Korg

Korg is a corporation that started in Japan and produces a wide variety of electronic music products. The company started production in 1963 with the aim of creating an organ, but Korg ended up making Japan's first synthesizer, instead.http://www.korg.com/Corporate.aspx Before the company started, founders Tsutomu Katoh and Tadashi Osanai worked as a nightclub proprietor and a musician; they came up with the idea for Korg after discussing the limitations of Osanai's instruments and deciding to improve on them.http://www.korg.com/Corporate.aspx

The first synthesizer to be released with the Korg name printed on it was the minikorg700 or the K1 as it was known in the United States. Since then they have expanded their product line to include many different rhythm programmers, Keyboards, effects processors, and digital recording equipment.http://www.keyboardmag.com/article/a-little-history/jan-07/32715

The first location of Korg was along a railway line in Keio, Japan. The company was originally named Keio Electronic Laboratories, which later became Korg. They came to this name by the combining of the words Keio and organ. The first product to be created by the company was the Disc Rotary Electric Auto Rhythm machine or the DoncaMatic DA-20. This was released in 1963 and was the first in a long line of rhythm machines created by Korg.http://www.korg.com/Corporate.aspx

In 1975 the company created The Korg WT10, which was the first hand-held battery powered tuner the world had ever seen. The tuner ranged from A435 to A450, and did not have the range of today's Korg tuners, but paved the way for hand-held tuners that are used today. This product helped to widen the variety of musicians that had a use for Korg products, up until then they had mainly produced rhythm machines and mono-synthesizers.http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct02/articles/korg40th.asp

It wasn't until 1985 that the name of the company was changed from Keio Electronics to Korg. This was decided after the United States company Unicord, which changed form many times, was bought by Keio Electronics and the name was changed to Korg USA. Soon after that, Keio Electronics was changed to Korg INC.http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov02/articles/korganniversary2.asp

Today Korg is still producing new technologies in the electronic musical instrument world. Throughout the life of the company and still today they face competition from similar corporations like Roland, Moog, and Casio. Founder Tsutomu Katoh is quoted saying "inside Korg we are trying to seek the form that is easiest to use without regard to the boundaries of hardware and software." The Katoh family is still part of the company today, and Tsutomu still owns a nightclub.http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec02/articles/korganniversary.asp

• 1974 - Minikorg 700S monophonic synthesizer is the first product released with the Korg brand name.
• 1975 - The first hand held tuner, the WT10, is released.http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct02/articles/korg40th.asp
• 1985 - Keio Electronics is officially changed to Korg INC.
• 1988 - The Korg M1 developed a much cheaper MIDI sound generation, percussion, and sequencing. Also Korg's first guitar synthesizer was released in the same year.
• 1992 - Rose Morris is purchased by Korg and re-named Korg UK.http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov02/articles/korganniversary2.asp
• 2000 - The AX1000G multi-effects unit is released to the public. Also, the Triton v2 workstation synthesizer was launched the same year.http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec02/articles/korganniversary.asp