Korg looks ready to release the Phase-8, and I gotta admit, it looks dope. I want one, now. I have not felt this kind of GAS in a long time. Semi-related, I have wanted a kalimba for years because it produces a very specific kind of acoustic energy that is perfect as a starting point for sound design. I always imagined using that plucky acoustic twang as the first stage in a larger sound creation process. I think the idea of sitting down and practicing kalimba as an instrument is what kept me from actually getting one.
Phase-8 substantively expands on my idea and wraps it into a slick instrument and interface I never thought possible. I’d imagined a kalimba as a simple acoustic starting point that I could run through processors or modular tools. Korg toook it to boss level and built a full polysynth where you can physically touch the sound generators.
When you look at the panel, the Phase-8 seems very simple. I initially thought, maybe too simple. The envelope is a single-knob AD macro similar to what we have seen from Mutable or Noise Engineering. From counterclockwise to noon you get a short attack with increasing decay. Past noon, both the attack and decay increase together. This feels really limiting, especially if you are thinking in the usual poly synth mindset where you expect full ADSR control.
Buy the Korg Phase-8 Limited Edition at Perfect Circuit
But wait, hold up, you can fucking touch the sound source directly! You can pluck softly or hard with your fingers. You can rest an object on a prong to change the timbre. You can dampen it, scrape it, or bend it slightly while playing. A physical sound source gives you control over articulation and tone in ways a standard poly synth cannot.
I realized I was looking at the Phase-8 the wrong way. I was judging it like a modern poly synth instead of treating it as an electro-acoustic instrument. Once you stop comparing it to traditional synths and start thinking about it the way you think about a guitar or trumpet, the simplified interface makes a whole lot of sense.
Korg Phase-8 feels like one of the most interesting instruments in years because it focuses on a physical sound engine instead of some new complicated synthesis method math abstraction you’ll never understand. It approaches synthesis through an electro-acoustic method that has more in common with playing a piano or a harp than programming a Juno or a Voyager. And for me, that is exactly the kind of instrument worth paying attention to.
