Korg go large in 2021

The Japanese synth titans kick off the year with a synth bonanza

In a normal year, the FM team would be in California right now for the annual Winter NAMM show – a massive industry event that sees the bulk of the world’s music instrument brands descend on the Anaheim Convention Center to reveal, demo and promote their latest gear. Obviously this is 2021, and right now phrases like ‘industry event’ and ‘convention centre’ make us feel like we’re breaking some kind of lockdown rule just by writing them.

In lieu of an in-person show, NAMM ran a week of online events under the banner Believe In Music, and it seems Korg were really ready to believe, using the event to lift the lid on a host of new instruments and tease a few things in the pipeline for later in the year. It’s fair to say Korg have been on a bit of a hot streak in recent years – their Opsix and Wavestate were our 2020 synths of the year, and they impressed with an excellent ARP 2600 recreation, Mackie-branded mixers and more. We said they weren’t doing things by half…