Wave Sequencing for the 21st Century

Wave sequencing synthesis is back and better than ever, in the Korg Wavestate 37-key synthesizer. Building on the legendary heritage of the original Wavestation from 1990, and with a focus on real-time performance and groundbreaking sample manipulation, everyone from fans of classic ’90s synths to forward-thinking sound designers have reason to be excited. By combining elements of subtractive synthesis, groove boxes and drum machines, and algorithmic composition, Wavestate offers sonic capabilities you won’t find anywhere else. And with the ability to save your presets as a Set List for fast recall, and Smooth Sound Transitions that allow a sound to finish ringing out even after you’ve changed patches, the Korg Wavestate synthesizer keyboard could be the new performance synth you’ve been waiting for.

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Wave Sequencing 2.0

With its ability to take raw samples and transform them into never-before-heard sounds, the original Korg Wavestation became a favorite for its rich, evocative pads and pulsating, rhythmic sounds. Wave Sequencing returned in Korg’s OASYS and KRONOS keyboards to the delight of music producers, sound designers, and composers alike. And with the Wavestate synthesizer, Wave Sequencing 2.0 gives you more creative potential to manipulate sounds.

In the original Wavestation keyboard, a wave sequence is comprised of individual steps, each with its own duration, sample, and pitch. The results could be incredibly animated and rhythmic, but with unchanging repetition. Wave Sequencing 2.0 allows you to manipulate sample sequence, timing, and pitch independently to create complex, evolving patches with a non-linear vibe. Each of these parameters (and many more) are assigned their own “Lane,” and each Lane can have a different number of steps, with control over their start, end, and loop points. Lanes can even randomize their step order every time they are played, for a completely unpredictable and non-linear playing experience.

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Get creative with hands-on control

With its unique sound engine and practically limitless modulation capabilities, it’s clear the Korg Wavestate is ideal for producers, composers, and sound designers. And with its generous set of hands-on controls (much more than the original Wavestation offered!) you have everything you need for expressive real-time performance too. Fans of the original were pleased to see the return of the Vector Joystick, giving you XY control over four layers of sound. You also have easy access to envelopes and LFOs, filters, modulation lanes, and sequence steps

And not only does the Wavestate synth give you ample hands-on control, but the vast majority of knobs and on-screen parameters can be modulated. You’ll even be able to modulate the settings of individual wave sequence steps, if you want to fine-tune your sounds to that extent. And while we’re talking modulation, Wavestate offers built-in modulation signal transformation to get even more creative with your patches. Modulation signals can be quantized, or smoothed out, or even have their curvature manipulated, rivaling the modulation capabilities of certain modular synthesizer components

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64 stereo voices and a huge sample library

With gigabytes of samples to explore, the Korg Wavestate synthesizer features thousands of times more raw samples than the original Wavestation. And in addition to completely new samples from Korg, you’ll also find a range of samples from Korg’s KRONOS and KROME libraries, as well as a cool bank of sounds from Plugin Guru. And however you decide to combine them, you’ll be able to play up to 64 stereo voices simultaneously, with amazingly pristine sound quality thanks to Korg’s anti-aliasing sample playback technology. It packs all the character that made the original Wavestation so popular, but on a whole new level of sound quality and sonic precision.

Spend some time with the Wavestate and you’ll soon love the ability to control four layers of sound at a time. Use the Vector Joystick to morph between the layers in real time. Each layer has its own arpeggiator, and layers can have up to three dedicated effects like tape echo, reverb, guitar amp modeling, and much more. With the ability to smoothly morph from an intriguing soundscape into a vibrant lead tone and back again, the Wavestate may be the performance synthesizer you’ve been waiting for.

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Shape your sounds with MS-20 and Polysix filters

While Wave Sequencing offers sonic possibilities far beyond typical subtractive synthesis, it’s hard to beat the creative potential of a good filter. The Wavestate synthesizer packs lowpass and highpass filters modeled after those found on the classic MS-20 synthesizer, as well as a lowpass filter model based on the Polysix synthesizer. You’ll also find an array of 2- and 4-pole lowpass, highpass, bandpass, and band-reject filters. And of course, you’ll also find Korg’s beloved multimode filter, which can morph and modulate between multiple filter modes.

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Ready to perform with Set Lists and smooth transitions

Despite the depth of its synthesis architecture, the Korg Wavestate synthesizer is optimized for live performance, complete with a handy way to manage sounds on stage — Set Lists. These allow you to organize your sounds based on the songs you’ll be performing, giving you fast access to your sounds and eliminating the need for menu diving to find the right patch.

And speaking of changing sounds on the fly, Wavestate’s smooth transitions will appeal to anyone that’s ever played a keyboard live. Smooth transitions mean that when you change sound patches on the Wavestate, the previous patch will decay naturally (based on its envelope and effects settings), instead of being cut off abruptly. And you can immediately begin playing the patch you’ve just selected as the previous patch fades out.

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Ready for stage or studio

A pair of balanced line-level outputs ensures the Wavestate sounds fantastic even over long cable runs, and a headphone output is available for personal monitoring too — perfect for late-night sound design sessions. DIN MIDI ports are present for connecting with other MIDI-compatible hardware, and class-compliant USB MIDI is available for integrating with your computer. Speaking of which, we highly recommend downloading the free Wavestate Librarian software from Korg — it’s the perfect way to manage your custom patches, create Set Lists, and much more.

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