THIS REVIEW HAS been like a bit of a family reunion for me. At various times in my life I’ve been lucky enough to spend a great deal of time working with three particular musical instruments that belonged to collaborators (and very good friends). I’ve worked with, and to be honest, like a true synth’ geek… I have a horrible suspicion that I miss the machines more than their owners. The machines in question are all synthesisers and all are made by Korg; they are the MS20, the Poly Six and the Wavestation. The reason I miss them is extremely simple: they are classics in the truest sense of the word because they are unique. Unique in the sense that they make very particular noises that cannot be made any other way. There is a certain something about the way they do what they do that gives them an instantly recognisable character, a character that you are very familiar with, whether you actually know it or not. Like all great instruments they have influenced a generation of musicians and played a significant role in shaping music as we know it. Their tones have graced a thousand seminal pieces of music and have been sending us all crazy on dancefloors for quite a long time now. They have energy, sparkle and character by the bucket load. The most obvious aspect of what makes these instruments so special is the sounds that they produce. The MS20 and Poly Six are proper analogue synthesisers, so the sounds they make are down to the very particular combination of specific components and the way all of those components have been combined. The vintage technology they employ is of it’s time, it’s unreliable (many analogue synthesisers drift out of tune) and over-sensitive and prohibitively expensive, both in the sense that if you can find one it will cost you and in the notion that the factories that made their components are long gone, so setting-up a mass manufacturing operation to put them back into production is impossible. It’s these simple practical facts that have kept their cult status and value riding high. The Wavestation is a relatively early digital synthesiser and one that pioneered a completely new way of synthesising instruments, which again makes for a unique sound. These instruments are what you need if you want “that sound”, and searching for a second-hand machine is the only way you’ll find the sound you seek.