Published
Fri, Feb 17, 2017, 01:50
- The creator of popular synths like the Minilogue, MS-20 Mini and Volca range made the announcement via Facebook.
Korg's chief engineer of analogue synthesizers Tatsuya Takahashi has announced he will leave his role today after ten years at the company.
Takahashi took to Facebook to reveal he would be he would no longer work for Korg full time and will instead act as an "advisor" to the Japanese synth giant, moving from Tokyo to Cologne to "explore new areas where sound and technology can have positive social implications," adding that he "won't be going to any of the competition, but rather will be shifting direction of my main line of work while at the same time guiding the now super team at Korg venture into the future."
In his post, Takahashi reflected on his legacy at the company, telling the story of his decade of innovation which started with the conception of the pocket-sized, battery operated Monotron, marking "the humble beginnings of what became a mission to make synthesizers fun, exciting and accessible again." This mission resulted in a new range of affordable and approachable hardware devices including the Minilogue, Monologue and Monotribe synths, the SQ-1 step sequencer, and the broadly popular Volca series which now spans six units. (Takahashi notes that "the name Volca comes from the German word volk: 'the people' or 'crowd'. Like Volkswagen 'the people's car', the Volcas are 'the people's synth.'") He was also responsible for developing revamps of two iconic Korg synthesizers, the MS-20 Mini and ARP Odyssey.
Read Takahashi's full Facebook post here.