In 1973, Korg unleashed their first synthesizer, the miniKorg 700, also known as the K1 in the United States. This monophonic synth was also the first ever synthesizer made in Japan. The miniKorg 700 was followed by the miniKorg 700S (K2 in the U.S.), which had the same features plus the added bonus of a second independently tunable oscillator and an onboard effects section. The 700S utilized the previously empty panel to the left of the key bed for the onboard effects section that had some new goodies such as: filter modulation, white and pink noise sources and three modes of ring modulation. The miniKorg family proved very popular for providing high quality sound in an affordable, user friendly package. The 700 series offered oscillator settings such as “chorus I” and “chorus II”, and its strange percussion/singing controls created envelopes that were very different from those offered by competing brands. According to many users, the greatest strength of the 700 was its “Traveler”, which was a low-pass/high-pass filter section that proved to be extremely intuitive and manageable. Some of the other controls, which were located underneath the key bed had rather bizarre names like “Bender”, and “Expand” for the autobend feature and envelope respectively. Based upon the success of the miniKorg, Korg continued to successfully develop exciting new synthesizers. The miniKorg was extensively used on the road and in the studio by Greg Hawkes of The Cars. You can hear what the miniKorg sounds like on “The Cars” first album and the “Candy-O” album. There are synthesizer solos on "Just What I Needed" and "Bye Bye Love", which were performed on the MiniKorg 700. Other artists who utilized the miniKorg included: The Cure, ComaTeens, Human League, N-Trance, the Normal, Stevie Wonder and Paul Hardcastle. For a complete lists of artists who have used Korg synths, click here.
1975 brought the inception of the dual-voice MaxiKorg 800DV (K3 in the U.S.) and the 900PS preset synthesizer. In essence, The MaxiKorg was two Korg 700S synths in one box, which means that you could treat it as two distinctly separate synthesizers. This would give you the ability to create two different sounds, and then play them both independently of each other – but from the same keyboard. Some other mid 70’s synthesizers allowed you to play two notes; however, they used the same patch parameters for both notes. Only the 800DV could produce two sounds that you could play as a composite, or as two independent synthesizers. The 800DV found favor by artists such as Kitaro, Vangelis, and Soft Cell.
Another synth that Korg launched in 1975 was the 900PS. The 900PS was designed in response to other manufacturers' preset, pressure-sensitive synthesizers. However, instead of allowing you to press a note harder to generate the desired effects, the 900PS featured a contact sensitive rail that ran down the length of the keyboard, just in front of the keys themselves. This touch rail acted as an on/off switch for the five touch effects. Those five touch effects included: vibrato, pitch bend, portamento, forte or repeat. At this time, many synthesizers were sitting atop an organ or piano, and the touch rail allowed the performer to play the 900PS and bring in effects with a single hand, allowing the other hand to continue to shred on the other keyboard.
1978 was a big year for Korg in the development of synthesizers. Some of the new products in 1978 included: the MS10, the MS20 and the VC10, among a handful of others. Needless to say, this was the year in which Korg began to make a huge impact in the international musical instrument industry. The dual-oscillator MS20 monosynth was the core of the new line. In addition to standard controls, it had a patchbay that gave players the freedom to create new and complex routings that modulated the sounds of the oscillators, two voltage controlled filters and the amplifier. The patchbay itself didn’t interrupt the audio signal path; however it did allow players to create sounds via routing that were previously only available in the more costly modular and semi-modular instruments. A popular use for the MS20 was processing external audio through the filters for a unique sound.
The MS10 was aimed at a more entry level synth enthusiast. Its feature set included a single oscillator, a single envelope generator and a shorter keyboard than the MS20, but it had one thing MS20 didn’t––pulse width modulation. Pulse width modulation provides an effect that’s similar to a chorus type effect or a set of slightly detuned oscillators playing together.
Also part of this group of products was Korg's first vocoder, the VC-10. Vocoder technology itself was originally developed as a tool for analyzing and recreating human speech. Then, in April 1978, Korg unveiled the VC-10, the first vocoding musical instrument that was practical for use on a live stage. Speaking into the included microphone while playing on the keyboard would create polyphonic music containing unique characteristics of your voice blended with the output of the synth. A wide range of controls gave the operator the freedom to mix the dry microphone sound with the simulated sound, add vibrato, or even use the octave switch to change a male voice into a female chorus effect. It was also possible to take any kind of audio signal and process it through the vocoder. The VC10 has been used by artists such as Keith Emerson, Apollo 440, Joe Zawinul, Yes, and countless others.
In 1979, The Sigma was released. It was easily accepted by musicians who were looking for a simpler, more digestible alternative to the vast array of knob happy analog synthesizers. On the other hand, it offered an unparalleled set of controllers – dual joysticks, a trigger button and even aftertouch! The Sigma was also unique among mono-synths in that playing two adjacent notes on the keyboard produced the ¼ tone – or blue note – between them. The Sigma combined an instrument section of 11 voices, and a synth section of another eight voices. An innovation the Sigma brought with it was the ability to mix multiple voices within each section, and even ring modulate one section against the other. If you didn’t like one of the voices, you now had the ability to add another voice and build more unique sounds from an essentially preset driven instrument. The sounds that could be generated in this manner had the potential to be massive. The Sigma proved to be a truly powerful synthesizer.
1995 brought the Prophecy, which was an affordable virtual analog synthesizer. It offered 128 locations for user sounds, one-note polyphony, and a decent set of effects including distortion, waveshaping, delay & reverb plus chorus & flanger. The Prophecy also contained an integrated arpeggiator, all your standard MIDI features and a pair of audio outputs. The Prophecy's lower cost and massive array of sound generation techniques earned it a place in synthesizer history. The Prophecy has been used by David Bowie, Depeche Mode, Orbital, BT, The Crystal Method, and Radiohead.
The MS series of synthesizers had gained legendary status since the inception of the original MS20 in 1978. Slightly more than twenty years later, in 2000, the next member of the MS series was created. The MS2000 brought together the functionality of the MS series predecessors and the VC-10 vocoder that had also been an integral part of Korg's vintage lineup. The MS2000 took it back to the origin of synthesizers and brought a whole new set of tonal possibilities to the fingertips of its user. All major sound parameters were arranged on the front panel, allowing users the liberty of tweaking knobs in real time. The MS2000 provided a "Virtual Patch" function that simulates the patching capabilities of the legendary Korg MS series synthesizers. The onboard tone generator of the MS2000 used a DSP powered analog modeling system which had been highly acclaimed on the Korg Prophecy and Electribe series.
The next step in synthesis development from Korg was the Electribe EMX1, which was released in 2003. However, the Electribe line aren’t traditional synthesizers by nature, they’re more like compact analog modeling synth boxes which gives it’s users the freedom to create analog synthesizer style sounds by moving the knobs that control each element of the sound, just like with those vintage analog synthesizers. The EMX1 was built with a powerful modeling engine called MMT (Multiple Modeling Technology). MMT built its reputation by delivering thick, gutsy, and crisp analog sounds while still in a digital environment. Operation was relatively simple because moving the parameter knobs would immediately result in changes in the sound coming out of the speakers. The sounds created on this compact synthesizer could also be sent to the internal sequencer to create custom phrases.
Our tour has come full circle, ending in 2007 when the R3 was released. As you can see, The R3 is built upon a solid foundation of technological advances from Korg spanning many decades.