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From: JCKuhl@aol.com
Received: by emout09.mail.aol.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) id UAA08519 for wavestation@astral.magic.ca; Sat, 3 Feb 1996 20:55:10 -0500
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 20:55:10 -0500
Message-ID: <960203205510_135189310@emout09.mail.aol.com>
To: wavestation@astral.magic.ca
Subject: Programming Lesson #1
Status: R
 

As my contribution to this group, I'd like to send out a programming lession.

I really like the passion, love and interest that exists here for the Wavestation and I want to share with you all some of my knowledge in programming this musical instrument.

In this first lesson I want to focus on the effect section. I've downloaded and checked out the Techno Volume that was created. There are some really good ideas here that are missing that "that something extra" and usually I found that it is due to not using all the tools in the effect section.

For this lesson I'm going to walk through a Performance from this Techno Volume. This means that you need to download this bank of sounds and have them loaded into your Wavestation of choice before proceeding - if you don't have them, the comments might still help you just won't be following along with the same sound I am walking through.

Program #13 "Reflex *" is a good Performance for us to look at.

Hit the Edit Button. Notice that there is a single patch that is using the effects in Serial with a Stereo Chorus (FX1) followed by a Flanger into a mono Delay (FX2). Major Tip: Mastering the effect section in any Korg product is a big part of getting the most out of these instruments. Since we are in the digital domain these effects can have very dramatic results with out increasing the noise floor (very much). if you conceptually see the effects as another element to the SOUND making process and not just a last minute addition, your sonic output will change dramatically.

Our first lesson will be in swapping FX1 for FX 2 and FX 2 for FX 1 - after doing this we will then add some low and high eq to give the sound more definition.

If you want to swap FX from the same performance in a Wavestation, you first have to copy the performance to another location since there is no "Swap FX" option. Hit the "Write" button and choose #14 to keep things easy. If you want to rename the first letter in #14 to something else it will make the next step much easier.

>From with-in the FX section (hit "Effects" or Page up 2 times on a WSSR) there is a Copy but this copies both effects which is not what we want. Inside of each effect (Press FX 1 on a WS or WSAD to see the individual "COPY" option. On a WSSR hit "Edit" when the screen says "FX1:StereoChorus" and page up two or three times).

Do this slowly to not mess up.

>From within FX 1: SourceType: Perf * Source:1:13 Reflex * SrcFX:2 (not 1) * Dst:1:14 * DstFX:1 (not 2). You have now copied the Flanger>Delay to FX1 instead of the Stereo Chorus.

>From within FX 2: SourceType: Perf * Source:1:13 Reflex * SrcFX:1 (not 2) * Dst:1:14 * DstFX:2 (not 1). You have now copied the Stereo Chorus to FX 2 instead of the Flanger>Delay.

If you now play the sound and are hooked up in Stereo, you will notice a lot more dimension to the sound since the Stereo Chorus is not the last stage before the outputs instead of the Flanger>Delay (this is a mono effect). Hit the compare (WSSR hit the "Write/compare" button 2 times) button to check out the difference a simple effect swap can do.

Next we want to give this sound a little extra definition using the shelving EQ in the stereo chorus - there are also shelving eq in the Flanger>Delay that can be used for more sonic shaping but be careful, the Wavestations have a point where they start distorting quite badly internally if levels are too high so be aware of this fact when working with the EQ.

Edit effect 2:Stereo Chorus - I found that Low EQ +5 High EQ +7 sounded better. I also liked slowing down the chorus rate to .15 so that it evolved at a rate similar to the Flanger.

Edit effect 1:Flanger>Delay - to get more definition out of the bottom half of the keyboard, setting Low EQ to +5 while bringing up the LFO Depth to 65 fit the bill.

Now hit compare to see how we've changed from a nice mono program to a stereo program with added definition by only using the effects.

A few more tips:

1. since the delay is now FX1 and chorus is FX 2, setting a sound to pan "C+D" will tell that sound to skip the first FX which means that only chorus will show up on the sound. If I was doing a factory program with this sound, I'd probably put a bass in the left hand panned to "C+D" since the PCM in this program sounds so-so in the lower registers.
   
2. This program is a 4 oscillator program. This is cool since you can now use 4 different waveforms. It's also not so cool because the total output of this patch before FX is 25% of what the sound would be if the patch was changed to a 1 oscillator program. If I needed this sound to really have snap, I'd consider splitting it into 2 double or maybe even 4 single oscillator patches. Most of the factory patches in the wavestation are 1 or 2 oscillator because of this fact.

End of Lesson 1.

I hope there is useful information in here for everyone. Let me know you want more.

Peace.