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Imagine if Tim Cook fired up the production lines and started churning out the Apple II instead of the latest Macbook Pro. The world would think he had gone barking mad. After all, what company in its right mind would decide to start rebuilding technology last manufactured in the 1970s?
But in 2013, that was exactly the business decision made by the bosses at Korg, a Japanese multinational corporation that is one of the world’s biggest musical instrument manufacturers. Rather than spend their R&D cash on developing a digital instrument of the future, they decided to start once again building an analog synthesizer called the MS-20, which was considered cutting edge when it was released in 1978 before being dismissed as worthless trash less than a decade later. Their gamble clearly worked, because the instrument sold out across the world. Now its competitors are widely tipped to be considering making the same move, with synth fans hoping that other Japanese giants like Yamaha and Roland will bring much-loved designs back from the pre-digital past.
The Japanese multinationals might just have a fight on their hands for once because these notoriously conservative firms are just gatecrashing a party that is already been drank dry by dozens of smaller, boutique manufacturers. In the past year alone, several companies once known for their digital products have started producing instruments the old way, going back to using solder, transistors and capacitors instead of the ones and zeroes of digital programming.
Legendary synth designer Dave Smith, who recently won a Grammy for his role in developing a protocol called MIDI which allows musical instruments to communicate, told me the music world was experiencing a second analog “golden age” – and he should know because he was one of the heroes of the first one. His firm, Dave Smith Instruments, is at the forefront of this renaissance in music making and his analog instruments are once again a common sight on stages around
But in 2013, that was exactly the business decision made by the bosses at Korg, a Japanese multinational corporation that is one of the world’s biggest musical instrument manufacturers. Rather than spend their R&D cash on developing a digital instrument of the future, they decided to start once again building an analog synthesizer called the MS-20, which was considered cutting edge when it was released in 1978 before being dismissed as worthless trash less than a decade later. Their gamble clearly worked, because the instrument sold out across the world. Now its competitors are widely tipped to be considering making the same move, with synth fans hoping that other Japanese giants like Yamaha and Roland will bring much-loved designs back from the pre-digital past.
The Japanese multinationals might just have a fight on their hands for once because these notoriously conservative firms are just gatecrashing a party that is already been drank dry by dozens of smaller, boutique manufacturers. In the past year alone, several companies once known for their digital products have started producing instruments the old way, going back to using solder, transistors and capacitors instead of the ones and zeroes of digital programming.
Legendary synth designer Dave Smith, who recently won a Grammy for his role in developing a protocol called MIDI which allows musical instruments to communicate, told me the music world was experiencing a second analog “golden age” – and he should know because he was one of the heroes of the first one. His firm, Dave Smith Instruments, is at the forefront of this renaissance in music making and his analog instruments are once again a common sight on stages around