Jack Hotop: MIDI Patch Boy

Athan Billias

This one hits pretty close to home. Last night my wife Keiko let me know that she had read on Facebook that Jack Hotop had passed away.

Jack was the senior voicing manager for Korg USA and we work together on many projects including the MI, the T-Series, the 01W and many more. He was a friend and a colleague and he will be much missed.

For many musicians, the name Jack Hotop may not be as instantly recognizable as the names printed on the front panels of the instruments he helped create. But for anyone who has played, programmed, recorded, or performed with KORG synthesizers and workstations over the past four decades, there is a very good chance they have heard Jack Hotop’s work.

Hotop was one of the key sound designers, programmers, demonstrators, and musical voices behind generations of KORG instruments. His work is closely associated with landmark products including the KORG M1, Wavestation, 01/W, Trinity, Triton, KARMA, OASYS, M3, M50, KRONOS, and many others. KORG USA has described him as a sound designer and synth programmer for more than 100 KORG products, including the M1, Wavestation, Triton, and KRONOS.

In this article I’m going to try and capture just a little bit of who Jack Hotop was as a person, a musician. a sound designer and a friend.

Jack Hotop Sr

Jack’s father Jack Hotop Sr. was a professional guitarist, big band musician, and respected educator. Active in the New York area during the mid-20th century, he performed at CBS Studios with legends like Tony Bennett, and played in notable groups such as the Joe Mooney Quartet and the Jazz Tree.

A smiling man and an older woman in a straw hat and pink jacket sit close together outdoors, posing for a cheerful selfie.

His mother didn’t play music, but many in her mother’s family did including several uncles who taught Jack piano.

A Musician First

One of the most important things to understand about Jack Hotop is that he approached technology as a musician. His background was not limited to engineering or programming. He began piano lessons as a child and was performing in bands by his teenage years. He later studied arranging and composition at Berklee College of Music and continued to explore electronic music through the Boston School of Electronic Music, where he encountered early synthesizers such as the ARP Odyssey, ARP 2600, ARP 2500, and EMS Synthi.

That combination of formal musical training, live performance experience, and deep interest in synthesis became central to his work. Hotop was not simply creating sounds that showed off a specification sheet. He was creating sounds that musicians could use immediately: sounds that responded well under the fingers, sat well in arrangements, worked on stage, and inspired new musical ideas.

Before his long association with KORG, Hotop also worked as a touring and performing musician. His credits included performances with artists and groups such as The Drifters, Gloria Gaynor, Silver Convention, John Entwistle, Leslie West, and Robin Zander. That experience gave him a practical understanding of what keyboard players needed from an instrument in real musical situations.

Jack and John

A musician stands on stage playing a bass guitar and singing into a microphone, with drums and other instruments visible in the background under stage lighting.

Jack was very close to John Entwistle from The WHO. One of my favorite Jack stories sheds light on how sensitive Jack was to other people’s feelings. John was six feet tall and by the 1990s really pretty deaf. At an incredibly loud NAMM show at the Korg booth, Jack saw John coming up to us. He leaned over and said to me ” When John comes up just nod and smile at whatever he says”. John came up and spoke, but I didn’t hear a single word he said. John was very self conscious about speaking too loudly so even at a crowded NAMM show, he spoke in what was almost a whisper.

This to me was classic Jack. He protected me by letting me know what to do and he protected his friend John from being embarrassed.

From Reprogramming a PolySix to a Career at KORG

Hotop’s path into KORG began in a way that will feel familiar to many passionate synthesizer users: he started by pushing an instrument beyond its factory sounds. After reprogramming a KORG PolySix, he contacted the company and spoke with an engineer (probably Charlie Bright) for several hours. That conversation led to an invitation to demonstrate what he had done, and shortly afterward KORG USA, then known as Unicord, offered him a job.

It is a perfect example of how the synthesizer industry has often grown: through the meeting of musicians, inventors, engineers, and sound designers who were excited by what was possible and willing to explore beyond the obvious. Hotop’s work at KORG placed him at the center of one of the most important periods in the history of electronic musical instruments.

The KORG M1 MIDI Workstation

For the MIDI community, Jack Hotop’s work is especially significant because of his connection to the KORG M1. NAMM’s Oral History program describes Hotop as one of the innovative KORG sound designers involved in creating the KORG M1, widely recognized as the first MIDI music workstation.

Introduced in 1988, the M1 combined sampled sounds, synthesis, onboard effects, sequencing, keyboard performance controls, and MIDI connectivity in a single integrated instrument. That combination changed the expectations musicians had for a synthesizer. Instead of thinking of a keyboard as only a sound module or only a performance instrument, the M1 helped establish the idea of the workstation: a complete music creation environment that could be used for composing, arranging, recording, and live performance.

The M1 became one of the most successful synthesizers in history and helped define the sound of late 1980s and 1990s pop, dance, house, film, television, and production music. But its importance was not just commercial. It demonstrated how MIDI could connect an instrument into a larger creative workflow while also allowing the instrument itself to serve as a self-contained production tool.

I first met Jack in 1986 at the core USA offices on Long Island I had been helping an engineering friend of mine by doing Tape Op and Keyboard Tech for the band Till Tuesday with Amy Mann. I had been out on the road for about 5 weeks and we ended by playing at the China Club in Manhattan. We finished at 2:00 a.m. and the next day I headed out to the Korg offices.

The Korg USA team at that time was really small. The only people in the office full time were Jack, Randy Whitney (who handled effects and drum machines) and Charlie Bright who was an engineer and the designated rep for the brand new MIDI Manufacturers Association.

I went through an all-day interview process meeting VP Kim Holland the VP for Marshall Mitch Colby and Senior VP Mike Kovins.

But most of the time I spent with Jack and we quickly developed a friendship that has lasted many decades.

The MIDI Patch Boys

You can read about how I ended up in Japan in a MIDI.org article about Seiki Katoh who passed away on February 21, 2025.

The first meeting of the Korg International Voicing team which became known as the MIDI Patch Boys was at the Tsumagoi resort owned by Yamaha.

A group of about 27 men in formal and business attire pose together indoors, arranged in four rows, with some seated in front and others standing behind them. The background features a pale, patterned wall.

A group of seven people sit and stand around tables in a classroom. One person stands at a whiteboard with diagrams and notes, while others are seated, talking or laughing, with papers and folders on the tables.

Our MIDI Patch Boy meetings were intense, but also fun.

Here Steve McNally is goofing around and describing a fictitious product he called the Patch Dog 1000.

On the way home to England, Rob Castle, director of Korg UK christened us”The MIDI Patch Boys” and we have been calling ourselves that ever since.

Introducing The MIDI Patch Boys

Jack Hotop with long hair, wearing a beige shirt and jeans, sits on a stool beside several stacked electronic keyboards and a piano in a dimly lit room with closed blinds.

Jack Hotop (USA)

Contribution: Hotop was the foundational American voice of Korg. Heavily influenced by progressive rock, he specialized in creating aggressive synth leads, lush rock organs, and performance-ready keyboard splits. He ensured Korg’s workstations felt natural and expressive for live touring musicians.

Role: Lead US Product Specialist and Voicing Coordinator.

A smiling man with glasses takes a selfie outside the Anaheim Convention Center, with palm trees and a large blue The NAMM Show sign visible in the background.

John “Skippy” Lehmkuhl (USA):

Contribution: Focused on rhythm, groove-based patches, and dance elements for the Wavestation and subsequent M-and-T series keyboard

A musician with a long beard plays a red keytar on stage, surrounded by dramatic orange smoke and backlit by stage lights, with a shadowy figure visible in the background.

Jordan Rudess (USA):

While he is famous today as the virtuosic keyboardist for Dream Theater, he spent his early career as a core Korg Product Specialist and Sound Designer. He worked directly in the Westbury, New York offices in the late 1980s and early 1990s alongside Jack Hotop.

A man with glasses, a black baseball cap worn backwards, and a short beard is smiling and looking to the side. He is wearing a dark shirt.

Peter Schwartz (USA):

Contribution: Brought high-end New York session player expertise, specializing in clean, commercial pop patches.

Role: Pop Workstation and Multi-Instrument Programmer.

Peter also helped to write the MIDI 2.0 Orchestral Articulation Profile

A middle-aged man with wavy light brown hair, short beard, and mustache poses against a blue background. He is wearing a patterned shirt and gently touching his face with one hand, displaying a gold ring.

Ben Dowling (USA)

Contribution: An accomplished jazz pianist and keyboardist, Dowling brought deep musicality to the programming team.

Role: Acoustic Simulation and Jazz/Fusion Specialist.

A smiling older man with glasses and a beard leans close to the keys of a synthesizer keyboard, with his face partially framed by the instrument.

Michele Paciulli (Italy)

Contribution: Representing the Italian market, Paciulli focused on theatrical, expansive, and avant-garde sounds. He was highly skilled at blending digital waveforms with onboard multi-effects processors to create the massive, sweeping pad sounds and atmospheric textures.

Role: Expert in short looping. He also created the M1’s internal demo sequence

Micheal Geisel with shoulder-length gray hair, a beard, and light-colored glasses smiles at the camera in a warmly lit indoor setting. Another person is partially visible beside him.

Michael Geisel (Germany)

Passed Away in 2019

Contribution: Geisel catered to the booming German electronic music scene. He crafted punchy drums, industrial metallic hits, and sharp basslines ideal for European club music.

Role: Electronic, Techno, and Industrial Sound Programmer.

A smiling man with glasses and a beard stands in front of a Korg synthesizer, wearing a black Korg shirt. The background includes handwritten text on a whiteboard and close-up details of the synthesizer.

Steve McNally (Canada)

Contribution: McNally focused heavily on multi-timbral setups—known as “Combinations” on Korg keyboards. His job was to program complex layers where a single musician could play a realistic horn section, string section, or full backing band across split sections of the keyboard.

Role: Pop Workstation and Multi-Instrument Programmer.

Photo Courtesy of Sound On Sound

Sound Design brings a hunk of metal to life

When we started working on the 01W, I sent the programmers an email about what our role as sound designer’s was.

When we first get a prototype, it is just a soulless hunk of electronic gear. It’s got a screen, buttons, knobs and a microprocessor. But it has no soul. It’s the sound designers who bring that piece of metal to life by infusing it with sounds and changing it from a lifeless prototype into a living musical instrument.

A workstation must feel musical from the moment a player turns it on. The presets, combinations, splits, layers, effects, and performance assignments must invite creativity.

The MIDI Patch Boys’ sound design made that possible.

MIDI Patch Boys Expanded

Over the years the MIDI Patch Boys needed to expand as the M1 was so successful and there was a growing demand for more sample cards and voices (programs and combis).

With the 01W, we added Stephen Kay to the international team.

A man with short, light brown hair and a trimmed goatee is smiling. He is wearing a black leather jacket over a black T-shirt with colorful designs and the word KARMA repeated. The background is plain black.

Stephen Kay– (USA)

Contribution: Stephen joined the team for the 01W and brought with him a huge sample library he developed for the Fairlight. He later added Karma technology to Korg’s sonic arsenal.

Role: Programmer, Sample Library developer and Inventor of Karma – Kay Algorithmic Realtime Music Architecture

A group of eight people posing and smiling in a cluttered office filled with computers, monitors, and technical equipment. The workspace has cables, paperwork, and various electronic devices visible. — Seated: Seki-san, John Lehmkuhl, Suzuki-san, Jack Hotop, Michele Paciulli , Athan Billias. Standing: Stephen Kay, Steve McNally

Then Korg acquired the team that had been a part of the Dave Smith Division of Yamaha (read the full story here- Karl Hirano, Dave Smith and Korg ).

That brought a whole new group of people including John Bowen, The father of factory presets.

A middle-aged man with glasses and short hair is smiling at the camera. He is wearing a dark shirt and a black leather jacket, with an out-of-focus background behind him.

John Bowen– (USA)

Contribution: The glue that connected Bob Moog and Dave Smith, the father of Factory presets, the voicing leader for the Wavestation and most of the other synths from Korg R&D.

Role: In charge of Voicing for Sequential Circuits and then Korg R&B in San Jose.

We added people like Phill McDonald, Eric Hailstone, Drew Schlesinger and Geoff Stradling to the international Korg voicing team.

I finally left Korg and returned to the US in 1994 and worked with a company called Invision that did the re-voicing of the Alesis QS6 with Marcus Ryle, Erik Norlander, and Taiho Yamada.

Jerry Kovarsky joined the Korg USA team in 1996 and you can see the same kind of MIDI Patch Boy camaraderie just naturally continued on.

A man with short gray hair, glasses, and a patterned shirt smiles in front of a dark blue curtain. NAMM Oral History Program text is in the lower left corner.

Jerry Kovarsky– (USA)

Contribution: Worked closely with Korg Inc. to shape, position, and market technology products for the U.S. and global markets, contributing to product specification, voicing, demos, naming, sales strategy, and marketing for major instruments and product lines including Triton, OASYS, M3, SV-1, KAOSS Pads, Electribes, Legacy soft-synths, digital pianos, arrangers, and recording products.

Role: Korg USA Technology Senior Product Manager

A group of nine men, some smiling and some with neutral expressions, stand together indoors in a casual setting. Most have long hair, and they are dressed in casual shirts. The background shows a blue wall and some posters. — Stephen Kay, Jerry Kovarsky, Keith Emerson, Imaizumi-san, Jack Hotop, Clive Smith, Watanabe-san and Michele Paciulli at the Japan voicing session for the Korg Karma.

A group of eight people, seven standing and one sitting on a step, pose and smile outside a building with barred windows and wooden beams in a casual, sepia-toned photo. — The woman on the far right is Itoh-san who was an important part of the Korg sound design team and is now on the board of directors of Korg Japan.

A group of ten people pose together in a recording studio, some smiling and some making playful gestures. There are posters, a desk with a computer, and soundproof walls in the background.

Here is a gallery of pictures of the MIDI Patch Boys.

Five people sit at a table in a restaurant, laughing and making silly faces. The table is set with plates, glasses, and bottles. The background features wooden paneling. The mood appears lively and cheerful. — PCM Pirates -AARGGGH, Jack Hotop, Ben Dowling, Michele Pacuilli, Athan Billias and Peter Schwartz at Tsuzume No Yado (The Sparrow’s Inn, our local Shimotakaido Izakaya).

Three men indoors, smiling at the camera; one wears glasses and headphones, another sits at a keyboard, and the third is in the background, all appearing relaxed and happy in a casual setting. — Athan Billias, Jack Hotop and Peter Schwartz

A group of nine adults sit together in a cozy living room, smiling and talking. There are plants on the windowsill behind them and drinks on the table. One person at the back waves at the camera. — Front row: John Lehmkuhl, Jack Hotop, Michael Geisel, Kosaka-san Back Row: Michele Paciulli , Michael’s wife, Steve McNally, Athan Billias, Stephen Kay

Three people sit together indoors, smiling for the camera. The woman in the center wears a pink kimono with a red obi, while the two men on either side wear casual shirts. Dishes and cups are visible on the table in front of them. — Jordan and Jack

Three musicians play keyboards on a stage in front of an audience. The room has modern lighting, sound equipment, and a neutral-colored ceiling and walls. The audience is seated, watching the performance. — John Lehmkuhl, Jack Hotop, Jordan Rudess demo the 01W

Rio Takahashi and Jack Hotop from Korg stand on the Great Wall of China. One wears sunglasses and a striped polo shirt; the other wears a black shirt and smiles. The wall curves along a green hillside under a sunny sky, with other visitors in the background. — Rio Takahashi (International Sales Manager for Korg and great friend of the MIDI Patch Boys) and Jack Hotop at the Great Wall of China

A group of eight smiling adults pose together in a recording studio, some standing and some sitting around a keyboard, with sound equipment and a wall clock visible in the background. — The MIDI Patch Boys with Chairman Kato . Standing: Michele Paciulli, Michael Geisel, Chairman Katoh. John Lehmkuhl , Steve McNally, Jack Hotop. Seated: Andre Lubman, Shungo Fujiwara

Four men stand together indoors, smiling at the camera. They are at an event or convention, wearing name badges, with SHURE signage visible in the background. — Jack Hotop, John Lehmkuhl, Ben Dowling and Jordan Rudess

Three smiling men stand close together for a selfie, with two wearing glasses and collared shirts and the man in the center with blond hair. They are indoors in front of a black divider. — Athan Billias, Ben Dowling and Jack at a recent NAMM show

Designing Sounds That Musicians Could Use

One of the recurring themes in Hotop’s career is the idea that sound design is a musical craft. A great patch is not just a technical demonstration. It is a playable instrument. It has dynamics, range, character, and purpose. It gives a player a reason to write a song, build an arrangement, or explore a new performance idea.

This is why sound designers like Jack Hotop were so important to the development of MIDI instruments. MIDI allowed instruments, sequencers, drum machines, computers, and later digital audio workstations to communicate. But the emotional connection still came from the sounds and how they responded to performance. Velocity, aftertouch, modulation, pedals, pitch bend, layers, zones, and controller assignments all became part of the musical experience.

Hotop understood that the technical features of an instrument had to be translated into something playable. A layered pad needed to evolve in a musically useful way. A piano or electric piano sound needed to respond naturally to touch. A lead sound needed expression. A combination sound needed to fill a role in an arrangement.

This musician-centered approach helped make KORG instruments useful not only for keyboard specialists, but also for composers, producers, arrangers, educators, and performers across many genres.

Jack and Stevie Wonder stand behind an OASYS keyboard; the man on the left wears sunglasses and a patterned shirt, playing the keyboard, while the man on the right, in a black shirt, looks on and smiles. — Stevie Wonder and Jack

George Duke, Jack, Jerry Kovarsky and Herbie Hancock stand together smiling in a dimly lit bar or lounge, dressed in casual jackets. Shelves with bottles and hanging lights are visible in the background. — George Duke, Jack, Jerry Kovarsky and Herbie Hancock

Jack and Keith Emerson keyboard Tech will Alexander pose together at an event, one wearing a black Korg shirt and the other in a blue sweater with glasses and a badge. Korg-branded gear is displayed in the background. — Jack and Will Alexander, Keyboard Tech to the stars.

Keith Emerson and Jack people are standing together indoors, smiling at the camera. The person on the left has long hair and wears a tan vest over a black shirt. The person on the right also has long hair and wears a white shirt with a black vest. — Keith Emerson and Jack Hotop

Beyond the M1: Wavestation, Triton, OASYS, KRONOS, and More

Although the M1 is one of the clearest landmarks in Hotop’s story, his influence extended far beyond one product. He contributed to a long line of KORG instruments that helped define different eras of music technology. The Wavestation brought wave sequencing and vector-style performance ideas to a generation of musicians. The Trinity and Triton became staples of studios, live rigs, churches, schools, and touring productions. OASYS and KRONOS pushed the workstation concept further by combining multiple synthesis engines, sampling, sequencing, effects, and performance control into powerful integrated systems.

NAMM also notes Hotop’s work with Jerry Kovarsky and others on KORG products including OASYS and M3, while Jerry Kovarsky’s own NAMM Oral History entry highlights their work together on Triton, OASYS, M3, and KRONOS.

https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/jerry-kovarsky

https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/jack-hotop

Across these instruments, Hotop’s contributions reflected an important truth about music technology: great products come from teams. Engineers, industrial designers, product managers, musicians, voicing specialists, demonstrators, and artists all contribute to the final result. Hotop’s gift was to bring a musician’s ear and a programmer’s understanding into that collaborative process.

A Demonstrator, Educator, and Ambassador for Music Technology

For many musicians, Jack Hotop was also a familiar presence at NAMM Shows and product demonstrations. NAMM’s Oral History notes that he could often be seen at NAMM demonstrating KORG’s latest products.

That role should not be underestimated. In the world of electronic instruments, a great demonstration can translate complex technology into musical possibility. Hotop could show not only what an instrument did, but why it mattered. He helped musicians understand new sounds, new workflows, and new ways of performing. In that sense, he was not only a sound designer, but also an educator and ambassador for synthesis, MIDI, and electronic music creation.

Old Men Of MIDI

Every year at NAMM a group of people get together and they call themselves “The Old Men of MIDI”.

It’s a loose group of people, but you will see most of the people who have made a difference in MIDI over the years.

A group of sixteen men pose together outside at night, some standing and some sitting on benches, in front of a brick building with streetlights and trees visible in the background. — One of the things I love about our industry is this is not a corporate picture. There are people from Korg, Yamaha, Kurzweil, Dave Smith Instruments as well as musicians and media. That is what MIDI is all about.

A group of fifteen men pose together outdoors at night, some standing and some sitting on the ground, in front of a brick building and iron fence with trees and streetlights in the background.

Why Jack Hotop Matters to the MIDI Community

MIDI history is often told through specifications, products, and companies. But it is also a history of people who made the technology musical.

Jack Hotop’s career is a reminder that standards and instruments become meaningful when musicians can use them to create expressive work.

The MIDI workstation era changed music making by giving artists powerful tools for composition, performance, sequencing, and production. The KORG M1 and the instruments that followed helped bring those possibilities to a vast community of users. Hotop’s sound design was part of the bridge between the technical potential of MIDI-enabled instruments and the musical results heard in recordings, performances, broadcasts, and productions around the world.

A Legacy Heard Around the World

Jack Hotop helped create sounds that became part of the everyday vocabulary of modern music. His work lives in countless recordings, live performances, demos, television cues, film scores, school music labs, studios, churches, clubs, and personal creative spaces.

Many musicians may never have known his name, but they knew the experience of selecting a KORG sound and immediately being inspired to play.

For MIDI.org, Jack Hotop’s story is worth celebrating because it shows what happens when technology is guided by musical imagination. He was part of the generation that helped turn MIDI instruments into complete creative systems, and his sounds helped make those systems feel alive.

Jack Hotop’s legacy is not only in the instruments he helped voice, but in the music those instruments made possible.

Jordan Rudess’s musical tribute to Jack

Jordan sat down as his piano on May 21, 2026 the night that Jack passed and improvised a beautiful piece of music inspired by his friendship with Jack.

Please check it out.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1135525929642757

More Jack

This is a really nice interview with Jack on Make Weird Music.

Articles about Korg on MIDI.org

Tsutomu Katoh and Korg

Dave Smith and Sequential Circiuits

John Bowen, The father of factory presets

Karl Hirano, Dave Smith and Korg

Seiki Katoh Passed Away February 21, 2025