<HTML>Synthesizer pioneer nostalgic for pre-tech days By Adam Tanner   FRANKFURT (Reuters) - One of the pioneers of the modern synthesizer industry said Thursday he had doubts about the benefits of the technology revolution and said he did not even like the modern music the synthesizer has helped spawn. Tsutomu Katoh, 75, founded Korg Inc in 1963 and his company's products helped make synthesizers a central element in contemporary music, even to the extent that they often overshadowed the electric guitar in the 1980s and 1990s. Yet the chairman of the innovative company said in an interview he does not celebrate the synthesizer's omnipresence. "A man of my age really cannot enjoy the music today," Katoh told Reuters. "It's a matter of taste." "When I was young, soon after the war, American music flooded Japan, things like jazz and especially swing," he said. "But in those days older people thought such music was indecent or even stupid. This kind of reaction will always happen between the generations." Back then, Katoh developed a passion not only for jazz but for Argentine tango music. Part of the generation who inherited a country destroyed by war, Katoh was one of millions who rebuilt Japan and made it the world's second economic power after the United States. Even though he played a role in Japan's technological revolution, Katoh is ambivalent about the changes. "Our lives today would have been unimaginable to those living 45 years ago," he said, seated at the back of a bus at the Korg stand at Frankfurt's Musikmesse, the world's largest musical instruments show. "When I look at images of life in Afghanistan today I am reminded of those days soon after the war when there was nothing in Japan," he said. "But then I wonder is life really all that better than it was in those days. People might even have been happier in those years right after the war." "People had such high hopes for the future back then. Not all of those hopes have been achieved." BUSINESS BOOMING Katoh, a nightclub owner at the the time, formed Korg with a well-known Japanese accordeon player in 1963, first issuing a rhythm machine called the Donca-Matic. Korg started developing keyboards and synthesizers several years later. In 1988, the company introduced the M1, which was a huge success with its realistic sampled sounds of many different instruments such as the piano, guitar, flute and drums. It included an ability to record a mix of those different sounds, making it easy to record complex compositions at home. Business is still going well with the latest generation of synthesizers, and Katoh, whose family owns 40 percent of Korg, said worldwide sales grew five percent in fiscal 2001 ending March 31 to about 14 billion Japanese yen ($108 million). Proud though he is of the company's achievements, Katoh feels it is all a bit like one of the frenetic rhythm patterns on one of his synthesizers. "I know my views are inconsistent, ambivalent," Katoh said. "The whole world is going too fast, we feel too pressed, and everybody feels tired from this." </HTML>