Korg DW-6000

The Korg DW-6000 is a six note polyphonic hybrid synthesizer with two single-cycle digital waveform oscillators and one analogue lowpass filter per voice. As basic material, eight digital wave cycle waveforms were available to the user through a system Korg called DWGS for Digital Waveform Generator System. The DWGS system can be thought of as an early sample playback system where only extremely short, single cycle waveforms are stored on four 256 Kilobit ROM chips, played back through the two digital oscillators and processed by relatively familiar subtractive synthesis facilities.

Patch editing is performed by the typical (for the time) method of selecting a parameter then using a single data slider to increment or decrement the value. Curiously, the factory patch names are written on the front panel, a trait more apt to be found on consumer keyboards rather than professional synthesizers. Another trait that belies the DW-6000's "budget" role, relative to its more capable and expensive fellow Korg unit Korg DW-8000, is the lack of velocity sensitivity or aftertouch capabilities.

Korg DW-6000