Korg demo video released in 1991. This video employs an imaginative visual approach to effectively showcase the 01/W's seemingly limitless creative possibilities.
Those were the most exciting times in electronic music, when synthesizers started sounding so convincingly acoustic. They could still of course could sound electronic, and then some. The M1, T-Servies, Wavestation, and 01/W. All fantastic instruments.
@@MrEggcake Yeah, I gave into that analog fascination once in my life. I had bought the Voyager OS with the Moogerfooger delay pedal. I sold it though. Those type of things are of not much use to me.
@@HARJEN-we4gg Yeah, nice synthesizers. The D-70 from Roland and SY77 from Yamaha were also excellent. In fact, my jaw totally dropped when I saw the SY77 for the first time. There was no keyboard I wanted more than the SY77.
I still have this VHS in great condition. And 4 years ago I finally got my hands on my very own KORG M1 Workstation Keyboard. It took 34 years and it was so worth the wait. Plus a great price for one of the most legendary keyboards ever made. A lot of professional musicians still use a KORG M1 Workstation to this day.
Wow - I had this VHS when I was a junior in high school. I wanted a synth SO BAD, and all I had was an entry-level Kawai portable. I watched this tape until it wore out and wouldn't play any more, dreaming of the day I'd have one. I might make an offer on one I know that's for sale, just to fulfill that dream (even though I've owned Tritons, Motifs, Fantoms, and so on). Thanks for the memories!
+Flowood Piano Fulfill your dream! My mom bought my a Korg Poly 800 back in 1983. I remember BADLY wanting the Korg DW8000 when it came out. I had a Keyboard magazine with it's picture, & I put it on my wall. A musician friend of my mom's convinced me that analog synths were out, and new "Samplers"/ROMplers were in. My grandparents ended up buying me a Roland D-10, then I got a Korg M1, Roland W30, & in 1992, the 01/Wfd. I have over 2 dozen synths workstations now, but through the years, I always thought about the DW8000 from time to time. A few years ago I finally broke down & got one off eBay. It was a great feelings, so I urge you to get your dream keyboard. :-)
Korg should release the 01W as a plug in complete with all PCM and program card sets like they've done with the M1, Wavestation, Triton and Triton Extreme. Whilst they're at it, they should also do the same thing with the Trinity, DW8000 and DSS1.
I love that rock guitar/organ demo towards the end. It still sounds fantastic nearly 25 years later. Kong really knew how to do great sequencer demos for their workstations back then.
I'm pretty sure that bit is from one of the demo's they put out on an audio CD they had commissioned from artists and industry heavyweights around the time of release. The CD had recordings of sequences composed on the machine by Keith Emerson, Eddie Jobson, Chuck Leaval(?), Dave Stewart, et al... I remember stamping an envelope and sending off the $1 to Korg for that demo CD. I don't have the CD anymore, sadly -- but after watching eBay for 10~15 years i finally saw an O1W/fd one selling at a price i could afford. I've got WAY too many 'boards at the moment (like 30+, no shit!) but i will never sell the O1W. It took me another couple years before i could track down floppy image files for the demo sequences used on said audio CD. You can find Keith Emerson's Korg O1W demo piece on here currently if you search for it. He named it "Katho-San" after (i think) the founder and/or CEO of Korg, who he had a professional relationship with. AFAIK, there are no official releases by ELP or Keith with any version of that piece on it, but it's obvious he put some real effort into it.
This synth changed a lot for the working musician in the early 90s, not everyone gets to be a sessions musician or a roadie, this opened doors for many to produce great sounding soundtracks for documentaries, advertisements, amateur demo albums and low budget television and cable series, all without having to buy a room full of gear. I was out of my teens then and was salivating over it, and serendipitously in my 30s i happened to be offered a 01/WproX .. the mothership.. for the price of a home keyboard, i didnt think twice.. kept it for long and then donated it to a budding musician who is very glad to have it
I got my Korg 01/W in 1994 after i completed my A-levels. And I still have it! I will never part with it. Only just bought a Triton Extreme 88 this week. But 💕 Korg.
Hi Peter - may I ask, how do you connect your Korg to your iMac? I have just dusted off my O1WPro after 12 years in storage but have only played it so far using headphones. I sold all my gear back then but kept my baby but as technology has advanced so much I am at a loss to how to connect it to my iMac. Grateful for any advice. Brendan, Ireland.
Hi Peter, I bought my o1w/fd in 1992 and I too still have it and would never part with it. I've replaced three screens and one floppy drive, I also have all three expansion cards. Unbelievable keyboard and at 32 KHz, which gives it that lovely warm sound. I wrote and released a whole album with one of these baby's :)
I still have mine that I bought back in 1992... The outputs have gone out on it 15 years ago.... I've not been able to get it fixed. But, man this demo brings back memories. I loved the demo songs. I think the sax sounds on the O1W were some of the best ever...
It was a masterpiece for it's time. Looking at how powerful & feature rich workstation keybards are today, just blows my mind. The Korg M1 could store 10 songs for playback at a live performance. Compared to a Yamaha Montage 7 that can store 128 songs for live performance. Who knows what the latest keyboards can do & store today.
A truly fantastic workstation synth and a big hit at the time. I bought a T3EX about a year before and looked at upgrading to the O1W because of the 16 track sequencer and double the polyphony at 32 notes. However, after extensively comparing an 01W to the T3 at my local music shop over a couple of hours, I decided to hold on to the T3 (which I still have after 25 years) simply because I thought that some of the waveforms in the T (including the pianos) actually sounded better. There were other new programs and combinations in the O1W that I liked but I simply couldn't justify upgrading for that reason. About 10 years later, a former student of mine lent me his O1W whilst he went overseas for a couple of months and I ended up keeping it for over 15 years before he wanted it back! I was actually very sad to see it go but I gave it a good play during that extended time even though it started to play up and I had to take it for a couple of services.
Man, I miss my O1W... I still have it but the main board has some corrosion on it and the outputs have died it in. They went out about 10 years ago. Tried it have it repaired to no avail. I remember all those songs that were on the disk that came with the unit in the video... All my original songs that I sequenced on it and saved to floppy are probably all unreadable now...
Amazing video. I was working a full summer to save to buy my 01/Wfd and after more than 25 years is still working perfectly. I had the demo floppy with this songs, but I don't know it will be readable.
I had this non-FD version. And I remember salivating over that video for weeks until the synth arrived in a big box. I think I bought it from Sam Ash in NYC and ordered via an ad in the back of Keyboard Magazine. Wow. It was $1,500 and my girlfriend paid for half as a present for me. That seems like 100 years ago. Wow does it sound dated though. Think clean and digital without the punch of analog stuff from the 1980s but too thin and cheap on memory to sound like a good ROMpler. The 1990s were a bad time for synths. Thanks for posting the video!
