edit. Play around, get some great effects. Unfortunately these are lost when you power down.I wired it up to my guitar amp via the headphone jack, awesome! I play along with the arp running as a drone. I’ve a "few" guitar pedals and the effect here are comparable, pretty good and suit the synth.The keyboard works well enough to demo the sounds, but something more substantial is needed. A Utube vid shows connection to an Iphone/ipad with an Apple lightening to USB connector. I’ve done it, It works. BUT only with the Apple version, the cheap copycats are NOT the same, I know, I’ve tried.I'm happy with the build quality, I’m not taking it anywhere and I think it good enough for desk top. That said I do think the jacks a bit flimsy and will invest in some short extension leads which will stay in place.I have a 3rd party front end loaded on my laptop, a great GUI, but frequently locks up both the app and the Korg, a bit scary, however it can store settings. If only Korg could do one, that would be great.Doug