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.

Daniel Westin

October 28, 2012 @ 9:13 am

Korg Wavestation EX can take external midi sync from any midi device or daw.
In the MIDI page you can either use internal or external sync.

Daniel Westin
A fan of wavetable/vector/transwave synthesis

adr

October 22, 2012 @ 6:22 am

The Wavestation EX, is a great little 61 key Synth, with power. When playing the "Tine Piano," it takes you back to that 80's sound, carried over into the early 90's: it's clean and beautiful, not to mention, a nice basis for creating new EP sounds.

The EX has beautiful, rich sounding Strings in there - and when the higher notes are struck on the keyboard, the highs whistle through the ear, and right to the brain - with a powerful, and even sometimes piercing whale. There is cinematic value in there as well.

Mixed with the "Legacy Collection Analogue Edition," it's sounds galore!

ambientwelt

October 18, 2012 @ 12:10 am

This is one of a kind hardware synth. I bought the EX version some years ago, but not using it too much until now. I even tried to sell it. But now I ordered a cd full of sysex patches and I must say that this is now like a new synth for me. Wow! A perfect synth for ambient and meditative music. I bet that Klaus Wiese, Mathias Grassow, Steve Roach etc. have used Wavestation a lot in the 90's and early 00's.
Wavestation, like all digital synths, is not very hands-on, but internet is full of nice patches that sounds that you can make sound unique with only a little editing.

nick chan

September 6, 2012 @ 1:48 am

Absolutely none like it. Still unique till this day. My favourite synth of all time. Together with 01/W, perfect combi.

One complain I have is there is no program mode. To Edit a program, you have to Go into Combi mode (the only mode though), and Edit the combi, and select a part, and browse the program and edit it. Horrible

Daniel Westin

August 3, 2012 @ 5:19 am

Korg Wavestation EX is used by: Daniel Fletcher of D a z z - S y n t h (a swedish synthpop/synthrock band)

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