Wave PPG vs Prophet VS Wavetables

[djmino02]

I'm curious how the wavetables of these two synths compare?

[EvilDragon]

Completely different.

[zerocrossing]

Completely different.

Care to elaborate?

[chk071]

Surely would be surprising if both synths had the same wavetables.

[Ingonator]

Prophet VS is not doing wavetable synthesis but vector synthesis, based on 96 ROM waveforms for each of the 4 oscillators where in a patch only one waveform could be used in each oscillator. In Prophet VS movement/morphing is done mixing/blending through 4 oscillators with the vector stick.
In PPG Wave 2.2/2.3 waveform morphing is doine with scanning through a wavetable with 64 waveforms.

You might get comparable results with both ways but it could be also really different.

Korg Wavestation combines vector synthesis with wave sequencing where each of the 4 oscillators used for vector synthesis could be a either a single waveform or sample or a wavesequence of up to 256 waveforms/samples. This is like a combination of both methods where a wave sequence could go beyond a typical wavetable and could also use longer samples besides short single cycle waveforms that are used in a wavetable. In a Wavestation wave sequence for each step besides teh waveforms/sample you could set volume, pitch (course and fine tune) and crossfading amount.
Wavestation besides other samples and single cycle waveforms also includes the Prophet VS ROM waveforms.

I also got an Ensoniq ESQ-1 where each of the 3 Oscs could have it's own volume envelope which could sort of "mimic" doing vector synthesis. Of course using 3 volume envelopes is more difficult than using a vector stick for that task and you could not use a vector stick as a real-time controller that way.

[djmino02]

Ah. I guess they are pretty different.

Are there any comparable soft synths to the Wavestation? I have the one Korg released but it's a pain, besides changing presets.

[egbert101]

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[wagtunes]

Ah. I guess they are pretty different.

Are there any comparable soft synths to the Wavestation? I have the one Korg released but it's a pain, besides changing presets.

What do you mean by pain? Moving a joystick around too complex?

He probably means a pain to program because it's the size of a pinhead.

[egbert101]

<delete>

[zerocrossing]

Ah. I guess they are pretty different.

Are there any comparable soft synths to the Wavestation? I have the one Korg released but it's a pain, besides changing presets.

I know it’s pretty bad, but really it’s not that bad once you get used to it.

That said, Synthmaster, Wusik Station and Zebra all offer wavesquencing. There are probably others, but those are the ones that come to mind. Zebra is my favorite of those three, but make sure you spend the extra to get HZ, as it includes the filters from Diva, which are well worth it. It is limited to 16 steps though, which makes the Wavestation superior in that regard.

[EvilDragon]

Well, technically you can go up to 64 steps with Zebra, with some clever usage of MSEGs

[fmr]

Ah. I guess they are pretty different.

Are there any comparable soft synths to the Wavestation? I have the one Korg released but it's a pain, besides changing presets.

I know it’s pretty bad, but really it’s not that bad once you get used to it.

That said, Synthmaster, Wusik Station and Zebra all offer wavesquencing. There are probably others, but those are the ones that come to mind. Zebra is my favorite of those three, but make sure you spend the extra to get HZ, as it includes the filters from Diva, which are well worth it. It is limited to 16 steps though, which makes the Wavestation superior in that regard.

Zebra and Synthmaster do wavetable, not wavesequencing. Like Ingo explained: "a wave sequence could go beyond a typical wavetable and could also use longer samples besides short single cycle waveforms that are used in a wavetable. In a Wavestation wave sequence for each step besides the waveforms/sample you could set volume, pitch (course and fine tune) and crossfading amount."

The only synth that does wavesequencing in a similar way as Wavestation is in fact WusikStation, AFAIK.

[djmino02]

yeah. that joystick it's a pain. i get no joy out of using it. they should call it an annoystick.

[ENV1]

The biggest technical difference is probably that the Prophet VS only has 1 wavetable and the ability to mix between 4 of the waveforms contained therein whereas the PPG wave has 31 wavetables that can be fully sweeped through from start to end or anywhere inbetween. IMO the two synths are only remotely comparable because the underlying concepts are ultimately very different.

The only synth that does wavesequencing in a similar way as Wavestation is in fact WusikStation, AFAIK.

There is Kubik from ConcreteFX. (Now discontinued.) This one does wavesequencing in pretty much the same way the WS does. The main differences are that you have a maximum of 64 waves to build a table from (which can then be sequenced with the wavesequencer) and that the wavesequencer only has 64 steps maximum. However, unlike the WS Kubik has two wavesequencers, not only one.

[fmr]

The only synth that does wavesequencing in a similar way as Wavestation is in fact WusikStation, AFAIK.

There is Kubik from ConcreteFX. (Now discontinued.) This one does wavesequencing in pretty much the same way the WS does. The main differences are that you have a maximum of 64 waves to build a table from (which can then be sequenced with the wavesequencer) and that the wavesequencer only has 64 steps maximum. However, unlike the WS Kubik has two wavesequencers, not only one.

Actually, I own Kubik, and it does wavetable in a similar way Waldorf synths do (it followed closely the Microwave engine).

It's wavetable, not wavesequencing. The main difference resides in the fact that, in a wavesequence, you can have different pitches, different durations, and even samples, while in wavetable, you have single cycle waves (they all have a one cycle duration), and all share the same pitch.