Harvestman – English Tear / NAMM Notes

Many good things were displayed at NAMM. To me, one of the most important was the new Korg MS-20 Mini. I played with it for a long time and enjoyed it very much. It is very close to my full-size model. The MS-20 itself is an electronic instrument of extreme cultural importance, being the tool that motivated the development of several significant electronic music styles. This new version, available to all at a very low price, can only mean good things for the further development of these styles, and modular synthesis technique in general.

Because of this impending instrument release, I announce with great satisfaction ENGLISH TEAR, the first in a line of small utility modules. This module features the expected “voltage processor” attenuverter and big offset knobs, but also includes a full set of functions for interfacing to an MS-20. Easy conversion from exponential volt-per-octave to linear hertz-per-volt and back, as well as V-trigger to S-trigger conversion. Jack normalling fixes the voltage processors to these converter circuits, so you may scale the input voltages as desired. The log/expo converter ciruits also have many other uses in your modular system beyond the conversion of pitched voltages.

Price? Cheaper than anything else I’ve done. It will be released when the MS-20 comes out. I was thinking of dropping it into the Zorlon/Donut production run scheduled for April, but if the MS is somehow released before that I can expedite the build.

– Scott Jaeger of Harvestman