7/14/2026 at 2:33:32 PM
by Lio
7/20/2026 at 8:03:36 AM
There is a free emulator here:https://www.fullbucket.de/music/fb3300.html
The PS-3300 is a 3 layer synth with 49 voices where each voice has its own VCO/VCF/VCA. So you end up with 16 voices when you use 3 layers. It has microtunality and a reverb for each of the layers.
Here is a sound demo:
https://soundcloud.com/full-bucket/fr33ze?utm_source=clipboa...
by fxj
7/20/2026 at 8:22:07 AM
wow - that site has lots of emulators. very nice. thanksby wigster
7/20/2026 at 5:43:23 AM
Very curious about the design, wish they’d show more photos and say more about it.Where are all those cables stored? Is the keyboard supposed to fold into the main case somehow?
Reminds me a bit of the C100 “developer terminal”: https://caligra.com/c100/ (which I just noticed is now shipping)
by hjkl0
7/20/2026 at 2:07:26 PM
Patch cables will need to be stored externally, as with other semi-modular synths. I've seen little cable hangers but it would be unusual to have that as part of the main design.They say that it comes with a custom hard case to hold both the main unit and the keyboard.
Korg worked previously with David Friend of Arp and the Alan R Pearlman Foundation to reissue the Arp 2600 and Arp Odyssey. The Arp 2600 Full Size design is somewhat similar to this, although smaller, in that it comes with its own flight cases.
I have Korg's smaller still Arp 2600M reisslue and that came with a suitcase and foam inserts to hold the main unit, keyboard, patch cables and sequencer.
I get the impression that the PS-3300 is meant to be set up permanently in one place like a studio rather than being gigged.
by Lio
7/20/2026 at 6:30:56 AM
Well it's remake of an old synthesizer, there's plenty of information and pictures about the original.by steve1977
7/20/2026 at 8:44:25 AM
The remake isn't going to be exactly the same as the original. It is sensible to want more photos of the new units.by kristianp
7/20/2026 at 2:14:36 PM
Not 100% exactly, but the whole point of these Korg reissues is to be very close to the originals. So in terms of general architecture, it will be the same.by steve1977
7/20/2026 at 10:13:33 AM
Zero clue who would find the need to pay $2700 for that.by gizajob
7/20/2026 at 10:58:46 AM
Very little of lifestyle products is about need. Folks will open their wallets for some combination of personal wants, exclusivity (or the illusion of it), or even something as simple as a coffee table discussion piece.These sorts of "collectible clones" are pretty popular at the moment. A big part of it is nostalgia.
by mathgeek
7/20/2026 at 5:36:38 PM
Nostalgia and also specifically catering to people who are affluent enough now to afford things they couldn't afford as kids or teens.by steve1977
7/21/2026 at 10:19:08 PM
Again though, it’s for people who want a personality-free expensive Acorn Archimedes running Linux, or a very very expensive Raspberry Pi 500 with more horsepower but not enough actual horsepower to do anything useful. No idea who those people are or if there are more than a few dozen of them out there.by gizajob
7/20/2026 at 7:09:46 AM
Oh dud, is it so hard to find out that is is an updated revision?by curioussam
7/20/2026 at 7:23:10 AM
I'll wait for the Behringer clone!by glimshe
7/21/2026 at 1:47:31 PM
notification of go-live to FCFS on a limited quantity, these are all going to be bought out by scalpers and resold secondhand at a 500% markup. I'll just stick with synth clonesby erdaquin
7/14/2026 at 9:59:43 PM
Nice, but I guess it's pretty expensive.by Rochus
7/15/2026 at 6:19:22 AM
Likely around £11,000 I heard.That gives me the same feeling as a concert grand piano or installed pipe organ. I'll never get to own one or probably even touch one but I'm glad they exist for professional musicians to use.
Luckily cheap software and hardware synths can give us all a taste of what they're like.
This Korg seems more like something for museums or professional studios.
by Lio
7/20/2026 at 5:12:49 AM
> £11,000> That gives me the same feeling as a concert grand piano or installed pipe organ.
I think you might need to increase the number by an order of magnitude or more to get into the ballpark of [new] concert grand pianos and installed pipe organs.
by ssl-3
7/20/2026 at 6:41:02 AM
A new Steinway spirio grand piano is around $650k usdby juliusdavies
7/20/2026 at 5:45:19 AM
It must be understood that, unlike grand pianos, the building containing an installed pipe organ is integral to its operation and sound, so their costs, construction and maintenance are inextricably linked for the lifetime of the instrument.by ButlerianJihad
7/20/2026 at 7:54:40 AM
Unless, of course, Cameron Carpenter is involved:https://www.marshallandogletree.com/opus8
…though it was in fact maintenance costs that did in the I.T.O., may it rest in peace…
> “It travels in a 53-foot truck,” he says. “It has workshop and carpenter facilities that travel with the organ at all times. It has a massive accoutrement of spare parts. And it has two sound systems.”
> The system is controlled by a bank of computers running software built on Linux, the open-source operating system.
> Maintenance costs are not inconsiderable.
> “Big computer mainframes don’t like to be turned off,” Carpenter says.
by alwa
7/20/2026 at 8:18:07 AM
No, no no.I am sorry to burst your bubble here, but that electronic organ is most definitely not a pipe organ. These are two completely different types of instruments.
It is perfectly fine to take a gigantic electronic organ, its manual, its accessories, and box it up and drop it into whatever "enclosure" you have booked for a concert. Because an electronic organ is not intricately intertwined with its enclosing building/room. That's a key differentiator.
You could really never design a "portable pipe organ" because it's simply unheard of. Like a square circle. A pipe organ's pipes are custom-fitted and custom-tuned to the space. "Transplanting" a pipe organ to a different space would probably be more difficult and error-prone than just creating a new opus altogether.
Donald Knuth's pipe organ, on the other hand, is a bona fide pipe organ, and very much deserves to be installed in its own custom-built room.
A church where I used to sing had a very lovely choir loft, and one of the music directors had been an aficionado of "Early Music", and he had caused the parish to install a pipe organ in that choir loft. Sadly, the pipe organ was more of a "theatre" type than a "church" type, and it was also maddeningly difficult to maintain with the variations in humidity and temperature up there. There was a larger-than life stained-glass window in the western wall, and San Diego's setting Sun did a number on us every evening.
So eventually, they superseded it with an electronic organ, and they did this by just plopping the new manual in the midst of the loft, even before they were able to hire a crane with a crew to dislodge the deprecated pipe organ. The electronic organ was fantastic, though, because there were two directors who knew how to play it, and it had all kinds of MIDI/programming features that placed it head-and-shoulders above the pipe organ's best days.
by ButlerianJihad
7/20/2026 at 3:13:37 PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge_station_organby spiffx
7/20/2026 at 6:49:03 AM
For the computing connection, Knuth reportedly built his house around his organ.by defrost
7/20/2026 at 5:12:50 AM
£11,000 is a lot of money, but in the context of instruments is pretty reasonable.by wavemode
7/20/2026 at 10:56:16 AM
The original 1977 price was around £5800, which according to the BoE inflation calculator is £35,000 in modern money.These are an unusual design, because they're an organ/synth hybrid. There's a tuneable oscillator for each pitch class, but they're divided down for the octaves. So it's more like a string synth/organ architecture than three full synth voices per key (which would be insanely expensive), but the dividers for each octave are driven by single VCOs which can be tuned manually and modulated together.
The sound is... interesting. Analog, but doesn't have the legendary reputation of other synths. Korg always made quirky little synths, and this is more of a quirky big synth. They didn't make many of the original.
The reissue is aimed at the usual Gen X/Boomer demographic who would have wanted one when they first appeared, couldn't afford one, but have the cash to burn now.
by TheOtherHobbes
7/15/2026 at 9:30:19 AM
> but I'm glad they exist for professional musicians to useThe irony is that a professional musician in most cases has less budget to buy those expensive things than someone working e.g. as a teacher or clerc.
by Rochus
7/15/2026 at 9:36:28 PM
Musicians who landed a successful sync licensing deal, have that kind of money. Likewise producers who got points on something that took off.Anyway, $11,000 for a musical instrument is not that much for a musical instrument even when it is a lot of hamburgers for a given musician.
by brudgers
7/20/2026 at 8:41:43 AM
what is "sync licensing deal"?by hexo
7/20/2026 at 10:16:00 AM
Music you made which is now used for adverts or tv or filmsby gizajob
7/21/2026 at 1:16:18 AM
Or video games.by brudgers
7/15/2026 at 11:28:36 AM
Very true especially in this day and age. I think by “professional” I mean someone already successful rather than an up and comer.by Lio
7/15/2026 at 11:40:40 AM
Yes. If we assume only 5-10% of musicians with a decent, self-supporting living from composing/playing/performing alone (most others work somewhere in the “music-sector”, e.g. as teacher or as clerc of a record label or collecting society), only 0.5–2.5% have a stable middle-class income from artistic music alone, and roughly 0.01–0.3% have a upper-class income from artistic music alone and can afford to spend 11k£ for such a synthesizer.by Rochus
7/15/2026 at 6:10:27 PM
In someways this isn’t that unlike the past.I saw that Pete Townsend has donated his synths to a school in West London.
That includes a Yamaha GX-1 and an EMS modular. That’s some of the rarest (and largest) synths ever made and would have cost the equivalent of hundreds of thousands at that time.
Not too many muscle in the 1970s would have been able to buy a GX-1.
by Lio
7/16/2026 at 12:34:09 PM
FYI the current run of Korg PS-3300 sold out in minutes even at £11,000.by Lio
7/16/2026 at 4:25:58 PM
Unbelievable. I guess because of a lot of bored software people rather than trained musicians.by Rochus
7/20/2026 at 5:55:36 AM
Probably some of both, but 11k is extremely reasonable for this. If I understand correctly, it has 3x complete subtractive synths per key (not just 3 oscillators into 1 filter) x 49 keys. A typical analog polyphonic synth has maybe 8 voices.The comparison is more like bulldozer vs. car than BMW vs. Toyota - entirely new capabilities are unlocked
by blt
7/20/2026 at 7:25:42 AM
I want to say I agree, but since this is 50 year old tech, wouldn't there be newer mass produced products that do the same thing at a fraction of the price? Even if purely analog it would benefit from economies of scale, miniaturization, etc.by Cthulhu_
7/20/2026 at 7:39:08 PM
I'm not a synth designer or analog IC engineer, but from my limited knowledge:Most polyphonic synths use individual chips for the main building blocks such as voltage-controlled oscillators, filters, and amplifiers, such as https://www.cabintechglobal.com/as3350-smt. Those are simple analog circuits, but the specific designs that work for synths are not really useful for anything else, so they are a boutique and expensive (relative to complexity) chip. Using those: N chips per voice x 49 keys x 3 voices per key = 147*N expensive chips.
There are also some "whole synth on a chip" available like https://www.cabintechglobal.com/as3394-smt at ~$10 each. So best case is ~$1.5k in chips alone for the core of this synth. Some other support circuits are still needed. Then $$$ for big PCBs and a big, noise-free linear power supply.
But even if we could drive the electronics costs down, that doesn't affect the per-unit cost of front panel controls, keybed, or the wood cabinet. Nor the per-unit cost of manufacturing labor, packaging, logistics. Nor the per-project cost of R&D and manufacturing tooling. All of these scale with size and complexity.
So it's no different from other specialized goods - the price gap relative to the "good enough" baseline will always be more than the performance gap suggests because the specialized version inherently sells fewer #units and cannot activate the same economies of scale.
by blt
7/20/2026 at 6:41:20 AM
> entirely new capabilities are unlockedBut unfortunately, it will primarily be used by rich YouTube "creators" to recreate some old Jean-Michel Jarre tracks.
by steve1977
7/20/2026 at 7:12:17 AM
The 'current'? They sell out since Korg started this convoluted order "process", wbich isn't even one, since you hear conflicting things in different countries from the 'distributors".by curioussam
7/20/2026 at 5:34:52 AM
The price of a new Yamaha GX-1 in 1975 was around $60,000, or about $385,000 in today's money.by ssl-3
7/20/2026 at 7:23:32 AM
Yeah, you can enter the market of (physical) synthesizers for around £100, or for free via the myriad of online/digital ones.Things like this aren't for making music (anymore), but for collecting.
by Cthulhu_
7/20/2026 at 5:09:54 AM
> If the hardware price tag (over $17,000) is out of reach, Cherry Audio offers an exacting virtual analog emulation for just $49.:)
by Mistletoe
7/14/2026 at 2:39:08 PM
Title could really use the synth-model (as it is on the site).. how about: One of the rarest and most coveted synthesizers in history, PS-3300, is back (it's still click-baity.. but then it just be PS-3300 - A legend, reborn)by gnabgib
7/14/2026 at 4:09:44 PM
Good point. The full title was too long so I edited it down. Hopefully this is clearer.by Lio
7/20/2026 at 5:58:06 AM
Am I the only one who takes these “legends returns“ for a lack of innovation?Noticed that for a while in triple A gaming. I get it, companies are playing safe, but I don’t want to be sold the same thing over and once again..
Edit: typo
by alex_x
7/20/2026 at 6:20:23 AM
I think it's a bit different in this case. There are plenty of modern synthesisers, from Korg and othersThis is intended to be a faithful recreation of a classic synth, for collectors / rich enthusiasts
by Torn
7/21/2026 at 7:57:22 AM
> a lack of innovationThis is a recreation of a retro classic but in terms of new flagship hardware synthesizers there isn't much innovation because music synthesis because the gating factor is DSP and a well-configured modern laptop generally has more than enough power to generate just about any kind synthesized sound used in commercial musical performance. The innovation is happening in software plug-ins.
Synth hardware is generally for live performers or those who don't want to work with a MIDI keyboard connected to computer as their primary interface.
by mrandish
7/20/2026 at 6:35:49 AM
over the last few years there was a huge demand for analog synthesizers again after them being mostly replaced by digital synths since the mid 90s for 2.5 decades with users demanding from the traditional companies to re-issue the classicsthey are classics for a reason and subtractive synthesis is mostly "done", so it's more about bringing classic sound characters due to subtle differences in components / architecture back
by malthaus
7/20/2026 at 8:46:30 AM
I agree and even when they offer something new, they stick close to well established topologies generally just adding in more. I don't need 8 flavors of filter that I have to scroll through with a single button, just give me one or two good ones. Great that you are giving me four envelops but if they all trigger at the same time it is not that useful, provide some other way to trigger them or give us a trigger delay. Distortion after the filter? why? put it before so I can shape it, I can apply post filter distortion outside the box if I want it and there it can take advantage of the envelope's dynamics. But thanks for giving me a tincan reverb and a delay that can't be clocked by the LFOs or even synced.There are so many simple things they could do to greatly increase what these synths are capable of, but they don't.
Oh, and give me a way to wipe the memory or at least a bank of empty patches so I don't have to delete a preset every single time or make an empty patch to save over the presets or make a file of empty patches on the computer that I can copy over through midi.
I could go on, 30 years of hitting my head against the same walls. I am almost at the point of building my own synth and a bela and a pi-zero would make it pretty easy to do, but I haven't quite gotten irritated enough to do it, would rather spend that time making music.
by ofalkaed
7/20/2026 at 11:10:01 AM
There's been a lot of innovation in music tech with synths like the MicroFreak.Korg have made a series of original synths (and VSTs) that are nods to old tech with a lot of updated features.
The VST market in general is a bubbling mix of clonery and originality.
The reissues and clones are for people who want a specific vintage sound but can't afford the insane prices of vintage originals.
by TheOtherHobbes
7/20/2026 at 8:20:40 AM
> I don’t want to be sold the same thing over and once again.I don't want to be sold the same music, algorithmically recreated again and again to maximise profit while circumventing copyright law.
A lot of people like analogue music. I certainly do, and I wonder if Korg are anticipating a reaction to the slop.
by willtemperley
7/20/2026 at 6:20:18 AM
i am the other one.by uwagar
7/20/2026 at 7:10:37 AM
Maybe not. But you are clearly not the audience.by curioussam
7/20/2026 at 9:02:24 AM
It's for collectors. There's no musical value in a polyphonic analogue synthesizer.by otabdeveloper4
7/20/2026 at 12:24:57 PM
This is the oddest statement I've read in a while.How is there "no musical value in a polyphonic analogue synthesizer"?
There's a lot of unique music written using polyphonic analogue synths. Enough that people clearly like the sounds of subtractive synthesis. If they were only used just to playback tracks written in the 70s, 80s and 90s then they would still have value.
The growth of cheap analogue synths proves it's not just collectors that appreciated the user interface and the sound. There's a legion of people buying Bass Stations, Korgs, Moogs, Behrigners and Eurorack.
If Yamaha could reproduce a modern analogue GX-1 or CS-80 recreation I bet they would get snapped up too.
by Lio
7/20/2026 at 3:21:18 PM
Sorry, I can't make any sense of your comment."Polyphonic analogue synth" means several independent envelope generators and VCFs.
Doing this is pointless -- it increases your synth's costs by orders of magnitude and provides no musical benefit whatsoever except make it slightly easier for piano players with no synthesizer experience to play it.
> The growth of cheap analogue synths
Yes, but literally none of them are doing analogue polyphony. The entire idea is just massively stupid and makes no sense in the 21st century.
by otabdeveloper4
7/20/2026 at 7:18:15 PM
What is it that you don't understand?> Yes, but literally none of them are doing analogue polyphony.
That's simply not true.
Korg Minilogue, Mililogue XD, Prologue, Behringer Pro-800, Sequential Take 5, Prophet Rev2, Prophet-10, Arturia PolyBrute 12, Oberheim OB-X8, Moog One and many more.
Polyphonic analogue synths are popular and very useful actually.
by Lio
7/21/2026 at 12:00:29 PM
Most of these are either discontinued or some sort of paraphonic and/or hybrid-digital architecture. :)There's no point in trying to make an analogue synth that mimics the percussive nature of piano.
Synths are much closer to woodwinds.
by otabdeveloper4
7/21/2026 at 2:39:15 PM
> Most of these are either discontinued or some sort of paraphonic and/or hybrid-digital architecture.I can't tell if this is a serious reply or not.
A quick look at Thomman would show you that they are all analogue polysynths not paraphonic mono-synths.
I think the only model from my list in short supply is the Prologue but you could swap it for a Dreadbox Nymphes if you like.
The Minilogue xd is "hybrid" only in the sense that it has an additional 3rd digital oscillator per voice but that can be turned off. It's still a true 4 voice, 2 oscillator analogue polysynth. If that's not good enough then swap it for a Behringer UB-Xa.
There's no shortage of models to choose from.
There's so much amazing music made with analogue polysynths. I don't know why anyone would ignore the work of Vangelis for instance. If you think he uses his CS-80 polysynth as a bad piano I don't know what to tell you.
by Lio
7/20/2026 at 6:31:29 AM
Toys for rich kids with a lack of talent basically.by steve1977
7/20/2026 at 7:22:08 AM
I'd argue if they had a lack of talent they would prefer modern and digital alternatives - same/more/better sound and tools to churn out stuff with.by Cthulhu_
7/20/2026 at 7:27:45 AM
They don't need to churn out stuff. They just want to show off what they possess.by steve1977
7/20/2026 at 7:53:45 AM
You're exactly right. Let me support you by adding some examples:- Look Mum No Computer: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLluPQLh1xzlLcJd9CbAxE...
- Caught in Joy: https://www.youtube.com/@CaughtInJoy
They just show their stuff, and what they can do with these. No talent, just show. /s
by bayindirh
7/20/2026 at 2:10:49 PM
Look Mum No Computer is interesting.On one hand, he's a bad example, because - at least as far as I know - he builds most of the stuff himself. So he's not showing off expensive synths he bought, which makes this kind of a category error.
On the other hand, he's a great example, because in terms of his musical output, he's a quite bland epigone of artists like Howard Jones or Thomas Dolby of the 80s. And in the playlist you linked of Wendy Carlos.
Now the thing is, I love Howard Jones, Thomas Dolby and Wendy Carlos. But they exist already. I don't need a copy. That's exactly the point I was trying to make.
I don't need yet another YouTuber recreating Axel F. on his freshly bought Jupiter-8. I want new Axel Fs!
by steve1977
7/20/2026 at 2:36:44 PM
He's a great DIYer and explorer of sounds, so that part is true.However, he's not a sole YouTuber who imitates 80s music to put out videos. The videos are a mere side product.
He builds stuff, experiments and sets up museums[0], or even restores old cars[1]. When I first stumbled upon him, he was restoring old musical instruments in a warehouse and that place was a makeshift museum of sorts.
I believe he doesn't care if his musical output or taste doesn't meet someone's expectations, he's just being himself, and I like him being just that. Maybe he is not breaking new musical grounds, but he's thinking very outside the box while being a tonal copy of somebody else, and this is certainly something.
He would probably buy one of these, or clone it himself, just because he wants to, and this makes him the target audience of this squarely.
[0]: https://www.lookmumnocomputer.com/projects#/this-museum-is-n...
by bayindirh
7/20/2026 at 6:47:19 AM
If it's purchased as an idle showpiece toy, then sure talent is optional.There will be a few old school Brian Eno adjacent types who'll want one to make noise with ... and some talent will be requisite to avoid sounding like a bag of cats being poked with a stick.
by defrost
7/20/2026 at 7:43:23 AM
I, for one, specialize my sonic practice in immersive cat-yowl soundscapes…by alwa
7/20/2026 at 8:27:24 AM
What are things Ronald Erle Grainer demanded of Delia Derbyshire?by defrost