Korg Wavestation SR

This is an article culled from archive material, circa 1997.

The Wavestation for the preset-playing masses, coming in 1U rackmount form with styling derived from the more common Korg 0-series rack boxes. The patcherati will appreciate the provision of eight banks of ROM performances (rather than the one found on the keyboard and AD), although performances and patches could also be programmed to make use of the eight banks of wave sequences. (All the SR data structures can refer freely across all eleven banks.) There are some general enhancements to the MIDI control specification, such as pan response, although the SR is backwards-compatible with earlier units via a rather sophisticated two-level sys-ex format. (I drive my SR as if it were an A/D, and transfer sound banks to it without problems, although single patch and performance transfer seems problematic for some reason I've not tracked down.)

The overriding drawback of the SR is the 16 by 2 character LCD which makes programming fiddly; the vector joystick is also absent. The user interface is actually quite respectable, but the fact remains that the Wavestation voice architecture is deeply heirarchical and does not easily lend itself to periscope programming, although every parameter is accessible.

The SR is a good deal if you're after 550 presets. It's also a compact, fully-fledged Wavestation if you have a decent computer-based editor or are happy with the front panel. The manual on its own is well structured and even pictures the effects algorithms, making it a useful document for owners of the other Wavestations.