Korg Wavestate

Fashion is back

In the 90s, wavetable synthesis was almost the main fuel of dance music. And one of the pioneers of this sound was the Japanese company Korg with its Wavestation synthesizer. Looking at how the fashion for such a sound returns in 2020, the Japanese decided to release an ideological continuation of their hit called Wavestate. The idea remains the same as before — to use sequences of table-wave sounds to create complex, constantly changing timbres with pronounced modulation.

Wave sequencing

What does it mean? In classical subtractive synthesis, each note actually sounds the static sound of a sine, saw, or square. By cutting off excess frequencies with a filter, giving movement with the help of modulation and combining several sounds into one, an experienced musician is able to obtain non-trivial complex timbres. But this requires time and understanding of the principles of subtractive synthesis. In contrast, the owner of Wavestate has a pack of complex sound waves on hand, which can be combined into an even more complex sequence of timbres using a sequencer. Further, for each step in this sequence, you can set the depth of the LFO influence, the length of the notes, the degree of influence of the modulation, the boundaries of the loop, etc. As a result, even without deep knowledge in synthesis, the Wavestate owner can quickly wind up complex and interesting basses, pads, leads special effects.

Best friend for Korg OPSIX and Minilogue

The appearance, dimensions and keyboard of Wavestate ideologically repeats other recent synthesizers of the company — OPSIX, Modwave, Minilogue and Monologue — a compact keyboard for 3 octaves, polyphony of 64 voices, many knobs on the front panel and a small screen for control in the style of Electron devices. Functionality is also not far behind. On board there is a serious collection of built-in effects, which are divided into pre- and post-effects, an impressive set of tools for signal modulation, a parametric equalizer for fine-tuning the tone and a pack of replaceable filters with different sound characteristics. We didn’t forget about the Dice button, beloved by all sound designers, which randomly mixes all the parameters of the synthesizer. Given the versatility of the Wavestate sound, sometimes randomization leads to completely unexpected results. Although, it’s better to figure out the principles of local synthesis on your own — there are few synthesizers on the market that give so much love in return.