The shell is a combination of metal and plastic elements and people should not be surprised to discover that it is quite heavy at 13.4 kg. The top and rear panels are one solid aluminum piece with a black matte lacquered finish. The profile and joystick of the instrument are made of black plastic. Altogether they combine to form a durable and elegant image.

In the center you will find the LCD display with a resolution of 64 x 240 with contrast control. This LCD is a shiny green and your eyes will not be adversely affected by insufficient natural light. Bordering the LCD, you will find 8 function buttons numbered from A-H. On the left border, you will find another 4 buttons. The first two buttons control your personalized parameters and the second two are used to control the cursor. Next to these buttons, you will find the manual equalizer controls. On the right side of the LCD, you will find the "page up" and "page down" buttons.

On the left side of the instrument, you will find 8 buttons including the LED which will light up when any of the following functions have been activated:

Combi
Edit Combi
Prog
Edit Prog
Seq
Global
Int/Card
Bank

The final feature to be found on the left side is the volume control and, below that, the joystick which is responsible for the Pitch Band and Modulation Effects functions.

In the top-right, you will find the numerical keyboard with the following extra buttons: 10's Hold, Compare, Reset, Rec/Write, Start/Stop

Due to the variety of LCD features, the instrument is very user-friendly. Everything is very clear and readable and the user is given full control of the operating system. Editing your sound is made very simple with the function and up/down buttons.

KORG 01/W includes many input/output slots which allows for excellent and easy communication with external sources. To the right of the KORG 01/W logo, you will find PCM DATA slot, PROG/SEQ DATA slot, MIDI THRU, MIDI OUT, MIDI IN, DAMPER, ASS. PEDAL/SW, OUTPUT (1/L, 2/R, 3, 4), PHONES).

We shouldn't forget to mention that the power cable and ON/OFF button are also located at the rear of the instrument.

KORG 01/W includes a 5-octave dynamic keyboard with the possibility for CHANNEL AFTERTOUCH. Playing on this keyboard is a pleasure and you will feel like you are playing on a well-balanced keyboard. The one complaint I have about this keyboard is that the keys are a little too noisy. You can split the keyboard in any way you desire by configuring it in the COMBI mode. The transposition is -12/+12 half-tonnes.