Korg Wavestation - Design Concept

Design Concept

The two primary synthesis concepts designed into the Wavestation were Wave Sequencing and vector synthesis, the latter Korg dubbed "Advanced Vector Synthesis." Although the Korg Wavestation was the first keyboard that used Wave Sequencing, its roots can be traced back to earlier wavetable synthesizers, such as the PPG Wave produced by Palm Products GmbH in the early 80s and the Prophet VS by Sequential Circuits, Inc. in 1986. Wave Sequencing improved on Prophet VS by incorporating the ability to crossfade up to 255 waveforms, rather than only four. Moreover, a wave sequence can be programmed to "jump" to any PCM wave in ROM memory, whereas similar synths were designed to move sequentially through the wavetable. By combining wave sequencing with vector synthesis—the process of mixing and morphing between multiple voices—the Wavestation differed from other PCM-based sample playback synths ("romplers") of the digital era.