The Wavestation mailing list is a discussion forum for users of the Korg Wavestation series of synthesizers. This document contains information about the synthesizers and about the mailing list. It will be posted to the list approximately once per month. The most current version is also located at http://www.magic.ca/~lost/faq.html.
If you would like to contribute, please e-mail me at lost@astral.magic.ca. As with version 1.x of anything, there are likely significant errors or omissions; and I would like to know about them.
This document is divided into three parts (and you can hyperlink all over it if you are using an HTML browser):
The Wavestation allows synthesists to create sounds by combining waves created using the above methods, as well as other traditional synthesis techniques, and processing them through an on-board effects processor. The result is a great-sounding instrument.
In the opinion of the writer, the Wavestation lends itself best to very complex sounds which evolve over time. Thanks to a very flexible complement of on-board effects and EQ, it can be made to sit very well in a mix with minimal fuss at the mixing console.
The flexibility and power of wave sequencing in this context lies in the ability to decide what source you want to modulate the wave sequence with. It can be set up to play the waves chronologically from start to finish, or you could create a wave sequence that you is stepped through using the key pressure, for example. Using this technique, a sound could be soft until you put more pressure on the keys, which in turn would cause the wave sequence to move to a later (and perhaps brighter - or whatever) phase. Korg makes such wave sequencing very viable by providing waves which are very similar to one another. For example, there is a series of waves in the instrument which are sampled from an analog synthesizer; the first of which has the filter almost closed, and with the cutoff frequency becoming progressively higher as the waves progress. Another series of waves consists of looped samples from a single performance of a saxophone note - at various stages.
Wave sequences can also be used to create rhythmic effects. Using the Wavestation's drum waves, for example, complete drum patterns can be created by simply creating a wave sequence that uses the instrument's percussive waves, many of which are samples of real drums.
Up to 35 patches of up to four oscillators each may be stored in a Wavestation memory bank. (Different Wavestation models have different numbers of memory banks, see Item 2, "What are the differences between the Wavestation models?")
Up to 50 performances may be stored in a Wavestation memory bank. The 50 performances may draw upon any of the 35 patches stored in that bank. Performances may actually use any of the patches stored in any other bank, although this is not generally considered to be good programming practice, as it makes patch/performance relationships difficult to keep track of.
The Wavestation EX replaced the Wavestation in Korg's line. Owners of the original Wavestation may purchase an upgrade.
The EX upgrade includes more effects, more samples, and a ROM card with a new bank of performances, patches and wave sequences. These are the same as the factory presets in RAM3 of WS A/D (except for patches 45-49, which are specifically designed to take advantage of the A/D's analog inputs).
A ROM upgrade for the original WS without the new samples also exists.
The analog inputs can be used just like ordinary samples (they are accessed as though they were waves 516 and 517 and can be used in patches); or they can be simply patched through the effects buses. This can be especially handy when your mixer is low on inputs!
Analog inputs are not available on any other Wavestation model, even as an upgrade.
The SR's Bank 3 is equivalent to Korg's WPC-12 program card.
Contact your local dealer for these; they should be priced considerably lower than the other cards. If you can't get the cards from a local dealer, contact your nation's distributor. A list of national distributors came with your WS.
You can get the contents of the RAM banks from the Wavestation Trading Post at http://www.his.com/~rickg/rick.html, or via anonymous ftp at louie.udel.edu:/pub/midi/patches/WAVESTATION
It is also possible to dump the RAM altogether, which is more useful if the data in your Wavestation should become corrupt. Refer to section I.7 of this document for further information.
On the SR, we did have the option to do this if we so desired...at the expense of 3 of the new ROM Banks. We basically asked the voicing and product guys which they'd prefer: 150 additional sounds on board, or backups of the factory RAM. Their response was, as we expected, in favour of having the most sounds possible...and I hope most users would agree, as well."
(Does anyone actually have a WS that doesn't make this noise, other than the SR?)
Has anybody found a fix for this problem?
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 1995 11:55:17 -0800 (PST) From: Mike Perkowitz (map@cs.washington.edu) To: Wavestation Subject: Re: Romulator?I just checked the music machines (http://www.hyperreal.com/machines/) site and there is indeed some info there on the SAM-1, by Zadok in the Netherlands... lets you load samples into its ROM and plugs into the WS PCM slot. The SAM-1 could read disks or accept SDS sample dumps.I say "could" because I remember reading here that they had folded. Contact info:
Zadok Products PO Box 1192 2260BD Leidshendam The Netherlands tel: 31-70-3.200.209 fax: 31-70-3.200.345This info is from Dan Phillips, from the old WS list archives.If someone gets in touch with them, let us know!
You will first need software to unZIP the files. For DOS, it's PKUNZIP. For Windows, it's WINZIP. For the Mac, you can use "ZipIt" or "StuffIt Expander". (Please note if you're using Stuffit Expander, you will need "DropStuff with Expander Enhancer installed). In each case, documentation comes with the software in question to unZIP the file.
After the file is unZIPped, you need to feed it to the Wavestation. Some sequencers are able to read the sysex file, as are some librarians. For the Mac, try "Bulk Sysex".
Remember that your Wavestation's memory protection needs to be turned off.
These instructions will be elaborated upon further in an upcoming version of the FAQ.
From time to time, your Wavestation's internal operating memory can become
corrupt which can cause your Wavestation to act strangely. It may be necessary
to re-initialize the unit. This is done using the Wavestation's "Special Page"
(which also has additional functions, which will be included in a future
revision of this document).
Before even going near the "special page", it is imperative that you back up
your patches, wavesequences and performances to a prog data card and/or to a
MIDI system exclusive storage device such as a computer. You
will lose everything in the RAM banks, including factory programs.
Pressing PAGE+ once brings you to the HELPFUL PAGE, used for reports
during debugging, and pressing PAGE+ again brings you a screen listing
the software engineers for the Wavestation product line. You can exit
from these other pages as described above.
Please read the note from Dan Phillips of Korg Inc. regarding INIT RAM found in
section I.3 of this document for more information.
The original idea for Wave Sequences was for a smooth, gradual
transition from one timbre to another. Shortly before the Wavestation's
release, however, Korg's voicing staff discovered another application:
the rhythmic Wave Sequence, using abrupt changes in timbre. Some
examples of these are The Wave Song (ROM11, #0) and MIDI Clock Song
(ROM8, #10). Typically, smooth Wave Sequences use crossfade
times of greater than 10 (often much greater); Rhythmic Wave Sequences,
on the other hand, use crossfades of only 0-2.
Many of the factory Performances use rhythmic Wave Sequences to trigger
drum sounds; you can also create interesting rhythms out of timbral
shifts alone, by juxtaposing PCM Waves of different brightness, volume,
and harmonic character.
NOTE #2: Make sure to switch Wave Sequence Sync back to INT when you're
done. Only the first steps of the Wave Sequences will play if you've
left the Wave Sequence Sync set to MIDI and there are no MIDI clocks
coming in.
This table shows the Step Duration required to achieve a given rhythmic
value when syncing to MIDI Clocks.
It is possible to cause digital clipping when programming sounds on the
Wavestation. The solution is to reduce the internal gain of the Patches,
on the Performance Part Details page. For more information, read on.
This issue is related to something you might be familiar with in mixers:
gain structure. Basically, all systems (analog and digital) will have
some point of maximum gain, after which they begin to clip. Analog
systems may do this gradually; in digital systems, there's usually no
middle ground. The irony is that, right up until that clip point, the
louder the signal is, the greater the S/N ratio and thus the better the
sound quality. The trick is to get it as loud as possible before clipping.
However, in a digital
synthesizer, it becomes difficult to realize the optimum
automatically. This is because we have more than a single signal (say
that ten times fast) to worry about; we have 16 or 32 or 64 (or more)
separate signals, which then may be summed into a single stream. More
complex, those voices each have their own varying levels. So, how do we
deal with achieving an optimum gain structure?
The ultimate in conservatism would be to make sure that nothing clips,
ever. This is pretty easy to achieve; you just assume that each of your
voices is playing a full-scale sine wave, and scale the volumes back so
that the summed result is just under clipping.
The result of this technique will be that your voices are pretty
low-level, in which case S/N ratio suffers and overall output level is
low. Play an original EPS keyboard (*not* the 16+) for an example of
this.
Most of the time, the voices will be considerably softer than a
full-scale sine wave. For instance, they may have a loud transient, and
then a softer sustaining tone. In this case, each individual voice can
be considerably louder before clipping than is assumed in the
conservative gain-scaling scheme above. In the worst case, with a number
of full-scale waves sounding at once, clipping *will* be able to occur,
but this can be handled at the programming stage, by reducing internal
volume levels.
This is the approach used on the Wavestation. Levels are set so that, in
the general case, sounds won't clip -- but kept hot enough to maintain a
good output level, with low noise. The voicing staff takes care of the
rest; when they create a sound which causes clipping, they scale back
the Part levels (on the Performance Part Details page in the keyboard
and A/D, or the EDTPERF page in the SR).
It is worth noting that this internal clipping can only happen when a
number of waves are sounding at once.
A secondary place where clipping may occur is in the Effects, though I
have not seen this terribly often. Large amounts of EQ boost, in
particular, could potentially cause clipping.
The result is that some human discretion is necessary, but that the
overall output level is hotter and S/N is better. Korg's QC (Quality Control)
department ensures that factory voicing can play a reasonable number of voices
without any clipping. For your own sounds, you'll have to do your own QC!
Note that reducing the main volume by adjusting the main volume slider
(on the keyboard) or knob (on the A/D and SR) will not solve problems
with digital clipping. This is because the clipping is happening at a
gain stage prior to the final output volume.
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NOTE: If you are having difficulty, it doesn't mean you're an idiot.
Sometimes system administrators will change the appearance of your e-mail
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Please keep your message on-topic. Remember that your post will appear in the
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Please make sure you don't send your message to wavestation-digest@cloudfactory.org. Subscribers to the digest automatically receive all list messages, and if you send your message to the digest address, subscribers will receive the message twice, and you'll probably end up with some nasty e-mail from some disgruntled digest subscribers!
Ben Hall, a list participant, has organized a monthly patch
compilation/competition, in which people are invited to submit original patches based on a theme (determined monthly). At the end of the month the patches will be compiled and
put up on the Wavestation Trading Post. List participants are then invited to
vote for their favourite bank, who will be immortalized in the Wavestation
Programmers' Hall of Fame at the
official WWW site.
An overview with submission guidelines can be found at
http://www.city.ac.uk/~cb170/ws_subs.html.
The Wavestation Trading
Post at http://www.his.com/~rickg/rick.html is where Rick Gutleber donates
his valuable time maintaining an archive of Wavestation sounds for your
enjoyment on the World Wide Web (and it's a downright nifty looking web site)!
Also, thanks to the generous efforts of Ben Hall, you can also browse the
Wavestation Trading Post via anonymous ftp! Check out ftp://ftp.mcc.ac.uk/dir/pub/emagic/SOUNDSURFER/LIBRARIES/Korg/Wavestation/
and have a look. Ben promises to provide all of the files available at the WWW
site in their sysex formats, as well as in MIDI files and Sound Diver format. Now
we get the best of all worlds.
List archives will be available very shortly on the WWW.
(Although a few list
participants are Korg employees, they mainly contribute without wearing
their official Korg hats). Finally, please don't send e-mail to my personal
address or to the list requesting information about other Korg products. While
some Wavestation users swear by Korg stuff, I personally do not; and the list is
intended only for discussion of the Korg Wavestation.
If you wish to unsubscribe yourself from the list, please
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Any posting to the list larger than 15K in size must be
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The messages transmitted through this internet
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these circumstances the administrator shall provide reasonable credit to the author of the information used.
The unsolicited announcement of Wavestation-related products
including but not limited to software, by a vendor, is permitted,
provided that such product is not announced more than once per six month
period. A vendor may respond to any queries pertaining to its products
at any time, however.
No vendor may e-mail unsolicited advertisements to the
participants of this list directly.
Upon receipt of a complaint from any Wavestation list
participant that they were directly e-mailed an unsolicited
advertisement, the offending advertiser shall be denied access to the
Wavestation mailing list for a period of one year. Notice of this denial of access
will be posted to all list participants by the administrator.
Vendors wishing to discuss advertising policies or advertising at the WWW site should send e-mail to lost@astral.magic.ca.
Discussions which do not relate directly to the Korg Wavestation line of
products are not encouraged.
It is requested that all members of the Wavestation mailing list consult the
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ) before posting to the list for the first time.
The FAQ is posted to the list approximately once per month. The most current FAQ can be found at
http://www.magic.ca/~lost/ws.html.
It is also requested that list participants consider the nature of their post
before sending a message to the list. Each posting creates approximately one
megabyte of internet traffic, and will enter the electronic mailbox of each person
subscribed to the list.
Portions of this FAQ are based upon the document "Wavestation FAQ v0.1.2" by
Ola Rinta-Koski (17-may-94).
This document is written/compiled/edited/HTML-marked by Steve J. Cowan
(lost@astral.magic.ca).
If I have left anyone out, please let me know!
7. How can I use the Wavestation's "Special Page"?
Note:
using the special page can cause your Wavestation to do all sorts of
strange things if you do not know exactly what you are doing. A couple of
incorrect keystrokes could make your Wavestation go into never-never-land - and
never-never come back - at least until you physically open up the case and remove
the battery for a few minutes.For the keyboard and A/D
Wait for the KORG logo to come up, then press
Down Arrow and '4' at the same time. A diagnostics page will appear, including
the software version of your Wavestation.
Press CONT to get out of the page. Do NOT press any other keys unless you know what you are doing.
That said, the INIT RAM soft key will initialize RAM and copy ROM over RAM1
and RAM2 on the EX.For the SR
At any time (not just at startup), press simultaneously the down
cursor and the BANK, EDIT, and +1/YES buttons. To exit, press PERF,
MULTI, or MIDI/GLOBAL to go to those respective top-level screens, as
usual (MIDI/GLOBAL will ask "are you sure")8. Why am I having trouble with rhythmic Wave Sequences?
This material on rhythmic Wave Sequences is exerpted (with slight
adaptation) from the SR manuals by Dan Phillips, (c)1992 Korg Inc.Two Rhythmic Wave Sequence Programming Tips:
Syncing Wave Sequences to MIDI Clocks
If you're using a rhythmic Wave Sequence with a MIDI sequencer, it can
be convenient to synchronize the Wave Sequence to the sequencer's
tempo. This is done by using the Wave Sequence Sync feature, found on
both the GLOBAL and MIDI pages. The following instructions are for the
Wavestation SR; other models are similar.
NOTE #1: For best results when using a sequencer and syncing Wave
Sequences to MIDI clocks, quantize all notes playing Wave Sequences to a
few milliseconds before the beat. This will ensure that your sequencer
will send out the notes before the clock message, so that the Wave
Sequence rhythms will be right on the beat.MIDI Clocks and Step Duration
When Wave Sequence Sync is set to MIDI, each step sounds for the number
of MIDI clocks equal to the step's Duration parameter. A step duration
of 24, for instance, equals one quarter note; a duration of 12 equals
an eighth note; and so on.
Many of the Rhythmic Wave Sequences in ROM are already set up with
these MIDI Clock - compatible durations.
Note Value Step Duration
---------- -------------
quarter-note 24
quarter-note triplet 16
eighth-note 12
eighth-note triplet 8
sixteenth-note 6
sixteenth-note triplet 4
thirty-second-note 3
thirty-second-note triplet 2
When using MIDI Clock-compatible Wave Sequences with Wave Sequence Sync
set to INTERNAL, the sequences will play back at about 105 BPM.
9. Why is my sound distorting?
Wavestation Gain Structure.
by Dan Phillips
PART II: THE WAVESTATION MAILING LIST
1. How do I Subscribe or unsubscribe?
All commands are sent to the "Majordomo" list server by e-mailing them to:
2. How do I post to the list?
Now that you're subscribed, take a moment to read the FAQ (well I guess you're
doing that) including the policies. To post to the list, send to:
3. Is the list available in digest form?
Yes. Just subscribe to "wavestation-digest" instead of "wavestation". Remember to post your messages to "wavestation" however, for reasons stated above.
4. What services are offered via the mailing list?
The URL of the list's official WWW site is:
http://www.magic.ca/~lost/ws.html
(As if you didn't already
know)5. What affiliation does the mailing list have with Korg
Inc.?
None. Absolutely zippo. Nada. The administrator of the list (and author of this
document) just likes his Wavestation, OK, so back off!6. What are the policies of the Wavestation mailing
list?
POLICIES
If you are having trouble subscribing or unsubscribing please send a
message to lost@astral.magic.ca for assistance.
PART III. CREDITS
Other contributors to the Wavestation FAQ:
Dan Phillips (dan@korgrd.com)
Mike Perkowitz (map@cs.washington.edu)
Hamish Oliver (Hamish.Oliver@vuw.ac.nz)Jump to the Wavestation Mailing List Home Page
http://www.magic.ca/~lost/ws.html