Korg MS-20 inventor Hiroaki Nishijima has been working with Behringer on their new synth line. Behringer says that he joined them to produce the next generation of Japanese synthesizers which would be an indication of new things to come. We’re so immensely grateful and humbled to work with Hiroaki to create beautiful musical instruments. Wow, what a genius this man is! What do you think he’s been designing for us?
Hiroaki Nishijima Leads the Behringer Synthesizer Innovation Center (August 31, 2019) Ex-Korg engineer takes over synth center in Japan For the newly established Behringer Synthesizer Innovation Center in Tokyo, the (we assume: former) chief developer of Korg Hiroaki Nishijima could actually be won as head. This can actually be described as a bang. Luigi Scarano, Hiroaki Nishijima, Uli Behringer - Source: Behringer FB I was able to interview Hiroaki Nishijima at Korg headquarters in 2014 with Fumio Mieda. You can find the interview at this link . Nishijima has (co-)worked on many analog classics at Korg, including the famous MS-20 and of course its new versions MS-20 mini and MS-20 Module, but of course also on many synthesizers that were built at Korg in between. This included not only analog synthesizers, but also Korg's digital "component modeling" technology. Nishijima explains in the statement, of course somewhat glorified, that nowadays it is difficult for a Japanese company to build the kind of synthesizers he envisions. It is interesting in this context that only two years ago Tatsuya Takahashi, the hopeful developer of Volcas, Monotribe and *logue, left Korg. Despite the synthesizer and analog hype we're witnessing right now, even a company as active as Korg seems to have their real focus elsewhere. The new Behringer Synthesizer Innovation Center will be responsible for basic research and product development. But the Italian developer Luigi Scarano is also one of them. In addition, several Japanese engineers were still hired. The announced tasks include "flagship synthesizers, samplers and other innovative product designs." However, it does not seem to be complete yet, because software developers are still being sought. It remains to be seen which concrete projects will come from the new Synthesizer Innovation Center. Source German: www.amazona.de/hiroaki-nishijima-leitet-das-behringer-synthesizer-innovation-center/
