Arturia Filter MS-20 melts the legendary filter of the Korg MS-20 analog Synthesizer with modulations in a creative plugin, FREE for a limited time.
Filters are an essential part of hardware and software synthesizers. Often more or less, they give these instruments their own character. The Korg MS-20’s OTA-based analog filter duo is among the most characterful filters out there. An all-time synth classic mainly because of its distinctive filter.
Thus it’s no wonder that there are quite a few MS-20 emulations out there for your DAW. The latest comes from Arturia which has been approved by Korg. For Christmas, they have decided to break this iconic filter out of the synth and offer it as an independent effect device. And it’s FREE for a limited time.
Arturia Filter MS-20
The Filter MS-20, as the name suggests, is a new filter effect plugin based on the Korg MS-20 Synthesizer filter. But it’s more just a bread-and-butter filter plugin. It melts independent filter and distortion sections with a rich modulation engine in a creative plugin.
Both sections can be operated separately and the signal path can also be adjusted. Either from the filter into the distortion or vice versa. Both are possible and produce very distinctive results. So you can work very flexibly with the plugin.
The distortion section is based on the original instrument’s feedback circuit, which infuses warm and distorted textures in every sound. You can adjust it with drive, and fine-tune it with low and high-cut filters. Additionally, you get a dry/wet control and a knob setting the output signal.
As in the original, the filter section is based on a very snappy, crunchy filter duo. The first is a 6dB/oct high-pass and the second is a 12dB/oct low-pass filter, each with independent resonance (peak) control. With the master cutoff, you can achieve a mixture of both filters. This creates the classic, aggressive, biting character of the MS-20. Plus, you get spread the filters in the stereo field.
On the right side, you get full control over the mix, FX level, and the movement. Yes Movement, there was something something.
Modulation At Its Best
An extensive modulation engine should not be missing in any Arturia effect. Once the advanced panel is opened, a movement engine at its finest unfolds. You can find here an envelope follower, a flexible step sequencer with clever randomization, and a fully-customizable function generator. With this, the parameters can be easily set in motion and thus lure a wider sound spectrum out of the plugin.
Arturia ships the plugin with a variety of factory presets that give you a nice overview of what the effect can do. But it gets more exciting when you start tweaking the parameters yourself. It is perfect for creating very dominant filter sweeps. Also to coat any sound you feed in with dark, distorted textures. Or just to add warmth and character to your sounds or tracks. It’s a great effect for that too.
Explore Sound Demo
Here is a “explore sound” video where I combine the Audiomodern Playbeat 3 drum machine plugin with the Arturia Filter MS-20. There are five presets from this session that you can download for FREE. Just visit the video, there is a link in the comments and the video description. And would be nice if you leave a like and comment on the video.
Arturia Filter MS-20 is now available for free download until January 2nd, 2023. After this special event, it will be available for $99 USD/99€. It runs as a VST, VST3, AU, and AAX plugin on macOS (Intel + native Apple Silicon) and Windows.
More information here: Arturia
great gift!