Korg DW8000 - A Classic 1985 Hybrid Digital+Analog Synth - Demo and Review

A demo and review of the Korg DW8000, a hybrid polysynth from 1987. It combines sampled-wave DCOs with analog filters and unique six-stage envelopes for a stunningly capable and versatile keyboard synth that remains highly usable today. Its somewhat clunky interface is improved a great deal by the addition of a Stereoping controller. In this video I share some of my favorite patches and features as well as my thoughts on how this synth compares to the others today.

[@WheezerTheGeezer]

My wife and I bought a DW8000 to use in our church choir back in 1985. I do not recall the exact price we paid.... might have been around $400. We quit the choir about 18 years ago. I left it in the church for a while for other choir members to use. Kind of a mistake. When I dropped by the church to retrieve it I noticed the joystick was missing!! So I packed it up into it's snazzy soft case and schelpped it back home where it sat in our basement until Sept. 2020. I found it during a pack-up session preparing for a move. I dug it out of the case and fired it up.... IT'S ALIVE!!! I couldn't believe it! So I popped the bottom off to see if I could find the joystick. Luckily it was there in the guts. It was easy to put it back in place once I figured out how to do it. Fired it up again and tested the osc/wave bender stick... worked just like day one! Was considering putting it on eBay or Craigslist and was shocked to see these units offered for between $600 and $900!!!! I began rubbing my hands together and then.... I saw this video while doing other research. I think this old dear is gonna be a keeper. I'll be packing it into our moving truck. It''l have a new home with us.

[@pennywiser9607]

Not only does it make amazing sounds, it's one of the greatest looking boards of all time

[@hurricane6014]

I bought this brand new in 85 and then a year later added the D-50 as these became my go to synths and work horse for pop cover bands the next 10 years. New, it was around $1300 and the Roland, around $1500. Boy, the memories. Thanks

[@crolodon8024]

Fantastic synth, I actually own two! The filter is a totally customer Korg design, one of my favorite sounding filters ever and you're right, you can identify it a mile away! You are letting the cat out of the bag here about how great it is, Espen already made such a great video with it that I know the price will be rising.

[@anoniconoclast2030]

I have two as well but I think it's a bit to much to call it a classic. It is though a very good layering synth because of its flat 2d sound. Resonance is super wet and the slider plus edit buttons are handy. I would call its tone "translucent plastic."

[@mindphaser23]

Oh, man...17:26. I can almost come back here everyday to get a dose of that lushness.

[@jokubrik6597]

OMG!! I`ve been trying to find an old sound I used in `92 on some tracks. Couldn`t recall which of my old synths made it. Low and behold, you play that sound at 14:57! Thank you sooo much! Now searching for another DW8000 to get back to my old groove again :) Great video!

[@haonyoass9556]

Great video! I’m new to synths and found this one in my dad’s stuff. Didn’t know what I was doing with it but this video helped me understand!

[@timbmusician]

This was my first "real" synth back in 1986. Now filed under "Gear I Should Have Never Gotten Rid Of."

[@Bernd_Bruening]

Great video. I had a few DW8000 and sold them. Your video made me getting another one again.

[@toitoitoy]

Very pleasing review to watch, good job

[@resynthesizer4565]

Just bought my first one yesterday. Total pad machine. Beautiful instrument.

[@LousyFacelift]

What a great demo! The filter in the DW-8000 sounds phenomenally beautiful! For those with not much studio space there's also the rack version EX-8000. Something tells me we'll see a similar renaissance for the Poly 61 (M) with its raw analogue sound - tons of character there as well...

[@AwakeFM]

Great video on a wonderful machine my man - I love my DW-8000! Mine has the Angel City Turbo expansion board, which adds a S&H LFO shape among a bunch of other cool stuff. I've seen another mod for this synth where someone had a whole slew of new oscillator waveforms loaded and you could select them with a knob - looked wild but it was very custom.

[@californiamusic]

Many great gigs with the 8000 in the 80's - thx for the vid!

[@jeffevansmusic]

Espen Kraft has released two really excellent banks for this. Available through PatchBay UK I think. Please get these, you will not be disappointed. This is a rare instrument. I describe it in two ways. Its the most complex analog synth you will hear for while or the warmest fatest digital synth you will also hear. It has a very unique sonic signature.

[@helixir4562]

great synth, great vid !

[@madness8556]

In many ways, it could be argued that the Korg DW8000 was actually the first rompler with built in digital effects thanks to those 16 DWGS waveforms and the built in digital delay that also allows for chorusing, flanging and stereo doubling.

[@juno6]

Great video, great synth! I don´t own one, but I own a DSS1 which is like the big brother. Same filter, similar digital oscillators, same delay, etc.

[@Geopholus]

Thanks for the great video. I have one at arms length away , and haven't used it in 20 years! Why ? I have no idea, it still resides in a pleasant place in my memory. Back in the day, I wrote perhaps 500 patches for it, carefully stored on cassette tape. It is hard to write a bad sounding patch, and the versatility allows one to come up with pretty good imitations of most sounds, instruments.

[@chrismitchell3283]

Korg did a bit of a Juno 6/60 move on this model. No sooner that many people had purchased the DW6000, the DW8000 was released. We didn't have the luxury of the Internet rumor mill or 'teased' photos in those days...music retailers would definitely not tell us a thing. Anyway, a great improvement over the 6000 and kept it until the DSS-1 came along. Gotta love those dual DDL's.

[@thegooddoctor6719]

I had one - Loved it. The big problem with mine was the numeric buttons had a hard time registering if you pressed it or not. Sometimes the digit would show up or a double register would occur. But loved the keyboard and loved the variety of sounds it created.

[@VultureCulture]

Really great demo! This synth seems a lot less intimidating now

[@thecluff]

🙂 super fun synth!

[@funkmachine6420]

I had one of these about 10 years ago. Never should have sold it

[@pagodatemple2762]

Thank you for such an informative vid on DW8000! I would like to know more about your control and how you set it up. Or even recommend other note worthy controllers. Much appreciated!

[@extralifedisco]

Thanks! I'm using the Stereoping synth controller, edition "8000" but the hardware is the same for all of them. It was about 250 euro as a kit, more expensive in the US assembled, but they come up used on ebay/reverb occasionally. There's also the DW-8P which looks absurdly large, but would be ok for a big studio setup. There's also the ctrlr vst, which has panels for lots of retro synths, which lets you program it like any softsynth then keep the presets in hardware.

[@felipesundaephil5062]

Synt complet!!! Digital delays incrível! !

[@francoisbasquin6974]

I've got my DW8000 quite recently at a very decent price. I initialy wanted to replace my Poly61M with more voices and a better MIDI implementation, but they actually sound very different so I kept both: DW8000 is more lushy, Poly61M more punchy (simpler waveforms). They work very well together. I add my good old DX7 on top for more crazyness.

[@racalik]

how much did you pay for DW8000 if I may ask? :)

[@francoisbasquin6974]

@@racalik 325 Canadian Dollars

[@racalik]

@@francoisbasquin6974 thanks for the reply, very good price indeed. I cant find any options for lower than 700 US$ now, which is already rather ridiculous

[@madness8556]

I bought a DW8000 in 1997 for AUD$400 and sold it a few years later for almost twice the price as it was being under utilised at the time and I needed the money. I regret selling it, along with my 18 voice Korg Z1. Korg did include most of the DWGS waveforms in the M1 and T series but they lack the awesome DW8000 filter with resonance. I know that Korg has released the Modwave both in hardware and software but I'd love them to release a dedicated software version of the DW8000 along with 01W and Trinity plug ins.

[@SoundsofDecay]

Sounds fantastic, I'd rather have one of these than a DX7 I think.

[@helixir4562]

i was wondering, do you think it's a good alternative to a DX7 ?

[@SoundsofDecay]

@@helixir4562 it depends as they are quite different from eachother fundamentally...this uses digitally sampled waves through an analog filter vs. DX7's pure digital FM synthesis, I prefer the sound of the Korg personally.

[@marcump]

get a "Strymon Big Sky" and run your DX7 through it.. you will be most pleasantly surprised. The DX doesn't have an onboard digital delay effect as the DW, but the DX is a great classic.. most musicians always used outboard effects for their DX7

[@cpen_music]

THANKS MAN !

[@darrenmiffitt6353]

Everybody’s gonna kill me here, but I’m still using my DW-8000 as a MIDI controller into the Mac. Haven’t heard the actual sounds that it makes in years.

[@user-sq5xv6dr1v]

darren miffitt Ok. You are pardoned this time.

[@cammellsound5400]

Just look after it.

[@JohanBakkeMusik]

No, don't sell any hardware if you not need money fast! I owned many synths, guitars, amps, effects and other studio gear through the years. Sold it to make room or I thought I never would use it again, today I regret it in almost all cases. So my advice to everyone who thinks about selling music gear, if you're not in desperate need of money, don't do it. I can guarantee there will be one day when you have room for the gear or find it useful again.

[@txdap786]

Very nice synth... enjoyed the format

[@choicetaco44]

I TOTALLY AGREE IM A PACK 🐀

[@brmoniz250]

I'm selling a Korg DW 8000.

[@prema9878]

Jake man that’s sadder than the mellotron cello tapes

[@warpigs330]

I havent regretted selling anything yet, but I have really only sold stuff I don't get along with.

[@stupidquestion01]

Loved the demo and the patches! Care to share? I'd even buy them

[@PeachBeach]

Falling......in love.....ahh!

[@Rr0gu3_5uture]

Man, I missed out on a DW-8000 in the mid-90s. There was one going in my local classifieds for £40.

[@machiwoomiapoo]

Sweet!

[@SoundPeer]

15:46 is amazing

[@cammellsound5400]

Sweet high end on this thing. It sounds 'hi-fi'. Maybe it's just got a really good output stage.

[@robotussin_synths]

Good to see Macaulay Culkin back in action.

[@marcump]

Is this one of the original factory banks A: or B:? Or is this a bank available on Bobby Blues website.. or did you tweak or create new ones?

[@ToXball]

great video. One question: are the reverb/chorus//delays from the DW8000?

[@ToXball]

@@holygeneration7 thanks for your reply ;)

[@jeffevansmusic]

Can you tell us what the banks are and where they came from.

[@extralifedisco]

I'm pretty sure I loaded the presets in via tape input, so it's probably factory side A from bryan ressler's website, but of course a few patches are heavily modified. www.pallium.com/bryan/dw8000.php#TapeDumps

[@damion2226]

Can you use the Controller while you're recording with midi into a daw? Thanks. Great video

[@extralifedisco]

Yes it's good for adjusting multiple parameters on the fly. Ctrlr might be a good solution for automating it. However I think some control changes are on sysex and IIRC if you adjust it really quickly you can you can cause some input lag, just a limitation of the hardware really

[@damion2226]

@@extralifedisco Oh ok. So using the Ctrlr midi input to connect won't get in the way of the midi going into the DAW? Thanks for the response.

[@extralifedisco]

@@damion2226 Ah yes I should've said, the Stereoping controller has a midi input for patching note data thru to the synth. (And of course the dw8000 has a midi output to send data to the DAW), so you can still talk 2 ways to it. Also "Ctrlr" is the name of a totally separate vst plugin which can do the DW8000 sysex control over midi as well.

[@damion2226]

@@extralifedisco Oh cool. My synthesis knowledge is limited so still learning all of this. I really appreciate the info!!

[@mikestubbs5242]

what are the four white dot-stickers for?

[@extralifedisco]

Velcro dots to hold the stereo ping midi controller in place!

[@brianschiller4053]

Nice programmer! I have been using a bcr2000 but it’s footprint is bigger than I like. The buttons on my dw8000 are dodgy so I need to use the programmer. I like the joystick better than separate mod/pitch wheels. The matrix on the dw8000 is easy enough to navigate that not having a programmer isn’t that big of a deal.

[@rockybalboa2526]

Hey, I just found your video here, watched it, now i wanted to ask you if you might live in or around the NYC area? if so? i wanted to talk more with you about possibly playing 3 albums of original 80s dance/rock music. And tell you about the opportunities im offering. Let me know. Thank you..

[@extralifedisco]

Hey, I'm in California as it happens. 3 albums sounds like a lot of music! I'm not really a session player but good luck with the project.

[@rockybalboa2526]

@@extralifedisco Hi, thank you for getting back to me so quickly. I have been looking around california for places to relocate to, but the state political situation concerns me! : / Im not looking for a " sessions" player! Im looking for someone to record one album at a time, and then tour and perform locally for a few months, the go back and record the 2nd album, and do it again, then repeat for the last album.. And if by then we have developed a friendship and you are really into the sounds im into also? Then we can go forward working together on original music. As a band... Are you planning to stay in california?

[@extralifedisco]

@@rockybalboa2526 Sorry, doesn't sound like the gig for me, I'm more of solo artist. Best of luck!

[@rockybalboa2526]

@@extralifedisco solo artists need other musicians to create a band, that could go on to make great music together. This why we have no bands and no great music anymore. too many solo artists...

[@camillalosi2803]

can you change patch numbers with the stereoping?

[@extralifedisco]

No, not that I am aware. You may be able to send program change messages in through it though

[@camillalosi2803]

in which section of the manual you can find how to do it pls @@extralifedisco

[@extralifedisco]

You would need to hook up an external midi controller like ableton and experiment with sending program changes. I don't think there's any manual for that function

[@KinseyDulcet333]

Yay Siriusmo!

[@Birchblaze]

Are these the original factory patches?

[@extralifedisco]

I think some of them are, although they might be the MEX patches. I remember uploading a factory bank via tape input at one point, but I may have uploaded another bank via sysex later and I definitely edited a lot of patches. I think I got the files here: www.dw8000.com/downloads.html

[@Birchblaze]

@@extralifedisco Yeah, I just finished bringing an 8k back to life...internal battery mod and key contact cleaning. I loaded the factory patches via the pallium.com site, but they sound different than a number of YT videos demoing the "factory patches." I was a bit confused, the Bank A patches can't be loaded along with the Bank B, correct? Seems like an either/or.

[@extralifedisco]

@@Birchblaze Yes, I believe you can only have one bank of 64 patches, and the whole bank must be installed at once.

[@DenverVideoProduction]

I sold one of these at a garage sale for $20. Regret after regret...

[@Intramental]

14:24 - Irréversible Gaspar Noé vibes

[@extralifedisco]

Lol didn't thomas bangalter do that soundtrack? I was thinking more the klaxon from the self-destruct sequence in Alien

[@Intramental]

@@extralifedisco Yes he did!

[@AceHardy]

📝

[@wjdavey3]

❤️🎵🎶🎹🎵🎶👍🎵🎶🙏☘️❤️😎

[@styleguide01]

Want to downsize you say? Buy the microkorg, it has all the waves of the dw8000 build in. You'll have to settle with 4 voices unfortunately ;-)

[@kiko1935]

Also doesn't have the analog filter

[@MicaiahLaCross777]

9:17 Superstition