KORG wavestate is a digital polyphonic synthesizer released in 2020. The ancestor is KORG Wavestation released in 1990. Wavestation has "Wave Sequence" function which enables player to change pcm waveform time by time. Wavestate has more advanced "Wave Sequencing 2.0".
With Wavestation, we can set dulation, sample and pitch on each step. Maximum length is 255 steps(500 steps in one bank). With wavestate, we use 7 "lanes". They are master, timing, sample, pitch, shape, gate and step sequence. Those 7 lanes have independent lane length. The maximum is 64 steps. All lanes have independent "start", "end", "loop start" and "loop end". They are variable within realtime play. It changes sound much.
Even without wave sequences, wavestate is an attractive synthesizer. It has some gigabytes large pcm wave memory. It has 64 voices. There are filters including Polysix and MS-20 type, 4 envelope generators, 4 low frequency oscillators and digital effectors including delays and reverbs. 4 "layers" enable to make layer, split and multitimbre setups. Most synth players welcome 37 standard width keys with velocity(no aftertouch). Also, pitch and modulation wheels, joystick and sustain pedal input(no expression pedal input) exist. This is a nice synthesizer having groove machine characer.
| Sounds | Comments |
|---|---|
| Air Dance Split | "Air Dance Split" is one of the factory preset performances. When you want to choose performance with wavestate libralian software, you should choose "Performace" tab, select performance with right click, and choose "Select On Synth". During testing librarian software, I found this performance. The sound is nice. I started KORG MR-2000S recorder and played. No MIDI editing I made. |
| Piano1 | Five sounds from this, I made my own performances without wave sequencing. Yeah, normal PCM synth tones. I choose "Init Performance", changed layer A mode to "Single Multisample", choose "Piano: Acoustic mp" multisampke, "2-pole LPF" filter, set velocity to filter and amplifier. The wavestate's filter keyboard track has lots of parameters. If you start editing from "Init Performance", you should set "Key Track" parameter value "+60". After recording, I found amp sustain level is not zero. I edited later. |
| Saw1 | Multisample is "Wave: Saw". Filter type is "2-pole LPF". The delay is preset "Mono 1/4 note dly". You can set effectors of wavestate with choosing preset and set parameters relatively. I need vibrato with mod wheel. So, I pushed "MOD" button, added a modulation to "Pitch Tune", set the source "Pitch LFO', and set "Int Mod Src" to "Mod Wheel CC 1". Flexible but not easy. |
| Saw1Mono | I wanted mono synth. I pushed "PERFORM" button, pushed "PAGE+" button sometimes, I opened "Voice Assign" page. Then I set "Mode" to "Mono". Legato, priority, and unison parameters are there, too. This performances inherits much from former "Saw1". However, I shortened the attack time. |
| Square1Mono | Multisample is "Wave: Square'. I added portamento. If you want to set portamento, with "SHIFT" button down, rotate "RESONANCE" knob("Octave" knob). Now you find "Pitch" page including portamento parameters. "Portamento", "Fingerd", Type" and "Time". Gorgeous. |
| SawStrings1 | This is a strings with 2 detuned saws. I set "Unison Voices" to "2". "Detune" to "6 cents". "Thickness" and "Stereo" are zero. Filter type is "MS-20 LPF". I added "Rich Hall Overb" reverb. |
| Kick&Shaker1 | Two sounds from this are wave sequence practices for me. Waiting wavestate shipping, I watched "Katsunori Ujiie playing KORG wavestate" video (the video has English captions). I decided to make "do-chichi" sound with 3 steps like him. When I tried, I could not find the way to lane length longer. I re-viewed the movie. Copy and Paste were did in the video. Sigh. I put a eighth note, 16th note and 16th note in TIMING lane. At SAMPLE lane, I added kick, shaker and shaker. Now you can hear "do-chichi" loop. In the recording, the sound are changing. I rotated SAMPLE lane LOOP START knob and LOOP END knob. When LOOP END is at middle, kick and shaker sounds one by one. When LOOP END is at left end, kick sounds only. When LOOP START is at right end, shakers only. But, new key trigger calls kick sound once. Those knobs change sound much. |
| Scale1 | In this performance, TIMING lane and SAMPLE lane have only 1 step. I gave PITCH lane 8 steps. C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. Transpose is made with pushed key. Rotating LOOP START and LOOP END knobs of PITCH lane, scale width is limited. Unintentional melody comes. |
| Songs | Comments |
|---|---|
What Happened? | I called saw wave. I put C-G(low)-C-D-E-G-C-D in PITCH lane. I used GATE and SHAPE lane to soften the attack and release. I added reverb. At 2nd layer, I made a saw lead with fade vibrato and long release. The MIDI channel was set to 2. I used Apple Logic Pro X to play two layers. |
If I Have One Hand And One Foot | I played a preset performance of wavestate named "Basic Vel Switch Tine EP". If you say "Anyone can play such a easy music", I would say "That's my wish".  |