Korg MS2000B

Korg's full-size take on the MS2000 formula — same fat analog modeling, but with a gooseneck mic in the box and a fresh set of patches.

Overview

The MS2000B is best understood as the deluxe full-size member of Korg's MS2000 family — the version that pairs the company's "seriously fat, warm analog modeling" engine with a proper 44-key, velocity-sensitive full-size keyboard rather than the miniature keys that made the microKORG famous. It ships with a gooseneck microphone included, a nod to the vocoder being a headline feature rather than an afterthought, and it carries a new up-to-date soundset of 128 programs. For players who wanted the MS2000 sound but couldn't stomach a compact keyboard, this was the answer.

The vocoder is the centerpiece, and Korg didn't skimp: it's a 16-band design, which is a genuinely serious spec for a virtual-analog instrument in this class. More bands mean finer resolution across the frequency spectrum, and a 16-band vocoder tracks speech and sung input with considerably more intelligibility than the thinner designs that were common at the time. The included gooseneck mic exists precisely because the vocoder is meant to be used, not admired from a distance.

Programming is where the MS2000B earns its keep. Realtime editing runs through 35 knobs and 17 switches, plus pitch bend and mod wheels — a control surface dense enough that most parameters are a hand-reach away rather than buried in menus. That immediacy is the whole point of the virtual-analog approach: the sound engine may be digital, but the workflow is deliberately hands-on. A 3-track Mod Sequence adds a layer of movement that pushes the instrument well beyond static patches, giving players a way to build evolving, sequenced textures without reaching for external gear.

Korg also offered the same instrument as the MS2000BR, a tabletop/rackmount version — and notably, the BR does not include the microphone. That distinction matters if the vocoder is your reason for buying: the keyboard version is the one that arrives ready to vocode out of the box. The MS2000B, then, is the full-size, mic-included expression of the platform, and the version to seek out if you want the complete package rather than the rack module.

Worth noting for anyone cross-shopping the family: contemporary discussion of the microKORG — the tiny sibling that shares the MS2000 lineage — pointed users toward the MS2000R rack or a used MS2000 keyboard for studio work, on the reasoning that the 2000-series instruments offer more of what a studio player needs. The MS2000B sits squarely in that fuller-featured camp. It's the version for someone who wants the vocoder, the full-size keys, and the knob-per-function editing in one instrument.