Korg Opsix : vimarsana.com

Korg Opsix
Korg’s Opsix takes FM synthesis to places it’s never been before.
When Korg showed a couple of concept synths at the 2020 NAMM Convention many eyes turned to something called the Opsix, which looked much like a 21st‑century DX7; solid, and complete with a full‑size five‑octave keyboard. But when the pre‑production Opsix was deposited on my doorstep a few months ago it was a very different beastie   small, light, and with a 37‑note keyboard. So, how well has Korg’s enhanced FM sound engine been squeezed into another of its baby synthesizers?
Instead of conventional analogue or digital oscillators, FM synths have Operators that each comprises a waveform generator and a dedicated envelope generator that controls its pitch, as well as various inputs that allow other mathematical functions to affect its level and pitch. These Operators can then be combined in various ways in a given Program using an ‘algorithm’. In the simplest case, two Operators can sit side‑by‑side to be mixed like two conventional oscillators or the output of one (the ‘modulator’) can feed the frequency control input of the other (the ‘carrier’) to create new tones that can then be made to evolve in interesting ways. You might think that this architecture would be insufficient to create useful sounds, but synth history proves otherwise: in the early ’80s Yamaha launched four important preset synths based upon 2‑op FM   the GS1, its sibling the GS2, plus the CE20 and CE25. But it was Yamaha’s programmable 6‑op architecture with its 32 preset algorithms that, for most people, has come to define FM. That’s not surprising; I’ve just described the DX7.