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.

Chris

October 30, 2011 @ 2:28 am

Could someone please tell me why should I get. Real wavestation instead of the vst / au version? How can it possibly be better then the software soundwise?

1:11

March 5, 2011 @ 6:20 pm

This synth is DEEP. If you don't want to sit down and tackle the programming, it probably won't do much for you, but if will treat you great if you do. Love the effects, feel of the keys, unique sounds.....LOVE IT.

rib

January 14, 2011 @ 4:04 pm

Seriously - why is this synth so heavy? : )
It has a weighted keyboard similar to the DX7. This is a proper synthesiser, the like of which you don't see today in hardware synths (which desperately try to mimic synths of the past rather than innovate). It's also a great performance synth which allows a lot of real time manipulation as long as you know how to edit it right. Great pads and strings.

George

December 4, 2010 @ 9:15 pm

I think ambient music is where this beast comes into play. Top notch pads. Although patience of steel is require while editing, once you get that sound you're after it takes you to somewhere else! I think the only other synth that can top this on pads and ambient stuff is the Roland D-50 which is the king of ambience. I've used this for so many atmospheric visual pieces I've lost count. highly recommended if that's the sort of music you wish to play.

pulsemod

December 1, 2010 @ 11:09 am

Unique sounding and a lot of fun to work with. KLC has been unbundled so you can finally get the software version of this synth by itself. I don't like synth plugins much but I'd rather use the Wavestation software. It's a breeze to edit and addresses virtually every weakness that haunts the keyboard and modules. I might feel differently if the Wavestation had an interesting look and feel to it but it's from the alpha dial era and quite bland on the outside.

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