I can't believe this hasn't been reviewed.

First, a history lesson;

In the very late '80s, rumors started flying around about an ubersynth that Korg was working on that was based on the old Prophet VS. In 1990, the first Wavestation hit the streets, and showed that the hype was justified. Combining the VS's vector synthesis with wave sequencing and the most powerful effects in a synth to that date, the Wavestation was an instant success in the studio world, but also started the one finger song synth patches that haunt us to this day.

I used to own a Wavestation A/D so I wondered how it compares to the original...

Soundwise, you can't tell the difference. In the version included in the Digital Edition Legacy collection, you have all the sounds and waves from the Wavestation/SR, PLUS all the cards that Korg made for the WS.
In the latest version, there's some very welcome improvements over both the hardware and earlier software
versions, such as resonant filters (finally!) and the ability to change global polyphony. With the original
Wavestation, you were limited by the 32 voice channels; if you had a big bass sequence going on and hit a new note, your sequence would drop out, because the voices were always allocated dynamically. With the new version,
you can go up to 256 note polyphony (if your system will handle it). I find 64 notes is usually enough to keep me
out of trouble.

The software version imports original Wavestation sysex; I imported some of my old performances and they worked perfectly from the start.

Speaking of CPU usage, it's not bad at all. A reasonably complex patch will use about 10-15% CPU on my 3500+.

From a programming aspect, it's vastly improved from the hardware. While the original Wavestation had a huge (for the time) LCD display, it was still a pain to navigate. The software version is enough like the original so that a former Wavestation owner will feel at home programming it, but won't suffer the eyestrain that the original would induce after a couple hours.

The documentation is good; if only .pdf instead of hard copy. Kudos to Korg for also including the original
Wavestation (and M1) manual.

The copy protection's a Syncrosoft dongle. While I usually don't like dongles, Syncrosoft's aren't that horrible.
After the original install, I transferred my license to my other dongle that has my other Syncrosoft products on
it without any problems.

Loading RAM banks can still be frustrating; as with the original, EVERYTHING in the RAM bank (performances, patches and wave sequences) get overwritten, and it's easy to load up something only to discover that the wave sequence you used isn't there, because it was in a RAM bank you overwrote. I could see where they had to keep it this way though to allow loading original sysex.

To sum it all up; it sounds like the original, it'has some worthwhile improvements and it's a steal at the price.
Plus, with the Digital Edition, you get the M1 (with ALL the M1 and T1 cards) and a cool multi-effects unit. If
you're into ambient/film scores, it's a no brainer. And, if you're into late '80s/early 90's style synth music, it's a must as well.

Try the demo; I think you'll love it