Korg To Launch DX7 Clone?

Reddit Post Sets The Synth World Abuzz With Possible KORG FM Synth

UPDATE 2: A colleague of mine visited the Korg stand on Thursday and, on my behalf, spoke to one of the reps. According to this guy, the OPSIX is nothing more than a mock up, it doesn’t function, they don’t know how it works, what Korg’s intentions are or if it will ever see the light of day. Basically, it seems Korg are testing the waters. A big shame, for now, so I guess we will be watching very closely to see if Korg ever bring this to market.

UPDATE: Thanks to SonicState for this post on their Instagram page that confirms that the KORG OPSIX is REAL!!!!

Yeeeeehaaaaaw!! It’s Synth Silly Season as Winter NAMM 2020 is literally just hours away from opening its doors to a plethora of Synth Nerd wet dreams! Yet again, I find myself rooted here in the U.K. and not with my bretheren in Anaheim, CA for this year’s NAMM show which, in true NAMM fashion, has already sparked a number of juicy rumours.

However, this one certainly piqued my interest as a big fan of everything FM. According to Reddit user u/moon_master345, Korg are on the verge of announcing something that gets me hotter than their recent announcements of the ARP 2600 recreation and the wonderful looking and sounding Wavestate. Yes, according to his post, Korg are seemingly launching a DX7 clone called ‘OPSIX’, which presumably refers to the six Operators featured in Yamaha’s classic interpretation of the FM synthesis method.

The single picture of the full-size, 61 note keyboard leaves little to the imagination, seen as it is, propped up on what looks like a semi-assembled trade show stand of sorts. Looking at the UI, there seems to be a nice complement of rotaries and sliders and a small but apparently bigger screen than those found on the DX range of synths. The biggest giveaway is the replication of Yamaha’s set of 32 Operator Algorithms, a common feature on the top plate of all their original 6-Op FM synths.

If this image is real, and I can’t see anything yet to suggest otherwise, it looks like Korg have upped their game from the tiny Volca FM that featured all 6 Operators, but lacked decent voice count and velocity in over MIDI, amongst other things.

Of course, those of us old enough to remember know that Korg dipped their toes into “FM” back in the day when Yamaha’s patents were still active with their Variable Phase Modulation, or VPM, technology. VPM is something that has reappeared over the years in their synths, but this would certainly seem to be an all out grab for a first-over-the-line synth that goes for the classic Yamaha configuration, whose patents ran out a while back.

I am sure this won’t be the last rumour we hear over the next three days. Some people are even suggesting that Behringer are getting into the FM game, based on their teaser video posted today…

So for digital afficionados like me, NAMM 2020 is shaping up to be quite an exciting event!

As soon as more concrete news breaks, I will bring it to you!