Korg
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Korg is a manufacturer of electronic musical instruments. Korg is owned by Yamaha Corporation.
Company history
Founded in 1962 in Japan by Tsutomu Kato and Tadashi Osanai, Korg was originally known as Keio Electronic Laboratories because its fledgling offices were located near the Keio train line in Tokyo and Keio can be formed by combining the first letters of Kato and Osanai. Before founding the company, Kato ran a nightclub. Osanai, a Tokyo University graduate and noted accordionist, regularly performed at Kato's club accompanied by a Wurlitzer rhythm machine. Unsatisfied with the rhythm machine, Osanai convinced Kato to finance his efforts to build a better one.
The company's first product, released in 1963, was an electro-mechanical rhythm device called the Disc Rotary Electric Auto Rhythm machine Donca matic DA-20. Buoyed by the success of the DA-20, Keio released a solid-state version of the Rhythm machine, the Donca matic DE-20, in 1966.
In 1967, Kato was approached by Fumio Mieda, an engineer who wanted to build keyboards. Impressed with Mieda's enthusiasm, Kato asked him to build a prototype and 18 months later Mieda returned with a programmable organ. Keio sold the organ under the name Korg, made from combining keio with organ.
Keio's organ products were successful throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s but, concerned about the competition from other big organ manufacturers, Kato decided to use the organ technology to build a keyboard for the then-niche synthesizer market. Keio's first synthesizer, the Mini-Korg, was thus released in 1973.
Following on the success of the Mini-Korg, Keio released a number of budget-minded synthesizers throughout the 1970s and 1980s under the name Korg. In 1989, shortly before the release of the M1 Music Workstation, Yamaha acquired a controlling interest in Korg's stock. The takeover of the company was amicable, with Kato drawing up the terms, and the two companies continued to independently develop their product lines and compete in the marketplace.
Timeline of major products
- 1963 - Donca-Matic DA-20
- 1966 - Donca-Matic DE-20
- 1973 - Korg Mini-Korg 700
- 1975 - Korg WT-10: World's first hand-held electronic tuner
- 1975 - Korg Maxi-Korg 800DV
- 1978 - Korg MS-10/MS-20
- 1979 - Korg m500 Micro Preset
- 1980 - Korg Mono/Poly
- 1981 - Korg Polysix
- 1983 - Korg Poly-61: The successor of the Polysix with digitally-controlled analog oscillators; Korg's first "knobless" synthesizer
- 1983 - Korg Poly-800: First fully programmable synthesizer that sold for less than $1000, notable for using digital oscillators and sharing a single filter for all 8 voices
- 1985 - Korg DW-8000: 8-voice polyphonic, user selected two digital waveforms out of 16 total. Used an analog filter.
- 1985 - SuperDrums and SuperPercussion: Low-cost digital drum machines
- 1986 - Korg DSS-1: Sampling keyboard with additive synthesis, waveform drawing and effects, with some similarities to the DW8000
- 1988 - Korg M1: PCM rompler with built-in effects and sequencer
- 1989 - Korg O1w: PCM rompler with more waveforms and effects than the M1
- 1990 - Korg Wavestation
- 1993 - i3 Interactive Music Workstation (Korg's first auto-accompaniment keyboard)
- 1995 - Korg Trinity
- 1996 - Korg Prophecy: One of the first successful "virtual analog" synthesizers
- 1999 - Korg Triton
- 1999 - Korg Kaoss Pad, Electribe dance synthesizers
- 2000 - Korg MS-2000
- 2001 - Korg KARMA
- 2002 - Korg MicroKorg: A portable version of the MS-2000 synthesizer
- 2003 - Korg PA1X
- 2004 - Korg Legacy Collection: Includes software emulations of three famous Korg synthesizers: the MS-20, Polysix, and the Wavestation
- 2005 - Korg Oasys
External links
- Korg home page (http://www.korg.com/)
- 40 years of Korg gear (Sound on Sound Magazine) (http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Oct02/articles/korg40th.asp)de:KORG