
Interview: KORG Berlin
An interview with Tatsuya Takahashi, head of KORG Berlin
KORG Berlin is a Berlin-based "transdisciplinary team of ten people designing new musical instruments". Over the past few years, the team has been active developing a new way of"synthesizing sound beyond electronics" that it calls Acoustic Synthesis. After numerous prototype phases — like the "phase5" prototype that KORG Berlin had showed off at SuperBooth2023 — the Acoustic Synthesis project is now in its "phase8" stage and gearing up for mass production.
Having been excited about this project ever since it was first revealed, we reached out to KORG Berlin to catch up on the latest developments of the project. In this exlusive interview with Stromkult, KORG Berlin head Tatsuya Takahashia talks about the ethos behind the KORG Berlin, what "phase8" is all about, what the team might have in store for the near future, as well as the possibility of a KORG Berlin baking book.
What is KORG Berlin?
KORG Berlin is a team of ten people creating new musical instruments. We are a subsidiary of the bigger KORG group so we share much of the same DNA, but we are also afforded the autonomy to do things differently. We do a lot of rapid prototyping and have a strong emphasis on testing new ideas as they arise.
The space that we occupy is symbolic of this. It's not massive but we do have a great workshop, studio, reading room, big sound system and a whole bunch of machines to build stuff. It's so much fun here! There is a nice video by reverb.com that walks through our space.
What does Acoustic Synthesis mean?
The idea behind Acoustic Synthesis is to find a means of synthesizing sound beyond electronics. I've designed a lot of synths that are purely electronic, many of which I still love today, but having worked on so many, I felt excited to pursue a more physical approach. The big goal with Acoustic Synthesis is to create instruments that sound and feel alive, like a cajon or guitar.
In tangible terms, we are exciting pieces of metal — the resonators — with an electromagnetic "hammer" and using various electronic means to control how it behaves. The resulting tone is very expressive in itself, but the real fun is when you interact with the resonators physically — either by touching them with your fingers or placing objects on them prepared-piano style. You can even slap the case and it will make interesting noise.
What inspired the development of Acoustic Synthesis “phase8”?
It was a dormant idea that had been shelved for over 15 years, but the real inspiration to unlock the idea was the team. We still have some work to do before the product is ready for release, but I cannot congratulate the team enough for overcoming so many challenges to get to where we are now.
How does “phase8” build on the concepts introduced in previous phases?
It's a long story, but in essence each phase is an iteration of the acoustic synthesis technology. You might remember "phase5" we showed at Superbooth 2023. We never showed phase6, but it was a four voice instrument that was played with velocity pads. "phase5" and "phase6" were both cool, but so many other ideas had popped up during their development that we decided to make "phase7" a platform to test all of them.
"phase7" was a mixture of a mechanical setup, where the resonator, pickups and drive coils could be fixed in various positions with high precision, plus a 2U electronic prototyping platform. In summary "phase7" was a kind of reset — back to the drawing board — but armed with everything we learned from previous phases. We then picked the best results from the "phase7" tests and put them into "phase8".
Can you share a memorable moment or breakthrough during the development of "phase8"?
Yes. The first sounds from the prototype. It was very rough, untuned and untamed, but a sequence was running on Iarla's (our software developer) desk which I could only perceive as something so raw and direct that it was shaking some ancient tribal nerves inside me. Then Tom (our electrical engineer) unscrewed one of the resonators while it was running and it got even more intense. Iarla was punishing the resonators with his fingers, contorting the sounds and then something shorted and puffff — the prototype fell silent.
Being only a couple of weeks before Superbooth, we were all super knackered and I guess actually deep down below we didn't know if it was any good. But this intense explosion of sound was so dramatic it blew away any doubts in an instant. We were ecstatic.
How do the physical resonators in "phase8" contribute to its unique sound?
There's two parts to it. Firstly, the geometry of the resonators gives the instrument its raw voice. A bit like the VCO in a normal synth, this is the core voice of the instrument from which the final tone is derived. These are designed by Lukas (our physics expert) using simulation techniques that predict the spectrum before they are actually cut from metal sheet and tested. They still often need some tweaking after the resonators have been cut. Lukas and I are quite proficient now at tuning the spectrum with a metal file — while filing is obviously a process that we will be eliminating in the production version, we really feel like it's part of the craft of designing good sounding resonators.
Secondly, the pickups are also designed to capture the resonators' voice. They zoom into vibrations in parts of the resonator that sound great and attenuate parts that we want less of. The pickup is the bit I design and every phase has employed a very different topology. In the subtractive synth analogy, you could say this is the filter stage.
And, actually, there are two more really important parts: thirdly, there are large banks of Tom's analog circuitry magic that perform processing like wavefolding and adding sprinkles of even-order richness. Fourthly there is Iarla's code that controls everything from generating the internal CVs to the DSP in the feedback pipeline as well as calibrating the resonators. There are so many parts to an acoustic synth and they all have to be perfect for one-another. You can probably see what I mean when I say the biggest inspiration is the team.
How do you envision "phase8" being used in live performances versus studio settings?
It's both a live performance and a studio production instrument. I'm really looking forward to seeing how it is used on stage, because you can really play with the acoustic nature and hit it or turn up the gain for feedback.
Since Superbooth 2024, what new developments or updates have occurred at Korg Berlin?
We are full throttle on getting "phase8" ready for release! The sound has been improving in leaps and bounds, and we're super excited about where it's heading. But it's not just about the musicality. It's also been a lot about getting ready for mass-production. We've really geared up to performing proper design evaluation.
We're talking precision audio analyzers, fast scopes, current and temperature probes, power meters, climate chambers and a whole bunch of compliance testing. We just completed a long string of compliance tests last week. This kind of thing is probably really boring for synth head readers out there, but it's such a crucial part of making a reliable product and — call me weird, and I’m being completely honest — I super enjoy it!
What other exciting projects are you currently working on at Korg Berlin?
We are dead busy with "phase8", but we are also restless souls and usually have a couple of fun projects going. It's pretty cool audio related stuff, but I can't give too much away!
Which is a perfect segway to pushing a product: Buy our book! It's called Office Objects at KORG Berlin and available on the KORG Berlin website. It shows 21 side projects that we undertook with dimensioned mechanical drawings with a bill of materials and rough cost guide.
We heard about the cookbook project — can we expect a baking book next?
Hah, yeh if you haven't seen it the cookbook is free to download from our website and was an initiative to bring people together in gloomy COVID times. The next book was the aforementioned book of designs and it aims to encourage people to build their stuff themselves rather than buying it. That's the latest book and I don't know yet what the next one will be.
Whatever it is, it needs a purpose. We strive to make things that affect positive change and sometimes a book is more apt at doing it. Or maybe it's a workshop for locals. We'll keep pondering. In the meantime thank you Stromkult for the great questions and to readers out there for your attention.
You can find out more about KORG Berlin over at their website.
Image Credit Korg Berlin