From analogue-request@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Thu Apr 15 09:43:20 1993 Received: by quark.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (5.65/3.910213) id AA10528; Thu, 15 Apr 93 09:41:54 -0400 Errors-To: analogue-request@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Sender: analogue-request@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Received: from relay1.UU.NET by quark.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (5.65/3.910213) id AA10521; Thu, 15 Apr 93 09:41:47 -0400 Received: from spool.uu.net (via localhost.UU.NET) by relay1.UU.NET with SMTP (5.61/UUNET-internet-primary) id AA23024; Thu, 15 Apr 93 09:41:35 -0400 Received: from korgrd.UUCP by spool.uu.net with UUCP/RMAIL (queueing-rmail) id 232206.20934; Wed, 14 Apr 1993 23:22:06 EDT Received: from korgsmtp by korgrd.com (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA16708; Wed, 14 Apr 93 20:04:16 PDT Message-Id: <9304150304.AA16708@korgrd.com> Date: 14 Apr 1993 20:04:33 -0800 From: "Dan" Subject: Re- Question For All- What' To: "Analog Heaven" Status: OR RE:Re: Question For All: What' 11:32 AM 4/14/93 Technofear writes: > The wavestion is based on the VS archetechture.. > remember that Korg BOUGHT OUT sequential circuits.... Chris Meyer writes, very correctly: > To be 100% accurate, Yamaha bought Sequential, then dropped them; then > Korg came in and bought them. Both the SY22 and Wavestation came out of > there. The folks responsible for the Prophet VS = myself, Tony Dean, and > most of all Josh Jeffe had all left. Tony and Josh went to E-mu; Josh > did the E-III and Proteous. Scott Peterson and John Bowen made some > contributions to the VS that should not go uncredited, and they are > with Korg R&D, but the core crew split. Finally, Mike Metlay writes: > The Wavestation can't compare. It just, well, it just CAN'T. I've > HEARD the best VS-style sounds touted for the WS, and they're like > listening to an M1 play a Minimoog patch . I work at Korg Research and Develpment, nee Yamaha DSD, nee Sequential. As Chris notes, John and Scott are all that remain of Sequential here (Dave Smith is a consultant to Korg, but is not directly connected to Korg R&D). We are actually now as much Ensoniq as we are Sequential; Alex Limberis, our vice president of engineering (and head of the Wavestation project in particular), software engineer Marc Bryan, and his brother Joe Bryan (effects/dsp guru, and the one you can thank for the Wavestation's FX modulation, killer distortion FX, and the A/D's analog inputs) are all from Ensoniq. The Wavestation is based on the VS architecture to the limited extent that it supports a dynamically controlled mix of 4-oscillator Patches. Other than that, both hardware and software-wise, the VS and Wavestation are completely unrelated. Unlike the VS, each of the Wavestation Patch's oscillators has its own filter, panning, amp envelope, etc. Wave Sequencing, the process of cross-fading between up to 255 different waveforms within a single one of those oscillators, is quite beyond the VS. Also unlike the VS, you can split/layer up to eight of these vector patches - and combine them with real-time modulatable multi-effects. The Wavestation's vector envelope is not as fast as that of the VS (a pity), which means that a number of VS sounds which used the envelope to create transients, etc. are not possible to re-create on the Wavestation. On the other hand, slower vector patches come over pretty well (and without quite as much aliasing - feature or bug, your choice :-). The Wavestation, as do all other sample playback synths, uses sampled transients for punch. In my opinion, the Wavestation should be considered not as a pale imitation/ update of the VS, but as its own synthesizer, which *excels* at its own chosen tasks. Pads especially, without compare - thick, subtle, ambient, swirling, delicate and/or ominous in any combination. As Keyboard mag's Jim Aikin wrote in his recent review of the Wavestation SR, "it's hard to program a Wavestation sound that doesn't have character." A year ago at NAMM, I ended up in the Korg booth behind the counter of the keyboard display, answering questions, etc. (normally it's staffed by people from Korg USA, but someone was sick and I covered for them). The booth had all of the current Korg synth keyboards and modules set up, basically variations of the 01/W and then the Wavestation. I was interested to note that people who played the various 01/W's would ask questions about features, number of voices, sequencer tracks, etc., comment a bit on the sound, and so on - basically good reactions; but people who played the Wavestation would just stand there, listening, eyes closed, transfixed, for a good 15 minutes, then take the headphones off, sigh, and say (softly), "gotta have one." (Loosely translated.) - Dan Phillips