Tokyo, Japan, founded in the early 1960s by Tsutomu Katoh and Tadashi Osanai · Early 1960s to present

Vintage Korg synthesizers

Korg started out in Tokyo in the early 1960s as Keio Gijutsu Kenkyujo, founded by Tsutomu Katoh and Tadashi Osanai. Its first product was the Donca-Matic, an electro-mechanical rhythm machine, and the Korg name came later, joining Keio with organ. The first synth, the miniKORG, arrived in 1973. The MS-20 followed in 1978 and became a hit for squeezing serious patching into a compact, affordable box, and the Delta, Lambda and Trident came out around 1979 and 1980. In 1981 the Polysix brought six programmable voices to players who couldn't stretch to a Prophet-5, with the four-oscillator Mono/Poly beside it. Yamaha took a controlling stake in 1987, Katoh bought most of the shares back in 1993, and the 1988 M1 sold over 250,000 units, the best-selling synth ever at the time. Korg has reissued the MS-20 several times since the 2013 MS-20 Mini, so check any listing for an original carefully.