The microKORG uses DSP technology to emulate the sounds of an analog synthesizer using firmware, and is based around the same engine found in the Korg MS2000. The fundamental unit of sound is, in Korg's terminology, a "timbre". This is generated with a pair of multi-function oscillators. Two timbres can be combined to create a four-oscillator "layer". This can be used to create more complex sounds, although it halves the polyphony from four notes to two. A single timbre can be played in four-voice. Oscillator one (OSC1) can produce one of several fundamental waveforms, including saw, square, triangle, and sine waves. Alternatively, OSC1 can produce a vox wave (for simulating human vocal cords), white noise, and one of 64 different digital waveforms that were created by harmonic additive synthesis. Some of these 64 waveforms were originally featured in the Korg DW-8000 digital synthesizer of the mid 1980s. The second oscillator (OSC2) is limited to saw, square, and triangle waveforms.