So this is a synth in which a bank of oscillators use physically vibrating elements. From there, things proceed conventionally?
It reminds me of systems in the "Sustainiac" family for generating unlimited sustain in an electric guitar, at any volume. There is a powered circuit which drives feedback into the string through a coil ("reverse pickup"). Typically the reverse pickup is in the neck position. So effectively the vibrating string becomes part of an oscillator circuit.
We can imagine a harp like instrument (or koto) with multiple steel strings, oscillating under a Sustainiac-like pickup feeedback system, and used as the basis for synthesis.
It looks as if the reeds in the Korg instrument might work similarly.
This video is nice because it talks about the feel of the Sustainiac: how it "kicks in" and you feel the vibration swell just when you fret a note with your left hand.
the 'light pedal' by gamechangeraudio would pair well with this. it uses a real spring inside the pedal to create an analog spring reverb. theres also some sort of laser used as well since the spring isnt long enough
there is also their 'motor pedal' which uses a spinning motor similar to one that would be found in a drone, and then a laser again or something optical to pick up the movement and turn it into a digital signal.
they actually have a synth that uses 8 of these motors to generate the sounds/voices
Motors spinning shafts that produce signals is a very old technique, dating back to the Telharmonium [1897], whose tonewheel technique was also used in Hammond organs [1935].
Speaking of spring reverbs: you can use a cheap piezo transducer mounted on the tremolo springs of an electric guitar as a passive reverb. Waylon MacPherson demonstrates this in his YT channel: it actually sounds good!
It reminds me of systems in the "Sustainiac" family for generating unlimited sustain in an electric guitar, at any volume. There is a powered circuit which drives feedback into the string through a coil ("reverse pickup"). Typically the reverse pickup is in the neck position. So effectively the vibrating string becomes part of an oscillator circuit.
We can imagine a harp like instrument (or koto) with multiple steel strings, oscillating under a Sustainiac-like pickup feeedback system, and used as the basis for synthesis.
It looks as if the reeds in the Korg instrument might work similarly.
This video is nice because it talks about the feel of the Sustainiac: how it "kicks in" and you feel the vibration swell just when you fret a note with your left hand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsbdvkIua8o
This one does a good job of demoing the three way harmonic switch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZwPPGsxY6g
You can sustain the fundamental, or have it go to the octave harmonic, or even a higher harmonic above that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsbdvkIua8o