Korg NTS-1

It’s a special synth. Within a tiny box I obtained many things I couldn’t be able to get out of a bigger one. I mostly use it in arpeggiation mode as the ribbon keyboard is not really responsive and sensitive (for playing notes and some melodies) and you may find yourself pressing many times the same key before a sound comes out. I don’t have an external MIDI controller for it, and I prefer the way it is, really really little space occupied for great features. The arpeggiation mode is truly complex and the best of the synth comes out when you explore it deeply.

Furthermore, the effects are amazing. All of them, but I do love the reverb ones, my favourite is the submarine and it’s marvellous.
Delays are sick as well; I love the ping pong.

I found 2 cons:
- it’s digital, but of course we wouldn’t get as many things if it wasn’t
- ribbon keyboard isn’t quite responsive (pity).
the pros may be:
- high quality effects
- many waveforms, many sounds
- complex arpeggiator
- possibility to download other effects and sounds from internet
- very, very small for what it offers

Lastly, for me it's worth the price.

At first view the NTS-1 looks like a monotron, but really in terms of capabilities it's more like a Volca except with many more features!

The stock sounds and effects are already really good and the fact that you can run external audio in and use it as a tiny effects box is just fantastic.

Even though programming your own custom oscillators is not trivial this is really a nice feature. There are already quite some 3rd party vendors selling unique modules for this.

One of the earlier grievances was the automatic power-off after not touching any buttons (which would happen often when using it only for effects), but this has since been made optional in a firmware update.

The only downside I see for it at this point is the lack of sending chords to the arpeggiator. Currently it only responds to single notes, but it would be great if in the future we could send it chords and it will cycle over those.

Overall a fantastic little synth and effects processor in a tiny package for a small price!

ik heb hem al enkele jaren en gebruik hem eigenlijk nog het meest voor de delay/reverb effecten aangesloten op mijn Electron cycles en mijn gitaren, maar betreft Synth capaciteit is dit toch ook wel een beest. Het enige nadeel is dat er geen geheugen op zit en je dus zelden je sound terug kunt repliceren. Maar dat kan je oplossen door oefening en opschrijven welke stappen je genomen hebt. Alleen ja ik heb daar het geduld niet voor, dus als ik een goede sound heb dan sample ik die meteen. Het enige wat me wel stoort is dat het toestel vanzelf uitschakelt na een bepaalde tijd zonder signaal binnen te krijgen en dan kan je weer helemaal opnieuw beginnen. Maar hey het kost ook amper iets he.

Although tests and Youtube are unanimously very positive, its always a gamble when you were unable to audit the product yourself. I Due to the lockdown I was unable to visit a synth/music shop, and not willing to wait because it was intended for a present, I trusted my intuition based on the specs.
Building this synth is very straightforward. After a quick look at the owners manual and scrolling through a YouTube tutorial, you will be ready to play and tweak the sound to your hearts content. The sound quality is amazing for this price and the extendibility is endless due to NTS Digital Librarian. Installing the NTS Digital Librarian and uploading different new oscillators, modulators, effects and reverbs is straight forward.
One small downside, you want to connect to it via MIDI be sure you van a MIDI to TRS type A connector cable, Arturia comes with type B and cannot be used. However routing the MIDI signal via USB and DAW solves the problem.