Korg A/D Wavestation Synthesizer Module

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The WS Wavestation was developed at Korg together with Dave Smith, the founder of Sequential Circuits, and is based on his Prophet VS and vector synthesis. 
With a memory of 2 MB, the Wavestation can store 365 waveforms. In the EX version and rack versions, the memory has been doubled to 4 MB and contains 484 waves. These are mainly synthetic waves from the analog and digital synthesizer world of the time. The Wavestation A/D offers a special feature that the other versions lack: it has two analog inputs, which means that audio signals can be fed into the Wavestation from outside and processed further in the device.

The advanced vector synthesis allows the volume ratio of up to four different sound sources to be modulated using a joystick. The innovation was wave sequencing, the chaining together of more or less complex waveforms which, depending on the setting of the crossfade time, can follow each other closely or fade slightly into each other. The maximum length of a wave sequence is up to 255 steps. A loop can be defined between the steps, which can run forwards or backwards and can be repeated indefinitely. These wave sequences are fully programmable; the wave form, pitch, fine tuning, volume, sound duration, start and end point, fade time of the individual waves and the repetition of individual parts or the loop can be defined. The tempo of the sequences is influenced by various modulation sources such as LFOs, envelope, velocity and aftertouch or the modulation wheel. In each sound bank there are 50 so-called Performances with the associated keyboard operating modes (Single, Split and Layer) and the effect settings that organize subordinate patches. A patch can consist of 1, 2 or 4 oscillators including the filter, LFO and envelope settings.