There are quite a few bargain avaliable here and there, around 350 euros for the mkI, but if you add the price of desktop conversion kit youāre very close to the price of the module version with less voices and no midi 2.0 features. I set up alerts for used module version, patiently waiting !
Good idea. I should do the same. Or, trade in my current Wavestate for the module version.
Desktop is 740 euro at Thomann, available in a monthā¦
For the users outside of the US the total price of a used MKI with a conversion kit would be roughly the same (taxes, etc)
A question refering to the KORG WAVESTATE MODULE:
Contrary to the KEYBOARD-Versions the MODULE- or DESKTOP-Versions lack two OKTAVE (+/-) and a TAP TEMPO switch. Are these functions to be found somewhere else, for e.g. in the Menue, or are these completety omitted.
Iām pretty satisfied with the original A/D, but itās pretty neat to see they havenāt forgotten about the old dear. It still sounds great to my old ears.
This is my favorite snyth right now. I only bought it because of the randomize function. All 4 parts can get randomized at once and freaking hell can break lose. You have to be a bit patient and skip through the bullshit but there are quite a few hidden gems to find.
I know this synth is for serious musicians, while I am not.
(was testing the plugin demo, I am not sure I need wave-sequencing per se, but as a library of rhythms and short phrases, like sort of auto-arrangement - itās very cool)
I am not a serious musician and I love my Wavestate!
Iām a sucker for 90ās video game sounds so seriously considering getting a wavestate. How bad is the UI on this thing? The native software is not too bad, and I generally donāt like using software to program synths.
For basic sound design, itās mostly good. Where I find myself scratching my head after I havenāt used it for a while is using the mod matrix and programming the motion sequencer. For that, thereās the editor on your computer, which works great in tandem.
Thanks for the reply. I still havenāt quite figured out the wave sequencing. I usually just mess around until I get something going that sounds kind of interesting, then sample into the Digitakt.
It contains a lot of good old rompler sounds, both M1 alike and, of course, the full original Wavestation PCM set. It definitely has these capabilities⦠Those obnoxious legacy SFX - rain, laughter, door screaking, I love this stuff :3 , heard it in many OSTs from 90ās.
It also got very cool waveshaping effect, something from Korg T1 era probably, it was not present on many romplers.
As for the interface - if native and hardware options are the same, you donāt need to program it from scratch, you can just simply select wavesequencing presets, it can be considered as just an advanced programmable arpeggiator. Just replace the waveforms with more suitable ones without touching the other lanes and voila!
Yeah, it can really take you places (from the 90ās :)) that other synths canāt. But it does decent subtractive synthesis as well. Iāve also messed around with Modwave native and itās cool but doesnāt speak to me as much.
Yes, I found myself liking sample & synthesis approach more and more. Itās a bit underappreciated today, everyone was fed up with it in 90ās and rushed for analog, wavetable, granular stuff while itās still very powerful, musical and expressive. Unfortunately Korg did not add a lot of modern features to it (itās ok, but could have been better imo, it reminds me a lot of my Korg Micro-X which was a tiny version of Triton something?).
It also does not have a vintage vibe - one needs to add some a DAC emulation or any other saturation plugins, sound is too clean, same to other āwaveā synths.
As for the presets - those funny bits I posted above - itās just two layers, one is āBrass Ostinatoā for brass part and Chiptune something for the rhythm (+some ring modulation with LFO)
I broke my NoNewGear2025 and bought a brand new Wavestate MkII for 423⬠on Audio Solution website.
From what I heard on YT iām not fan of all the preset sounds but some of the ambient / drony / slowly evolutive ones seem very nice. And I needed pianos and acoustic instruments in my set. The WS seems to have good ones.
The wave state is an amazing machine, but I thought Iād share this:
If there was ever a synth that you really need to read the manual and watch tutorials about, itās this one. It is so convoluted in the way the lanes interact with each other and sometimes are required of each other that I struggled with it even after reading the manual several times.
I started watching a YouTube series (canāt remember the guyās name) but theyāre like one hour long deep dives and, in combination with reading the manual, it all started to click.
In my opinion once you wrap your head around this thing you can make some unbelievably beautiful pads, percussion sequences and all sorts of types of crazy sounds. Itās one of the most unique hardware synth I own.