The foundations of Yamaha's success in the '80s were laid by John Chowning at Stanford University in California during the '60s - but then FM synthesis would probably never have reached the commercial marketplace if it hadn't been for Yamaha. The combination of Western design talent and Eastern business sense is nothing new. 'Return', because the Wavestation has a clear ancestry in Sequential's Prophet VS synth - hardly surprising when you consider that Korg's new synth was designed by ex-Sequential personnel. Nowadays musicians are tiring of the workstation ethos, they have sample-based synths coming out of their ears and they yearn for something which might perhaps be, well, just a little bit more synth-like in the traditional sense.Ĭue the Wavestation, and the return of another kind of vector, namely vector synthesis. With the M1 they demonstrated a clear technological edge over the competition, and at the same time produced an instrument which, conceptually speaking, was just right for its time.

No-one can doubt the sophistication of Korg's technology these days. This can be explained in part by the M1's technology being too sophisticated to produce cheaply, but equally it's clear that the company are on a mission to build a reputation for themselves as purveyors of high-class professional synths.

At one time they were languishing in the backwaters of hand-me-down Yamaha technology, seemingly destined to be forever overshadowed by both the big Y and Roland, but the immense success of the M1 in the late '80s signalled a return to prominence for a company who have a long and worthy history in the world of synthesisers.įollowing the M1 and its inevitable M1R rackmount version, Korg have flown in the face of conventional wisdom by producing only one downmarket version (the sub- £1000 M3R rackmount) but three upmarket versions (the T-Series synths). One company who know a lot about vectors are Korg. It's as if something in the vector of success prohibits one company from keeping the edge for too long. Can they advance the technology and the concept sufficiently to capture the imagination of the musician once again? More often than not the answer is no. Once a manufacturer has produced a best-selling instrument, the problem which inevitably confronts them is how to build on that success.

Korg wavestation ex original retail