Korg Product Synthesis History

I am not sure about you but I have always found the product line of Korg a bit confusing with all the legacy synthesis tech, hardware and VST. It is a bit of a multi dimensional problem of time, development and an evolutionary tree with dead branches and multiple examples of past and present implementations. 

To get my head around this challenge, I cleaned up the Korg product list (Wikipedia) into a spreadsheet and then classified the major synth releases.  At this stage, I have not addressed minor synths, arrangers, grooveboxes, drum machines, samplers, etc and just limited the major recognisable synths and workstations.

I came up with the below table and my summary of the Korg product history.

The tldr.

Korg produced a line of analogy hardware synths from 1973 to 1985 when they pivoted into digital analog synths briefly,  perhaps playing catch up to their contemporaries like Roland or biding time while they worked on the killer rompler M1 and invented the workstation. 

The launch tempo seemed to slow in this second decade from a 3 years to 5 years between each major update. I have highlighted what I see as major products (in RED in the spreadsheet) as to what I see as the pulse of product release. 

Korg also innovated in the early days of romplers with vector/wave sequencing and waveshaping but then focused more on interactively improving polyphony and samples as technology allowed. 

In the mid 90's they remember their analog roots by adding the MOSS option to the Trinity, Triton and Karma. They upped this tech into MMT in the MicroKorg and Radias/R3. The advent of the Oasys computer in a synth was not only (the first?) multi-engine synth but cross-developed into VST with the launch of the Korg Collection.

Synthesis and Implementation

This leaves Korg with eight main streams of synthesis and three implementation streams.

Synthesis

Analog/VA Modelled - legacy hardware synths modelled in digital hardware and software.

DWGS (Digital Wave Generation System) - a brief dabble into complex waveform digital oscillators.  

PCM Wave (Romplers) - mostly retired hardware iteratively replaced by the current generation of hardware with software implementation of key models. A few PCM based experiments like Wavestation, 01/w and later Wavestate/Modwave.  

MOSS (Multi-Oscillator Synthesis System) -  tone generator with six-voice polyphony. The MOSS tone generator is a physical modelling tone generator that uses Sondius-XG (http://www.sondius.xg.com dead link, is this now SWAM tech?)  technology. MOSS physical modelling tone generators were developed under licence/patented works owned by Stanford University USA and Yamaha Corporation

• Standard - simulates the oscillator of an analog synthesizer.
• Comb Filter - This oscillator creates pitched components from noise or an impulse.
• VPM (Variable Phase Modulation) - This oscillator uses phase modulation to generate harmonics.
• Resonance -  uses filter resonance to produce mallet sounds and pad sounds.
• Ring/Cross/Sync Modulation - oscillators for generating the sounds which could be produced on an analog synthesizer by modulating one oscillator with another. 
• Organ Model - This simulates a drawbar organ with three drawbars (when one oscillator is used) or six drawbars (when two oscillators are used) (☞page 23 of this manual).
• E. Piano Model (electric piano model) - a physical model that simulates a vintage electric piano.
• Brass Model -  a physical model that simulates a brass instrument such as a trumpet or trombone. 
• Reed Model - a physical model that simulates a woodwind instrument such as a sax or flute. 
• Plucked String Model -  a physical model simulating plucked string instruments eg guitar, bass.
• Bowed String Model - This is a physical model that simulates a bowed string.

MMT (Multiple-Modelling-Technology) - A total of nine oscillator algorithms including for (OCS1) four conventional analog synthesizer waveforms (sine, triangle, square, and sawtooth), digital synthesizer PCM waveforms, digital drum PCM waveforms, formant, noise, and an external audio signal. (OSC2) lets you choose the four different oscillator waveforms. There is also a vocoder.

• sine, triangle, square, and sawtooth - with cross, unison and VPM modulation
• digital synthesizer PCM waveforms
• drum PCM waveforms
• formant
• noise
• external audio signal.

VPM (Variable Phase Modulation) - VPM refers to Korg’s patented contributions (needs references, expired?) to Frequency Modulation (FM) synthesis;  and has been used since the early 4op Yamaha chips days, to more recent MOSS/MMT VA synths. MOD‐7 is a semi‐modular synth engine combining VPM, waveshaping, ring modulation, PCM sample playback, and subtractive synthesis. The MOD‐7 produces everything from classic FM keyboards and to rhythmic soundscapes. Initially developed for the Oasys and Kronos it is also the basis of the more recent Opsix.

AL-1 - is Korg’s most full‐featured VA (virtual analog) synthesizer to date and has a lot of similarities to MMT basic waveforms and later Prologue/MinilogueXD/NTS-1.

XMT (Xpanded modeling technology) - Korg's XMT, supplanting the MMT that drives the MicroKorg and provides 3 oscillators and 1 filter per Timbre, and 2 Timbres per Program, which can be split or layered. The oscillator selection contains classic analog waveforms (dual, unison, sync and ring modulated variations), noise (white, pink, blue, and resonant), FM-like VPM, an expanded set of DWGS oscillators, a selected set of PCM samples (including Mellotron, Wurlitzer, strings, choirs, etc). and the Mic in port to feed in to the filter, allowing for external oscillators.

Modern VA + User/MultiEngine - Korg has not really named this but it is the synthesis used by the NTS-1, MinilogueXD and Prologue. Seems to be based upon the AL-1 or MMT basic waveforms (Tri, Saw, Square) with a simple wave shaping function and an extra user multi-engine.

Implementation

My theory on Korg is that they cover three tranches and prices points of implementation

• The Workstation - for the person who wants everything.
• The Single Purpose Synth - more limited budget but performance focused semi professional gear
• The Software Synth - the small/footprint constrained producers.

You can see in the table below there is fairly good coverage of their synthesis methods and implementations. I have applied some colour coding as how I see the Synthesis methods relating to each other. Going from old Analog (dark grey) to newer Analog (lighter greys), PCM in blue, etc.

Year	KorgName	Synthesis	Model Name	Kronos	Hardware	VST
1973	Analog	VA Model			mini700	miniKorg700s
1978				MS-20EX	MS-20	MS-20
1981				PolySixEX	PolySix	PolySix
1981					Mono/Poly	Mono/Poly
1985	DWGS	Digital Analog			DW-8000	FB-7999*
1988	Rompler	PCM	AI		M1	M1
1991			AI2		NS5R
1995			HI		Triton	Triton
2004			HD-1	HD-1	Oasys/Kronos
2007			EDS/EDS-X		M3/M50/Krome
1991		Vector/WaveSequencer		HD-1	Wavestate	Wavestate Native
1992		WaveShaper		MOD-7	01/W
2021		Wavetable		HD-1	Modwave	Modwave Natve
2007	FM/VPM			MOD-7	Opsix	Opsix Native
1995	MOSS	VA/Physical Model			Prophecy/Z1/EXB-MOSS	Prophecy
2002	MMT	VA/Multimodel			Radias/R3/MicroKorg	Microkorg
2004	AL-1	Digital Analog		AL-1	Oasys/Kronos
2012	XMT	Digital Analog			KingKORG
2018	VA+MultiEngine	Digital Analog			NTS-1/MinilogueXD/Prologue

Notes: * FB-7999 is not by Korg. Full Bucket Music. 

Hope you found this post useful. Feel free to leave comments.