When Sequential Circuits finally went belly-up, their research and development into vector synthesis was picked up at Korg. This led to the hugely successful Wavestation Synthesizer which was based on Sequential's ProphetVS. The Wavestation incorporated the 2-dimensional vector joystick of the ProphetVS which allowed the user to alter and animate sounds.

Korg added to this a second break-through form of synthesis: wave sequencing, by which short segments of sampled audio waveforms could be played one after the other and cross-faded into each other for some complex and unusual tones, pads, textures and rhythms. The Wavestation had 2MB of ROM based samples at your disposal. Programming is not exactly easy but this great digital synth is capable of lush ambient sounds and strange effects. It has the obligatory lowpass filter, though it is non-resonant and digital sounding. Also on-board are some multi-effects which are pretty nice. This synth is easily upgraded and expandable with PCM cards too.

In 1991 the Wavestation EX, also called EXK-WS, was released (pictured above). The EX added 150 more waveforms (4MB) including acoustic instruments and drums. The EX also adds 8 multi-effects including: Mod Pitch Shift-Delay, Stereo Compressor-Limiter/Gate, Vocoder, Overdrive and Distortion effects, transposable keyboard and added MIDI implementation and control. Wavestations are used by Orbital, The Future Sound of London, Genesis, Jan Hammer, Depeche Mode, Toto, Vangelis, Legendary Pink Dots, Biosphere and Sin.

ricky d

August 30, 2009 @ 1:17 am

In my message below, I didn't mean to say "It's good for music that calls for some exotic-droney type of sounds geared towards techno". I don't know where I got the "Techno" part from. lol.

Christian

August 22, 2009 @ 7:02 pm

Rush also used this on the Roll the Bones tour - per Geddy's equipment list in the tour book.

Shawn

July 31, 2009 @ 2:38 pm

This is a great synth for drone, ethereal, new age music, and soundtrack compositions. Not so great for rock, pop, etc. Not fun to try and program but there are some very good 3rd party sounds available. Solid construction and quality Korg is known for.

il

July 23, 2009 @ 11:45 pm

For once the SOFTWARE VERSION does it far better. ALL sounds, ALL cards.. and the main thing? the resonant filter that is sadly lacking from the hardware version.

Man In Motion

July 18, 2009 @ 1:15 pm

I own two of them; the first Wavestation Keyboard and the latest SR. Very complex and hard to program, it produces amazing sounds to create emotional and suggestive soundscapes.......and offers endless possibilities in any kind of music.
The software version sounds good but it's just not the same thing.

<987654321>

 

Post Comment!

Your Name: (Required.)

Email Address: (Required, not published.)

Image verification: (required)

Message:

 

Posting Rules:
Please keep your comments relevant! Do not post requests for help, do not use for sales, do not post unless you have something interesting to say about this instrument, or we may delete your post.

I have read and understand the posting rules.