Korg Wavestation A/D (1990)

Digital remake version of the vintage Prophet VS from the defunct Sequential Circuits.

The AD is a special enhanced rackmount version of classic WAVESTATION Synthesizer, one of the finest and famous digital synthesizer ever made.

RACKMOUNT Main panel features a 64 x 240 pixels display, 25 push buttons, a jog wheel for data and a mini-joystick for vector sound movement.

Back panel terminal connectors:
- double stereo main out
- 2 AUX outputs
- Midi interface
- 2 pedal inputs assignable to: portamento, effect, patch change, volume and cutoff
- input (jack or XLR) for microphone or line with sensibility adjustment

Front panel terminal connectors:
- headphones
- 2 card slots.

 

VOICE CPU 16-bits HD641016 manages 32 voices polyphony based on 16 bits AI Korg synthesis system. A basic patch is composed by 1 / 2 / 4 digital oscillators (or wavesequences) PCM samples.
Each layer featured individual parameters:
- level gain
- tuning coarse and fine
- microtonal slope.

WAVETABLE internal 4MB ROM coded at 16 bits (20 bits companded) contains 484 PCM samples including cycled waves, one-shot, transients and loops. Further waveforms can be added using external PCM cards as they share the same M1 geometry format, but some memory addresses offsets are different. A/D rackmount model differs from the rest of the Wavestation synthesizers mainly for the analog/ digital input used for external sound processing. Signal input can be assigned as a waveform like a gated signal feed since there no sampling process is involved.

 

VECTOR MOTION the 4 PCM layers can be controlled by the vector function that mixes their pan image and amplitude: just move the stick toward cardinal directions A-B-C-D (the center is considered as perfect equal gain between oscillators). The traced motion is the Vector EG that can be recorded and played back with a specific Midi control changes: X-axis transmits controller number 16 and the Y-axis transmits controller 17.

WAVESEQUENCE this feature is inspired from the PPG Waveshaping process: a succession of waveforms read in a special way aimed to create animated textures or rhythmic patterns sequences.
A wavesequence is defined by a maximum of 250 editable steps triggered by notes played forward, backward or with some internal loop points clocked to internal or external Midi Clock.
Each step feature:
- an assigned PCM with adjustable start address offset
- Xfade smoothes sample clicks transitions.
- pitch
- level
- direction.

PERFORMANCE system handles up to 8 parts, each with individual settings:
- zone assignment and priority
- Midi channel
- low/high velocity
- transpose and detune
- sustain switch
- delay engage
- mono mode with legato
- gain level.

ENVELOPE there are 5 EGs:
- EG1 tone 1: 4 segments + 4 times
- EG1 tone 2: 4 segments + 4 times
- EG1 tone 3: 4 segments + 4 times
- EG1 tone 4: 4 segments + 4 times
- EG5 AUXILLARY assignable to quite any parameter.
Special Macro function offers some typical curves from instruments such as piano, organ or brass.

FILTER is digital 4-poles non-resonant lowpass filter. Standard filter tracking function adjust the cutoff toward higher or lower octave.

 

LFO 2 delayed modulators with matrix source destination mode (see below- simplified!).
Modulators shapes (variable start phase) are: triangle, square, saw, ramp and random.

SOURCES:	DESTINATIONS:
Keyboard velocity linear velocity exponential LFO1 LFO2 EG Aftertouch Mod Wheel foot pedal Midi CC#	pitch (2 sources) filter (2 source) LFO1 depth LFO1 rate LFO2 depth LFO2 rate EG1 (2 sources) EG AUX (2 sources)

EFFECT section DSP is called the MDE processes internal or external signals in serial or parallel mode- it generates various digital effects such as reverb, delay, chorus, flanger, distortion, phaser, rotary leslie, pan, EQ, pitchshifter, limiter-gate and vocoder.

MEMORY :
- 150 RAM slots
- 50 ROM slots
More slots can be expanded using the RAM card model Korg MCR-03.

MAINTENANCE Backlight fades out after some years but replacement is quite cheap and easy, although it involves some basic soldering skills.

 

EDITOR softwares for the module:
- Midiquest ($$$, PC/Mac)
- Soundiver (out of business)
- Soundtower ($$$ , WIN)
- Geerdes Midisystems (? , Atari ST)

RELATED WAVESTATION FAMILY:

VST PLUGIN / SAMPLED VERSION there are some free and commercial samples set:

	name	price	link	demo
	KORG LEGACY collection along with -M1 - - Polisyx - Monopoly - MS20	commercial
	rhythm-lab.co	Free sample pack		n/a

AUDIO DEMO

factory demo 1 factory demo 2 wavesequence tests various sounds

Soundcloud wavestation AD

VIDEO CLIP SELECTION Part 1 AD demo. AD demo 2