Wavestation Compare-O-Matic
This chart shows the major differences between the four Wavestation models, at a glance. If you’re interested in more subjective reviews, check out Nick Rothwell’s “Gear -Head” site.
| Wavestation | EX | A/D | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCM ROM | 2 MB | 4 MB | ||
| # of Samples | 365 | 484 (adds piano, drums, sax, more VS waves, etc.) | ||
| # of Effects | 49 | 55 (adds vocoders, compressor, pitch shift) | ||
| RAM Banks | 2 | 3 | ||
| ROM Banks | 1 | 8 | ||
| PCM Card Type | M1-style (see below) | 01/W-style | ||
| # of Multisets | 16 | 32 | ||
| Display | 64×240 Graphic | 2×16 Text | ||
| Pedal Inputs | Yes | No | ||
| Joystick | Yes | No | ||
| Latest OS | 1.28* | 3.19 | 1.25 | 1.15 |
| Notes | *Upgradable to 3.19, without EX PCM | ROM Program card with sounds featuring the new EX PCM | Analog Inputs, Balanced L/R Outputs | MIDI Pan, Multiset Names, Multiset FX Bus settings |
My Wavestation’s LCD backlight doesn’t work anymore, or makes a buzzing noise. Can I fix this?
At least two companies offers replacement LCD backlights for synthesizers. I don’t have any direct experience with them, but I’m sure that they would be happy to answer your questions:
Telesis (Anaheim Hills, CA, USA)
backlight4you (Germany; recommended by a happy Wavestation user in August 2008)
Where can I find PCM and Program Cards?
Blank RAM Program cards
As of June 2017, Voice Crystal lists blank RAM Program cards for sale. You could also try contacting your local Korg dealer or your national Korg distributor; they may be able to point you to a source.
Pre-programmed cards
If you’re looking for pre-programmed cards, check out the Wavestation Sound Developers links.
Where can I get the owner’s manual?
Your national Korg distributor should be able to provide you with a manual; they may charge a nominal fee.
Is SysEx compatible between different Wavestation models?
As long as the SysEx data is entirely contained within a single RAM bank, Performances, Patches, and Wave Sequences for the Wavestation EX, A/D, and SR are completely compatible via SysEx.
The original keyboard is also forwards and backwards compatible with the other models, except that it does not have the last eight effects (vocoders etc.) and does not have the expanded PCM. Sounds which use these newer features will still play as best they can on the original keyboard.
If the SysEx data is not self-contained in a single bank, things can become more complicated. This is because the different models have different numbers of RAM and ROM banks. For instance, all models except for the SR have only one ROM bank (equivalent to SR ROM bank 11); both keyboard models have only two RAM banks, while the A/D and the SR have three.
So, if Performances refer to Patches and Wave Sequences in other banks, they will play fine on the model on which they were created, but may not be transferable to other models.
Can the original Wavestation be upgraded to a Wavestation EX?
When the EX was released, Korg also released a kit to upgrade the original Wavestation to the Wavestation EX. The kit included the upgraded operating system ROMs, the additional PCM sample ROMs, a manual addendum, and a cool “EX” sticker. Unfortunately, these upgrade kits are no longer available.
Initializing the Wavestation keyboard, EX, and A/D
1. Turn the power on.
2. Wait for the Korg logo to come up.
3. While the logo is still flashing, press the down cursor and the “4” button simultaneously. This will take you to the SPECIAL SCREEN, most of whose options are for development and debugging purposes and will destroy user data.
WARNING: This next step will initialize RAM and then copy the ROM Performances, Patches, and Wave Sequences into banks RAM1 and RAM2. All user Performances, Patches, and Wave Sequences will be lost.
4. Press the INIT RAM button to initialize RAM. The ROM Performances, Patches, and Wave Sequences will be copied into banks RAM1 and RAM2.
The CONT softkey will simply take you to the PERFORMANCE page, as would happen normally on startup.
Press any of the other buttons at your own peril :-).
Initializing the Wavestation SR
This shortcut can be done at any time – not just during startup.
1. Simultaneously press the down cursor, BANK, EDIT, and +1/YES buttons.
This will take you to the SPECIAL screen, which has many functions which were intended for development purposes only, and will destroy user data.
2. Cursor twice to the right; this takes you to the Init All RAM command.
3. Press the +1/YES button.
WARNING: This next step will initialize RAM and then copy the ROM Performances, Patches, and Wave Sequences into banks RAM1 and RAM2. All user Performances, Patches, and Wave Sequences will be lost.
4. An “Are You Sure” screen will appear; press the +1/YES button again to initialize RAM.
Can I use M1 PCM Cards with the Wavestation?
For the Wavestation, Wavestation EX, and Wavestation A/D, the answer is yes – with some caveats, as detailed below. For the Wavestation SR, the answer is no; the SR uses the newer 01/W PCM card format instead.
The PCM playback chip used in the Wavestation treated PCM slightly differently than its predecessor (the chip used in the M1 and T-series). The chip’s interpolation technique requires that there be 2 samples after the end of the loop, which the M1’s PCM chip did not – so M1 cards don’t have those extra samples.
When an M1 PCM card is inserted into the Wavestation or Wavestation A/D, the loops are adjusted forward by 2 samples. For some sounds, this will work; for others, it will not. It depends upon the particular sample data being played – specifically, how closely the two samples at the end of the loop match the two just before the loop start.
Because of this, Korg does not officially recommend the use of M1 cards with the Wavestation and Wavestation A/D. If you have an M1 or T-series card lying around, though, you might try it out – as above, some samples on a given card will sound OK, some will not.
For hardware reasons, it was apparently impossible to provide a complete fix (I believe that the main CPU does not have access to the actual sample data, for instance, so it couldn’t mock up an extra two samples….).
MIDI Pan and the Wavestation SR
The original Wavestation did not support MIDI Pan at all. I thought that it would be good to add this capability to the SR, so we did so – within the limitations of the existing architecture.
With that in mind –
The Wavestation SR responds to MIDI Pan in MULTI mode only.
Response to MIDI Pan depends on the FX Bus settings.
For a good page of info on this subject, see the heading “MIDI Pan” in the Reference Guide’s description of the EDT MULTI page.
For MIDI pan to work properly, the Performance FX Bus in the Multiset should be set within the following value range: Bus A, 1/99-99/1, and Bus B. Specifically, Bus C, Bus D, C+D, and ALL do not allow panning.
If the Multiset FX Bus setting for the Performance is set to PERF, then the Part FX Bus settings in the Performance are used. This gets complicated, so I would avoid using this setting when response to MIDI pan is desired.
Many Performances have some Parts with their FX Bus set to “ALL.” This was a trick used by our sound developers to boost level, although it was not the intended purpose of the ALL setting.
The unfortunate thing about this is that, when changing a Part from ALL to another setting, its volume is reduced. So, the balance between the Part levels may be altered when the Multiset FX Bus parameter is used (i.e., when it is set to something other than PERF).
The most comprehensive way of dealing with these issues is to edit the Performances for which you will be using MIDI Pan. Set the Parts which were bussed to ALL to 50/50 instead, and then re-adjust the Part levels to restore the original balance between the Parts. This is a drag, I know.
Major changes would have been necessary to eliminate these difficulties, and such changes were outside the scope of the SR project. So, they had to remain.
Some of the effects can also obscure – or obliterate completely – panning. For instance, the overdrive/distortion, chorus>delay, and flange>delay effects sum the left and right inputs to mono, so when you go through them, all the original stereo information disappears. Similarly, the Rotary Speaker and the Mod Pan effects sum to mono on input and then create new stereo info within the effect. Finally, the X-over chorus and flange cross-pan the left and right channels, which obscures stereo information (e.g. panning) on the incoming signal.
Can I make an SR PCM Card?
Mike Werning has written a program called
PCM Card Workshop, which allows you to create custom PCM cards for the Wavestation SR and 01/W, using just a Windows laptop with a PC card slot. A functional demo of the program (limited to 50 multisounds and 50 drum sounds) may be downloaded for free, at http://members.aol.com/wrkshppcm.
A note about the PCM Workshop. The version on my website is the only version. There never was a production version. The 50 sample limit is really more than you will need as with 2MB of memory, you wont get close to getting that many samples anyway.
The best way use this software is by getting an old laptop computer off ebay that you can run Windows 95. It needs to have a PCMCIA card slot. You can use an old PC with a PCMCIA ISA card or PCI card as well, but I havent tried it. What wont work is ANY USB or ANY CompactFLASH or anything related to digital cameras, etc.
From Matrix Synth:
“PCM Card Workshop is a Windows program that allows the user to make their own PCM sound cards for synthesizers that are compatible with the Korg 01W PCM format. Since Korg has stopped making PCM cards for their older synthesizers, many people expressed a need for the ability to make their own. This program allows you to add aproximately 33 seconds of new sample data to your synth.
While making individual sounds to be played on a synthesizer is trivial, the ability to actually get them in a format that your synthesizer can understand is not. This program allows the user to create a file that can be put on a SRAM card so that new sounds can be used in the synth. The program must be used in combination with other products and is not a stand alone solution.”
via adrien
Update via paul8181 in the comments: “For all that are interested, you can download PCM Card Workshop via the internet archive at: http://web.archive.org/web/20030501131910/members.aol.com/wrkshppcm/
Also, to program the card, you will need a laptop running Windows98 (preferably SE – 2nd edition). Instructions can be found here on how to get Win98 working with SRAM cards – see the section titled “PCMCIA SRAM PC Card with Windows 98”: http://www.synchrotech.com/support/faq-sram-pcmcia-pc_cards.html
Finally, to write the raw binary data to the card, you can download a program that will allow you a 15-day free trial (after which you have to purchase the program for a fairly reasonable price): http://www.tssc.de/products/cardware
https://webuser.scene.org/~esa/pccard/
The PCM Card Workshop program includes large amounts of helpful information for creating the actual sound data.
A discussion with InVision several years ago (before the availability of PCM Card Workshop) noted these caveats for those interested in commercial development of PCM cards, which may or may not still apply:
Sample data requires a lot of massaging and several different conversion programs, so that when creating cards, expect to send data back and forth from Korg Inc. in Japan. Their active assistance is probably necessary in order to create a professional product.
From InVision’s description of the effort involved, it would probably be impractical for Korg Inc. to offer a single user this amount of support.
Zadok SAM-1 sample RAM for Wavestation
The rare Zadok SAM-1 allows you to import samples into the Wavestation keyboard and Wavestation A/D. It features onboard RAM and a floppy disk drive, and plugs into the PCM card slot.
The SAM-1 is also compatible with the M1, M1r, M3r, and T-series, but not with the Wavestation SR, since the SR uses a different PCM card format.
For more information, see their website. The site previously recommended sending mail to Dave Rush, but now includes a different, dedicated email address.
Hyperreal’s SAM-1 pages also have good information (and a photo).
MIDIbox SCE
Rhythmic Wave Sequences
This material on rhythmic Wave Sequences is exerpted (with slight adaptation) from the SR manuals by Dan Phillips, ©1992 Korg Inc.
Rhythmic Wave Sequences – General Information
The original idea for Wave Sequences was that of 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).
The main difference between rhythmic and smooth Wave Sequences is in the step crossfade times. 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.
Some rhythmic Wave Sequence programming tips:
* You can use steps with a volume level of 0 to produce rests.
* Crossfades of 0 generally give the best attack for transients when creating rhythmic sequences, but sometimes you may want to use a crossfade of 1 or 2 to smooth things out a little.
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.
* Press MIDI/GLOBAL to go to the MIDI page.
* Cursor left until you see the WaveSeqSync (Wave Sequence Sync) parameter.
* Set this parameter to MIDI.
* Make sure that your sequencer is set up to send MIDI Clocks – sometimes, this must be explicitly turned on. Also, note that MIDI Time Code is not the same as MIDI Clocks, and cannot be used for syncing Wave Sequences.
* Use MIDI Clock-compatible duration values, as shown in the table below.
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.
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.
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; a duration of 6 equals a sixteenth note, and so on. Many of the Rhythmic Wave Sequences in ROM are already set up with these MIDI Clock – compatible durations.
This table shows the Step Duration required to achieve a given rhythmic value when syncing to MIDI Clocks.
When using MIDI Clock-compatible Wave Sequences with Wave Sequence Sync set to INTERNAL, the sequences will play back at about 105 BPM.
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