Phase 8, the acoustic synthesizer from the innovation-driven team at Korg Berlin, has been in development for a while. First shown publicly as Phase 5 at Superbooth 2023, this instrument is genuinely unlike anything else—a synthesizer whose sound begins with kalimba-like metal tines, then gets amplified though a customized electromagnetic pickup system, and further shaped by synthesizer-like controls.

Now that it is finally out and reaching the hands of some folks, we returned for another conversation with Tatsuya Takahashi (Tats), to talk about the journey it took to materialize Phase8—prototypes, challenges, research, and inspirations—as well as changes that follow the release for the team, and Korg more broadly.

This interview took place in Berlin, May 5, 2026

Meet Korg Innovation and Design Studio

Tatsuya Takahashi: Ok, before we jump in, I would like to explain something. We're actually going through a transition right now with the structure of Korg and our presence within it. Until quite recently we've been calling ourselves Korg Berlin—Phase 8 was coming as a Korg Berlin product, almost like a sub-brand or an independent team. Now that's transitioning into something a little bit bigger. We're no longer using the Korg Berlin brand. What was called Korg Berlin is now the Innovation and Design Studio for all of Korg.

We're more integrated into the bigger Korg group, and we were expanding — we already have a team in Tokyo — so the Innovation and Design Studio now encompasses multiple teams around the world. With that has come some role changes. Although I'm still CEO of the German company (Korg Germany), my main role now is Chief Innovation Officer for Korg as a whole. Which is shifting gears on many levels: structural, and in terms of impact for the whole Korg group.

Eldar Tagi: For you personally, does that come with being split between Berlin and Tokyo now?

Tats: Yeah, more travel than before. But before it was COVID, so there was no travel — and now it's a bit more, though not crazy amounts. Maybe two times a year.

Last year I went a lot because our president passed away, and there was a funeral and other things we had to deal with, so that was quite busy. I think it'll settle down to a few times a year.

ET: Congratulations on the new role! It sounds like a lot of responsibility.

Tats: Thank you. It's certainly more, yeah.

Reaching Phase 8

ET: So — Phase 8 is finally out. I was here when it was Phase 5, around two years ago. How does it feel now that it's actually in the world?

Tats: It has been the longest project I've worked on thus far in my life. It's a big moment for us that it's finally announced as a product — we're shipping now, rolling off the assembly line as we speak. It's actually the first thing we finished as a team that was started here in Berlin.

We're really excited about what people will do with it, because it's a very open-ended instrument. We tried to keep it that way — very open — because it is a new way of working with sound. It's very haptic, very tactile. We didn't want to lock things in, like putting too many effects on the master or making preconditioned decisions for the player. We tried to avoid that. So we're really looking forward to how people mess around with it — things that are beyond our control. It's a kind of letting go, and it's a nice moment.

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ET: Have you already gotten some feedback from people who've had it in their hands?

Tats: Yeah, absolutely. This project was unique in that we showed it very early. Phase 5 was the first version we showed publicly, which was very different to how Phase 8 ended up—but it allowed us to openly start a conversation with communities and with particular people, whether artists or just community members. So yes, we had a lot of feedback before finalizing the product, and I think that was very important in making design decisions. We had an artist, for example, just blowing on the resonators—they react to that. You can open up the VCA, blow on the resonators, and make them kind of sing to your breath. That was very beautiful, very poetic.

We also had it played at Berghain, at a Red Axes show, which was really cool — we could test it out in the real world. That was a P1 unit, what we call the last prototype before tooling, before factory parts. Still hand-assembled but very much resembling the final product. And when artists who were interested were passing through Berlin, they'd often get in touch or we'd reach out, and they'd come here and play with it.

Should I drop some names? Frank Wiedemann is a big one. Modeselector has one now. Suzanne Ciani dropped by when she was in town. DJ Python... there are so many I can't remember them all right now. But people will probably see those artists playing the instrument anyway. We also went to them — I went to Floating Point's studio in London, took a unit with me, and he used it at Glastonbury. That was a big moment for us.

ET: What about recorded music? Did it make its way onto some songs or albums?

Tats: It's been used in bits and pieces already—I'm honestly not sure who was first. There's definitely Shawn Sager, a film composer in LA—I think he was probably the first. He used it on some Netflix stuff, too.

ET: It's interesting to think about people from different backgrounds approaching the instrument. A guitarist and a keyboard player would probably jump to completely different things. Have you seen that play out?

Tats: I think Bex Burch is the best example—she'd basically never used a synthesizer in her music before. So it was very eye-opening to see how a percussionist enters the world of electronic or hybrid electronic composition. That was really cool.

But it's also very cool to see real synth nerds play with it and be kind of surprised — realizing they have to almost unlearn the way synths work to build a relationship with Phase 8. Both are fascinating. And actually, one big inspiration is kids—children who have no knowledge of any instruments. That's always a great entry point.

Moving Through Phases

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ET: Since we last spoke, there were Phase 6 and Phase 7 before you arrived at Phase 8. What was happening in those prototypes?

Tats: There was also a Phase Zero, so it's actually Phase 0, 1, 2, 3, 4—and then Phase 5 was the first we showed publicly. Each phase usually designates a shift in the technology—changing from optical pickups to passive pickups, or from a balanced armature drive to a single-ended drive. There's always a shift at a technical level that marks each increment.

Phase 5 already had the capacitive pickup, but it had a different drive scheme—a different way to excite the resonators. The drive is a coil that hits the resonator non-contact, basically like a hammer in a piano. In Phase 5, it was a balanced armature—a magnetic circuit with a coil, quite complex. It had its advantages but also real challenges around manufacturing, cost, and power consumption. It worked as a technical demonstration, but it lacked manufacturing feasibility and full viability as a creative tool.

Phase 6 came very quickly after Phase 5—much smaller, four voices, kind of a proof of concept. It used polyphonic aftertouch pads instead of a sequencer, where you had constant control over the volume, a bit like playing a violin. I actually really liked it. I don't know if it would've worked commercially, but it was a lovely little expression box—the pads were milled out of wood, it felt very acoustic. But we weren't sure it would work as a mass-produced product, and we still had a lot of trouble getting the design stable enough for manufacturing. Mechanical things are also much more expensive than circuits.

For Phase 7, we went back to the drawing board. Phase 7 wasn't something you could actually play music on—it was a technical lab setup that let us test different approaches. It had micrometer-level adjustability so we could swap out drives, pickups, and resonators easily. It was a platform for experimentation, not a prototype—a full reset for mechanical, electronics, and software. All of us had to reassess how to make this work as a product. After that, we made decisions and prototyped Phase 8.

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ET: What was it that clicked with Phase 8 to make it the one?

Tats: It was everything together—manufacturing feasibility, parts being stable across units, cost efficiencies. And then on the other side: does it sound good, does it feel good, is it fun to play, is it musical?

From the very early Phase 8 two years ago to what we showed last year, one of the biggest jumps was actually in the tone. That was maybe the most obvious change we made. We had these forked resonators, and we changed to a different scheme — a rectangle with a hole in it. The pickup was also tuned specifically for that resonator shape. So the final stages were really about refining the tonal character of the instrument.

Phase 8: A Hybrid Instrument

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ET: You can see traces of different instruments in Phase 8 — there's a kalimba, there's a groove box element, maybe an electric piano. Guitar seems like an influence too. Were there specific instruments you were actively studying?

Tats: Many, many instruments—all of those you mentioned are inspirations. Mechanically speaking, the resonator is a cantilever— fixed at one end—and that has a fundamental difference from a stringed instrument, which is fixed at both ends. That pretty much defines the resonant modes. If you have a string fixed at two ends, you have modes that fit into that length. A cantilever fixed at one end presents different, more inharmonic modes, which we found really interesting.

So there's a conscious distinction between guitar-type instruments and instruments like the Rhodes, the Wurlitzer, kalimba—things with a single fixed end. Our software engineer also did a lot of research into how people made music before instruments were formalised—how they made resonant bodies vibrate and sing. Some of the things that struck me were very primitive instruments: blocks of wood that needed to be suspended on cushions or air to let them resonate freely. We still want to try something like that. So we looked at very old, very primitive ways of making instruments. I wouldn't point to one single thing—it's really a hybrid.

ET: Something that really sticks out to me is that Phase 8 is immediately welcoming to extended and prepared techniques—things that with most instruments you only discover after years of playing. With this one it feels baked in from the start. Was that an intentional design decision, or did it emerge through the process?

Tats: Yeah, I do remember a moment somewhere in the development process when we made the conscious decision that the resonators should be exposed. Before that, they were kind of inside the box, not as accessible. But we were just trying to make cool sounds with resonators, electromagnetics, and electromechanics. So it's more of the latter.

At some point, we realized—the whole point is that it's physically happening right in front of you, under your fingers. We should be able to interfere with that, interact with it. And that became a big part of the instrument. Today, if you look at any of our videos, it's all about putting rocks on it—it naturally pulls you in that direction.

ET: There's also the modular aspect — you can swap the resonators. You've mentioned plans to expand that range. Can you talk about what's being considered?

Tats: We don't have super concrete plans yet, but we know we want to extend both the tonal range and the pitch range. We could do bass resonators, for example. We could also do different harmonic tunings within a single resonator — we have a fair amount of control over where we place the overtones, and that's actually been a big part of the resonator design process. The current rectangular scheme allows us to move the modes in a very controlled way, so we can design different timbres, not just extend the pitch range.

ET: What about the material itself? Are you planning to experiment with different alloys for the tines?

Tats: It's a tough one. The material we use is a very specific alloy that we arrived at through studying other instruments — and I should mention harmonicas, which is another inspiration you'd never guess. Actually, before harmonicas, the starting point was a crib mobile. I have small children, and one day ours broke — it has a little music box inside that you wind up. I took the broken one apart, and I was fascinated by how beautifully tuned the tines were, this mass-manufactured acoustic thing.

I brought it into the studio about five years ago and started taking it apart to understand the manufacturing. The frame was diecast zinc, heavy and solid, so the tines could resonate freely off it. That led us to research the music box manufacturing industry, which is predominantly in Japan and Germany. And there's a parallel industry — harmonicas — also predominantly in Japan and Germany.

As a Japanese company based in Germany, we felt a real connection there. We visited Hohner to see how they manufacture and tune, and their material happened to be a stainless steel alloy that is magnetically excitable — which is unusual for stainless steel. You bring a magnet to it, and it sticks. That meant it could work with electromagnetic actuation, exactly what we needed. They shared material with us throughout the whole prototyping process — in fact, all the resonators from Phase 5 through to the Phase 8 units people saw last year came from that harmonica company's material. As for experimenting with different alloys: it took a lot of luck and research to arrive at this one, and the challenge is that you usually have to buy it by the ton. A ton of alloy could be enough for thousands of Phase 8s. So we don't really have the luxury of freely testing different alloys. I do hope one day we'll have alternatives that sound different, but it's a very challenging area.

ET: With physical acoustic instruments, the aging of the instrument is a big part of how players make it their own. Have you thought about how Phase 8 will age, and what that might do to the sound?

Tats: I have a feeling—though we haven't had it long enough to be certain—that it will mellow over time, a bit like strings losing their brightness. Old strings have that quality. I suspect the tines will do something similar.

We do durability testing—cycling hot and cold while triggering all the voices at maximum rate—and we haven't seen a shift in spec or sound from that. Which is actually a bit of a contradiction, because for it to age well, something needs to change. That's the dilemma in mass manufacturing: it has to be stable across many units and over time, while also ideally aging gracefully. We don't know yet. It'll be interesting to find out.

Getting To Know Phase 8

ET: For those who will get their hands on Phase 8—is there a setting or a way of playing it that you'd want people to try right when they get it?

ET: For those who will get their hands on Phase 8—is there a setting or a way of playing it that you'd want people to try right when they get it?

Tats: When you turn up the volume and you're close to some speakers, you get some really cool bass feedback modulation. We call it the Woodblock Drop — you put a block of wood on the resonators in a loud, amplified environment, and it fairly consistently creates this crazy deep bass sound. That's one thing.

But really the message is: just open it up and don't be shy. You can bend the resonators if you really pull them hard, but this is stainless spring steel—actually an alloy used for surgical blades—so it's tough stuff. Don't be shy about messing around with the resonators and the acoustic part. That's really the soul of the instrument. That's where you'll build a real relationship with it.

ET: Can we talk about acoustic synthesis more broadly? It's going to be a new concept for a lot of people. How has your thinking about it evolved over these years?

Tats: We don't have a formal set of rules or criteria that defines acoustic synthesis for us. But one of the big developments over the years is that we've quietly come to a consensus—I feel it strongly. Acoustic synthesis, for us, is the marrying of acoustic sound generation with electronic control. And the control bit is the really exciting part.

You could broadly say a Fender Rhodes is an acoustic synthesizer. But to us it's not—it's an electric instrument, much like the electric guitar. Just having solenoids hitting a resonant body with a pickup isn't acoustic synthesis, because there's no real marrying of electronics with the acoustic nature at a deep level. What gets us excited is when the electronics and the acoustics are truly one. For example, the electronic sustain on Phase 8—the electronics actually enter the acoustic domain and change the behaviour of the resonator. Or the ring modulator-ish effects, which use modulation frequencies derived from the acoustic properties of each individual resonator, so each one has its own unique modulation signal. That's what we mean by marrying them. We get very excited about things like modulating between overtones and excitations—going very deep into acoustic phenomena, with electronics really coming together with it.

ET: Are you already thinking about instruments beyond Phase 8?

Tats: Yes—we're actually starting something, as we speak. But I can't disclose what it is. What I can say is that after all these years of experimentation and decision-making, we now have a palette of options to work with. We could take the drive scheme from one phase and combine it with the resonators from another to create a different kind of product. There are multiple paths we could take, and the options are much clearer to us now than they were a couple of years ago. There's still technical development to do, still challenges to overcome, but the choices are there.

Reflections and Future Prospects

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ET: Thinking about Korg Berlin as it was—The Pyjama Cook(e)book, The Book of Designs—those projects felt like they were really about defining who you are as a team and as designers. With the restructuring, do you see that kind of work continuing?

Tats: When it was called Korg Berlin, those projects really defined our unique take on design and purpose—our take on what we want to contribute to society. I think that was essential for us in those early years. We won't be doing as much of that kind of project going forward—we're transforming now to focus on products and innovation. But it was good that we had those years.

The cookbook, the record that's coming, and the book of designs—those were very much part of sculpting who we are as designers. It's always been the goal to make instruments that change society in a positive way. That feeds into the global goal of Korg as an instrument maker. So these were very cool, and important projects that really brought our team together, and also other people from a broader community.

And I should mention—after five years, we actually sent Phase 8 units to every person who contributed to the cookbook as a thank-you. I've forgotten most of what COVID was like, but it was really horrible when that happened, especially in the first phase, when everyone was unsure of everything. And so it was really cool that people in the industry came together, showing their solidarity. The cookbook was our way of keeping the community together. And that connection did genuinely help Phase 8 become what it is. It was really good to be able to give back and say—thank you for what you did back then, and for waiting all this time.

ET: What's next for you and the team in this new era?

Tats: The team is going to get bigger, and we're already becoming more of a network—a hub of teams. For me, my role will be both running this entity as a subsidiary and having a bigger role in the wider Korg universe—working on innovation, improving design, developing new products. A few years down the line, we'll be working with customers and musicians across different markets around the world.

If you look at Korg, it has a very broad portfolio: digital pianos, tuners, multiple guitar and bass brands, synthesizers—which are really my favorite. I've been at the company for 18 years, and synthesizers have been a major focus the whole time. So for me personally, it's a broadening of scope from synthesizers to music and sound in general. That's pretty exciting. And we still have synths. So there's more of everything, in a broader range.

ET: Anything else you'd want to share?

Tats: I think the biggest sentiment, and I hope I can speak for the whole team, is a big thank you to everyone who followed the journey over the years and waited for the product. And please, have fun with it!

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