Look all around you. All the killer stuff is made in Germany, or designed/made in Japan. Waldorf (lords of synth), eurorack, AE, Jomox, Sonicware, Korg, it goes on and on. Sure, there are others but the ratio has got to be at least 70% with the German-Japan dyad.
Also, I've been watching a lot of Man in the High Castle lately, unrelated I'm sure.
The Germans, well I guess they have economic advantages but they're also wicked smart and highly educated. Also, their system makes starting and maintaining small business more possible (healthcare, time off, etc). In Japanese culture things (inanimate objects) have a soul--surely this has to do somewhat with why they make cool stuff.

Yes, Japan and Germany have great companies but so do Sweden, the UK and France

I'm sure everyone means well, but the leap to associate Germany with the Third Reich even when it has no relevance to the context is a little passé and cringey.

I'm British, but live in Germany. Contrary to what you suggest in the OP, I feel like the barriers to starting a business here are wayyyyyyy higher than in other countries.
Let's say you decide today to open a synth company. (I think) You need a €25,000 liability deposit. Then anyone you employ, you need to pay 50% of their health insurance every month (50% of around €400 per month). Employment legislation is very strict, you need to meet a lot of commitments. You also need a whole bunch of business insurance.
Conversely, in the UK, you can register a limited company for about £5 and then employ people with zero outlay.

I think the answer is more that Germany properly invested in education and training for engineers, consistently, over many decades.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apprenticeship_in_Germany

I feel the UK takes the attitude of something like what do we do with the less-educated proles?... Let's invest the minimum amount possible to pay lip service to training them. We'll do the minimum needed to make them a functioning part of capitalism.

Whereas in Germany, apprenticeships are a highly respected education system which leads to you becoming a 'master' of your trade.

Why come, why go, why know?

Those Swedes are skating on thin ice and you know it!
UK? I fetishize their pro audio more (Neve, SSL). The French, ok fine they’ve claimed their piece and are not letting it go.

I’ve got zero hardware synths from Japan. They don’t make a single thing that remotely interests me. My Dominion 1 is the only thing I have from Germany. All the Dave Smith stuff comes from America. My Studio Electronics ATC-X was also made here in CA. My Peak, Summit and Roli are from England. My Elektron synths are from Sweden.

I reject the premise of this thread as totally false.

Moog

Sequential

Make Noise

before this thread, I thought they were killer

+1

I have the Moog Matriarch - US
Arturia Polybrute - France
Pittsburg Modular Voltage Research Lab - US

etc....

As someone who owns and shoots a lot of old cameras, this is(was) actually very true--in the camera world. Even Kodak, when they decided to make a high quality camera (not the junky box cameras they used to make), they used a German subsidiary (Nagel) to make their Retina cameras, and of course lenses were almost exclusively German for some decades before the Japanese caught up (early innovation in lenses cam from all over the place including UK, France, and the US, but once you get past the early years its almost all Germany with a few old stragglers like Wollensack or Cooke.) I don't think the synth world is nearly as cut and dried as the camera world, but Japan, and to a lesser extent Germany does have an outsized presense. I've always wondered if it was historical accident, or there is a culture in those countries that gave them an advantage.

Pittsburgh has an “H” at the end.

Most of my stuff is from the US: Sequential, Ensoniq, Moog, Rhodes, and even my Akai is technically from America since it has Roger Linn’s name written on it. Nothing German and only a Juno 106 from Japan.

Some of the companies you mention like Waldorf and Jomox were founded in Germany, when Techno and other electronic music was really huge in Germany. There wasn't an equivalent to the Love Parade in the US. House and Techno in the US was and remained an underground thing. So maybe the relatively huge scene and demand made the success of these companies possible? And then there was Kraftwerk, and Tangerine Dream etc.


The devices post-punk electronic musicians and DJs were asking for, were far different from - let's say ELP or Pink Floyd. The old Roland prosumer stuff like the 303, 808, 909 come to mind first.

I'm a bit speculative here, but if you would look for devices rather used in Hip-Hop and compare these to stuff that is rather used in Techno (in the broadest sense), you would find a lot of Hip-Hop stuff not coming from Germany and a lot of Techno stuff not coming from the US. Cause Hip-Hop was/is a great success and scene in the US.

Coolest synths today are made by one guy from Greece, one gal from France and few Swedes. It is obviously correlated to patterns of megafauna extinction during Pleistocene.

Mmm. I don't know for Germany, but the Japanese really hit their stride with their late 80s and 90s digital mega hits, which is a transition the american brands didn't navigate as well (thought the Americans were involved at the R&D level).

Also, Japan has a really big music industry if I remember correctly.

What's "the synth war"?

Why come the cool stuff.

We are all fortunate enough to live in a time where there really are no international boundaries on innovation, smart teams, and manufacturing prowess. Personally - I’m quite thankful for (and partial to) U-He (Germany), Roland (Japan), Dave Smith (US), even having somewhat a Renaissance with Arturia (France) and the list goes on. Is one country innovating / leading the others? Seriously? It’s a dopey premise..

Let’s stock up on synths, just in case.

They don't really do it for me. Kind of overpriced too and they tend to need work to sit well in a mix, because they are too ballsy.
Also, Elektron has been using cheaper converters and it showed, though they seem to be improving.
Lastly, the Gotharman stuff that sounds so so so good if from Nerherlands, which is practically Germany.

Not false, just not true for you.

I think everyone is forgetting all the amazing synths that have come out of Australia.

OK, we had one in the 70s...

I get what you are saying but maybe it should read “all of the killer stuff that I’m interested in” cause it’s hard to argue that these other companies don’t make killer stuff. I like instruments from all countries and I would put both of those top 5. My criteria is where it says it’s made on the back as I’m not a detective and don’t want to track down assembly and components (are they all Chinese?)I would go:

1. USA (OB-6, P~6, and Minimoog are a few of my favorites)

2. Sweden (Nord Lead 4, Nord Wave 2, and Analog RYTM) They have very unique styles and a nice change of pace.

3. Germany (Access Virus TI2, all the new Waldorf, Schmidt LOL)

4. Greece (off of 1 company)

5. Japan? (ARP 2600? A remake of a New York synth, the LD-2 is cool. I like my Motif XS. Can’t think of much being made in Japan right now)

Gotharman is Danish

Also practically Germany

Wrong.

I would add New Zealand for the Deluge, and France for Arturia products.

... and that is why you will get sentenced to death if you ever will set foot into the Netherlands.

Told to you by a German close to the Netherland border. and

Vlad Kremer lives in neither of those countries, therefore the entire premise is flawed.