Korg Inc. (株式会社コルグ, Kabushiki-gaisha Korugu), founded as Keio Electronic Laboratories, is a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments, audio processors and guitar pedals, recording equipment, and electronic tuners. Under the Vox brand name, they also manufacture guitar amplifiers and electric guitars.
Korg was founded in 1962 in Japan by Tsutomu Katoh and Tadashi Osanai It later became Keio Electronic Laboratories (京王技術研究所) because its fledgling offices were located near the Keio train line in Tokyo and Keio can be formed by combining the first letters of Katoh and Osanai. Before founding the company, Katoh ran a nightclub. Osanai, a Tokyo University graduate and noted accordionist, regularly performed at Katoh's club accompanied by a Wurlitzer Sideman rhythm machine. Unsatisfied with the rhythm machine, Osanai convinced Katoh to finance his efforts to build a better one.
The company's first product, released in 1963, was an electro-mechanical rhythm device called the Disc Rotary Electric Auto Rhythm machine, Donca matic DA-20. The name "Donca" was an onomatopoeic reference to the sound the rhythm machine made. Buoyed by the success of the DA-20, Keio released a solid-state version of the Rhythm machine, the Donca matic DE-20, in 1966.
Website: https://korg.com/
