Korg has been one of the leaders in electronic music equipment for 30 years. Early products, like the MS series, are analog classics, while their Triton Keyboards are some of the most advanced digital keyboard workstations ever created. Korg is one of the few companies that has consistently made drool-worthy synthesizers for thirty years.
The Korg MS-20 is considered a classic analog monosynth. This two-oscillator beast competed with monophonic keyboards from Arp, Moog and Yamaha. It was unique in the way it the flexibility of a modular, patchable synthesizer, with a small keyboard.
In the late seventies and early eighties, Korg’s Poly line of polyphonic synthesizers were great-sounding analog synths. Many of these early polyphonic synths are hot collectables, because they still sound great.
The Korg Wavestation was an innovative early digital synthesizer. When Sequential Circuits went out of business, Korg picked up the technology of the Prophet VS. The Wavestation is built on this technology, which lets you combine and transform digital wafeforms. The Wavestation had a massive (for the time) 2mb of ROM. With its onboard effects and filters, the Wavestation had a unique sound.
More recently, Korg has been innovating with its line of “grooveboxes” or dance-oriented music workstations. These little boxes are inexpensive, but pack a lot of power into a tiny package. The line includes a virtual analog bassline synth, a VA drum machine, a sampler, and a sample-based mini-workstation. More recent additions to the line include tube-based distortion to liven up the sound.
The Korg Triton is their top of the line keyboard. It competes with other workstations, like Kurzweil’s 2600 line. The Triton has 62 voices of polyphony, and is very flexible for creating sounds. It has 32MB of sample ROM, letting you create realistic orchestral sounds, but also create new sounds with its synthesis tools. It has a built-in sampler, 102 effects, and multiple outputs. The internal sequencer supports 16 tracks, and can store up to 200 songs. Definitely drool-worthy!
