Hacked Korg WaveState

[dawman]

I successfully hacked off the weak no AFT keybed Korg attached to the WaveState.
Easy job, now I have a desktop module.
I ain’t waiting for these schmucks to bank on their sales then release one later, I just Jig sawed that sucker myself.

[yayajohn]

Wow! You actually did it! A nice bit of handywork too.
I wonder if that voids the warranty?

Those silicon knobs look perky

[valis]

Think I'll keep mine intact.

Btw 1.03 firmware is on the support site for the wavestate. Takes a min for anything other than the manuals to show up on the webpage for me, but walked away and came back and a long list of downloads. The link to the open source repo for the synth on github shows a lot of linux and what appears to be a raspberry pi core.

[jpo_midigods]

Hey Dawman I love your fukin, power live machines, always remember me to great JPJ playing OASYS linux synth or great Vangelis with his 17 pedals...

have any idea for the spare keybed? Put really large (but not heavy) foot keys on it and you have your own organ pedalboard, theyre not cheap.
you could use any spare 2U rack with extensible tray as case.

Salud!
jpo

[dawman]

Hey Dawman I love your fukin, power live machines, always remember me to great JPJ playing OASYS linux synth or great Vangelis with his 17 pedals...

have any idea for the spare keybed? Put really large (but not heavy) foot keys on it and you have your own organ pedalboard, theyre not cheap.
you could use any spare 2U rack with extensible tray as case.

Salud!
jpo

Actually my Physis K4 is running 2 x MIDI Channels into It and splitting the WaveState into 2 x separate zones/patches.
This little bugger has nice full leads, and bass patches.
Way too much rhythmic crap that I’m removing.
I like rhythm in sound not snares kicks and high hats.
Got a drummer for that.

[jksuperstar]

Think I'll keep mine intact.

Btw 1.03 firmware is on the support site for the wavestate. Takes a min for anything other than the manuals to show up on the webpage for me, but walked away and came back and a long list of downloads. The link to the open source repo for the synth on github shows a lot of linux and what appears to be a raspberry pi core.

Wow, so I’ll expect to see a WavePi/PiState soon!!?!!

[dawman]

Anxious to see what others can do.
But for me this synth is all about making your own layers and blending them with better samples and hardware.

My first test was to take the Piano Presets they have which are very good but the Pianos are weak.
Dump those and use Ice Cavern sounds with Keyscape or PianoTeq.
These Korg patches usually have 2 or 3 waves going with their sampled piano.
Replace the ones that you don’t care for and have your own signature patch.

I have beautiful tinkly shit going on when I hold notes for the value of half notes (2 beats).
But after 4 beats have lush pads or strings kick in.

I’ll share some stuff in a few days, but Piano stuff for now.
Then layer the synth waves with a powerful Omnisphere or Solaris sound.

What a great synth for sound sculpting though.
Take off it’s effects and use Scopes and you get higher polyphony it seems, or at least note stealing stops.

[valis]

Wow, so I’ll expect to see a WavePi/PiState soon!!?!!

I can't tell for sure that they are using a Pi inside the Wavestate, it might be the case that they did an initial prototype on a pi and just used a custom ARM implementation.

Also most of the stuff on github OS level code where only small bits of code were added. There's no DSP code there as far as I can see.

No biggie, we have other fun things like the Zynthian which is raspberry pi powered, and the Meeblip Geode which comes in kit form as well as premade iirc. I'm also eyeballing a MOD Dwarf to do custom effects in a small box.

[dawman]

Hay Val.
I’m trying to update the software, I’m 1909 Windows 10, I followed their instructions on using Bonjour and Korg to get the updater to work.
In the pdf it says look under “other” devices in the Device Manager.
I don’t have that option.

You have any idea wtf they’re talking about?

I was asked to BETA Test software for the WaveState by a guy that obviously is in the loop.
I feel like a schemiel telling him I can’t use the updater......

Help.....!!!1!1!1!1

[valis]

Don't run any of the software yet. Connect the USB cable to both the wavestate and your Win10 machine (with win10 on). "Other" will show up once the device is seen in device manager, as it doesn't know what this device is. You'll see the little warning triangle sign next to it, other is the category and 'unknown device' is what the actual device shows up as iirc. I did a few weeks ago now (or longer) so working from memory here.

You can now follow the instructions to navigate to the MS > NDIS (I think that's correct) that they spell out in the updater manual, it's all correct. Bonjour is automatic once u have the USB > NDIS driver setup properly, meaning when you then run the software updater (and the librarian software) they include bonjour internally so they can poll the "USB Network" (USB NDIS Adapter) and 'find' the wavestate on that network connection.

No need for sysex dumps, special modes or anything. Pretty painless as long as you don't trip over the power cord halfway through the update and leave it in a bad state.

[dawman]

Perfect.
You should write their instructions for them.

Worked fine.

Perfect time to test software.
I’d never update anything if gigging.

Cheerz

[dawman]

Hey Val.
Have you seen a complete factory restore option yet?

I cant find it in the manual, on the synth or in the Librarian.

They have back up and restore but its not clear if I can get factory defaults back?

ankyu

[valis]

You can with the library app that they have for download (wavestate_Sound_Librarian_101_win). First thing I did after flashing firmware was backup the factory presets so I can restore from them, I'll attach that archive to this post contained in a zipfile.

[dawman]

im learning rthe hard way as usual.

thanks

[dawman]

Hey Val, this synth is too much fun.
I know I’m boring because I’m a sideman always playing everybody else’s tunes, getting paid like a hooker, but it’s fun.

Today I started incorporating WState into the show I was just starting to work in before Covid-19 struck.
Nice that I have time now because this really is a powerful 4 zone synth.

Duran Duran, hungry like a Wolf has 3 cool keyboard parts.
An Arpeggiator part, a multi filtered Prophet V with cool sweeps, and a synth string.
I was using ZebraHZ, Omni and the SE-02 but WState does the entire song, and really well too.
2 parts for the Poly synth sweeper sound, an Arp and a synth string.

It sounds as good as the original album.

This synth is really a steal for 800 bucks, and just one sound/zone can sound really full , and the filters.

[valis]

The sound is great, I agree. I haven't played enough with all of the different source waves yet to be able to nail production sounds like it seems you are but I have enjoyed exploring the sequences to go well beyond what the original wavestation could do. I use the original unit mostly to create evolving soundbeds and backing pads, and this baby is capable of so much more.

Also it's funny how different we all are.

Me: I immediately did all the firmware updates and organized everything, and started mapping out controls to Logic and Ableton so I know what to tweak where.

You: Immediately hacked the synth into pieces and separated the keybed, and dug so far into editing things yourself you needed to figure out how to get back to the stock state for sounds.

It's good to be the king, baby.
Each of us, in our own way in our own homes (since we can't do anything else right now!)

[dawman]

Yepp.
Just finished the cosmetics too.

I call this the Covid-19 Theme to honor all the worlds health care and first responders.

[valis]

What’s the controller behind the keyboard?

[Bud Weiser]

What’s the controller behind the keyboard?

You mean https://www.roland.com/global/products/se-02/ ?



Bud

[valis]

Ah! You're right, I was on my phone at the time and the thumbnail wasn't opening a larger version. On desktop I can see clearly now