What an insightful comment. I've always considered art as something that can't be recreated, as it involves the state of mind the creator was at the time of creating it. I would worry no more about recreating a sound on this synth as I would recreating the exact pitch of an acoustic guitar I made last year.

Your take is obviously a valid one though. I just find it infinitely interesting how there can be so many valid viewpoints about something like this.

You nailed it. Cool idea. Nice design. Great demo. Fun toy.

I'm sure I'd have a good time playing with it for an afternoon and come up with some sounds I like. And, in principle, I'm all for more ways to create music existing - especially ones which are interactive and tactile. But the reality is, if I bought this device it would end up spending most of its time in the basement graveyard with all the other cool tools that are too narrow, too big, too hard to interface, store/recall patches, etc.

I decided several years ago to refocus on a stack that's purely microphone (or other a/d converted input) + MIDI controllers to a DAW driving infinite layers of internal real-time digital synthesis, analog modeling and effects plug-ins. There are fabulously expressive MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) controllers now which can capture every nuance of input my hands, feet and breath could ever provide. As you highlighted, the feeling that creating in a digital audio workstation is "too easy" or maybe somehow 'soulless' - is all in my head. That lurking suspicion analog circuitry or electro-mechanical waveforms are more authentic or pure is just magical thinking.

Always believing that the next new box's cool-looking tactile input, novel interaction model or unique set of opinionated constraints will unleash my creativity - is just getting in the way of actually sitting down and making myself create with all the insanely powerful, wildly creative, infinitely flexible, hyper-productive digital tools I already have. Being able to save and recall entire racks worth of patching at the press of a button isn't soulless or limiting - unless I let it be. Feeling like I need just-one-more new device to inspire me with its defaults or constrain me with its limits - is the limiting constraint I finally realized was holding me back.

You can change the actual resonator shape (it says it comes with 3 different shapes) to affect their sound. Like actually unscrew them and screw different ones on. Since this is just a piece of metal I see endless hacking opportunities here.

Korg satisfies both ends of this spectrum in its different products. The Microkorg 2 is the update of its record-setting best-seller built around "here is a giant preset knob that has sounds organized by genre". You can program a Microkorg and it does have plenty of depth, but the general idea of it is to be a go-to "recall" box for the quintessential synth sounds.

While the feature is useful, in some senses it's not terribly important to have a sound be exact, because you're giving a performance to the circumstance. Acoustic instruments react to temperature and humidity and all of that - it worked fine for thousands of years of music.

I love Korg but personally I think this is stupid.

I had an OASYS PCI and synthkit 20 years ago that had incredible physical modeling.

Maybe because I can picture what this would sound like with those OASYS models that it is not impressive at all.

I do always appreciate how daring korg can be though.

[dead]

> (what's that synth with all the rotors inside that makes a noise a bit like a vacuum cleaner when you use it?

Motor Synth: https://gamechangeraudio.com/motor-synth/

Agreed the Phase8 is a neat synth. Basically like a Rhodes and a EBow had a baby.

Yeah, it's not just the novelty aspect, I genuinely like how it sounds and how it opens up new ways to be creative with sound making. I'd really like to hear what Radiohead or Bjork would make with something like that.

Has that always been the appeal?

ah the savings possible when somebody else does all the original work and RnD

“just as good” with every single corner cut ;)

I really love the Steampipe and its approach to synthesis, its a lot of fun:

https://www.reddit.com/r/synthesizers/comments/1j7hgoo/makin...

Erica synths makes really solid hardware too.

Phase8 isn't physical modeling, though. It's actually electroacoustic, like a Rhodes.

Doesn't every musician with money have this problem? Every rockstar owns like 50 guitars. And they don' like to admit they're just collecting. They always got some story about why they need to buy the nth guitar that's missing from all the other tens of guitars they already own.

Almost all of them own instruments and gear they'll touch once and never do anything meaningful with ever again. Then it becomes a fixture on their walls or den.

It all seems wasteful.

But still, by rich people standards, it seems cheaper than other things like buying a huge boat.

Or any community that involves conspicuous consumption. There's always what feels like a majority of people who collect/buy/show off more than they use things

Problem? Buying what makes you happy is keeping the entire synth industry afloat!

I think that’s actually pretty different. In this case the tines are being electronically “plucked” - in the kalimba + pickups case you have to do all the plucking

You might an internet search for "Array mbira" entertaining.

“Essentially” in the sense you can’t really change the 8 frequencies you have to choose from quickly. Kinda impractical to do if you wanna play a set that spans different keys/tonalities.

Motors spinning shafts that produce signals is a very old technique, dating back to the Telharmonium [1897], whose tonewheel technique was also used in Hammond organs [1935].

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonewheel

Speaking of spring reverbs: you can use a cheap piezo transducer mounted on the tremolo springs of an electric guitar as a passive reverb. Waylon MacPherson demonstrates this in his YT channel: it actually sounds good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP5pJLgHrgw

Doesn't the Rhodes use hammers to hit the bars though?

Or on the page of the prototyping stage: https://korg.berlin/products/phase8

Phase 8 is a high margin collectible and brand promotion device. Korg may not make their money back from direct sales - although I wouldn't be surprised if they did - but likely there would be enough of a halo effect to make it worthwhile.

I expect this will turn into a small range of variations with strings, tubes, and so on.

But it's also part of a cultural trend moving back from do-it-all software products to tactile collectibles with a simple, legible purpose. Vinyl started that, and I think this is a kind of musical take on the idea that something mechanical has more presence and authority than software.

Sonically I don't think that's true at all, but it's a comprehensible marketing pitch.

Agreed, its existence is implausible, but I assume they're consulting on other projects for Korg Japan in addition to developing Phase8 and other prototypes. They're undoubtedly taking a loss (despite low European salaries) but their contributions across the board could also scale non-linearly.

I also imagine that it's the olive branch that brought Takahashi back to the company after he left. He brought Korg back from the dead and they were probably and rightfully desperate to find a way to retain their top performer.

It's honestly incredible they're bringing this to market! This style of incubator tends to work on a lofty goal and the research and ideas explored on the way trickle down into other parts of the company and find their way into more accessible products. Really similar in theory to the over the top concept cars manufacturers build that never see the light of day.