Korg Collection (V2.0 released, GUI update!)

[Tj Shredder]

I have Demo'd the Triton I wasn't impressed to be fair it would have to be free in the upgrade,sounded dull looks dull

The Triton is a fairly new instrument which still needs to earn the money for its development. You don't like it, you get a free update for your old collection. (Which also needs to earn money btw.)
I think this is more than fair. You win and complain? I don't get it...
Even if they'd throw in Triton you would not use it anyway...

[Hermetech Mastering]

Any good tutorials anywhere on programming the Wavestation?

The trouble with the WS (bought my first EX new in 1992, was my first synth, learned synthesis on it, bought my second EX second hand in 2007, and now only use the plug), is that it has a REALLY overly hierarchical programming structure. Waves and WaveSequences, become Oscillators, four of which can be stacked and used in a Patch with Vector Synthesis modulation, and eight of those those Patches can then be stacked in a Performance with associated effects, keyboard and velocity zones. You have loads of modulation sources and destinations at every level. It's a huge headache, for sure, overly complicated.

Aside from the obvious (go through the manual, go through some Patches and see how they are put together, read the SOS articles, although the early reviews aren't online, read Dan Phillips web page), choose a complete RAM bank, let's say RAM3, and make it your Init bank, you can find a blank sysex bank and load it in. That's everything Init from WaveSequences to Performances. Create a starting Patch with all regular analogue subtraction stuff set wide open, Amp and Filter etc.

1) Start with a single oscillator Patch, and just go through all the individual Waves, there are hundreds of them, so it might take a while, but will give you a good idea of what's available. Don't forget the Card waveforms too! You might start realising that some waves kinda belong together, in their name and/or sound, and that will give you ideas for the next stage. I had them all printed out and then highlighted interesting waves and sets of waves.

2) Same single oscillator Patch, but this time start building a WaveSequence from scratch. There is so much possibility just here, it's quite incredible. From analogue style pitch sequences, to rhythmic drum stuff, to D50 style percussive transient wed to looped body sound, to slowly evolving drones and vocal sounds etc. Get to grips with how the WaveSequences work and all their parameters. It's great in the plugin that you can click and drag the timings and crossfades etc.

3) Next try a four oscillator Patch and start getting to grips with the Vector Synthesis, which adds a whole new layer of complexity. A good starter is to have four different slowly evolving WaveSequence drones for Oscillators 1-4, and then start crossfading between them with the Joystick, then play around with how you can automatically crossfade between the WaveSequences with the crazy Mix Envelope controls, you can "draw in a path" for the crossfading to follow, loop it etc. This is how the Prophet VS worked, just with the static Waves, so you could give that a try too, just using four different Waves, instead of WaveSequences.

4) Start stacking the Patches together in Performances with the Effects and Key/Velocity Zones etc. The Reverbs won't win any prizes these days, but I am sometimes still astounded by just how good some of the other stuff sounds, the Choruses and Panning etc. I think there's also another Resonant Filter (see below) sounding thing hiding in the EQ algorithm.

That should help you grok the main hierarchy from most simple to most complex. From there the sky is the limit. The joy with the plugins is of course you can ramp up the polyphony to 256, which is just insane (my EXs had 32 I think), add that to eight part multi-timbrality, with each part having up to four oscillators (which could also be WaveSequences), and then you play a massive chord, and, well, you get the idea...

Don't forget the plugin also has a kinda secret Resonant Filter mode, on the Filter Page, that none of the hardware ever had (it was always one of the main complaints about the WS). Go to Exciter Mode and turn it to Resonance. It turns the Exciter amount into a Res amount control. Also won't win any awards for analogue style sound, but it can totally work with some old presets and make them sound very different.

Also, try to find the old Paul Osborn presets if you can. I've scanned through many different banks since 1992, and that dude's have been the ones I often come back to again and again. He REALLY pushed it further than anyone else, with the combos of WaveSequencing and Vector Synthesis. Also loads of 70's style analogue string synth and pad style Performances that sound incredible and alive. There were DreamWaves 1 & 2 and TranceWaves 1 & 2.

I made a track about 12 years ago that features many of Paul Osborn's presets tweaked, can hear it here, most of the swirly sequenced sounding bits are straight outta the WS-EX I had at the time.:

https://babaluma.bandcamp.com/track/the ... epathy-mix

Do note if you load a whole RAM bank in (ALL data), you usually need to load it into RAM1 for it to work properly. If you load it into to RAM2 the Patches will be pointing towards RAM1 WaveSequences and Patches and it will sound totally wrong. It's one of the nightmares about having such an overly hierarchical synth architecture, and why if you want to mix and match WaveSequences or Patches from different RAM banks, a great Librarian software will be essential. This is why I recommended you keep you own Init Bank as RAM2 or RAM3, then you can use RAM1 for always loading other people's banks/presets into, and they should just work.

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... techniques

http://www.danphillips.com/wavestation/

Hopefully some good starting points, but it's an extremely deep and complex beast!

[EDITED for extra info, clarity and typos etc.]

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Any good tutorials anywhere on programming the Wavestation?

The trouble with the WS (bought my first EX new in 1992, was my first synth, learned synthesis on it, bought my second EX second hand in 2007, and now only use the plug), is that it has a REALLY overly hierarchical programming structure. Wavesequences, become waveforms/Oscillators, four of which can be stacked and used in a Patch with Vector Synthesis modulation, and eight of those those Patches can then be stacked in a Performance with associated effects, keyboard and velocity zones. You have loads of modulation sources and destinations at every level. It's a huge headache, for sure, overly complicated.

Aside from the obvious (go through the manual, go through some patches and see how they are put together, read the SOS articles, although the early reviews aren't online, read Dan Phillips web page), choose a complete RAM bank, let's say RAM3, and make it your Init bank, you can find a blank sysex bank and load it in. That's everything Init from WaveSequences to Performances. Create a starting patch with all regular analogue subtraction stuff set wide open, Amp and VCA etc.

1) Start with a single oscillator Patch, and just go through all the individual waveforms, it might take a while, but will give you a good idea of what's available. Don't forget the Card waveforms too! You might start realising that some waves kinda belong together, in their name and sound, and that will give you ideas for the next stage. I had them all printed out and then highlighted interesting waves and sets of waves.

2) Same single oscillator patch, but this time start building a WaveSequence from scratch. There is so much possibility just here, it's quite incredible. From analogue style pitch sequences, to rhythmic drum stuff, to D50 style percussive transient wed to looped body sound, to slowly evolving drones and vocal sounds etc. Get to grips with how the Wavesequcnes work and all their parameters.

3) Next try a four oscillator patch and start getting to grips with the Vector Synthesis, which adds a whole new layer of complexity. Good starter is to have four different slowly evolving drones for oscillators 1-4, and then start cross-fading between them with the Joystick, then play around with how you can automatically crossfade between the WaveSequences with the crazy Mix Envelope controls, you can "draw in a path" for the crossfading to follow, loop it etc.

4) Start stacking the Patches together in Perormances with the Effects and Key/Velocity Zones etc. The Reverbs won't win any prizes these days, but I am sometimes still astounded by just how good some of the other stuff sounds, the Choruses and Panning etc.

That should help you grok the main hierarchy from most simple to most complex. The joy with the VSTs is of course you can ramp up the polyphony to 256, which is just insane (my EXs had 32 I think).

Don't forget the VST also has a kinda secret Resonant Filter mode, on the Filter Page, that none of the hardware ever had (it was always one of the main complaints about the WS). Go to Exciter Mode and turn it to Resonance. It turns the Exciter amount into a Res amount control. Also won't win any awards for analogue style sound, but it can totally work with some old presets and make them sound very different.

Also, try to find the old Paul Osborn presets if you can. I've scanned through many different banks since 1992, and that dude's have been the ones I often come back to again and again. He REALLY pushed it further than anyone else, with the combos of WaveSequencing and Vector Synthesis. Also loads of 70's style analogue string synth and pad style patches that sound incredible and alive. There were DreamWaves 1 & 2 and TranceWaves 1 & 2.

I made a track about 12 years ago that features many of Paul Osborn's presets tweaked, can hear it here, most of the swirly sequenced sounding bits are straight outta the WS-EX I had at the time.:

https://babaluma.bandcamp.com/track/the ... epathy-mix

Do note if you load a whole RAM bank in (ALL data), you usually need to load it into RAM1 for it to work properly. If you load it into to RAM2 the patches will be pointing towards RAM1 WaveSequences and Patches and it will sound totally wrong. It's one of the nightmares about having such an overly hierarchical synth architecture, and why if you want to mix and match WaveSequences or Patches from different RAM banks, a great Librarian software will be essential.

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... techniques

http://www.danphillips.com/wavestation/

Hopefully some good starting points, but it's an extremely deep and complex beast!

Great post. That's very helpful (and scary at the same time)! I really appreciate you taking the time to put all of that together and will absolutely explore it just as you described!

[Hermetech Mastering]

No worries, it's a hugely underrated synth, one of the most powerful ever made, and still capable of sounds nothing else can touch, IMO.

[Martkorg]

I have Demo'd the Triton I wasn't impressed to be fair it would have to be free in the upgrade,sounded dull looks dull

The Triton is a fairly new instrument which still needs to earn the money for its development. You don't like it, you get a free update for your old collection. (Which also needs to earn money btw.)
I think this is more than fair. You win and complain? I don't get it...
Even if they'd throw in Triton you would not use it anyway...

I like the Korg stuff i have all of the collection and happy to upgrade for free
I just didnt get inspired by the Triton or i would more than likely have bought it

[Forgotten]

I think it's really good software, and the upgrade is great. I just don't feel that Korg has spent much time prioritizing this, but hope they are putting more focus into it now.

[dune_rave]

for me M1 is better than the triton. however, if they sell it for 99 next black friday, i may buy that.

[Caine123]

I dunno if i update/upgrade from v1 collection did anyone test if all content is still there and if it loads in old projects?

[musicdoc]

I tried to upgrade to V2. The Korg Software pass says that an update is needed. After the update, it still says an update is needed. Solutions?

[BBFG#]

for me M1 is better than the triton. however, if they sell it for 99 next black friday, i may buy that.

Figure it would be one
of their 50% off sales, which would make it $125.
Of course, that could make the full bundle $200.?
Seems like many companies that used to do regular 50% sales off entire line are now doing semi-regular 30-40% on selected items instead.
Best guess of the market can change without notice.

[breakmixer]

I tried to upgrade to V2. The Korg Software pass says that an update is needed. After the update, it still says an update is needed. Solutions?

I had 'needed updating' today and it just worked first time, maybe uninstall it and reinstall the latest from scratch.

[breakmixer]

No worries, it's a hugely underrated synth, one of the most powerful ever made, and still capable of sounds nothing else can touch, IMO.

For me it's the pick of the crop, highly impressed with V2 of Wavestation and a free update to boot for all of them, cannot complain at all!

[thecontrolcentre]

I tried to upgrade to V2. The Korg Software pass says that an update is needed. After the update, it still says an update is needed. Solutions?

Maybe the v2 installers are in your account? I upgraded by downloading them, rather than using the Software Pass.

No worries, it's a hugely underrated synth, one of the most powerful ever made, and still capable of sounds nothing else can touch, IMO.

For me it's the pick of the crop, highly impressed with V2 of Wavestation and a free update to boot for all of them, cannot complain at all!

I agree. I love being able to read the GUI again. A friend of mine had a hardware WS back in the 90s. I tried to buy it a few times, but he wouldn't part with it.

[c_voltage]

WS good, but automation only for joystick and master volume it's sad. (Near the same about M1)

[tonedef71]

I can't believe they've finally updated the collection. I've been waiting for this for four years (and that's not a long time compared to some people). I thought George RR Martin was writing the code.