From bardian@usadatanet.net Sun Nov 06 10:30:54 2005
Subject:Re: Kinda OT: Company name origins

My first synthesizer was a Mini Korg. The name on it was Unicord, and it
had a label on it that said Keio Electronics. So, it like had 3 brand names
on it. Weird but fun little synth...

----- Original Message -----
> Quite a while back (a couple of years?) I remember a discussion about the
> origins of some of the different gear manufacturer's
> names, and I seem to remember that Bruce (Wahler) opined that KORG should
> be all caps because he figured that it was an anagram (he
> was close). It sounded good to me and I didn't give it another thought
> (allthough I was often lazy about not writing Korg in all
> uppercase), but I don't remember what was finally decided by the end of
> the discussion. Then I ran across this article the other
> day.
>
> http://www.rane.com/pronames.html
>
> (a highlight)
> KORG Keio + Organ Founder Mr. Tsutomu Katoh, along with Mr. Tadashi
> Osanai, started Keio Electronic Laboratories in 1962 named
> after the nearby railroad line. They liked the name because Keio
> (pronounced kay-oh) also represented the first initials of their
> names. Years later when they decided to manufacture organs designed by
> Fumio Mieda, the name was changed to Korg, a derivative of
> Keio Organ.
>
> (another highlight I found interesting)
> ROLAND Picked out of the phone book by founder Mr. Ikutaro Kakehashi in
> 1972, becasuse it satisfied his criteria for a name that
> was neutral sounding, not Japanese, American, or too exotic, and he liked
> the sound.
>
> Most of the name origins are anagrams of technical words or the founder's
> names, but a couple that stood out for me were 'Ampeg',
> 'EV', and 'Motorola'. Also interesting to note that Mr. Torakusu Yamaha's
> first product was a reed organ built in 1887 - especially
> given our recent discussion of why Yamaha doesn't have a dedicated Hammond
> Clone.
> I would also like to point out that this is the first time I have ever
> seen my friend Bruce be wrong about anything (and even then
> he may have corrected his original stance later on and I just didn't catch
> it). Bruce is my 'go to' default for when I really need
> an accurate answer, so I'm just having fun finally getting to 'learn him a
> thing or two'. ;-)
> Finally, if you got a little surfing time to kill, take a minute to look
> over all the great audio and technical information that the
> Rane people have put up on their website. Search around the 'Support' and
> 'Reference' areas and I'll bet you find something that
> could help you down the road.
>
> Ed Fliege
> k2mojo@groovedaddies.com
>
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