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History

A little history...
Today, Korg has offices in Japan, the United Kingdom and the U.S.A., but in the early
1960s, Korg's founder, Tsutomu Katoh, was a nightclub proprietor. Tadashi Osanai, a
noted Japanese accordionist, regularly performed at his club using a Wurlitzer "Sideman"
rhythm machine. Osanai, an engineering graduate of Japan's prestigious Tokyo
University, was dissatisfied with the Wurlitzer machine. And, certain that he could build
a better rhythm machine himself, convinced Katoh to finance his efforts.

In 1962, Katoh rented a small facility alongside the Keio railway line where Osanai and
four assistants worked on developing a mechanical rhythm machine. The fledgling
enterprise was dubbed Keio Electronic Laboratories. The Keio name (pronounced Kayo)
was used because of the lab's proximity to the railway line, and because it represented
the combination of the first initials of Katoh's and Osanai's names.

In 1963, Keio introduced its first product:
the Disc Rotary Electric Auto Rhythm
machine or Donca matic DA-20. While
primitive by today's standards, the
instrument represented a major
breakthrough in its day. By 1966, the
company had made the transition from
electro-mechanical technology to
solid-state with the introduction of the
Donca matic DE-20.

In 1967, Katoh was approached by Fumio
Mieda, an engineer who wanted to develop
keyboard products. Impressed by Mieda's
enthusiasm and talents, Katoh gave him a
mandate. "Go home and design a keyboard
product that we can make and sell." Eighteen months later, Mieda returned to the Keio
facility with an organ prototype. Unlike most organs on the market at that time, Mieda's
prototype had programmable voice capability like a synthesizer. Fifty were produced and
sold under the Korg name, a name which was derived from the combination of the words
Keio and Organ.

Throughout the sixties and seventies, the
organ market grew rapidly and was
dominated by large companies like Baldwin,
Hammond, Wurlitzer and Lowrey. Katoh
was concerned about placing his small
enterprise in direct competition with such
giants. So he was intrigued when a
Japanese musician who had studied at the
Berklee School of Music told him his organ
was no different than a synthesizer. (At the
time, the synthesizer market was a
specialized niche populated by small
start-up companies.)

Thus, in 1973, using many of the basic design concepts of Mieda's organ, the company
introduced the Mini-Korg, a monophonic synthesizer. Based on the success of the
Mini-Korg, Katoh committed substantial resources to the development of other
synthesizer products. Between 1973 and 1977 the company developed dozens of new
keyboards carrying the Korg brand name. 1975 saw the introduction of the Maxi-Korg
and the 900 PS polyphonic, preset synthesizer. A year later, the PE-1000 (Polyphonic
Ensemble) and PE-2000 (Polyphonic Ensemble Orchestra) were unveiled. The PS-3300
followed in 1977 and, like the MS10 and MS20 which were introduced in 1978, is still
coveted by artists in the dance and techno genres.

Innovation was not limited to keyboard instruments. In 1975, Korg introduced the
world's first hand-held electronic tuner, the WT-10. Electronic tuners are so
commonplace today, it is hard to imagine the sensation caused by the WT-10 in 1975.
The product made precision tuning available to virtually every musician and spawned
dozens of competitors.

Prior to 1979, synthesizers were generally
monophonic and hard to program. Korg and
other manufacturers had addressed the
problem in part by creating polyphonic
preset instruments that were not
programmable. However, in 1979,
Sequential Circuits revolutionized the
synthesizer industry with the Prophet 5, the
first instrument that was programmable,
polyphonic and easy to use. Musically, the
instrument drew raves, however, its $5000
price tag limited its appeal.

The significance of the Prophet 5 was immediately apparent to Mr. Katoh and the
engineers at Korg; they began work on a similar product. This effort led to the
introduction of the Polysix in 1981, one of the single most significant products in the
history of electronic music. Like the Prophet 5, and other top-end units of the day, the
Polysix was six voice polyphonic and fully programmable. However, its $1995 retail
price tag was unprecedented. The price and performance of the Polysix finally made
synthesis available to almost any musician. In 1982, the Polysix was replaced by an
enhanced model, the Poly61.

In 1983, Korg further redefined the
synthesizer market with the introduction of
the Poly800. With a list price of $795, the
Poly800 was the first fully programmable
instrument available for under $1000!

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, included 88-note weighted-action,
76-note and 61-note keyboards. With larger displays, disk drives, more sequencer
memory, an optional RAM area and two pairs of MIDI outputs, the T-Series took the M1
Music Workstation concept to the next level.

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 1991. The 01/W further
expanded the concept of the music workstation with features like double the polyphony
and sequencer tracks of its predecessors, dynamic digital multi-effects, larger capacity
PCM cards for more optional sounds and WaveShaping.

In 1993, Korg introduced the X3 Power Music Workstation, which offered a great
combination of performance and value. This was followed in 1994 by the 76-note X2
Power Music Workstation.

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
(touch sensitive) display and ribbon controller redefined the concept of the user
interface.

Trinity offers modular options like the Prophecy Solo Synth expansion board which
brings DSP sound modeling to the music workstation. Other options include PBS-Tri
(8Megabyte) Flash ROM for loading new sounds from the Korg and Akai sound
libraries. HDR-Tri, for four-channel hard-disk recording. SCSI and S/P DIF interfaces,
and an Alesis digital I/O. The Trinity DRS Music Workstations are also available in
61-note, 76-note and 88-note weighted-action models.

Korg unveiled the 61-note N364 and
76-note N264 in 1996. The N-Series Music
Workstations have taken performance and
function in affordable music workstations to
an exciting new level. They provide 64-note
polyphony, an arpeggiator and RPPR: Real
Time Play & Record.

Today, decades after his humble entrance
into the world of music gear, Mr. Katoh is
still dedicated to providing musicians with
new and better Korg instruments with which
to express their creativity.

Historical Infomation From the Korg corp.


In the US a Distributer called Unicord making the Univox line stareded
Looking outside the US for manufactureing of new units. Sid Hack of the
Unicord got Keio Electronic Laboratories to make units with the Univox
name for them to distribute in the US. The Univox K-1 was one of the first
products It was actualy a Korg Mini-Korg (700), the Univox K-2 was a Korg 700s
and the Univox K-3 was a Korg Maxi-Korg (800-DV). Not all the Univox
Products were from Korg, some were made by Crumar out of Italy.
Later in the late 70's Unicord disaded that the Korg name should stay
on the units. to try to increase the value of the units.

 

Infomation from Mr. Kim Holland Product Manager for Unicord/Korg US.
From 1976 to the Mid 80's
Thank you, Mr. Holland

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