wavestation sr

[hephiroth]

i could buy a used wavestation sr rack unit in good condition for $150.

is this a decent deal? i know the wavestation is sort of a unique synth, although how does the rack integrate what the vector joystick does on the keyboard?

any thoughts?

-jeff-

[losmusicanos]

It's a good deal.

The joystick on a keyboard is easy to emulate. On my XP80 I have to assignable sliders above the pitchbend joystick, and I assigned them to the 2 midi CCs recognized by the Wavestation as X and Y position of the joystick (16 and 17, I think).

If you want to edit your sounds comfortably, you'll need an editor. But the 550 presets alone are worth 150 $.

[hephiroth]

ah...yeah i figured there must be some way to assign that stuff to other controllers, just wanted to make sure.

yeah, i'd probably just use it for presets and maybe a little programming. for $150, it's worth it just for the hell of it.

-jeff-

[losmusicanos]

actually I bought mine in 2004 for 250 € and at the time it was a very good deal... The price dropped probably because of the software version.

[hephiroth]

hmm...so i did some research on the wavestation...it seems like the wavestation a/d rack is much more powerful...

i dunno...as a wavestation sr user, how usable do you really find the presets on it?

and do you know of any good place besides the legacy collection section on korg.com that has a lot of good sound clips of it?

-jeff-

[losmusicanos]

The presets are very usable, imo. The A/D has audio inputs for vocoding, a larger screen and a joystick. So it's easier to program. It has less presets.

There are really nice pads (not only the evolving pads using wavesequecing), strings (Genesis' "Fading Lights" for example), synthetic choirs. It's still easy to tweak a few parameters like the effects.

Here are some tracks with the Wavestation SR:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=469353

Check the 3 tracks with the red light picture on the left

Machinery - the rhythm is a preset, the lead too (used by Tony Banks on "Fading Lights" as well), the rest is JD800 (pads and electric guitar) and other synths (the crickets at the end are from a wavestation drumkit).

Anamorphosis - still the lead sound, and the strings that "answer" to the lead are from the wavestation.

Both Sides of the Universe - introduction sound is from the wavestation (without the belltree from the 01W), many bells from the WS sr as well (hear the bells at 3'16! I love that sound). Korg has always had great bells in their synths :biggrin:

[hephiroth]

okay, so i bought the wavestation sr and it sounds REALLY good. i'm amazed that synth from like almost 14 years ago sounds so crisp and cool.

one question, where are the presets like the one you used on your "machinery" track that sound really genesis-y? i figured there would be more presets like this...all of the ones that are really wavesequence-heavy sound like basic drum tracks, not weird cool wave sequences...

but, seriously, what a bargain...very cool sounds on this

-jeff-

[losmusicanos]

[RAM 1 - 0 Ski Jam], played low for the rhythm, high for the lead.

At the beginning of the track there's also [RAM 7 - 1 Dream Of Java]

plus some wind/sea sound from the Matrix 1000 and the low pad is from the Juno 106.