Korg Nu:Tekt NTS-2 Oscilloscope Kit

The Nu:Tekt NTS-2 oscilloscope kit is a DIY multifunctional tool for musicians. Building on a 4-channel oscilloscope - monitoring control voltage (CV) and audio signals alike - NTS-2 also packs a flexible waveform generator, a spectrum analyzer, and tuner functionality into a build-it-yourself device which fits in the palm of your hand! Originally released in a bundle with the critically acclaimed “PATCH & TWEAK with KORG”, the NTS-2 is now available as a stand-alone kit. The NTS-2 is perfect for musicians and creators of all backgrounds and levels of experience navigating their musical journey, providing solid tools and precise references to cultivate your craft.

The NTS-2 kit is compact and easy to assemble (no soldering needed, the assembly process requires less than 20 minutes), but don’t let its size fool you – it packs a real punch! The NTS-2 is an oscilloscope, tuner, FFT, and spectrum analyzer that is accurate, intuitive, and incredibly useful. But that’s not all – using its dual stereo IN, dual stereo THRU/OUT, and two separate OUTPUTs, you can wire it into your synth rig and use its dual waveform generators to give yourself an extra pair of oscillators or LFOs! It’s the ideal tool for every synth lover and modular user – from beginner to pro.

Even though synthesizers are musical instruments first and foremost, learning about them is easier and more intuitive if we can use our eyes to supplement our ears. Studying waveforms, frequency and time relationships, audio signals, and control voltages become clear and immediate if we can see how they change and interact, not just listen to what they’re doing. Seeing these signals come alive in full color as we patch and tweak gives our learning process a huge boost!

The oscilloscope, a tool for visualizing signals and voltages, has been around for many years – but as scientific instruments, they might not seem like something a musician could easily use. Not anymore – for the first time, an oscilloscope has been designed with the musician in mind! The NTS-2’s interface is simple, clean, and easy to use; rather than twiddling knobs and trying to understand obscure parameters, you can look at your signals and understand them in a matter of seconds. That way, your artistic focus can remain where it belongs: on making your music.

The NTS-2 includes a variety of useful studio functions, all in a pocket-sized, elegant package that you can take anywhere. With its dual stereo inputs, you can study up to four signals at once, comparing and overlapping them with ease. A variety of display modes let you see your data in color, a huge advantage over the old oscilloscopes you’ve seen in science fiction movies! Its user interface is clear and quick, thanks to its dedicated menu buttons and clickable encoder knob, and its 240 x 320 pixel 2.8” color LCD is a joy to watch. NTS-2 even has a powerful Lissajous mode - opening the door to creativity and making it possible to visualize widely available oscilloscope art, for extra fun with your device.

To further dive into analyzing any signal, the NTS-2 also comes with a dedicated FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) mode with a real-time Spectrum Analyzer. These handy tools have always been out of reach for the synth musician because they either required expensive hardware or a nearby computer. Now you can carry them in your pocket! But the NTS-2 is much more than just an oscilloscope. The flexible Wave Generator mode has 2 oscillators with dedicated outputs, so you can test your synth rig or just get creative! Each oscillator can create a variety of waveforms – sine, square, triangle, sawtooth, pulse, and noise – whose shape and phase can be adjusted to suit many applications. These sounds can be used in the audio range or as control voltage sources, and they can be set to cycle continuously or act as one-shot impulses; that means you can turn them into LFOs, envelopes, triggers, and control voltage generators, as well as sound sources. Attaching the NTS-2 to any patchable synthesizer instantly expands its power in useful ways, making it an analog synth player’s dream tool. And of course, coming from KORG, this multi-functional utility kit wouldn’t be complete without a precise and easy-to-use Tuner with multiple display modes! Being able to receive and monitor up to 4 input signals at the same time, the NTS-2 is an analog synth player’s dream tool.

The NTS-2 offers plenty of ways to connect to your studio, despite its small footprint. Besides its 4-channel input and dual waveform output features, its dual stereo THRU/OUT ports let you leave it wired into your system. It’s much easier to understand what you’re doing if you can see the signals and use them at the same time, rather than constantly plugging and unplugging cables. This handy function lets you maintain your signal flow at all times – even when the NTS-2 has been powered off. Speaking of power, the NTS-2 maximizes portability and flexibility by using either batteries or a USB-C power supply, depending on your needs. As with other Nu:Tekt products, the NTS-2 is a DIY (Do It Yourself) kit that is extremely easy and quick to assemble (see assembly video below).