113 thoughts on “What’s Korg’s New Mystery Keyboard?”

      1. Had a Poly 800 back in the 80s. Made good organ sounds, but the overall sound quality was pretty crappy, especially compared to any of the other DCO analogs out there at the time. The Poly 800’s main claim to fame was polyphony, albeit at the expense of one filter for ALL the voices. It was hampered by weak envelopes, lots of digital stairstepping when modulating sounds, and a DCO that output waveforms that were way too pure (remember that beautiful organ quality…). Stay away.

        1. JC is right about the Poly-800. The GUI was @$$-scented. I had the MkII with the delay line built in, but it was still a raw thing to play. Oh, you could get a few silky pads going, but it was ultimately my punk synth, because I had to jack it up with pedals to give it a decent voice. It was a hilarious form of modular in a way, bristling with cords, but it was still a good transitional synth. I got it to roar for a while. It musta worked; I ended up buying 5 more Korgs, to date.

    3. Nooooo maaaaannn….. you killed me dead now…. how am i supposed to sleep now? lmao!! and crying almost. Damn you for waking me up just before i wanted to lay down!

    1. God yes wish they’d do this! Requested it in an email years ago! Tragically it looks like it’s got to be a digital reissue like maybe DW 8000 which is hybrid: digital waveforms and wavetables almost through a clangy powerful metalic sounding analog filter. Would be interesting if it was given new features or something too maybe? Midi of all features on some classic digital synth of any kind? Dear god would anyone ever reissue a fairly system?! That’s an idea.

      But yeah please god reissue the pa3100, sometime in the near future! In all its glory like a premium ms20!

  5. Errr… Isn’t this just going to be overlays for the volca series? In other words, simply “patches” for an existing line of “synths”?

    1. Volcas don’t have patch recall. No presets.

      My guess is something stupid like a limited edition MicroKorg or miniKP2 full of TYTE AF BASS DROPS and stuff like that for the EDM kiddies.

      Anyone thinking this will be a reissue of a classic – don’t get your hopes up. They wouldn’t tag that with #edmlife”.

      1. That was my thinking, too, especially as it applies to comments wishing for an ARP 2600 reissue. #ARP2600 #edmlife

    1. This!!! Damn I was saying PS-3×00 reissue before and I’m sitting next to a MS2000BR the whole time. You may be on to something here. They’re on an analog kick though so maybe a little of both? Nobody knows.

  14. It’s going to be a dedicated set of shit mini-keys for the volca series, just to piss everyone off. Can’t think of anything else they make that they’re completely convinced EDM producers love.

    1. I know for a fact that Korg are reissuing another Arp synth in the near future. Don’t believe this will be it though, but you never know.

      1. I’m sure it’ll be a full size self assembly odyssey that’s the pattern.

        I wish it would be a newly designed kno per function analogue synth though..

  24. Fade from black. Fzzzzzzzzt. Click booooosh.( Reverb ) followed by ( something cool to showya). Built in lazer light show and probably a synth of some kind made by korg.

  28. I’m getting real F’n sick of teasers. Just up it!! No amount of marketing BS is going to trick me into buying something if it blows!!

  31. I hope will be something UNIQUE!!!!….NO Remake, Reface, Rompler, Sampler, VA or other Modelling OLD AGED SYNTH ENGINES!!!!
    Something NEW, FRESH & SPARKLE!!!! with BIG KEYS!!!
    I would like a new REAL Synth, with a new synth engine, and fresh, unique, prototype, characteristic sounds that inspires me.
    Open my ears to a new acoustic horizons and drive my mind to a new ways of inspiration.
    Enough with old VA, Modeling or Sample playback aged synth engines!!!!

    1. > Enough with old VA, Modeling or Sample playback aged synth engines!!!!

      To be replaced by exactly what? Magic? We’re pretty much there. Most people aren’t going to labor over a Samplemodeling trumpet played with an Akai or WX7 wind controller. Its not at all instant-gratification, which is what many people want. VA is as close as you can get to real analog without the freight and weight, but real analog is as little as a couple hundred bucks away. Sample playback is a sensible standard because it works for easily 95% of the basics, with added gravy if you can drop in samples or build your own wavetables. The Roland V-Synth GT is a live player’s wet dream, but it took too much forethought to play, so it sank. The $3200 price didn’t help, but you were getting every penny’s worth. Its not the sound-*producing* method that matters. Its “Okay kid, you got it, now what are you gonna DO with it?” I’m just curious as to what else they CAN come up with when we’re already on top of Candy Mountain.

  36. A Yamaha GX-1 with mini keys but full sized keys where the original GX-1 mini keys were. No, strike that. Place the bass pedals on the top and mini-bass pedals underneath. You can only play it while doing yoga.

  38. Limited run signals to me that this might be an ‘artists’ version of one of their existing synths, an EDM artist. And pricey, too.

  39. I really think it will be another ARP, particularly the ARP 2600 reissue.
    However, I hope they don’t do that horrible promo videos with Alien Dubstep sounds such as some famous brands over there… 🙂

  45. wtf is up with this edm bullshit? We want synths for creativity and finding new sounds, not to reproduce the same shit tunes you hear at overcrowded festivals full of multicolor lost souls entertained by some talentless “air pushers” that sold themselves to evil corporations.

    Since when synths are solely based on money and no longer creative experimentations? putin…

  48. Yamaha killed the synth teaser. Now when I see a teaser, I actively expect the result to be a horrible disappointment. Please stop teasing and just tell us what you’re releasing. Then we’ll have no anticipation or expectations to ruin.

  52. Why does everyone assume it’s a remake? “#newproduct” may mean it’s actually something we’ve never seen before.

    1. why would they bother then with the “retro” looking SN tags if it wasnt a re-issue or remake of some classic synth?

  56. Official specs:

    – Keyboard in the shape of an X-Wing
    – Plays 128kpbs mp3’s wavetables extracted from the Empire Strikes Back
    – Comes in 3 colors: Windows 98 off white, Easter bunny pastel blue or a doo-doo brown

  57. Arp Odyssey module sounds like a plausible limited edition synth.

    But it does say ‘#keyboard’ and #edmlife, so I’m guessing something else. But why limited edition?

  58. Oh oh, i know! Its a Prophet3000 remake! It has to be 🙂
    They bought the rights from Yamaha and colaborated with Dave Smith to write a flawless firmware, like it should have been.
    8 (or 4 stereo) sampling voices filtered through CEMs, with modulation matrix and multienvelopes.

    Great move, KORG, bold move!
    But hey, you are the guys who can make those things happen!

    Finally somebody realized the need of a modern Hardwaresampler with analogue Filters!

    I love U KORG!

    🙂

    1. korg actually has a ‘3000’ product series, the ps3100, ps3200 and ps3300 polysynths. considering most monosynth product releases are plastered by newcomers realizing ‘just ONE NOTE???’ and even serious consumers are now looking for new polys or poly reissues, maybe the 3000 line could really be coming this winter…

      the 3100 would be a great unique product on market today absolutely.

      dreams would be full of energy. I would own one in a heartbeat.

  59. I had a few thoughts, one to what it could be and two to what I would like to see.
    The first thought is that they might do limited versions of the Volcas but with EDM styled sound engines. Still analogue but tailored to the EDM market.
    The other (what I would like) is a combo synth that combines all 3 Volcas into one machine and gives it a proper keyboard (albeit a 25 key affair) more controls and patch storage.
    The last one is just a dream. It would be cool to have euro rack versions of the Volcas that lose the little key beds in favour of proper cv control.

  60. Some rumors…to soften wave of hate, caused by different kinds of mini and micro piano keys recently overwhelmed synth market, Korg planning to relaunch some of their most popular products with the keyboard wider and keys slightly bigger than a regular sized piano keys.

  64. I’m huge fan of re-issue, especially given I have both the Korg MS-20 Mini and the Korg ARP Odyssey and they are my favourite synths… so what could Korg do to follow up these two keyboards? Obviously a re-issue of the ARP 2600 is on everyone’s minds, but that is certainly going to be expensive. So what are the other options? I’d love to see matching SQ-10 and MS-50 re-issues to sit alongside my MS-20 Mini, but this is a limited issue, so I don’t think Korg would release those as limited issue products. A Korg VC-10 reissue would also have to be a possibility. A new Mono/Poly or a PolySix? Maybe? In terms of other ARP products besides the 2600, I’d be eager for something like a Quadra,

    Of course its equally possible that its something entirely new… but I doubt it. This has vintage synth feel all over it.

  66. I think it’ll be a brand new keyboard: it cannot be a remake (I’d buy immediately a new Polysix), because it would cannibalize the ARP Odissey…
    Maybe they’re hinting at a new Micro-Korg? Their line-up is complete, from the Kross to the Kronos, so a digital and cheap mini-synth does make sense.

  67. The only stuff Korg have made in smallish batches are expensive full size MS-20 kits. (MS-20, MS-20m)

    Maybe these are a limited edition version of something that will be made en masse after the first 3k are sold? In which case maybe they are breaking the pattern of miniversion/full size kit in regards to the Ody.

  68. Another 3,000 EDM presets synth for the Kronos and such?? Or maybe another tiny-keys neo-retro synth? I have to say, I haven’t been really excited by any new product from any of the three big companies: Korg, Roland and Yamaha. It’s actually quite boring and just another way for them to capitalise on the 30/40/50+ years of R&D they did by the past and that they now declined for mass market products (where customers are less picky than the high-end market musicians like us here). So regardless what it could be, I’m not getting really excited about it… all previous “teasers” from the big 3 have been quite disappointing so far… Let’s move on!

  71. I’d love to see a powerful new digital synth with a deeply advanced synth engine, something like a cross between Serum and Omnisphere 2 with a ton of polyphony and multitimbrality, really good sounding effects, an onboard sequencer and expansion slots that could add sampling functions and sound libraries, particularly for drums. A really exciting sound design tool with a very knob/slider heavy interface that was as close to knob-per-function as possible. I think that something like this could be done with a price tag of around 2500 and would be perfect for many of us looking for something to make more modern styles of electronic music. Analog sounds great, but there are simply more advanced sound design techniques to be explored in the digital realm. I get that the old school purists will probably never embrace it, but like it or not digital is the sound of now.

    1. analog is coming back partly because VSTs with controllers are better at digital sounds than any workstation will ever be again now. Nobody is still investing in real world digital synths at this point really, except very niche ones like hackable stuff and whatnot. VSTs have gone beyond, and that’s fine, but don’t expect a comeback until a real breakthrough is made.

  73. Well, Korg announced the Liverpool Keyboard, but that’s not a Limited Edition from everything I’ve read.

    The Font used on those tags is the same used on ARP, so here’s my Guess: It’s a Full-Size ARP 2600 complete with 3620 keyboard: $3,000 MSRP, $2,600 street/retail 😉

    If Korg were to bring an ARP2600 to market in the face of the TTSH Kit, a Limited Edition would be the way to do it.

    EDIT: https://instagram.com/p/5LFCgcM9lN/?taken-by=synthjam

  77. too bad there is 99% nonsense information here. i was hoping that someone has some inside info but now. just people killing time

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