A History of KORG

Tsutomu Katoh and Tadashi Osanai started Korg in the early 1960’s. Osanai was an engineering graduate of Japan’s Tokyo university and had some ideas on how to improve on an instrument he had been performing with. He convinced Katoh, a nightclub owner, to finance the idea. Katoh rented a Factory space by the Keio railway line and Keio Electronic Laboratories was born. Shortly after they introduced their first product, the Disc Rotary Electric Auto Rhythm machine or Doncamatic DA-20, then they transitioned from electro-mechanical technology to solid-state with the Doncamatic DE-20.

The first Keyboard product was the result of an engineer named Fumio Mieda who approached Katoh and impressed him enough to take on the project. The first Korg product (the name a combination of Keio and organ) had programmable voice capability and was the prototype organ for the new market that was springing up at the time. In 1973 Korg introduced their first synthesizer product, the Mini-Korg. With that success, R&D was sunk into a whole new line of synthesizer products in the mid seventies; The Maxi-Korg, 900PS, PE-1000, PE2000, PS3300 and cult favorites MS10/MS20 were all introduced in the next few years. During this time Korg also branched out into making tuners.

The next major breakthrough in Korg history came when Korg was faced with battling the new Prophet 5 by Sequential Circuits. Korg came out with the PolySix. In 1982 the PolySix was replaced by the Poly61, and then in 1983 came the Poly800.

In January of 1988 , Korg introduced the M1 Music Workstation. The M1 combined a keyboard, realistic PCM-ROM-based sounds, a drum machine, a sequencer and digital multi-effects in a single package. It went on to become one of the most popular, widely played keyboards of all time. In the process, the M1 became the archetype for an entire category of musical instruments: the Music Workstation. The T-Series Music Workstations, introduced in 1989 with larger displays, disk drives and more sequencer memory were the first steps in the direction that Korg would follow for the next fifteen years, make a great workstation that is easy to use and affordable.  

Korg acquired Sequential Circuits in 1989 and it formed the nucleus of a research and development center based in California's Silicon Valley. The first product developed by Korg R&D was the Wavestation, introduced in 1990. Using technologies like Advanced Vector Synthesis and Wave Sequencing, the Wavestation won awards and recognition for technical achievement and innovation. Korg's 01/W Series Music Workstations were introduced in the early to mid nineties. These followed the lineage introduced by the M1. The 01/W (1991), X3 (1993) X2 (1994).  

Korg took the concept of the music workstation in another direction in 1995 with the modular Trinity DRS (Digital Recording Systems) Music Workstations. A TouchView display and ribbon controller redefined the concept of the user interface. Korg unveiled the N364 and N264 in 1996 as the last of the M1 inspired keyboards.

1999 was an important year for Korg as they introduced a slew of new products that would shape the next half decade of products. In 1999 , Korg unveiled its Electribe series, The Korg KAOSS PAD and, most importantly, the Triton Workstation which kept the touch screen idea from the Trinity but improved the ease of use. A rack version of the Triton was introduced in 2000 as well as the MS2000 modeling synthesizer based on the technologies from the Prophecy and Z1 while showing a reminiscence toward the MS20's looks.  By 2004 Three new Tritons had been introduced to the line while the original was phased out. The Triton Studio, which incorporated a hard drive and CD burner. The Triton LE which was designed as an entry level Triton without built in sampling or touch screen, and the Triton Extreme with expanded sounds, a built in tube for effects processing and USB for either a computer or a standalone cd burner. Korg introduced their first software package, the Korg Legacy bundle, which included a model of the MS20, Polysix and Wavestation.

The OASYS Workstation platform combines many of the technologies that Korg is famous for and takes them to a completely new level. The OASYS will have a 10” TouchView screen, ship with three separate synthesis engines, have 16 tracks of hard disk recording and have total control of all parameters with almost every kind of controller Korg has ever introduced.

Click here for a very detailed look at KORG over the years.