Korg Berlin Preview Acoustic Synth

One of the most talked about technology demonstrations at Superbooth 2023 in Berlin is Korg’s prototype Acoustic Synthesis_phase5. The video below from Sound on Sound shows the accomplished instrument designer and CEO of Korg Berlin, Tatsuya Takahashi, talking about the design and inspiration for the synth and a walk-through and demo of the prototype.

The Acoustic Synthesis_phase5 is an electromechanical device which controls tuning forks to produce a fundamental pitch and harmonic overtones. In-built effects then allow shaping of the tone and other audio qualities, such as the sustain and feedback, but the bell-like quality remains due to the acoustic, physical nature of the initial note generation.

Korg Berlin is a small product development space set up by Tatsuya Takahashi and Maximilian Rest, who describe it as a “transdisciplinary development team of ten people designing new musical instruments” while recognising that “releasing a product always has societal, cultural, economical and environmental impact”.

It’s certainly an interesting tech demo, but no plans for production have been announced publicly at the time of writing.